Had a a great time slumming through its historic past in my New York Times book review of Julie Satow's entertaining book, The Plaza: The Secret Life of America's Most Famous Hotel.
‘Donald Trump was feeling envious. New York’s foremost narcissist — whose Trump Tower, encased in fool’s gold and bogus bronze, was the very definition of ersatz — hankered for what he regarded as the real estate racket’s crown jewel of social status. There it was, tauntingly in his face every time he swiveled his desk chair and glanced out the 26th-floor window of his Fifth Avenue office: the Plaza Hotel. ‘