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Death At The Cecil Hotel In Los Angeles
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Book Synopsis Death at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles by : Dale Richard Perelman
Download or read book Death at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles written by Dale Richard Perelman and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2022-05-16 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Built during Los Angeles's rapid growth in the Roaring Twenties, the Beaux Arts-style Cecil Hotel was briefly a glimmering downtown landmark until it became one of the most infamous sites of violence and murder in the country. Nicknamed "The Suicide," the Cecil was the eerie location of more than a dozen people taking their own lives going back to the 1940s and '50s. Rumors still swirl that Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, frequented the hotel in the days before her gruesome murder. Serial killer Richard "Night Stalker" Ramirez lived at the Cecil for long stays in the 1980s. Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger murdered three sex workers while a guest at the Cecil in 1991. Author Dale Perelman charts the brutal and mysterious history of Los Angeles's most notorious hotel.
Book Synopsis Death at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles by : Dale Richard Perelman
Download or read book Death at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles written by Dale Richard Perelman and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2022-05 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Built during Los Angeles's rapid growth in the Roaring Twenties, the Beaux Arts-style Cecil Hotel was briefly a glimmering downtown landmark until it became one of the most infamous sites of violence and murder in the country. Nicknamed "The Suicide," the Cecil was the eerie location of more than a dozen people taking their own lives going back to the 1940s and '50s. Rumors still swirl that Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, frequented the hotel in the days before her gruesome murder. Serial killer Richard "Night Stalker" Ramirez lived at the Cecil for long stays in the 1980s. Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger murdered three sex workers while a guest at the Cecil in 1991. Author Dale Perelman charts the brutal and mysterious history of Los Angeles's most notorious hotel.
Book Synopsis Gourmet Ghosts 2 by : James T. Bartlett
Download or read book Gourmet Ghosts 2 written by James T. Bartlett and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2016-05-05 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of murder, mystery, and history, Gourmet Ghosts 2 is the latest guide to dozens of haunted and blood-stained bars, restaurants, and hotels in Los Angeles. Featuring more unpublished stories and bizarre events from the city's dark past, this volume scours the newspaper archives to find out the truth behind the tales.
Download or read book The Cecil Hotel written by Chris Swinney and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Since the magnificent and opulent double-doors opened in 1927, things have not been normal at the Cecil Hotel. Located in the heart of Los Angeles' Skid Row, literally any and everything has happened within and outside the property. Eighteen people have died in or directly outside, two well-known serial killers spent weeks staying there while on killing sprees, and countless odd events have happened baffling all walks of life for almost one-hundred years...and yet the hotel somehow remains. Although the name has been changed, whatever is going on there has not. Eight years have passed since the last death -that of Elisa Lam found in a water tower on the roof- but anyone familiar with this story knows it's only a matter of time before something diabolical happens again. This is a work of historical fiction based on the true events that have occurred at the Cecil Hotel (now known as Stay on Main) since 1927." -- Back cover.
Download or read book The Last written by Hanna Jameson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This propulsive post-apocalyptic thriller “in which Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None collides with Stephen King’s The Shining” (NPR) follows a group of survivors stranded at a hotel as the world descends into nuclear war and the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks. Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC, has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange. Two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Jon and the rest try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when he goes up to the roof to investigate the hotel’s worsening water quality, he is shocked to discover the body of a young girl floating in one of the tanks, and is faced with the terrifying possibility that there might be a killer among the group. As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with discovering the truth behind the girl’s death. In this “brilliantly executed...chilling and extraordinary” post-apocalyptic mystery, “the questions Jameson poses—who will be with you at the end of the world, and what kind of person will you be?—are as haunting as the plot itself.” (Emily St. John Mandel, nationally bestselling author of Station Eleven).
Author :J. M. Moore Publisher :Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN 13 :9781530677610 Total Pages :180 pages Book Rating :4.6/5 (776 download)
Book Synopsis The History of the Barclay Hotel by : J. M. Moore
Download or read book The History of the Barclay Hotel written by J. M. Moore and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paperback is only available on the official website: www.barclayhotelhistory.comHave you ever wanted to know the stories of the people who have lived in your home before you...or the people who have died in it? Journey through the eerily quiet halls of this 120-year-old hotel in the heart of downtown Los Angeles and learn the stories of its past visitors. Over the decades' misinformation and urban legends have arisen regarding the many suicides, murders, fires, and mysterious accidental deaths that have occurred in this building. One crime was just as, if not more, brutal and savage as the Black Dahlia murder. Police reports, newspaper articles, coroner's reports, and the like were uncovered and the truth of each of the over one dozen fatalities that occurred in the Barclay Hotel has- for the first time-been brought to the surface in one complete collection. Although this hotel has a troubled past, it also has historical significance. It was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #288 by The Cultural Heritage Commission. You will be left with a comprehensive knowledge of this iconic hotel including what movies were filmed there over the years and noteworthy people who have been its guests. Travel back to old-time Los Angeles and get a sense of what it was like to be a guest at the hotel during its glory days.
