TWA Layovers: Del Hotel Plaza al Cielo »
During my thirty years as a TWA flight attendant, I spent many a layover at the Hotel Plaza. Whether coming off a new Boeing 707 in the sixties, the whale-sized 747 in the eighties or a sleek 767 in the nineties, the Plaza was my home away from home. The hotel was nestled inside the Edificio España, wrapped in a cozy cocoon of cafeterias, bars, restaurants and watering holes that catered to all tastes. There always seemed to be fruit floating in the water of the pool in the top floor from someone's sangria. And once in a while, a naked Maja was seen running across the balcony chased by a Don Juan Tenorio.
TODOS LOS SANTOS: Lights in the Graveyard »
All Saints Day, the big day of the dead on 1 November, is festive-solemn as only the Spaniards can make it.
GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “The Legend of Don Juan,” 29 October 1999, Part 1 »
"Don Juan is the dashing, wanton, blasphemous libertine, first immortalized in Tirso de Molina’s play El Burlador de Sevilla of 1630, who found currency in the best of European literature since and captured the imagination, not only of the Spanish people, but of writers and musicians around the world"
GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “The Legend of Don Juan,” 29 October 1999, Part 2 »
"In his memoirs, Zorilla tells us how he was told of the death of Spanish essayist Larra by a well-known literary figure, Mossard, who suggested he write something for the burial, and which could later be published. Zorilla stayed up all night to complete the work which shot him to fame and fortune. " The work was Don Juan Tenorio
A GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “The Legend of Don Juan,” 29 October 1999, Part 3 »
Whatever the literary origins of the legend of Don Juan may be, he certainly caught the imagination of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Italians took a pantomime version to France in 1657, and there, after attempts by Dorimund and De Villiers, it rooted in a successful version by Molíère
THE SOCIAL SCENE 50 YEARS AGO IN GUIDEPOST »
If it weren’t for GUIDEPOST’s archives we wouldn’t be able to imagine that 50 years ago Spain WAS a celebrity Mecca!
