Couple relives 1946 honeymoon at Drake

Fresh out of the Army, Arthur Reis did what he could to treat his new bride, Ardell: He checked into the Drake Hotel for their honeymoon. It was 1946. The cost: $7 a night.

Making reservations at the Drake recently to mark their 60th anniversary, Ardell presented the yellowed hotel receipt from 1946 -- the one that included a 40 cent charge for a long distance phone call and a room service tab of $3.73.

Amazed by the artifact, Drake officials, as a gift to the Cicero couple, decided to charge them the original rate: seven bucks a night.

"Since we had kept the receipt, they said they were going to honor us in this way," said Ardell Reis, now 81 but, according to her husband, still as vivacious and beautiful as the day they were wed.

Ardell and Arthur Reis of Cicero are marking their 60th anniversary with a stay at the Drake Hotel, where they spent their honeymoon in 1946. (KEITH HALE/ SUN-TIMES PHOTOS)

"We weren't thinking they would give us a room for $7," said Ardell. "I just wanted to show it to them because I thought they would find it interesting. They said that since I had been gracious enough to bring the receipt, they, in turn, would give us the room."

The couple met as teenagers at their church. One day, Arthur asked Ardell if she wanted to get some ice cream. "I told him I didn't have any money," Ardell recalled with a laugh. She was almost 16; he was almost 20.

A couple of years later, as he prepared to leave the Chicago area for Army boot camp, Arthur asked Ardell's father if he could give Ardell an engagement ring. "My father said, 'As long as he's leaving, OK,'" said Ardell.

No publicity stunt

They wrote each other almost every day for three and a half years while Arthur fought in World War II, including a stint in Europe.

Finally, he came home and they got hitched two days after Valentine's Day, 1946. In a splurge, after the wedding they took a cab from Cicero to the Drake at 140 E. Walton. Besides the Drake room service, they treated themselves to a movie at the Esquire Theater and a play, a comedy, at the Schubert.

After five days, they returned to Cicero and began a partnership that would produce two children and a million memories. For years, they worked together as florists.

While hotels are media-savvy operations, the cut-rate hotel room is no publicity stunt. The Drake deal came up after Ardell phoned the paper to talk about a recent story on a University of Chicago study on couples and satisfaction. Researchers found that pairs who put their partner's needs and wants over their own reported happier marriages.

That empathy and altruism is how Ardell explains her own six decades of marriage.

"It is not all a bed of roses. You have to give and take," she said. "We watch over each other and our faith is strong -- in God and in each other. You can't have it any other way."

Added Arthur: "We've gone through a lot together -- sickness, operations. She's a very giving person."

He's not sure how they'll spend next weekend at the Drake. At their age -- he's 85 -- it'll depend on the weather, he said.

Loyal to Chicagoans

Arthur Reis said he picked the Drake in 1946 because it "was a top hotel -- it still is."

This is a copy of the Reis' bill from their stay at the Drake Hotel in 1946. Their room cost $7 a day.

The Drake, overlooking Lake Michigan, opened in 1920 and has hosted Winston Churchill and Prince Charles. Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe reportedly etched their initials into the wooden bar of the Cape Cod Room.

Today's top-end rates can run $1,000 a night. Drake director of operations Martin Wormull said the hotel occasionally -- and quietly -- treats some guests by rolling back the clock on the bill. "The people of Chicago have been loyal to the Drake, and we like to be loyal to them," Wormull said.