Book Synopsis American Hotel Story by : Richard Estep
Download or read book American Hotel Story written by Richard Estep and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-11 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On December 20, 1924, the newest hotel in downtown Los Angeles opened its doors. Catering to businessmen, bankers, theatergoers, and travelers, the Cecil started out as a home away from home for the city's high rollers. Then came the Great Depression. Times changed, and the hotel found itself in the middle of Skid Row. Awash in a sea of violent crime, drugs, and homelessness, the Cecil gained a dark reputation which remains to this day. Tales of murder, suicide, and serial killers are just one part of the hotel's checkered past. Some also claim that restless spirits haunt the rooms and hallways. Following the bizarre and tragic death of a young woman, whose body was found floating in a rooftop water tank, the Hotel Cecil once again found itself in the unwelcome limelight of public attention. Join Richard Estep of TV's "Haunted Hospitals" and "Paranormal 911" in an exploration of this iconic LA landmark's past, present, and future.
Book Synopsis TWISTED TOUR GUIDE TO LOS ANGELES by : Marques Vickers
Download or read book TWISTED TOUR GUIDE TO LOS ANGELES written by Marques Vickers and published by Marquis Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-26 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Avoid The Tourist Herds. What could be more uninspiring than seeing the identical attractions that everyone else has for decades? This Twisted Tour Guide escorts you to the places locals don’t want to talk about anymore…the same places people once couldn’t stop talking about. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure historical sites remain hidden awaiting rediscovery. Each visitation site in this guide is accompanied by a story. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. The profiled cast of characters feature saints and sinners (with emphasis towards the latter). Notorious crimes, murders, accidental deaths, suicides, kidnappings, vice and scandal are captivating human interest tales. The photography from each profile showcases the precise location where each event occurred. The scenes can seem ordinary, weird and/or sometimes very revealing towards clarifying the background behind events. If you’re seeking an alternative to conventional tourism, this Twisted Tourist Guide is ideal. Each directory accommodates the restless traveler and even resident looking for something unique and different. Scandals: Sister Aimee Semple’s disappearance, Zoot Suit riots, Howard Hughes’ collisions, George Michael sex sting, Dr. Lanterman’s abortions, Pio Pico shortsighted swap, Rodney King beating, Roman Polanski’s flight from justice and Julian Oil, Valhalla Cemetery and Girard Swindles Famous Homicides and Killers: Billionaire Boys Club, Barbara Graham, Black Dahlia, Bonnie Lee Bakely, Edward Allaway, Police Captain Walter Auble, Charles Crawford, Christian Brando, Dominique Dunne, Dr. Raymond Finch, Efren Saldivar, Ennis Cosby, Geneva Ellroy, Haing Ngor, Johnny Stompanato, Mickey and Trudy Thompson, Newhall CHP Shootout, Nicole Brown-Simpson, SLA Fuselage, Phil Spector, Ramon Novarro, Rebecca Schaeffer, Ronni Chasen, Sal Mineo, Sam Cooke, Susan Berman, Ted Healy, North Hollywood Bank of America Heist, Van Cleef & Arpels Hostage Standoff, William Desmond Taylor and the Wonderland massacres Serial Killers: Charles Manson, Golden State Killer, Richard Ramirez and Hillside Stranger Murder-Suicides: Dorothy Stratten, Johnny Lewis, Ned Doheny and Phil Hartman Assassinations and Contract Murders: Bugsy Siegel, Notorious B.I.G., Raymond Washington, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Vic Weiss Celebrity Suicides and Locations: Brian Keith, Carol Landis, Hotel Cecil, Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge, Darby Crash, DeeDee Ramone, Del Shannon, Don Cornelius, Freddie Prinze, George Reeve, Herve Villechaize, Hugh O’Connor, Keith Emerson, Lupe Velez, Margaux Hemmingway, Peg Entwistle, Pete Duel, Pier Angeli, Ross Alexander, Tony Scott and Verne Troyer Shocking Celebrity Deaths and Overdoses: Dennis Wilson, Lenny Bruce, Janis Joplin, John Belushi, Michael Jackson, Paul Walker, River Phoenix and Whitney Houston Prostitution and Renowned Madams: Lee Frances, Hollywood Love Market, Heidi Fleiss, Calle de los Negroes and Hugh Grant’s Indiscretion
