Copacabana Palace: Ricardo Boechat reveals the backstage – 02/08/2023 – Tourism

One can imagine that many things happened in a century-old hotel like the Copacabana Palace, but it is not always considered that many things that actually happened exceed imagination.

Maybe it’s not that difficult to create a scene where a rock star is kicked out for playing football with his band in his suite, but what about a president being shot by his mistress? Or a Hollywood star asking for an ice bucket of sand to pee in?

The unusual situations, many of them little known, are reported by the journalist Ricardo Boechat in the book “Copacabana Palace – A Hotel and Its History” (ed. DBA), published after the place completed 75 years.

Boechat, who died in 2019 in a helicopter accident, narrates the adventures of the Cup since its opening in 1923; tells its ups and downs, its ups and downs, its conventional stories and colorful episodes – some of which were kept secret until then.

Among the many eccentric experiences at the Copa, Boechat highlights one reported by Fery Wünsch, who was maître d’hôtel for 40 years.

One night in 1959, the actress and singer Marlene Dietrich was going to perform at the Golden Room, the concert hall at the Copa. Before appearing onstage, however, she called Wünsch and demanded an ice bucket of sand.

Is that, wearing a skin-tight dress, the star of “O Anjo Azul” and “Desejo” could not go down the stairs to the bathroom, so she had to improvise when peeing. She was treated as if nothing unusual was happening.

After all, Octávio Guinle, founder of Copa, maintained a strict code of conduct for employees since its opening. Among the guidelines was this one: “Do not demonstrate knowledge of the eccentricities of customers, which should go unnoticed, without manifestations of gestures, acts and words”.

Less discreet was the stay of singer Alice Cooper in 1974, although, according to Boechat, the hotel kept everything quiet.

After his show at Maracanãzinho, the exponent of hard rock, along with the band and technical team, returned to the Copa and spent the night in a ferocious drunkenness, accompanied by throwing plates, cutlery, glasses, food and whatever else they found in front of them. .

It was devastation: four vandalized suites, damaged furniture, broken glass and the swimming pool unusable for two days, so many were the bottles and other objects that ended up there.

According to Boechat, the damage was entirely covered by the star, in the largest account of extras registered by the hotel (at least until the publication of the book).

A few years later, another rock star caused turmoil at the Copa. In 1977, Rod Stewart and his band were expelled for playing a football match inside the presidential suite, which resulted in a broken picture, dirty walls and annoyance from other guests.

Among the disturbed people was not a guest, but a resident: Dona Mariazinha Guinle, widow of Octávio. Since 1953 she had lived on the sixth floor of the hotel and proved to be intransigent in many matters, including those that were detrimental to her.

In 1982, for example, the Spanish Embassy requested that the sixth floor be blocked so that King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia could stay there. Nothing done. Mariazinha considered the imposition unacceptable.

From a certain point of view, the Spanish couple were lucky when it comes to the authorities. At least in comparison with Washington Luís, president of Brazil from 1926 to 1930, who was at the Copa America when he was shot by a lover in 1928.

At the time, the government managed to camouflage the case with an attack of appendicitis, a version that was later discovered to be false. Just as it is false, according to Boechat, the version according to which the Italian marquise Elvira Maurichi pulled the trigger.

She killed herself days after the attack, which only fueled suspicion about her. But, according to Boechat, two contributors to the book heard something else from the doctor who took the president to the hospital: the mistress in question was French Yvonette Martin.