Salon Books | Eloise has a ball -- and snubs her guests

Oct. 14, 1999 | Eloise, the unruly heroine of Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight's 1955 children's book, behaved very badly on Tuesday night. It was billed as her "Introduction to Society," a lavish "Pink and Black Ball" on three floors of New York's Plaza Hotel. Harpists twiddled, feather boas were tossed, mountains of shrimp were consumed and Joan Rivers skittered about interviewing everyone from Mister Adrian, the hotel manager (he confirmed that Eloise's Nanny takes a little drop of something just to keep the cold out), to female impersonator Lypsinka ("It was the only book for a recherché 8-year-old -- and that was me!" she cried).

But where was Eloise?

The partyers were celebrating Simon & Schuster's relaunch of Thompson and Knight's long-out-of-print sequels. "Eloise at Christmastime" hits bookstores this month, and "Eloise in Paris" has been on children's bestseller lists all fall. Guests were also tilting back pink cocktails to cheer the 6-year-old hooligan's movie deal with the itsy bitsy Entertainment Co. The film will be scripted by J. David Stem and David Weiss, perpetrators of the "Rugrats" movie, and produced by Denise Di Novi ("Heathers," "Little Women," "Edward Scissorhands," "Batman Returns"). Women wore pink hats, pink gowns and pink flowers; the male staff of itsy bitsy wore pink shirts, and acted embarrassed by them. While Di Novi retained her dignity, itsy bitsy executives decked the screenwriters in glittery pink feather boas and fake noses, after which they all sprayed each other with silly string.

Author Thompson, who died in 1998, had blocked the sequels from being reprinted during her lifetime. Illustrator Knight, however, was present at the party. He received a statuette and spoke not a word, though earlier he told Rivers, "I gave Eloise life ... and a little stomach."

In honor of the occasion, the Plaza, where the fictional Eloise lives with Nanny, Weenie the pug and Skipperdee the turtle ("the Plaza is the only hotel in New York that will allow you to have a turtle," Eloise informs us in her first book) exploded with pink roses. It was the perfect setting to attract our heroine, an unabashed party girl: Eloise often scampers to the Terrace Room "where those debutantes are prancing around," goes to wedding receptions in the White and Gold room and claims she has "been to 56 affairs including Halloween." Nevertheless, when Kenn Viselman, chairman of the itsy bitsy board and the marketing mastermind behind TeleTubbbies, presented "the debutante of all debutantes" -- Eloise was nowhere to be found.

A frazzled Nanny appeared in the spotlight to explain: "She was here, but ... she can be rather unpredictable." TV monitors around the reception hall then switched over to "concierge cam," where a jolly Plaza employee explained that Eloise had just scooted into the elevator. A chase ensued, involving a French waiter carting around a single raisin for Skipperdee, a much-harassed maid wiping Eloise's lipstick drawings off the mirrors, and Joan Rivers crying, "We've got to find Eloise. Where are you, you little bitch?"

Needless to say, the tiny terror never made her formal debut, though a small blond girl wearing Eloise's signature black pleated skirt and a strange pink party mask was briefly seen running past the cheese table and ducking into a back room. Sad as her absence made them, guests took home a piece of her nonetheless: The "Eloise Emergency Hotel Kit," a modern knock-off of a 1950s promotional item, contains a copy of her first book, raisins for a pet turtle, cat-eye sunglasses, a comb, Post-it notes that say, "Charge it please!" and an Eloise lipstick for writing on mirrors. All in pink, of course.
salon.com | Oct. 14, 1999

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About the writer
Emily Jenkins is the author of "Tongue First: Adventures in Physical Culture" and a forthcoming picture book entitled "Five Creatures."

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