Download or read book Behind the Door written by Amy Price and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2023-10-03 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The disturbing true story of the notorious Cecil Hotel in downtown LA, by its general manager for a decade and star of the controversial Netflix documentary series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel. When Amy Price took a temporary design job at an Art Deco hotel in Los Angeles to help a friend, she had no idea the path it would lead her down. Before long, she would become manager of the Cecil Hotel, seeking to make it more welcoming and correct its notoriety, not helped by sitting at the foot of Skid Row, or the fact that since its opening in 1927, there had been any number of deaths by suicide, and residents such as serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger. She cared about guests and residents alike, though she faced challenges on many fronts, with over eighty people dying during her decade of service. Among them was Elisa Lam, whose tragic death became the subject of a Netflix documentary series that captivated millions and led to its own controversies and unwarranted personal attacks on Amy. For the first time, Amy delves into her experiences at the Cecil Hotel. Equal parts memoir, true-crime, and cultural history, Behind the Door is essential to understanding one of America’s most enigmatic hotels.
Book Synopsis Inside the Minds of Sexual Predators by : Katherine Ramsland
Download or read book Inside the Minds of Sexual Predators written by Katherine Ramsland and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-12-21 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revealing look inside the minds of sexual predators, from cyber-stalkers to rapists to teachers who exploit underage children, explains why they commit their heinous crimes. They are among the most frightening of all criminals, yet few have attempted to document the complex mindset of the sexual predator through intimate case details. Inside the Minds of Sexual Predators reexamines this intentional criminal behavior, describing the different types of sexual predators and explaining why they choose to commit their specific type of predatory acts. Each chapter of the book addresses a different category of predator or a specific, complex issue related to predatory behavior. Distinctions are drawn between types of offenders, from the casual offender to the depraved rapist and serial lust killer, and the variables that play a part in an individual's sexual predation are explored. Like Ramsland's Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers, this book is essential reading for professionals in law enforcement and psychology, as well as for everyone seeking to go beyond the headlines to understand this difficult and controversial topic.
Download or read book Headpress written by David Kerekes and published by Critical Vision. This book was released on 2000-11-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The leading journal devoted to all aspects of popular culture and cult media, "Headpress 25 "turns its attention to the Dream, or Flicker, machine. On this subject, it features interviews with William Burroughs-following a chance meeting at a bus stop by writers Johnny Strike and Gregory Daurer-and Paul Bowles. The cover is a striking oil painting of Burroughs in Tangiers. "Headpress 25 "also includes a detailed look at the neglected life and career of the late Luis de Jesus, a "star" of diminutive stature whose film appearances range from sadistic sidekick in the cult 1976 feature, "Blood Sucking Freaks," to numerous hardcore porn features, of which the most notorious is "The Anal Dwarf,"
Download or read book Entering Hades written by John Leake and published by Sarah Crichton Books. This book was released on 2007-11-13 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I was a greedy, ravenous individual, determined to rise from the bottom to the top . . . It wasn't me!"--Jack Unterweger's final words to his jury Serial killers rarely travel internationally. So in the early 1990s, when detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department began to find bodies of women strangled with their own bras, it didn't occur to them at first to make a connection with the bodies being uncovered in the woods outside of Vienna, Austria. The LAPD waited for the killer to strike again. Meanwhile, in Austria, the police followed what few clues they had. The case intrigued many reporters, but few as keenly as Jack Unterweger, a local celebrity. He cut a striking figure, this little man in expensive white suits. His expertise on Vienna's criminal underworld was hard-earned. He had been sentenced to life in jail as a young man. But while incarcerated, he began to write—and his work earned him the glowing attention of the literary elite. The intelligentsia lobbied for his release and by 1990, Jack was free again. He continued writing, nurturing his career as a journalist. But though he now traveled in the highest circles, he had a secret life. He was killing again, and in the greatest of ironies, reporting on the very crimes he had committed. With unprecedented access to Jack's diaries and letters, John Leake peels back the layers of deception to reveal the life and crimes of Jack Unterweger, and in unnerving detail, exposes the thrilling twists—both in the United States and Europe—that led to Jack's capture and Austria's "trial of the century."
