Edgewater Beach Hotel Vintage Plates, 1925 Marshall Field

Dated 1925, Rosenthal, Manufactured especially for The Edgewater Beach Hotel supplied by Marshall Field & Co. Chicago Germany, an "R" and 24 and K. Measurement: 6" wide x 9 1/2" long.

There are two plates, they are not perfect, they were used in the dining room and have some wear and a few flea bites, but they will still perform beautifully. The oval plates could be a lunch plate, snack plate or bread plate.

I actually have 3 plates, I've got to keep one for myself and will send you the best two plates, the ones pictured.

My mom would sneak up to Chicago during the 40's, the big band era to dance at this hotel and at the Aragon Ballroom.

The black & white picture is the Edgewater Hotel in the 20's and the other picture is the Edgewater Apts today. What a fabulous landmark, the big pink stucco!!

The Edgewater Beach Hotel was the brainchild of two Chicago businessmen, who initially tried to buy the Chicago Cubs. When the deal fell through, they decided instead to build a hotel.The original 400-room structure opened in 1916.

"When the hotel first opened," Connery's granddaughter Mary Nelson remembers, "my grandfather was going from empty room to empty room in the evening turning on the lights on the Sheridan Road side to make the hotel look occupied. That was not necessary for very long, as the hotel soon became very popular." So popular, in fact, that a second 600-room unit was opened just to the south in 1922. During the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, the Edgewater Beach was Chicago's place to see and be seen. On any given night, you could rub elbows with celebrities such as Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Marilyn Monroe, and major sports figures including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, to name a few.

All the big bands played there: Tommy Dorsey, Xavier Cugat, Wayne King and many others. Hotel manager (and later president) William Dewey "was a showman," says historian Kenan Heise. "He was good at booking top names into the Edgewater Beach, and that was very much a part of its allure."

On June 14, 1949, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus was shot and nearly killed by an obsessive fan at the hotel; this later would be a large part of the inspiration behind Bernard Malamud's novel "The Natural".

In 1927 an apartment building was built next to it and it still stands. When Lake Shore Drive was constructed, the Hotel was cut off from direct beach access. It closed in the late 60's.

Item ID: lgv3091