Puttin’ on the Ritz: the global hit with Swiss roots
César Ritz was not only a pioneering Swiss hotelier, he also established a luxurious way of life that was immortalised in a song. ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ became a global hit after Ritz himself had sadly died following a decades-long battle with depression.
![César Ritz in 1897: he managed a chain of around a dozen hotels – until he suffered a breakdown.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ritz-portrat-200x300.jpg)
Clip from the 1930 film. YouTube
![Hotel Ritz in Paris, circa 1900.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/le-ritz-300x206.jpg)
![King Edward VII in a 1908 portrait.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/konig-edward-241x300.jpg)
![Marlene Dietrich in a photo from the 1920s.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/marlene-dietrich-210x300.jpg)
![Lyricist and composer of the global hit: Russian-American Irving Berlin.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Irving-Berlin-1-236x300.jpg)
![This is where the king of hoteliers spent his last years: in the psychiatric clinic at 22 Grepperstrasse in Küssnacht am Rigi.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/nervenheilanstalt-1-300x167.jpg)