European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 23, 1963, Darmstadt, Hesse By Wallace Beenes a Madrid Bureau where of i go the travel Wiur instill i pay my own Way the living room off the Fielding Home Boom a Well stocked bar. If you Hod travelled More than n Mil lion Miles and visited 134 countries and could lev in luxury wherever you pleased where would you Hong your hat und Call it Home one of the few people who rim answer this question is Tom per Fielding who with his wife. Nancy compile the Book that has become the modern Baedeker Fielding s travel guide to the spot they selected for Al Len Fielding is the Beautiful Tormentor Roc on the Northern coast of Mallorca. Across the Island from pol a Tho principal City. From the Terrace of their Magn Lyl cent split level Home the fled legs look out on a Blanket of Green Forest and Blue Lea that no travel poster could top. It has everything for us Fielding explained. There Are seven airlines serving the Island and we con be anywhere in Europe within n few hours. But the most important thing is the peace and quiet this is where we really get Down to work and fight the to insure that interruptions will be held to n minimum the Field Ings do not have a Telephone and unexpected guests Are Likely to be offered a drink and sent on their Way by a Secretary without catching sight of their Busy Host and hostess barricaded inside their respective studies. We had seven groups of unexpected visitors one Day he explained. If we took time out to Sny hello the entire any would be but when the Fielding do Roll out the red carpet the hospitality is almost Over whelming. Find the guests Are offered a Choice from what is undoubtedly the most ext move private bar in existence. We have guests from All Over the world and we like to offer them something special either from their area or elsewhere Fielding explained. When it comes Lime to break bread at the Fielding table the guest can rest assured that a meal will be Cath coming worthy of All the crossed knives and Forks in the guide Michel in one of the few formidable competitors of the Book that Mode it All possible. A have about 300 cookbooks explained Nancy i enjoy getting into the Kitchen myself but our Spanish Cook does most of the after the meal comes a Choice from a wide variety of liqueurs and for the men a selection from Fielding s heroic Stock of Fine cigars. These influences along with a comfortable chair on the Sun baked Ter race make for a memorable Day. The trouble is Fielding pointed out we Only get to live Here about six months of the their 17-year-old son Dodge is even less fortunate he attends a boarding school in Massachusetts. The remainder of the year the feel Dongi spend going Forth to do Battle with the hotels restaurants and night clubs of Europe from Spain to Scandinavia. The plan of a tick runs something Tike this we Divide up the countries and switch each year. Wancy will take one route and i the other. Then we meet every few weeks to get he explained. Nancy also puts out a shopping guide Independent of the main Book. In the process they spend some $40,000 and gather enough material so that at least 100.000 words of the guide will be changed for the annual revision. The slim volume that started out in 1948 has now fleshed out to some 1.200 pages. No other travel Book offers so much current in Fielding maintains. The guide is the Long Range result of a Chance assignment Fielding received Dur ing the Early Days of world War ii. A Princeton educated psychology major Kkt a Dong was an artillery officer stationed it it. Bragg . When he was assigned to write a Small indoctrination Booklet for new arrival. Previously he Hud sold Arti cles to the Reader s digest. The Booklet was so Welt re Rived thut thousands were eventually Dindri Butch during Jimi Fielding met literary n go til Nancy Parker in new York and the y or Rcd tin following year. Alter three Nuet miss i Dilt a. Fyk tiling was later us tit Gnu d to the of face of str tragic services and Servi d the lines in yugoslav la. On leaving the service he held thy rank of major. After the War. He started travelling in Europe doing stories for the digest and saturday evening Post. Nancy suggested the stars and stripes doing the guide As n left handed thing during my travels Lor the magazines he said. We cum to the conclusion that none of the travel Hooks gave you the 9 things you really needed to so it began but the Fielding chose to revolutionize the entire approach to travel guides. Instead of listing the monuments and cultural Points of interest the Field Ings zeroed in on the restaurants hotel and Gin Mills. Along with thumping the mattresses and fighting the Battle of the bulge that re sults from eating at Fine restaurants every Day the fled legs keep an Eagle Eye out for the cd Selers out to clip the innocents abroad. We re currently fighting our 32nd Law suit he explained. We Only lost one. And that Wai because 1 was new at the game. I wrote that certain group of taxi Drivers were the biggest Crooks in the world. What x should have said was in my opinion they Are the biggest Crooks in the world the fled legs never attempt to pose is anything but american tourists. They feel this is the Only Way Oljey can be alerted to the problems their countrymen will face. However they also travel first class All the Way which leads some critics of the guide to maintain they Don t hit the Road trav eled by the overage tourist we try to broaden the guide As much As possible but some thing can t be changed. Staying in a a lofty hotel room will give you a Bod impression of everything you see and do in a a Ltd Fielding maintains. The Harpoon that really hits a nerve with Fielding is Tho recurrent report that he of reloads his Way around the circuit paying off with favourable mention in the guide. We insist on paying fall rates on every thing and gifts Are returned he said. To avoid special treatment the fled legs make it a practice to go out for dinner with a group of friends the reservation being made in another name. They usually order the specially of the House and Exchange tastes of the other plates on the table. What i would really like to have is a coat with a rubber lining so 1 could dump All the food x Don t want Nancy said wistfully. Since the passport makes it almost impossible to get into a hotel undetected the fled legs have to resort to other tactics. You learn to look behind the Flowers and extra she explained. On one famed hotel in Paris to make sure he would get an objective look he Hud a Friend Register then slipped in a Side Entrance and took Over for five Days. The deception resulted in m favourable re port for the hotel. The Field Ings also depend upon friends and readers of the guide to help them keep a Tab on the places of interest. If we get a series of letters pushing some place we know it is an artificial Campaign he explained. When we get several letters complaining about a place. It usually Means something is really wrong not Only do the Fieldings. With the help of a Secretary and editorial assistant keep a Cross file on such information but even conversations Are monitored. If a guest mentions a new spot we write it Down Nancy explained. When asked what the most important thing a tourist should bring to Europe Fielding advised. Outside of Money. 1 would say while he is Given to sweeping generalizations about the Dif Ferent Peoples of Europe and other facets of life abroad he is firmly convinced that nothing justifies a bad show of manners. Tourists with tales of trials and tribulations abroad can find a sympathetic Audi ence in the Fielding although they have suffered in ways the average innocent would never encounter. I remember one time we were the guests it a German restaurant organization where they fluffed m with every supposed Dell ency in that part of the country. I went Back to the hotel several hours later and was silk. Lnu a i got to feeling better and suggested to Nancy unit we put the Book away and just go out and enjoy some Good sausage brer and what have went to u Nice spot and placed our order but it so happened one of the officials we had met earlier in the any owned the place. He spotted us and came Over saying that we could t have just Plain sausage and Beer in his place so we had to eat the same stuff All Over fog 13
