The misadventures of a group of diverse guests at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan.
Anything can happen during a weekend at New York's Waldorf-Astoria: a glamorous movie star meets a world-weary war correspondent and mistakes him for a jewel thief; a soldier learns that without an operation he'll die and so looks for one last romance with a beautiful but ambitious stenographer; a cub reporter tries to get the goods on a shady man's dealing with a foreign potentate. And it all happens in the opulent, grandiose New York landmark hotel as a sort of tongue-in-cheek take-off on the classic movie Grand Hotel.—A.L.Beneteau <[email protected]>
Several stories are told over the course of one weekend, the common thread being they all taking place at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. Two non-associated guests are feeling burnt out from their work, Hollywood movie star Irene Malvern in town for a number of events including the premiere of her latest movie before she is to head off to start filming her next movie, and war correspondent Chip Collyer who just wants some sleep before he is scheduled to head back to the battlefields of Europe. Their chance encounter may show them what they need for the proper work/life balance, that is if they can get over their games with each other in the battle of the sexes. Irene will also be attending the wedding at the hotel this weekend of her childhood friend, Dr. Robert Campbell, he in turn doing a consultation at the hotel of Air Force Captain James Hollis, who will be entering into surgery at the start of the week in Washington, DC to remove some shrapnel dangerously close to his heart. He believes Hollis has a 50/50 chance of survival of the surgery, which is only diminished by his current state of mind in having no one close in his life for whom to live. He may find that person in the form of Bunny Smith, who operates the hotel's stenography service. While making a human connection in return with Hollis, Bunny has to consider her own future, which may be with Martin Edley, who has used her services before and who he likes more than just for what she does with pencil and paper. Using the name only of Waldorf resident, upstanding and wealthy Mr. Jessup, who owns his own oil company and is away for the weekend, Edley is trying to enter into a deal, he knowing contingent on Jessup's involvement, with Middle East oil baron, the Bey of Aribajan, the negotiations made all the more interesting in more ways than one in the Bey not speaking English. Edley believes Collyer is at the hotel to expose him as a shyster as he has done in the past, however it is cub reporter Oliver Webson who is hot on Edley's tail trying to find the story.—Huggo
Loosely based on the 1932 classic Grand Hotel, Weekend at the Warldorf changed the location of the hotel and the occupations of the characters, but the plot remains the same.
The story is told by columnist Randy Morton, who lived in the Waldorf Astoria, and started on Friday afternoon, when a young honeymoon couple was agonising over not having a booking. A highly respected businessman named Jessup offered to let them stay in his apartment, as he would be away for the weekend.
Martin X. Edley was a conniving, vulgar business tycoon in the middle of negotiating an oil deal with the Bey of Aribajan, he failed to convince Jessup to be a partner in this deal but lied to the Bey about it, cashing in on his reputation and his being away for the weekend.
Bunny Smith was an ambitious stenographer working in the public stenographer's office (business centre) of the hotel and was about to catch her big break - Edley took a fancy to her and promised to hire her as his secretary, amongst other things. But she met Captain James Hollis, who just found out that there's a shrapnel fragment near his heart and he may not survive the surgery, and wanted Bunny to notaries his will. The two fell in love but Bunny resisted James, preferring bread over love.
Also living in the hotel was famous actress Irene Malvern, a successful but lonely theatre/movie star. Irene learned from her maid Anna that her crook boyfriend wanted to steal Irene's jewels. Anna begged Irene to not go to the police but tried to talk to the man, she agreed. But instead of Anna's boyfriend, it was Chip Collyer who sneaked into her room.
Chip Collyer was a famous war journalist in between assignments and taking a weekend vacation in New York. In order to help out a young reporter Oliver Webson do a story on Edley's unethical business dealings, he hid in the laundry cart hoping to sneak into the Bey's room; but got into Irene's room by mistake. Fascinated by Irene's beauty and taking pleasure in playing pranks, he pretended to be the crook and ended up spending most of the weekend in her suite, pretending to be her husband. Chip and Irene fell in love and decided to let everyone else believe that they were indeed married.
James was suppose to mail a ballad manuscript, written by a dead air force friend, to the grieving mother. The manuscript was lost and returned to band leader Xavier Cugat by mistake. Cugat was impressed and agreed to play the ballad for the popular Saturday radio broadcast from Waldorf's Starlight Roof. Edley was entertaining the Bey on the same night and invited Bunny to be his date. Bunny and James met again, the love song did its magic, James got his girl, and found the will to live.
With Chip's help, Webson got his first front page and Edley was ruined. Jessup returned from his weekend trip just in time to conduct business with the Bey - it turned out that the Bey spoke perfect English, supports the American cause and knew all along that Jessup was not in; he was just stalling Edley to wait for him to come back.