Download or read book Room 1219 written by Greg Merritt and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part biography, part true-crime narrative, this painstakingly researched book chronicles the improbable rise and stunning fall of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle from his early big screen success to his involvement in actress Virginia Rappe’s death, and the resulting irreparable damage to his career. It describes how during the course of a rowdy party hosted by the comedian in a San Francisco hotel, Rappe became fatally ill, and Arbuckle was subsequently charged with manslaughter. Ultimately acquitted after three trials, neither his career nor his reputation ever recovered from this devastating incident. Relying on a careful examination of documents, the book finally reveals what most likely occurred that Labor Day weekend in 1921 in that fateful hotel room. In addition, it covers the evolution of the film industry—from the first silent experiments to the connection between Arbuckle’s scandal and the implementation of industry-wide censorship that altered the course of Hollywood filmmaking for five decades.
Book Synopsis Baroque Aesthetics in Contemporary American Horror by : Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodríguez
Download or read book Baroque Aesthetics in Contemporary American Horror written by Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodríguez and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-12-10 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces a trend that has emerged in recent years within the modern panorama of American horror film and television, the concurrent—and often overwhelming—use of multiple stock characters, themes and tropes taken from classics of the genre. American Horror Story, Insidious and The Conjuring are examples of a filmic tendency to address a series of topics and themes so vast that at first glance each taken separately would seem to suffice for individual films or shows. This book explores this trend in its visible connections with American Horror, but also with cultural and artistic movements from outside the US, namely Baroque art and architecture, Asian Horror, and European Horror. It analyzes how these hybrid products are constructed and discusses the socio-political issues that they raise. The repeated and excessive barrage of images, tropes and scenarios from distinct subgenres of iconic horror films come together to make up an aesthetic that is referred to in this book as Baroque Horror. In many ways similar to the reactions provoked by the artistic movement of the same name that flourished in the XVII century, these productions induce shock, awe, fear, and surprise. Eljaiek-Rodríguez details how American directors and filmmakers construct these narratives using different and sometimes disparate elements that come together to function as a whole, terrifying the audience through their frenetic accumulation of images, tropes and plot twists. The book also addresses some of the effects that these complex films and series have produced both in the panorama of contemporary horror, as well as in how we understand politics in a divisive world that pushes for ideological homogenizations.
Book Synopsis FORENSICS III by : Harry A. Milman PhD
Download or read book FORENSICS III written by Harry A. Milman PhD and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2024-04-21 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died, I reviewed twenty-eight ordinary people who were thrust into the spotlight, gaining fame not for their talents or accomplishments while living, but for the way they died. Newspaper and magazine articles ensured that stories of the circumstances surrounding their deaths remained in the public eye, so that, as Andy Warhol had predicted, their fame would last at least fifteen minutes. In some cases, it lasted much longer. While these individuals may have been “ordinary” before they died, they became extraordinary after death. Some of the people I reviewed in Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died include the “Boy in the Box,” later identified as Joseph Zarelli, who died from blunt force trauma; Azaria Chamberlain, a nine-week old infant who was killed by a dingo at Ayers Rock in Australia; George Floyd, whose death resulted from police brutality; Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, who were stabbed to death; Elisa Lam, who drowned in a water tank on the roof of her hotel; Michael Faherty, whose death in Ireland was attributed to spontaneous human combustion; Katherine Morris, who died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to charcoal grilling in an automobile; Carlos Sousa, who was mauled to death by a tiger; Sahel Kazemi and Steve McNair, who committed murder-suicide; and Jayne and Corinne Peters, whose death was due to filicide-suicide, among many others. Forensics III: They Got Fifteen Minutes of Fame from the Way They Died reads like a mystery novel, presenting biographical and scientific information that helps readers understand how medical examiners and coroners utilized forensic analysis to determine the causes and manners of death of twenty-eight “not-so-famous” people.
