Description

Little Bird [Published Date: 2010]. Hardcover, 160 pp. Stated First Edition. In very good condition/ No dust jacket. Red cloth covered boards with white lettering on front and spine. Light bumping and scuffing to edges of covers. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. Illustrations, some in color [From Introduction] Sally Bulloch was a child star in the iconic St Trinian's films of the 50s. She knew Paul McCartney, John Lennon and all the emerging talent of the Swinging '60s. She became the muse of an artist and counted Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Wagner, Joan Collins and Shirley Maclaine among her good friends. She was on first name terms with Sir Denis and Lady Thatcher, and Nelson Mandela kept his entire motorcade waiting just to stay a little longer in her company. At The Athenaeum she created Tinseltown on the Thames: a home from home for Hollywood in London. It is a matter of contention whether Sally Bulloch was actually born at all, or whether she just shot into the world, a petite five-foot-two whirlwind red-head, a glass of champagne in one hand, cigarette in the other, clad in her famous mink coat, and most probably apologising profusely for being late. The bulging Chanel handbag under her arm would be stuffed full of bits of paper with VIP bookings or private telephone numbers of A-list celebrities. Vital data, written in her neat looping hand, on half-empty Silk Cut packets which would almost certainly be left in an ashtray somewhere later that night. How all this information ever got into the hotel system remains a mystery, but one way or another it did. Sally never forgot a name or a face; her maxim, 'The answer is always yes', ensured that she became a legend in the industry. When Sally arrived at the hotel, she organised the lives of the rich and famous. To them she was never a 'hotel manager' - she was their friend. It was her mission to bring lightness into people's frenetic lives, her motto being, In every man there's a child who wants to play. Sally was everything to The Athenaeum and The Athenaeum was everything to Sally. THE ATHENAEUM The Athenaeum at I 16 Piccadilly was, in 1840, the site of Hope House, one of the grandest mansions in London, specially commissioned for a prominent Member of Parliament and housing his spectacular collection of art. It became the 'salon', a social meeting place for the artistic, literary and fashion worlds at which to be seen; invitations were like gold dust. An only daughter inherited everything and married a high ranking, debt-ridden Duke but did not live long at Hope House; in 1864 it opened as a fashionable gentlemen's club, which it remained until 1939, when it was bought by the wealthy, land-owning Sykes Brothers and became one of the first family-owned hotels, with milk and butter delivered daily from their West Country estates. The Rank Organization took it into corporate ownership in the '60s, when Elizabeth Taylor; John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and Harrison Ford all became regular guests. For another two icons of the cinema,The Athenaeum Hotel played a major part: Cubby Broccoli with the Bond films and Steven Spielberg, who installed an edit suite in his apartment.