[taylor-gordon] in the 80s there was no hotel that compared to the helmsley palace. ...it's the fonz,inkler. you went there to be seen and mrs. helmsley was having breakfast there too. leona helmsley was the queen but not of a country. she was the queen of a hotel. of a real estate empire. she never felt that she was one of the people she considered the little people. that was where she came from and it was very important for her to be at the top of the game. the daughter of a hat maker had married her king and now he made her the ruler of his domain so she set about putting her personal stamp on every aspect of every property, no matter the cost or the consequences. [tovah feldshuh] leona was a brilliant balabusta, and that's the yiddish word for the executive of a house. she made sure that her 27 hotels operated at top drawer. she worked on those hotels, as she said, 25 hours a day, eight days a week. the palace was the jewel in her crown. it was her "hope diamond." to decorate her helmsley palace, she ran $2 million over budget but there were phones in the bathroom and there were n