THE Hilton Hotel welcomed its first paying guests, a Mr and Mrs Leslie Alfred Falkner from Australia, on April 16, 1963. A lavish ceremony was planned to mark the official opening on 13 June but had to be toned down due to a massive water shortage in Hong Kong. Taps had to be disconnected and guests were rationed to a bucket of water (with ladle) per day.
AS SYMBOLS of good luck, firecrackers were huge favourites in the early days. The longest string in Hong Kong's history was set off to welcome overseas VIPs including Conrad Hilton himself, and hung from the 26th floor to the driveway on Queen's Road Central. The crowd 'ah-ed' and 'wah-ed' during the 45 minute-long explosion but there was a slight technical hitch: the air-conditioning, which was still in its testing stage, managed to inhale the top eight or nine floors-worth of floating cracker paper.
The system eventually scattered it all over the 1,000 shrimp cocktails the kitchen staff had prepared for the banquet.
THE Hilton started life as The Hong Kong American Hotel and was built on land which previously housed a servicemen's club. It was reported at the time that the plot on which the largest hotel outside North America was to be built, cost its Texan owners US$2.5 million (then HK$14.25 million). On the first night 15 rooms were occupied by 20 guests.
THE Hilton laundry became the territory's largest commercial laundry, capable of processing 5,500 kg of washing a day. Each washing machine was capable of washing 225 kg at a time, about a year's load of washing for the average Chinese family of the day.
THE Den, which over the years underwent so many reincarnations (live music venue band to disco to Middle Eastern and Japanese restaurants) started life as the Opium Den. The name caused controversy at the time, prompting Time magazine to run a story about local pride being outraged. Founding general manager Ken Moss replied that the name did not condone the use of opium any more than Rome promoting the Coliseum as a tourist attraction condoned the slaughter of the early Christians. Nevertheless, it quickly became known simply as The Den, although it still resembled a luxurious 19th century opium den.