Barbizon young women are alive…eager to achieve-because they associate with people active in business and professional life…artists…musicians…dramatists…writers…people capable of valuable and charming friendships. Perhaps most crucially, the Barbizon offered something that was central to men’s residential hotels: an atmosphere ripe for casual networking. In 1933, the Barbizon’s print advertisements got right to the point: “Success depends, to a large extent, on your physical comfort, recreations, and mental stimulation after business hours. The Barbizon was originally designed for young women with artistic flair, and so it included not only the requisite restaurant, coffee shop, library, parlors, and workout rooms (because keeping fit was now all the rage in the age of the flapper), but also soundproofed music rooms, airy artist studios, and a performance venue replete with stage and organ. Yet the Barbizon, unlike so many other women’s hotels, managed to survive the Great Depression that came soon after by remarketing itself as the destination for any ambitious, out-of-town girl with a suitcase and a dream Grace Kelly, Liza Minnelli, Ali MacGraw, Phylicia Rashad, Betsy Johnson, Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, and Meg Wolitzer, among others, would all pass through the Barbizon’s doors.
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