The subtitle of Paulina Bren’s nonfiction book, The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free, is somewhat misleading. While it was a fascinating cultural study of a hotel, it was possibly even more of a study of Mademoiselle magazine and its college guest editors who all stayed at the Barbizon during June. Bren is a historian, and she does cover the history of the hotel for women only, from its construction in 1927 until its conversion to condos in 2007. But, she admits in the introduction that there is actually little history of the hotel. She’s forced to talk about the building in relationship to several of the companies that used the hotel to house young women; Katharine Gibbs School for Secretarial and Executive Training for Young Women (Gibbs girls), John Robert Powers Modeling (Powers models), and Mademoiselle.

The advertisements for the Barbizon Hotel were shrewd. Beginning in the 1920s, they capitalized on dreams. Young women wanted to go to New York City for many reasons. They wanted to escape hometowns. They wanted a career. They wanted to experience a job in New York. And, the owners knew young women wanted a safe place to call home where they could have maid service and meals, without having to cook. They wanted the same amenities men had at men’s clubs. The parents of those young women wanted a place where they knew their daughters were protected and safe. So, women from all over flocked to the Barbizon, arriving by car and train from the Midwest, sometimes by plane from California and Arizona. The hotel that was built to house artists and performers trying for their first dream, also housed young secretaries and writers, reaching for their first taste of NY.

Bren discusses some of the famous residents, beginning with one of the earliest, the Titanic survivor Molly Brown. Then there were the actresses, Grace Kelly, Tippi Hedren, Liza Minelli, Ali McGraw, Candice Bergen, Phylicia Rashad, Jaclyn Smith, Cybill Shepherd. But, because of the connection to Mademoiselle, she spends chapters on the young college women who came as guest editors for the month of June, Gail Green, Anne Beattie, Meg Wolitzer. Sylvia Plath’s shadow hangs over much of the coverage of the 1950s and the Mademoiselle years since her book, The Bell Jar, was based on her month with the magazine.

I found the book fascinating, but I’m one of those who visits New York City with stars in my eyes. However, this book is as much about shattered dreams and expectations as it is about a hotel. And, I found myself wishing that I knew more about what happened to the lesser-known women in the book. This book is actually a cultural study of women from the 1920s into the 1960s, with heavy emphasis on the 1950s. It addresses the reasons women went to New York, their dreams, and, in many cases, the shattering of those dreams. It also puts those dreams in historical context for the period.

The study of the Barbizon actually serves as a vehicle to analyze the changing roles of women. Sadly, it doesn’t really appear that the roles, the rules, and the assumptions have changed much. I found the book riveting and read the entire book in one day.

Paulina Bren’s website is https://www.paulinabren.com/books

The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free by Paulina Bren. Simon & Schuster, 2021. ISBN 9781982123895 (hardcover), 321p.


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