Sometime after Mr. Bashar Issa purchased the Statler Hilton, I
read a call for contributors willing to participate in sharing memories of this
famed hotel. Mr. Issa envisioned a book highlighting the past glories of the
building along with stories, photos and memorabilia that might be gathered from
the call. Having been a patron of
the Downtown Room (an intimate Jazz Club located in the hotel) on a somewhat
regular basis, I decided to answer that call.
I forwarded the information
to a fellow patron and Jazz aficionado now living out of town who also
frequented the club. We had a nice chat and reminisced about the
exceptional jazz musicians who took the stage at this gem of a nightclub. We gathered up some material and sent it
off to Steven Abu Nab who was designing the project. Every once in awhile
we would receive an email with some updates about how the book was going.
Things were moving along and we looked forward to seeing the published book.
Last week amid all the rumors and speculation about the future
of the Hotel Statler we received an email regarding the final book; the timing
could not have been better. While the future of the property is overcast and cloudy, the
book, even in its electronic form can be looked at as the silver lining. It is
a colorful, image filled book speckled with stories from the very beginning and
up to the eventual buyout of the chain by Hilton family.
Mr. Nab thanked us for our contributions and noted that the
financial state of Mr. Issa’s holdings make publishing the work out of the
question. As I write this, the fate of the Statler is still uncertain, but the memories are alive and can be shared with a much larger audience if the
book can find its way to the printer.