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Hotel Hostess
Hotel Hostess by Faith Baldwin in Hardcover.
301 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1938
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41 people want to read
About the author
Faith Baldwin
177 books33 followersFaith Baldwin attended private academies and finishing schools, and in 1914-16 she lived in Dresden, Germany. She married Hugh H. Cuthrell in 1920, and the next year she published her first novel, Mavis of Green Hill. Although she often claimed she did not care for authorship, her steady stream of books belies that claim; over the next 56 years she published more than 85 books, more than 60 of them novels with such titles as Those Difficult Years (1925), The Office Wife (1930), Babs and Mary Lou (1931), District Nurse (1932), Manhattan Nights (1937), and He Married a Doctor (1944). Her last completed novel, Adam's Eden, appeared in 1977.
Typically, a Faith Baldwin book presents a highly simplified version of life among the wealthy. No matter what the difficulties, honour and goodness triumph, and hero and heroine are united. Evil, depravity, poverty, and sex found no place in her work, which she explicitly intended for the housewife and the working girl. The popularity of her writing was enormous. In 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, she published five novels in magazine serial form and three earlier serials in volume form and saw four of her works made into motion pictures, for an income that year in excess of $315,000. She also wrote innumerable stories, articles, and newspaper columns, no less ephemeral than the novels.
Typically, a Faith Baldwin book presents a highly simplified version of life among the wealthy. No matter what the difficulties, honour and goodness triumph, and hero and heroine are united. Evil, depravity, poverty, and sex found no place in her work, which she explicitly intended for the housewife and the working girl. The popularity of her writing was enormous. In 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, she published five novels in magazine serial form and three earlier serials in volume form and saw four of her works made into motion pictures, for an income that year in excess of $315,000. She also wrote innumerable stories, articles, and newspaper columns, no less ephemeral than the novels.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 26, 2013
This book is hilarious. I can totally see how Faith Baldwin turned so many stories into films; this one read very much like a 1930s romance (well, it is a 1930s romance, but FILM). I also loved the pop culture references that date it.
Quotable:
"It will hurt. But not as much as it hurts now. And once it's out it won't hurt at all. Only girls make such a fuss about a little pain. Boys don't. Not real boys. You are a real boy, aren't you?"
"She hadn't slapped him. He rather liked women who slapped...one could always catch the hand and kiss it. To strike out was at least a sign of emotion. He didn't mind women who lost their tempers...they got over anger. But a woman who spoke her mind like this...and who meant it! He was shaken with the urge to jam on his brakes, to drag her to him, kiss her, shake her, beat her...anything to force some response from her."
Quotable:
"It will hurt. But not as much as it hurts now. And once it's out it won't hurt at all. Only girls make such a fuss about a little pain. Boys don't. Not real boys. You are a real boy, aren't you?"
"She hadn't slapped him. He rather liked women who slapped...one could always catch the hand and kiss it. To strike out was at least a sign of emotion. He didn't mind women who lost their tempers...they got over anger. But a woman who spoke her mind like this...and who meant it! He was shaken with the urge to jam on his brakes, to drag her to him, kiss her, shake her, beat her...anything to force some response from her."
October 21, 2016
I am giving this novel five stars because I truly found this 1938 book to be amazing. I love the movies of the Nineteen Thirties and Forties. I love the melodrama and the excitement. I love that the bad guys are bad, and that the good guys are great. This book is equal to those movies. In fact, a number of Faith Baldwin's novels were made into movies in that era. This story has it all. A young lady whose family lost their money. A young doctor trying to get a start in his profession.A spoiled rich guy who will do all he can to destroy a woman who spurned him. A teenager becoming a woman. A Vamp looking for a rich husband. A blizzard. And, plots abound through out! If you'd like a dash of old fashioned fiction,then do read Hotel Hostess.
March 5, 2017
30s romance novel in all the best ways from the use of the word swell to the tragic circumstances of a once wealthy twenty something who is pursued by a rich man and a poor man. This novel was like stepping into the mind of a single woman in the midst of the Depression who was looking for an escape. Terrible and terrific filled with sentimentalism combined with a new ethic of women in the workplace tied to the same old conflict between the madonna and the whore. At the end, the overly predictable end, it left me wishing to visit a fabulous old resort for a romp in the past.
