PaperCity Magazine

November 2017- Houston

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81 Ewing penned a column from the fête titled "He's Done It Again Folks — a Dazzling Production!" that appeared Sunday, December 21, 1969. She wrote, "The razzle dazzle rendezvous that would even cause P.T. Barnum to blink in wonderment is snuggled nine stories in the sky via glass elevator, and the Dome Stadium daddy has christened it 'The Celestial Suite at the Penthouse Level.'" Ewing's column reports in glowing detail the interiors of the six-bedroom, two-level sky-pad that caused the assembled throng to marvel: the Olympic-sized, Roman-inspired sunken tub surrounded by AstroTurf, the Minidome double-decker nightclub that replicated the Astrodome experience down to TV-sized scoreboards, and especially the P.T. Barnum Suite. There was a carnival caravan bed with red wheels, a carousel pony supported a red telephone, a jaunty bronze sculpture of Barnum's big headliner Tom Thumb looked on, and the tiger skin of a late circus-performing big cat. The design scheme was a triumph. As Fred Hofheinz underscores, "The circus thing was pretty obvious at the time — Roy Hofheinz was the largest shareholder in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus." And it's not surprising that deal had been sealed to great fanfare in 1967 at the Roman Coliseum, the Judge's inspiration for the Astrodome. Left: The tropical Tarzan Room in the Adventurer Suite. Above: Miu Miu Hawaiian-print jumpsuit $3,575, visor $260, belt $550, and leather pump $890, all at the Miu Miu boutique, Forty Five Ten, Saks Fifth Avenue, farfetch.com, modaoperandi.com, net-a-porter.com. (continued)

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