Inside the Barbizon Hotel for Women
The “Katie Gibbs girls,” who attended a white-gloves secretarial school, had reserved rooms. Ford Models put up recruits there. Grace Kelly was an awkward brunette drama student wearing heavy glasses. Aspiring dancer Jaclyn Smith hung out with model Dayle Haddon. Cloris Leachman, fresh from the Miss America Pageant, stayed there on her way to stardom. Judy Garland was said to frantically call the front desk to keep tabs on daughter Liza Minelli.
In 1981, the hotel was struggling financially and changed its policy to let in men. By then, young women presumably didn’t have the same worries about reputation. Feminism was having its Second Wave—with Roe v. Wade,magazine, and the E.R.A. The liberated women who might otherwise stay at the Barbizon could have jobs and credit cards and bank accounts and apartments of their own. They could even cohabit with a significant other—not necessarily in wedded bliss.