The Manila Hotel: The Heart and Memory of a City

The Manila Hotel. The very name is magic with memory,

Since its triumphal opening in 1912, the "Waldorf of Manila," the "Aristocrat of the Orient," as it has been variously called, has hosted the grand balls and elaborate receptions for which the lavishly hospitable Filipino is renowned.

Until recently, it was also the official guest house of the Philippine government. Here stayed presidents and kings, premiers and potentates, as well as glamorous celebrities from Hollywood and the international world of sports.

In the halcyon days of the Philippine Commonwealth, when the President's tango in the hotel's Fiesta Pavilion was better known than his international diplomacy, the hotel transformed an entire floor into a luxurious penthouse for the fledgling nation's military adviser, General Douglas MacArthur. It was this same penthouse that, in one of the greatest ironies of World War II, the Japanese Imperial Army would take as its own.

Once the bastion of Manila's American society, the hotel eventually became the Filipinos' meeting place as well, where women vied with one another for the most elaborate gowns and jewels, and politicians determined the country's future at raucous conventions.

For seven decades and a half, The Manila Hotel has stood as witness to the lives, loves, triumphs, and heartbreaks of a city.

Here is its story.

Published in 1987

284 pages / Paperback