Book Synopsis Famous West Coast Suicides and Shocking Celebrity Deaths by : Marques Vickers
Download or read book Famous West Coast Suicides and Shocking Celebrity Deaths written by Marques Vickers and published by Marquis Publishing. This book was released on 2020-03-01 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Death sometimes arrives randomly to those seemingly insulated from risk by virtue of their wealth, celebrity and protective environments. Periodically the world halts in shock and reflection upon the abrupt and sudden headlines of a celebrated personality’s death. Their demise jolts and reinforces our understanding of the fragility and vulnerability of life. This edition chronicles the background stories and detailed locations of some of the most newsworthy, famous and even infamous unexpected sudden passings. The profiles feature self-induced suicides, drug overdoses, celebrity murders, unexplained deaths and even brazen homicides where the perpetrator has taken their own life. The West Coast historically remains a vortex for the unexpected. Understanding the circumstances beyond simple summary reporting often clarifies the motivations behind each unfortunately and often desperate act. The contents are divided into four sectional categories including: FAMOUS SUICIDES Actress Peg Entwistle’s leap from the Hollywood sign, Oil swindler C. C. Julian, Valhalla Cemetery savior John E. Osborne Sr., Actor Ross Alexander, Actresses Lupe Velez and Carol Landis, Superman actor George Reeves, Actresses Marilyn Monroe and Pier Angeli, Actors Pete Duel and Freddie Prinze, Punk Rocker Darby Crash, San Francisco assassin Dan White, Seattle judge Gary Little, Singer Del Shannon, Actor Herve Villechaize, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Actor Hugh O’Connor, Model Margaux Hemingway, Heaven’s Gate cult mass poisoning, Actor Brian Keith, Punk Rocker Dee Dee Ramone, Film Director Tony Scott, Right-to-Die Advocate Brittany Maynard, Comedian Robin Williams, Rock keyboardist Keith Emerson and Actor Verne Troyer. SHOCKING ABRUPT CELEBRITY DEATHS President Warren Harding, Evangelist Sister Aimee Semple-McPherson, Actor James Dean’s fatal car collision, Soul singer Sam Cooke, Comedian Lenny Bruce, Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, Actor Roman Novarro, Rock singer Janis Joplin and actor John Belushi’s drug overdoses, Actress Dominique Dunne’s strangulation, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s drowning, Marvin Gaye’s domestic shooting, Actress Rebecca Schaeffer’s stalker killing, Rock Promoter Bill Graham’s helicopter crash, Actor River Phoenix’s drug overdose, Jockey Ron Hansen’s mysterious drowning, Actor Haing Ngor’s killing, Sublime’s Bradley Nowell’s drug overdose, Revenge shooting of Notorious B. I. G., Rock singer Layne Staley, Singers Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston’s drug overdose, Paul Walker’s street racing crash and Singer George Michael’s outing and premature death. INFAMOUS MURDER SUICIDES Brides of Christ cult, LAPD Captain Walter Auble, Ned Doheny and Hugh Plunkett, Teenage Orcutt California Freeway sniper, Newhall California Highway Patrol shootout, Jim Jones and the People’s Temple, Richard Trenton Chase the Vampire Killer, Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten, Lynwood Jim Drake, 101 California Building Massacre, Actor Phil Hartman, Seattle Bus Shooting on Infamous Aurora Bridge, Kyle Huff and the Capitol Hill shooting, John Williams the man of a thousand identities, Bruce Pardo’s Christmas Eve firestorm, Portland’s The Zone nightclub massacre, Jed Waits obsession killing, Publicist Ronni Chasen midnight slaying, Speedfreak mass killing and burial grounds, Seattle’s Café Racer coffee house killings, Survivalist Peter Keller’s family murder, Actor Johnny Lewis’ outburst, Marysville-Pilchuck cafeteria shooting and the vindictive Isla Vista shooting spree rampage of Elliot Roger REPUTED SUICIDE LOCATIONS Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Cecil Hotel Los Angeles, Vista Point Bridge Portland, Aurora Bridge Seattle and the USS Hornet
Book Synopsis Hotel Life by : Caroline Field Levander
Download or read book Hotel Life written by Caroline Field Levander and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2015-04-27 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is a hotel? As Caroline Field Levander and Matthew Pratt Guterl show us in this thought-provoking book, even though hotels are everywhere around us, we rarely consider their essential role in our modern existence and how they help frame our sense of who and what we are. They are, in fact, as centrally important as other powerful places like prisons, hospitals, or universities. More than simply structures made of steel, concrete, and glass, hotels are social and political institutions that we invest with overlapping and contradictory meaning. These alluring places uniquely capture the realities of our world, where the lines between public and private, labor and leisure, fortune and failure, desire and despair are regularly blurred. Guiding readers through the story of hotels as places of troublesome possibility, as mazelike physical buildings, as inspirational touchstones for art and literature, and as unsettling, even disturbing, backdrops for the drama of everyday life, Levander and Guterl ensure that we will never think about this seemingly ordinary place in the same way again.