August 30, 2019
I had never heard of Faith Baldwin when I came across this book tucked away in an antique store, but the title intrigued me. It turns out that Faith Baldwin was an immensely successful author of commercial fiction through most of the 20th century. She published her first novel in 1921 when newly married and in her late 20s, and wrote short stories and serialized novels for women’s magazines. Her popularity grew, and in 1935 she made $300,000, the equivalent of $4 million in today’s economy. She published over 85 novels over the course of her 56-year career, many of which were turned into movies and she hosted a weekly TV show.
Her writing is very readable, and I enjoyed the touches of period detail. Presumably set in the 1930s (this was published 1935), the story follows Judy Gilmore, an attractive woman in her 20s who finds herself in desperate circumstances. Raised wealthy and four years out of finishing school, Judy finds herself on her own and almost penniless. Her mother has been ill since she was born, and her father committed suicide after entrusting all his money to a man who lost it in an attempt to regain his own fortunes. Her mother is living with Judy’s aunt, both just getting by on a very modest insurance policy.
Judy has no marketable skills. Most of the men lost interest when her father lost his money, and she can’t bring herself to marry the one who remained interested. While Judy has many friends, she’s determined not to become a professional guest, recognizing that people who live off their friends’ charity quickly become social servants resigned to being the ones to entertain drunken but important guests at parties, run last-minute errands for hostesses, and care for obnoxious children in exchange. (Ironically, that’s what she ends up doing as a Hotel Hostess, but she gets paid for it.) She could spend her share of the life insurance money on business classes, but recognizes there’s a lot of competition in the job market and she can’t spell. Instead, she gambles on a year’s wardrobe of smart clothes, and returns to her hometown to apply for a job as a social director at a resort. She’s young and this job would typically go to a middle-aged widow, but she manages to sell her honed social skills and experience with pushy hotel hostesses growing up that have taught her what not to do.
Of course, there’s a love interest—a young doctor who lives and works at the hotel, who grew up an orphan and made good. It’s obvious from the moment we get his backstory that he’s the one for her. The conflict is with both of them being poor, he couldn’t afford to marry her—he needs a wealthy wife. Of course, he also won’t admit his interest until the end of the book.
And of course there’s also a wealthy playboy type whose father has a large investment in the hotel, and who has known Judy since childhood, but now tries to take advantage. He bounces between being a friend, and trying to put her in compromising positions. When he first insists she join him for a drink in his suite alone, she talks to her boss and he tells her they can’t afford for her to offend him, and she has to go. Of course he tries to force himself on her. She fends him off by telling him, a confirmed bachelor, that she’s taken the job to land a husband. But he persists throughout the novel, and she spends time with him while maintaining she’s not interested. She also spends time with the doctor, but it all seems quite friendly. Eventually the playboy proposes, claiming to love her but she thinks he’s just desperate enough to get her into bed to marry her to achieve it. The dating rules are interesting. There are references to chaperones, but it’s also not compromising to a woman’s reputation to be alone in a man’s hotel room, as long as it’s not all night. There’s also a reference to a woman who is good at seducing men who a man “bought off, a neat payment in full, rather than figure in a breach of promise suit.” So I assume that if a man slept with a woman and refused to marry her, she could sue him?
To round out the story, there’s the doctor’s curmudgeonly aunt who refused to take him in when his parents died. And there’s the boss’s 18 year old daughter, in love with the doctor and jealous of Judy. And the band director who loves that girl, who she tries to elope with and then regrets it, but Judy saves her from herself, of course.
It’s very much a romance novel, with cliffhangers at the end of every chapter, and a few dramatic moments. The characters aren’t terribly nuanced, but there’s a good variety to keep the plot sustained. It’s quite readable, as well, easy to finish in half a day. I did enjoy the glimpse into the period, it’s why I like reading vintage fiction. The story did drag a bit in the middle, but early on there were two entertaining lines worth noting for their reflection of the period:
- “She was engaged in doing something which no pretty girl in her senses should be doing on a bright May morning. She was indulging in mathematics.”
- “‘You look like the Federal debt! But more than a billion, my dear, more than a billion.’” Only a billion? Imagine.
I don’t know that I’d rush out seeking more of Baldwin’s novels, but I’d read another if I came across another. In fact, randomly, I did come across another at a thrift store with a great book section a week after I found this one. I imagine there are quite a lot of her books floating around out there.
