Nope: We're still not sure what that bottle of gin is doing on the high shelf in Eloise's room at The Plaza Hotel. But, perhaps — on the 60th anniversary of the first book's release — some new clues have surfaced?
Vanity Fair took a look back at the real Eloise character, created by illustrator Hilary Knight, and originated by the famed Persian Room performer, Kay Thompson. As VF points out, there's a chasm between the girl who turned an entire fancy hotel into her playground, and the woman who hit the stage in the Rose Room. Although Eloise did spend a fair amount of time downstairs, "I always go to the Persian Room after four," she explains in the book, inevitably the 6-year-old would make her way up to her room, where more adult treasures sat on the shelves. There she had a piano, a handsaw, and that bottle of gin handy on a high shelf — just in case she needed any of these items. We must ask, what good would the spirits have done our precocious heroine? Apparently, Nanny preferred drinking Pilsner — the mystery remains. Read the whole Eloise backstory over at VF.
Vanity Fair took a look back at the real Eloise character, created by illustrator Hilary Knight, and originated by the famed Persian Room performer, Kay Thompson. As VF points out, there's a chasm between the girl who turned an entire fancy hotel into her playground, and the woman who hit the stage in the Rose Room. Although Eloise did spend a fair amount of time downstairs, "I always go to the Persian Room after four," she explains in the book, inevitably the 6-year-old would make her way up to her room, where more adult treasures sat on the shelves. There she had a piano, a handsaw, and that bottle of gin handy on a high shelf — just in case she needed any of these items. We must ask, what good would the spirits have done our precocious heroine? Apparently, Nanny preferred drinking Pilsner — the mystery remains. Read the whole Eloise backstory over at VF.