The world hit with Swiss roots

What do Robbie Williams, Fred Astaire, the Leningrad Cowboys, Ella Fitzgerald and Neil Diamond have in common? They all sang or danced the world hit “Puttin’ on the Ritz” or covers of it. What many people don’t know: the title of the jazzy song has a Swiss background – “Puttin’ on the Ritz” means “dress up” and refers to the legendary reputation of the Ritz hotels, founded by the Swiss César Ritz.

It is in the successful issue ” Dress up. Have you seen everything better? (…) Are you sad and don’t know where to go? Why don’t you go where the fashion is? Dress up!” The song urges the sad listener to dress up and go out: “They wear striped pants, jackets and frock coats. Everything fits perfectly.” The song encourages: “You’ll realize it’s easy to get involved up there and then hear them tell each other their juicy details. Get dressed!”

The song was written and composed by the Russian-American musician and lyricist Irving Berlin (1888-1989) in 1927, he published it two years later and a year later – in 1930 – it was made popular by the film of the same name. “Bring You to the Rhythm” known. The fact that “on the Ritz” became a winged expression has a long history that leads us to Switzerland. To be precise to Wallis.

In 1850, little César was born in the Goms village of Niederwald as the 13th child of the Ritz family. Expelled from school for being lazy, César Ritz goes through the classic career path from shoe shiner to bell boy to room waiter. He eventually became a hotel manager and managed hotels in Lucerne, London, Cannes, Monte Carlo, Aix-les-Bains, Rome, Biarritz and Frankfurt am Main. In 1898 he opened in Paris on the chic Place Vendôme the first grand hotel to bear his name.

«Le Ritz» is emerging as the epitome of glamor and opulence, as well as one of the most famous and distinguished hotels in the world. The “Ritz” was the first tourism company in the world with heating, a bathroom and – in the so-called “gentlemen’s rooms” (!) – a telephone in its apartments. Business is so good that César Ritz will soon be opening luxury hotels in a dozen metropolises, all bearing his name.

The English King Edward VII is also one of his regular guests. He described César Ritz as the “king of hoteliers and hotelier of kings”, a saying that has been quoted many times since. Later, the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich and Marcel Proust, who drew inspiration for his literary characters from the hotel, stayed at the “Ritz”. And Ernest Hemingway was such a loyal and hard-drinking guest in the hotel bar in Paris that it still bears his name.

Musician Irving Berlin had this Ritz-esque glamor in mind when he wrote the song “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” The song’s namesake could very well have benefited from an uplifting performance. Because César Ritz suffered a tragic end: because the hotelier ran all his hotels himself with great dedication, he suffered a physical collapse in 1903 at the age of 53, which brought an abrupt end to his high flight. In 1905 he had his last public appearance, from 1906 he retired permanently to clinics, today he would be diagnosed with chronic burnout.

First Ritz was placed in a psychiatric hospital in Lausanne, then in the small private clinic of Dr. Gottfried Egli in Kussnacht am Rigi. Ritz, the hotelier for royals and high society, suffered from a deep depression from which he never recovered until his death in 1918. He was so sad that the request “Puttin’ on the Ritz!” not helped; dressing up was unthinkable for Ritz in the last phase of his life. The fact that the adjective “ritzy” in English still goes back to César Ritz and means “noble”, “elegant” and “modern” is a downright cruel irony of history in view of the hotel king’s sad end .