Confidential Doorman
George of the Ritz. By George Criticos, as told to George Viner. (Heinemann, 21s.)
WHEN George Criticos, a Cretan waiter formed! of Shepheard's and the Therapia Palace Hotel, arrived in London in 1910, it was, characteristi' cally, under the patronage of a British admiral serving in the Mediterranean. Criticos could& speak English, perhaps, but he could always boast' by way of a reference, 'I have only known the best people!' Having spent most of his life since as hall porter at the Ritz—becoming, in effect' society's favourite doorman—he could say the, same today. He was 'Valentino' to the King Spain, 'George, you old devil' to the Countess 01 Warwick, and, most gratifying of all, 'Honour .able' to the Aga Khan who, for thirty-five years', employed him as banker, punter and genet' agent. The elder Gulbenkian tipped him a bd of carrots; Paul Getty asked him to translate Greek letters; Michael Arlen talked to him ahoy; his 'society Westerns'; Princess Alexandra Greece told him, befcire anyone else, of her en. gagement to King Peter of Jugoslavia. This position gave him only a moment's unease" While staying with Sir Basil Zaharoff, the aranr ments dealer and a later patron, at Monte Carlo he confided that he hated his job ; . . it 'pearls you are something of a beggar, and I hate to beySir Basil, who solved his parking problems a £2 tip to the nearest policeman ('I know Y°'; are a married man with a wife and children'). able to reassure him : 'My boy, you are wrolv . . . whatever people give to you they give 11 cause you deserve it.' Criticos returned to his deed behind the revolving doors. Maybe what helF, was his ready self-identification with the rich. tifi too, while helping an Austrian count to spot £300,000 in two years just before the Gre3 War, had known what it was to throw five-pou° notes in the air at Finsbury Park skating rso I and to drive chorus girls home to Streatha°1; There were the cases of Scotch at Christmas. the trips to Deauville with the Aga Khan, and, after a good Win at the races, 'more shoes fr°ro McAffee's, or Maxwell's, or Lobb's, to add to not inconsiderable collection of thirty pairs'--1,6 odd times when he lived like a lord. We have hot word of Princess Marthe Bibesco for it thi, Criticos has remained 'the same polite, fr320 likeable, courteous person' through it all. In t"ti, he must be exceptional. Tipping is not a Pr°,41
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