Her writing is very readable, and I enjoyed the touches of period detail. Presumably set in the 1930s (this was published 1935), the story follows Judy Gilmore, an attractive woman in her 20s who finds herself in desperate circumstances. Raised wealthy and four years out of finishing school, Judy finds herself on her own and almost penniless. Her mother has been ill since she was born, and her father committed suicide after entrusting all his money to a man who lost it in an attempt to regain his own fortunes. Her mother is living with Judy’s aunt, both just getting by on a very modest insurance policy.
Judy has no marketable skills. Most of the men lost interest when her father lost his money, and she can’t bring herself to marry the one who remained interested. While Judy has many friends, she’s determined not to become a professional guest, recognizing that people who live off their friends’ charity quickly become social servants resigned to being the ones to entertain drunken but important guests at parties, run last-minute errands for hostesses, and care for obnoxious children in exchange. (Ironically, that’s what she ends up doing as a Hotel Hostess, but she gets paid for it.) She could spend her share of the life insurance money on business classes, but recognizes there’s a lot of competition in the job market and she can’t spell. Instead, she gambles on a year’s wardrobe of smart clothes, and returns to her hometown to apply for a job as a social director at a resort. She’s young and this job would typically go to a middle-aged widow, but she manages to sell her honed social skills and experience with pushy hotel hostesses growing up that have taught her what not to do.
Of course, there’s a love interest—a young doctor who lives and works at the hotel, who grew up an orphan and made good. It’s obvious from the moment we get his backstory that he’s the one for her. The conflict is with both of them being poor, he couldn’t afford to marry her—he needs a wealthy wife. Of course, he also won’t admit his interest until the end of the book.
And of course there’s also a wealthy playboy type whose father has a large investment in the hotel, and who has known Judy since childhood, but now tries to take advantage. He bounces between being a friend, and trying to put her in compromising positions. When he first insists she join him for a drink in his suite alone, she talks to her boss and he tells her they can’t afford for her to offend him, and she has to go. Of course he tries to force himself on her. She fends him off by telling him, a confirmed bachelor, that she’s taken the job to land a husband. But he persists throughout the novel, and she spends time with him while maintaining she’s not interested. She also spends time with the doctor, but it all seems quite friendly. Eventually the playboy proposes, claiming to love her but she thinks he’s just desperate enough to get her into bed to marry her to achieve it. The dating rules are interesting. There are references to chaperones, but it’s also not compromising to a woman’s reputation to be alone in a man’s hotel room, as long as it’s not all night. There’s also a reference to a woman who is good at seducing men who a man “bought off, a neat payment in full, rather than figure in a breach of promise suit.” So I assume that if a man slept with a woman and refused to marry her, she could sue him?
To round out the story, there’s the doctor’s curmudgeonly aunt who refused to take him in when his parents died. And there’s the boss’s 18 year old daughter, in love with the doctor and jealous of Judy. And the band director who loves that girl, who she tries to elope with and then regrets it, but Judy saves her from herself, of course.
It’s very much a romance novel, with cliffhangers at the end of every chapter, and a few dramatic moments. The characters aren’t terribly nuanced, but there’s a good variety to keep the plot sustained. It’s quite readable, as well, easy to finish in half a day. I did enjoy the glimpse into the period, it’s why I like reading vintage fiction. The story did drag a bit in the middle, but early on there were two entertaining lines worth noting for their reflection of the period:
- “She was engaged in doing something which no pretty girl in her senses should be doing on a bright May morning. She was indulging in mathematics.”
- “‘You look like the Federal debt! But more than a billion, my dear, more than a billion.’” Only a billion? Imagine.
I don’t know that I’d rush out seeking more of Baldwin’s novels, but I’d read another if I came across another. In fact, randomly, I did come across another at a thrift store with a great book section a week after I found this one. I imagine there are quite a lot of her books floating around out there.
Want to read
June 25, 2021This book is very much of its era in its sometimes insensitive depictions of characters and references to pop culture gone by. "The next day, Wednesday, one of the youngsters, Mary Milton-- a fat blonde child with all the brutal qualities of Fanny Brice's Baby Snooks and none of her appeal to the risibilities, developed a toothache."
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews