As the Paris Ritz Shutters, Remembering Its Mysteries, Misbehaviors, and Unhurried Luxuries | Society | Vanity Fair: From the opening night, in 1898, the Ritz was an instantaneous success, luring royalty, heads of state, industrial giants, society leaders. “They came!,” Madame Ritz exalted. “Calouste Gulbenkian, Marcel Proust, the Comtesse de Pourtal�s, Grand Duke Michael with Comtesse Torby, with whom he lived in exile from the Russian court.”
One of the few to be negative about the place was Oscar Wilde, who found the elevators too fast and all the electrification unnecessary. “A harsh and ugly light, enough to ruin your eyes, and not a candle or lamp for bedside reading. And who wants an immovable washing basin in one’s room? I do not. Hide the thing. I prefer to ring for water when I need it.”