Historical review of Peace Hotel: a story belonging to Shanghai Beach, a legendary life in troubled times.

Victor Sason, the real owner of the Peace Hotel, has become his most important legacy in Shanghai. With a gunshot, boss A Ping collapsed outside the revolving door of the hotel. This is the end of the film "The Boss's Story". Chow Yun Fat ended his career in Hongkong and turned to Hollywood. This hotel is the Peace Hotel, and the boss he plays is naturally the boss of the Peace Hotel. When the film was shown in Hong Kong, it was called Peace Hotel. The Bund in Shanghai is full of tourists, and waves of tourists flock to the most famous decorative building with a huge green and copper triangular roof and keep asking the doorman: In which revolving door did the boss A Ping die? Someone confused The Boss's Story with Shanghai Beach and asked which door Xu Wenqiang died in. The doorman was speechless. The story was just a story, but the hotel did have four revolving doors. Entering any hotel, guests can immediately feel the old Shanghai in the heyday of the 1930s. The magnificent octagonal stained glass ceiling scatters the natural skylight, and the interlayer that has been dusty by gypsum board for decades reappears, which is very decorative. An antique elevator on the ground floor, with walnut board and amber glass ceiling, mosaic floor and wrought iron pattern. Although this elevator has long since stopped working, it is a famous antique of Peace Hotel. The complex design of the hotel reminds people of the legendary past here. No matter in what era, it is the most famous hotel on the Bund, whether as Huamao Hotel or Peace Hotel. The guests it has received include movie star Chaplin, British Marshal Montgomery, former US President Bill Clinton and boxing champion Ali, but it seems that only the fate of A Ping played by Chow Yun Fat can arouse the curiosity of ordinary tourists. Stories are really just stories. Sir Victor Sason, the real hotel owner, has a better fate than Ah Ping. Sir Sassoon was born into a Jewish aristocratic family in England. His middle school is in Harrow College and his university is Trinity College in Cambridge. He joined the Royal Air Force in World War I, and his left foot was injured and disabled. He came to the eastern colonies, first Mumbai and then Shanghai, and took over the family business of Sassoon. He inherited and became the helm of the family business on 1924. Finally, I officially moved to Shanghai in 193 1, laying the foundation for my career. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Sassoon family was the most famous and richest Jewish family in Shanghai. All kinds of high-risk and high-profit legal and illegal businesses are booming, and real estate is also the main business. At that time, the tallest buildings in Shanghai were all owned by Sassoon Company, such as Sassoon Building, Binjiang Building, Chinachem Apartment, grevin Na Apartment, Capital Building and Hamilton Building, which not only supported commercial projects, but also supported urban construction. It can be said that Sir Sassoon changed the city of Shanghai to a great extent, especially accelerated the development of the Bund. Shanghai at that time was really a paradise for adventurers. 1929 When the Peace Hotel first opened, it was called "Hua Mao Hotel". It should be said that Huamao Hotel is the greatest achievement of his life. At that time, almost the most important guests would choose this place when they went to the seaside to play or hold important activities. Song Jiang's wedding, Chaplin's visit, Carver's "Private Life" script, and Sun Yat-sen's call that "the revolution has not been successful yet, comrades still need to work hard" at the meeting of betraying relatives are all related to this hotel. At that time, Chinachem Hotel fully reflected Victor's passion for luxurious and elegant lifestyle. Sir Victor set up a private apartment overlooking the city on the top floor of Chinachem Hotel, inlaid with dark oak boards and covered with a green copper pyramid roof, which became the most distinctive landmark building on the Bund skyline. Today, this penthouse suite has become the Sassoon Presidential Suite, overlooking the whole Bund. The other nine suites named after Germany, France, Japan and India are extremely luxurious and exotic. Victor Sasson is keen on horse racing and hunting, so he named the original bar "Horses and Hounds". Soon, the resident jazz band attracted tourists from all over the world, so the bar was renamed "Jazz Bar". The old musician of that year has long since passed away. Now this band has been reorganized into 1980, consisting of six old musicians who have played for more than half a century. Their story has been made into a documentary "Time flies in Shanghai" and they participated in the Toronto International Record Film Festival last year. To the surprise of western audiences, in the Far East, where there is no jazz tradition, there are such a group of musicians who have played for half a century but are so forgetful. Even visiting Clinton plays saxophone with the old people. He also likes parties and dances, and introduces the European afternoon tea tradition to Shanghai, where wonderful music is interspersed all day except Sunday. Led by Jay Fedoroff, Chinachem is playing classical music and classical opera in the bar. Henry Nathan's National Chinachem Dance Company is staged at eight o'clock every night on time. To this day, every afternoon in Molly Lobby Bar, guests dance in long skirts accompanied by the band, and the dance teacher will coach the fans. As a drama lover, Victor recorded many films and plays, especially in Shanghai Lanxin Grand Theatre. He also recorded all the parties he held and left photos of him and many guests. As an avid photographer, he used Shanghai's first camera to photograph the city and things he was interested in, such as sailing, lovers and horse racing. Because of his efforts to resettle many European exiles, Victor was under increasing pressure from Japan and decided to leave Shanghai. The new political structure after the war forced him to move to the Bahamas. After Sassoon left China, his Shanghai industry was gradually nationalized. 1956, Huamao Hotel was renamed Peace Hotel. Two years later, all his enterprises in Shanghai were confiscated in the name of tax arrears. After that, he had no contact with China without children. He married Evelyn Barnes, a nurse who took care of him, in 1959, when he had converted to Buddhism until he died of heart failure in 196 1 at the age of 79. After his death, his wife hoped to donate it to the local heart foundation, but found that there was no such organization at that time, so Sassoon Heart Children's Foundation was born. Victor Sason, the real owner of the Peace Hotel, has become his most important legacy in Shanghai.