Ira Berkow > Quotes

“Indeed, Spahn, determined and talented, became one of the best pitchers ever. Though he didn’t win his first major league game until 1946, when he was 25—he missed three baseball seasons when he was in the military—he pitched until 1965, when he was 44. He won 363 games, more than any other left-hander, and posted a record of 23–7 and a 2.60 earned-run average in 1963, when he was 42. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, the first year he was eligible.”
― Ira Berkow, Summers at Shea: Tom Seaver Loses His Overcoat and Other Mets Stories

“It’s the richest hotel in town. And they all keep their jewels in the big vault room behind the cashier’s desk.”
― Ira Berkow, The Man Who Robbed the Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever

“It has seven hundred rooms and suites, three hundred of which are apartments owned by the cream of New York-wealthy widows and business tycoons,”
― Ira Berkow, The Man Who Robbed the Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever

“One day a pal showed Comfort a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records. Under the heading “Jewels, Record Robbery,” Comfort found the Pierre Hotel robbery listed. An unofficial estimate ran as high as $5 million, the entry read.”
― Ira Berkow, The Man Who Robbed the Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever

“Frequent Pierre guests included Aristotle Onassis, the Prince of Wales, the king and queen of Greece, Crown Prince Philip, Kirk Douglas, and Katharine Hepburn.”
― Ira Berkow, The Man Who Robbed the Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever

“He now read that in November 1968 Richard Nixon as president-elect had taken two floors at the Pierre as temporary headquarters for himself and his staff. The hotel was Nixon’s favorite in New York, and he occupied the penthouse suite on the thirty-ninth floor.”
― Ira Berkow, The Man Who Robbed the Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever

“a blue dyed Balenciaga mink and almost exactly $2,500,000 worth of diamonds—including a thirty-odd carat diamond in each ear and a 34.8 carat blue diamond ring (putting it just below the famed Hope diamond, which is 44.5 carats, and the 35.5-carat Wittebacher, which is on sale for $650,000. Contact J. Komkommer in Antwerp). …Childless, she spends 5 or 6 months a year in the U.S. (she has a 7½ room apartment in Manhattan’s Hotel Pierre)…”
― Ira Berkow, The Man Who Robbed the Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever