NOW AND THEN : Famous Little Rock hotel had Fayetteville connection
Posted on Sunday, July 6, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Living/66826/
What we know of our past — no matter how important the subject — is so often a matter of luck.
Take for example the rich history of the Hotel Marion in Little Rock. The Marion was once at the very center of Arkansas public life, and Ben Shelley, its mid-20 th century manager, was one of the state’s best-known personalities.
The Hotel Marion was Arkansas’ gathering place practically from the moment it opened in 1907. With hundreds of rooms for rent it became the state’s convention center and its “ second capitol. ”
When the legislature was in session lobbyists and lawmakers made the hotel their home away from home. They held formal and informal gettogethers and the talk on the street had it that bills were passed at the Marion and later voted on at the Capitol.
When famous visitors came to Little Rock they stayed at the Marion. Guests included Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Eleanor Roosevelt, Douglas MacArthur, Jack Dempsey, Dick Powell and June Allyson.
The hotel was a complex operation. It had its own laundry, print shop, kennels and carpentry crew. It had a liquor store, parking garage and all manner of food services. At times it took more than 400 employees to make it all work.
The hotel prospered until the 1960 s when rising costs and growing competition ate up its profits. By 1970 the owners decided to close the hotel and 10 years later they slated it for demolition.
In preparation for the end the public was invited for a gigantic sale of sinks, tubs, curtains, anything that remained of the old building.
A local historian joined the crowd at the sale and asked if there were any letters or things of the sort left behind. The historian was given a flashlight and directions to a winter-cold underground room crammed with paper. The people in charge of liquidating the building gave him a few hours to root around and carry away whatever he wanted. Most interesting among those papers are the personal files of Ben Shelley, the manager of the hotel from 1947 to 1965.
Suited for the job
Born in Fayetteville in 1901, Shelley quit school when he was 16 and began a career in hospitality. By 1947 when he landed the prestigious Marion job he had worked in the big hotels of Kansas City, Mo., Omaha, Neb., and Oklahoma City and had learned how to run a luxury inn.
Shelly was an energetic, outgoing personality, well suited to the job. He lived at the Marion and ate in its restaurants. He got up early, went to bed late and was fully engaged in the life of the hotel.
Richard Ford, his grandson, grew up in the Hotel Marion and later became a Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist. He remembers his grandfather as a man of strong appetites:
“ He was a fatty who played winter golf in gabardines, shot pool and quail. He qualified as a sport, a Shriner, a public man, a toddling character in a blue suit. To me he was the exotic brought to common earth, and I loved him. ”
Ben Shelley’s files are full of the inner workings of the Hotel Marion. The files include his reports to the hotel owners on accomplishments and challenges. They tell of huge banquets, successful conventions and tours given to excited school children. They detail fights, accidents, robberies, prostitution and “ skippers. ” Marion during integration
Minutes of meetings Shelly held with staff offer even more insight into the life of the hotel. The reports tell something of the times as well.
No time in Arkansas is any more interesting to historians than the fall of 1957 when the integration crisis at Little Rock Central High School played out in front of the world. The Marion was part of that story if only because many out-of-state reporters took rooms there.
On Sept. 25 Shelley called together his 18 department heads and told them how they were to handle the situation:
“ You all know of the unsettlement we have at this time. We are not into it, and we do not want to get in it. Please do not discuss this situation with anyone. If you hear of any talking or rumbling, just say that it is not our affair. We think a lot of our colored employees. About 60 % of our employees are colored. Be nice to them and do not discuss it, but handle it in a nice way.
“ They will soon try to get into hotels and restaurants. If a colored person should come to the front desk, just tell them that their reservation is made at the Charmaine [an African-American hotel ]. Then telephone the Charmaine and make the reservation. ”
Other staff meetings were full of Shelley’s efforts to make sure guests had a pleasant experience. He constantly reminded staff that it was important for guests to leave with a good impression of the place.
Shelley lectured housekeeping when he noticed a cobweb in a hall and the chef when he found a dirty fork in the dining room.
Be nice to everyone, he said, adding that their guests are away from home and probably lonely. Shelley said that he wanted visitors to feel that the hotel was staffed with the friendliest people in the world. “ Service with a smile is always good. Smiling makes us all better, ” he said.
On Feb. 17, 1980, thousands of people lined the north bank of the Arkansas River and watched the old Hotel Marion topple by implosion. The handful of files snatched from its basement in the days before, now on their way to Special Collections at the University of Arkansas Library, will assure that the landmark and its colorful mid-century manager are not forgotten.
Patty Besom, a former English teacher and secretary, teaches piano. Bob Besom is director emeritus of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History.