Eloise at the Plaza

PARIS: I knew that suggestion box was a bad idea. Watch Choate get Joan Didion while we’re being read “Eloise at the Plaza”.

Paris refers to Eloise: A Book for Precocious Grown-Ups, a 1955 book by Kay Thompson, illustrated by Hilary Knight. Originally marketed to adults, in 1969 it was released as a children’s book as Eloise, with no changes to the text or illustrations.

Eloise is a mischievous six-year-old girl who lives in the penthouse of the Plaza Hotel in New York City with her nanny, pet pug dog and pet turtle. Thompson based Eloise on an imaginary friend she had in childhood, although it has been speculated that her goddaughter Liza Minelli may have been a possible model. There are several books in the Eloise series, but Eloise never ages. In April 2003, a Disney television film was broadcast called Eloise at the Plaza, with Sofia Vassilieva in the title role.

A fan theory, which you may take with as many grains of salt as you wish, is that Louise was named after the character Eloise. I cannot think of any way that could be confirmed or denied, but it doesn’t seem that implausible. Louise and Eloise both have blonde hair, are rich and spoiled, rather bratty, and have unavailable, neglectful parents.

Kay Thompson died in 1998, so could not have been the commencement speaker, and famously hated her fans, so would be unlikely to agree to it anyway. Hilary Knight is still alive, but it doesn’t seem likely that he would have done it either.

Joan Didion

PARIS: Watch Choate get Joan Didion …

Joan Didion (1934-2021), journalist and author, considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with such figures as Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson. Didion’s career began in the 1950s when she won an essay contest sponsored by Vogue.

Her writing in the 1960s and ’70s focused on the counterculture, Hollywood lifestyle, and Californian culture and history. In the 1980s and ’90s, her writing concentrated on the subtext of political and social rhetoric. In1991, she wrote the earliest mainstream media article to suggest the Central Park Five, previously discussed, were innocent.

She won the 2005 National Book Award for her memoir about the year following the death of her husband, The Year of Magical Thinking. In premiered as a Broadway play in 2007. In 2013, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.

At this time, Didion had just won the St Louis Literary Prize in 2002, and had recently released her 2001 book of essays, Political Fictions. Her essays on the history and culture of California, Where I Was From, was due to be published in September 2003.

Joan Didion was the first woman to give the commencement address at the University of California in 1975, which is presumably why Paris thinks of her. Her address began with a few charming anecdotes about her own youth, before she launched into a blistering attack on her generation in the 1960s, and its refusal to face up to reality.

A quote from the speech that I think Paris would have warmed to:

“Planting a tree can be a useful and pleasant thing to do. Planting a tree is not a way of life. Planting a tree as a philosophical mode is just not good enough.”

There is no record of her giving a speech at Choate at any time, so it seems as if they didn’t get her after all.

Choate

PARIS: I knew that suggestion box was a bad idea. Watch Choate get Joan Didion …

Choate Rosemary Hall, often known as Choate, a private, co-educational, preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut. Choate is currently ranked as the second best boarding school and third best private high school in America.

Founded in 1890, it took its present name and began a co-educational system with the 1971 merger of The Choate School for boys and Rosemary Hall for girls. Its alumni include many members of the American political elite, including John F. Kennedy.

Choate was the inspiration for Chilton, Rory’s school in Gilmore Girls, even though it is in Wallingford, not Hartford. Just to confuse things further, the show gave Stars Hollow the same zip code as Wallingford. In this episode, Paris makes it seem as if Chilton and Choate are rival schools.

Dr Phil

PARIS: What about the [votes] for Dr. Phil?

Phillip McGraw (born 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, television personality and author, best known for hosting the talk show, Dr. Phil. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased renewing his license to practice psychology in 2006.

McGraw rose to fame with appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in the late 1990s. Oprah Winfrey then helped McGraw launch his own program in 2002.

Dr Phil has been a commencement speaker at the University of North Texas.

“Princess Diana’s butler”

PARIS: Are the [votes] for Princess Diana’s butler jokes or real?

Paris refers to Paul Burrell (born 1958), English former servant of the British Royal Household, and Princess Diana‘s butler from 1987 until her death in 1997.

In 2003 he released a memoir called A Royal Duty, detailing his life as a royal servant, and in particular focusing on Princess Diana, who he claimed had called him “the only man she ever trusted”. Princess Diana’s sons, Princes William and Harry, accused Burrell of betraying their mother’s confidences, and called the book, “a cold and overt betrayal”.

The book didn’t come out until October, but pre-publicity probably went on for a long time before that, as reviewers called it “the long-awaited” memoir. Burrell had also been in the news in November 2002, in court for theft of Diana’s possessions. The case collapsed when he was granted immunity from prosecution by the Crown.

Commencement Speaker

PARIS: Have you looked over the votes for commencement speaker? …

In the US, a graduation ceremony is often called commencement, presumably because the participants are about to commence a new life, post education. Even leaving high school is referred to as graduation in the US, not just tertiary graduation, as elsewhere.

The commencement speech or the graduation address is often given by a notable member of the community, giving them an uplifting message about education, wisdom, and hope for the future.

Radisson

MICHEL: It was one of the premiere hotel schools in the world. You two, on the other hand, are going to take a two-hour course at the Radisson.

Radisson Hotels, international hotel chain headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The first hotel was opened in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1909, by Chicago heiress Edna Dickerson. A high-end luxury hotel, it was bought by the Carlson Company in 1962, and the chain had 32 locations by 1982, becoming one of the top hotel chains by 2013. It was bought out by Choice Hotels in 2022.

The Radisson Hotel in Hartford [pictured] is at 50 Morgan Street South, and it hosts conventions and other events. Does this mean The Learning Center holds it classes at the Radisson, or just this one? Somehow, Michel has turned a one-day course into a two-hour course.

Ecole Hôtelière de Genève

LORELAI: Why are you being such a snob about this? You went to hotel school.
MICHEL: I attended the Ecole Hôtelière de Genève.

The Ecole Hôtelière de Genève is a Swiss tertiary-level school in a 18^th century mansion in Geneva, dedicated to hotel and restaurant management. It was originally the Ecole Cafetiers-Restaurants, founded in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1914. It moved to the Geneva property in 1951, and its current name dates to 1996. It is ranked in the top ten of the best hotel schools in the world.

Michel said that he left France at the age of 18, and presumably it was to study here in Switzerland. The diploma course lasts for three years, so Michel would have graduated when he was around 21.

The Learning Center

MICHEL: Oh, yes, that’s right. Tomorrow the two of you go back to school.
LORELAI: It’s not school, it’s a one-day course at The Learning Center.

In real life, The Learning Center in Hartford is a preschool program for small children. There are a few adult education centres in Hartford, but they tend to focus on government programs such as GED testing, citizenship tests, and learning English as a second language.

Jackson learned beekeeping, how to buy foreclosed real estate, and diary writing, and all these educational opportunities are available in Connecticut (although not at the same place), so this doesn’t seem unrealistic.

“Super Jackson”

SOOKIE: Oh wait! What’s that? It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Super Jackson and his atomic pea tendrils!

Sookie sarcastically compares Jackson to the comic book superhero Superman. The television series Adventures of Superman, 1952-58, with George Reeves playing the title character, was introduced each episode with a crowd of people saying the lines, “Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!”.

Sookie and Jackson are still fighting over the produce he provides for the inn. Before they were dating, it seemed cute, as if fuelled by unresolved sexual tension. Now that they’re married, it seems stupid, as if their relationship hasn’t progressed, and more like workplace bullying.