Word: frommer
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Rucksacks of orchids to TIME for titillating transatlantic travelers-to-be with its bright story on Mr. Frommer's paperback. It rings cash registers for Michelin, Fielding's, and all of us peripatetic toilers...
Readers readily second Frommer's theory that luxury hotels with English-speaking staffs "and a branch of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith in the lobby" tend to insulate Americans from the very Europe they came to see. Frommer receives 1,000 testimonials each year from a list of tight-fisted correspondents that includes schoolteachers, ministers, engineers and architects. But some of the raves are qualified...
Best Since Marshall. Most common complaint is a byproduct of Frommer's very success: hotels and restaurants recommended by the book soon become American hangouts, then hike their prices. Last week in Paris one proud hotelier told Frommer: "It is your book which bought this elevator." But the new lift meant higher rentals, and Frommer sadly made a note to drop the hotel from the next edition...
Despite his vigilance, Frommer occasionally errs. In Stockholm, the three-masted sailing ship Af Chapman is a highly recommended stopover for students on a Starvation Budget, with no mention of the fact that its hostel regulations impose a rigid 11 p.m. curfew. Conversely, Vienna's list includes at least a couple of hotels that generally rent rooms to streetwalkers and their clients, and a drinking spot that is an underworld rendezvous frequently surveyed by police. Nevertheless, says the manager of London's truly familyish Arundale Hotel, "This book has been the biggest aid to Britain since the Marshall...
Those travelers accustomed to the standards of France's Guide Michelin -or even the lounge-lizard airs of Fielding-may lack stomach for the unstarred beaneries and spare accommodations of Frommer's Europe. But others choose the best of both worlds, take the money they have saved with $5 a Day and squander all on a gala dinner at the Tour d'Argent-where the décor is exquisite, the food superb, and the prices unmentionable...