There's a Small Hotel

{{Infobox song

| name = There's a Small Hotel

| cover =

| alt =

| type = song

| written =

| published = 1937

| writer =

| composer = Richard Rodgers

| lyricist = Lorenz Hart

}}

"There's a Small Hotel" is a 1936 song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. Originally written for but dropped from the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1935), it was used in On Your Toes (1936), where it was introduced by Ray Bolger and Doris Carson, and repeated by Jack Whiting and Vera Zorina in the London West End production that opened on 5 February 1937, at the Palace Theatre.

Betty Garrett sang it in the 1948 film Words and Music, and it was interpolated in the film version of Pal Joey (1957) with a Frank Sinatra-Nelson Riddle collaboration.

Background

According to the biography of Lorenz Hart by Gary Marmorstein,{{cite book

|last= Marmorstein

|first= Gary

|title= A ship without a sail: the life of Lorenz Hart

|date= 2012

|location= New York

|publisher= Simon & Schuster

|isbn= 978-1-4165-9425-3

|quote= Beginning a couple of years before he bought his Walking House Farm in western New Jersey, [Paul] Whiteman would eat and drink at Colligan's Inn in Stockton, New Jersey, which had become popular with reporters covering the Lindbergh kidnapping trial in nearby Flemington in December 1934. On one of his trips there, Whiteman was accompanied by Larry Hart, who noted the wishing well outside the inn. Out of that visit emerged the lyric "There's a Small Hotel", written to one of the few Rodgers melodies that annoyed Larry no end.

}}{{rp|260}} the song was inspired by a visit Hart made to the Stockton Inn in Stockton, New Jersey, accompanied by the bandleader Paul Whiteman. Hart "noted the wishing well outside the inn. Out of that visit emerged the lyric 'There's a Small Hotel', written to one of the few Rodgers melodies that annoyed Larry no end."{{cite magazine

|last= Hingston

|first= Sandy

|title= 5 Great Songs (You Might Not Know Were) Written in Philly

|at= "There's a Small Hotel"

|date= July 23, 2015

|magazine= Philadelphia

|url= https://www.phillymag.com/things-to-do/2015/07/23/five-great-songs-written-in-philadelphia/

|access-date= September 5, 2021

|quote= This musical number with lyrics by Lorenz Hart and tune by Richard Rodgers was inspired by the charming (and still existent) Stockton Inn in Stockton, New Jersey. Though cut from Jumbo, the show for which it was originally intended, the song instead found a home in On Your Toes (and another home, later, in Pal Joey).

}}{{cite web

|last= Intersimone

|first= Jenna

|title= After seven years of vacancy, the 200-year-old Stockton Inn is reopening

|date=

|website= mycentraljersey.com

|url= https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/2024/06/24/stockton-inn-hunterdon-county-nj-reopening/73975987007/

|access-date= September 5, 2021

|quote= A patio with a waterfall and wishing well was added in the 1930s, which inspired the lyrics for the classic song, "There's a Small Hotel" by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart.

}}

Another claimant to be the inspiration is the Montecito Inn, in Santa Barbara County, California.{{cite book

|last= Trzebinski

|first= Errol

|title= The Lives of Beryl Markham

|date= March 17, 1995

|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company

|isbn= 978-0-393-31252-2

|pages= 343–

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Vj4sWVPxSuAC&pg=PA343

|access-date= October 10, 2011

}}{{cite book

|last=

|first=

|title= California business

|date= 1983

|publisher= California Business News, inc.

|page= 81

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=v5UcAQAAMAAJ

|access-date= 10 October 2011

|quote= For rejuvenation, pick the Montecito Inn, a 60-room hostelry that inspired Rodgers and Hart to write "There's a Small Hotel." Built by Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle...

}} Renovations to the hotel in the 1950s replaced the wishing well, claimed to be mentioned in the song,{{cite book

|last1= Wallace

|first1= David

|last2= Miller

|first2= Ann

|title= Hollywoodland

|date= September 23, 2003

|publisher= Macmillan

|isbn= 978-0-312-31614-3

|pages=221–

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pH8tfv0McvAC&pg=PA221

|access-date= October 10, 2011

}} by a floral fountain.{{cite book

|title= Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles ...

|date=2002

|isbn= 978-1-58843-334-3

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=zbpSfrkaa88C&dq=Montecito+Inn+rodgers&pg=PT308

|access-date= March 26, 2010

|last1= White

|first1= Robert

|last2= White

|first2= Phyllis

|publisher=Hunter Publishing

}}

Lyric confusion

{{Original research|section|reason=The last two sentences require a citation to a reliable, secondary source.|date=August 2024}}

The second verse begins with the line "There's no bridal suite".{{cite web

|title= On Your Toes

|at= "There's a Small Hotel" Lyrics

|date= 31 December 2021

|website= rodgersandhammerstein.com

|url= https://rodgersandhammerstein.com/song/on-your-toes/theres-a-small-hotel/

|access-date= August 29, 2024

|quote= (...) There's no bridal suite: (...)

}} In many printed editions of the song this appears as "There's a bridal suite", undermining Hart's depiction of the hotel as unassuming. Many performers, including Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, sing "a".{{cn|date=August 2024}}

Notable recordings

Hal Kemp And His Orchestra: "There's A Small Hotel"/"It's Got To Be Love" (Brunswick 7634, 1936) – Shellac 10", 78 RPM
Jack Whiting: "There's A Small Hotel"/"On Your Toes" (Columbia CA 16274, 1937) – Shellac 10", 78 RPM
Josephine Baker: "Plus Tard"/"C'est Un Nid Charmant" (Columbia 291179, 1937) – Shellac 10", 78 RPM; a version of the song with French lyrics, as "C'est Un Nid Charmant" was re-released on CD{{Cite AV media notes

|title= Le Front Populaire – Paris 1934–1939

|type= Compilation CD

|date= March 2011

|at= Tracklist: CD1; track 9

|website= www.fremeaux.com

|url= https://www.fremeaux.com/en/3534-le-front-populaire-3448960204927-fa049.html#tracklist

|access-date= February 26, 2012

|quote= C'EST UN NID CHARMANT (THERE'S A SMALL HOTEL) / JOSEPHINE BAKER / L. HENNEVE / 00:03:07 / 1937.

}}