Dignitaries visiting the Savoy included the Duke of Windsor, whose favorite song was,
Mr. Sandman, U.S. President Harry Truman, and Jordan’s Prince Hussein. In one of my
guest bedrooms, I still display a framed photograph of the late King Hussein with his first
wife, Princess Sharifa Dina, who is the mother of his oldest child, Princess Alia. There, in
the photograph, is my father playing his saxophone for them.
Although I knew, from other members of the family, that Daddy traveled in the circles
of the well-heeled and well-connected because of his job, it wasn’t until full adulthood
that I could truly marvel at the experiences that colored his life. Even as a “wanna be”
artist who didn’t take her craft seriously, even while taking art lessons in Europe, I wasn’t
aware of the Savoy’s impressive history that contributed so richly to Daddy’s musical
artistry. For instance, after the Savoy opened for the first time in 1889— the same year
my grandparents immigrated to London—the famous artist Claude Monet set up an art
studio in his Savoy suite and created over seventy paintings of views he could see from
its windows, especially those featuring the Thames. I recently read that after its major,
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