Hilary Knight is Rawther at the Plaza

Posted by: Sing Books with Emily on: October 10, 2010

• In: Heartfelt Musings
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Hilary Knight is the illustrator of many wonderful Singable Picture Books.

He is probably most famous, however, for illustrating the books about Eloise, a 6-year-old girl who lives at the Plaza with her Nanny and pets and who generally drives grown-ups around her crazy!  Eloise, the character, was created by the great artist Kay Thompson.

The Plaza Hotel does wonderful things to honor Eloise and her creators.  They’ve just opened an Eloise Suite (designed by the wonderfully outrageous Betsey Johnson) where you can stay (empty your bank account) with your family and spend the night.

The Plaza recently posted a video on of Hilary Knight, sitting in front of his iconic ortrait of Eloise which hangs just outside the Plaza’s equally iconic Palm Court restaurant, telling the story of how Eloise came to be.

To see the video (and the Plaza’s wonderful Eloise offerings), just click here and scroll down to play the video:
http://www.theplaza.com/family/

Click here for a terrific site about Eloise:
http://www.eloisewebsite.com/index.html

Click here for a post which studies Hilary Knight’s illustrations of Singable Picture Books (and other delights):
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/a-few-favorite-singable-books-part-101-by-hilary-knight/

Eloise, the Song

Words and Music by Kay Thompson

A YouTube withe performers singing in the Eloise Shop at the Plaza Hotel:

Click here for a transcript of the lyrics, wonderful!
http://www.eloisewebsite.com/eloise_song.htm

Dear Mr. Knight!
Please make a book of this song!!
Love, Eloise and her mom, Emily

A wiki about Hilary Knight here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Knight

A wiki about Kay Thompson here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Thompson

PS:  My daughter Eloise is at The Plaza, too…

When I was a kid, my mother was  buyer for L.S. Ayers, a department store in Indianapolis, Indiana.  This was the mid-1980′s when retail was king and the store sent my mother to New York City for what seemed like a week out of every month.  She came home with stories of the Big Apple, which almost always included a trip the Plaza Hotel for a drink or lunch or tea in the Palm Court or the Oak Room and to visit with Hilary Knight’s portrait of Eloise.

Summer 2010, my very own Eloise G. at the Plaza

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Related Articles

HILARY KNIGHT
The fabulous Illustrator of Eloise and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle has created a bookshelf of Singable Picture Books!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/a-few-favorite-singable-books-part-101-by-hilary-knight/

Tags: Eloise, Hilary Knight, Plaza Hotel