Fred Astaire’s dance performance to the song ‘Puttin' on the Ritz’ in 1946. vimeo.com

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.

Michael van Orsouw

Michael van Orsouw has a PhD in history and is a performance poet and author. He regularly publishes historical books.

Website: geschichte-texte.ch

What do Robbie Williams, Fred Astaire, the Leningrad Cowboys, Ella Fitzgerald and Neil Diamond have in common? They have all sung the hit ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’, or cover versions of it. But what many people don’t know is that the title of the jazz tune has Swiss origins – ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ means getting glammed up and refers to the legendary reputation of the Ritz hotels, which were founded by Swiss César Ritz.

**César Ritz in 1897: he managed a chain of around a dozen hotels – until he suffered a breakdown.** Wikimedia

As the hit song goes:

“Have you seen the well-to-do
Up and down Park Avenue?
(…)
If you're blue, and you don't know
Where to go to, why don't you go
Where fashion sits?
Puttin' on the Ritz.”

It calls on the downcast listener to put on their finery and hit the town:

“Different types who wear a day coat
Pants with stripes, and cut away coat
Perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz.”

The song is also empowering:

“You'll declare it's simply topping
To be there and hear them swapping
Smart titbits
Puttin' on the Ritz.”

The song was written and composed by Russian-American musician and lyricist Irving Berlin (1888–1989) in 1927. He released it two years later, and it was made famous one year on in 1930 by the film of the same name. The catchphrase ‘put on the ritz’ has a long history and one that can be traced back to Switzerland. To the Valais to be precise.

Clip from the 1930 film. YouTube

César was born in 1850 in the village of Niederwald as the youngest of 13 in a family of mountain farmers. He was thrown out of school due to laziness, and took the typical career path from shoe cleaner to bellboy to waiter. He worked his way up to hotel director and eventually managed hotels in Lucerne, London, Cannes, Monte Carlo, Aix-les-Bains, Rome, Biarritz and Frankfurt am Main. In 1898 he opened the first grand hotel bearing his name on Paris’s swish Place Vendôme. Le Ritz became a byword for glamour and opulence and one of the best and most famous hotels in the world. At the time, the Ritz was the world’s first hotel to offer heating, baths and – in the so-called ‘gentlemen’s suites’ (!) – a telephone. The business was so successful that César Ritz soon opened luxury hotels in a dozen big cities. They all bore his name.

**Hotel Ritz in Paris, circa 1900.** Wikimedia

Even English King Edward VII was a regular. He called César Ritz “the king of hoteliers and the hotelier of kings”, which has since become an oft-quoted saying. Subsequent guests at the Ritz included the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich and even Marcel Proust, whose literary characters were inspired by his stay at the hotel. And Ernest Hemingway was such a loyal and hard-drinking patron of the hotel bar in Paris that it still bears his name to this day.

King Edward VII in a 1908 portrait. — **King Edward VII was a fan of César Ritz.** Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021

**Marlene Dietrich in a photo from the 1920s.** Wikimedia

Musician Irving Berlin had this ritzy glamour in mind when he wrote the song ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’. At the same time, the song’s namesake could well have used some cheering up. Because Ritz worked so hard managing all his hotels himself that in 1903 at the age of 53 he suffered a breakdown that would put an abrupt end to his glittering career. The last time he appeared in public was in 1905. The following year, he was permanently institutionalised. Nowadays, he would be diagnosed with chronic burnout.

**Lyricist and composer of the global hit: Russian-American Irving Berlin.** Wikimedia

Initially, Ritz was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Lausanne, and then to the small private clinic of Dr Gottfried Egli in Küssnacht am Rigi. Ritz, the hotelier of royals and high society, suffered from severe depression, from which he never recovered until his death in 1918. He was so deeply sad and desolate that the call to ‘put on the ritz’ would have been completely inconceivable for Ritz in his later years. Considering the sad end to the hotelier’s own life. there is a cruel irony in the fact that he inspired the adjective ‘ritzy’ – meaning fancy or stylish.