{"id":4952,"date":"2026-08-25T07:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T07:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=4952"},"modified":"2026-09-01T21:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T21:23:18","slug":"the-little-detail-that-wags-the-big-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=4952","title":{"rendered":"The Little Detail that Wags the Big Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Steve Rockwell<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1940 Murray Burnett, co-wrote Everybody Comes to Rick’s<\/em> with Joan Alison. The play, though not produced, served as a model for Rick’s Caf\u00e9 in the story that became Casablanca<\/em>. Rick’s Caf\u00e9 had not been a complete screenwriter invention. A few years prior, Burnett and his wife had stumbled on a caf\u00e9 in the south of France. The experience stayed with them. Its mixture of refugees, expatriates, and assorted adventurers, mingling in the shadow of an impending war, had made the moment unforgettable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Humphrey
Humphrey Bogart<\/strong> and Dooley Wilson<\/strong>, as Sam, the pianist and singer at Rick’s Caf\u00e9 Am\u00e9ricain in Casablanca<\/em> (1942)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When released in 1942, Casablanca<\/em> became one of the most influential films in Hollywood history. Somehow, popular entertainment, political drama, and romance, molded into something durable that withstood the test of time. Casablanca<\/em> became art without announcing itself as “art.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A signature cocktail at Hotel Eggers in Gothenburg, Sweden at its historic American Bar, dating from 1884<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

La Belle Aurore, the caf\u00e9 that Burnett experienced in 1938 in the south of France, may have been just one of many potential models for Rick’s Caf\u00e9. It has been suggested that the American Bar at Hotel Eggers in Gothenburg, Sweden, might also have fit the bill. The hotel itself was built in 1859, making it one of the oldest continuously-operating hotels in Europe. Their American Bar was completed in 1884, predating the fictional Rick’s Caf\u00e9 Am\u00e9ricain of Casablanca<\/em> by over 60 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Conrad
Conrad Veidt<\/strong> plays Major Heinrich Strasser, the senior German officer sent to Casablanca in Casablanca<\/em>, against Claude Rains<\/strong>‘s Captain Renault to his right<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1942, Hotel Eggers hosted a similar cast of wartime characters. Already, by the 1890s, besides its American Bar and restaurant, they had the Moriska Caf\u00e9 \u2013 Moorish, Moroccan atmosphere of their own. Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine is neither the conventional romantic hero nor the traditional action hero. Though his shell of tough guy cynicism eventually breaks, his public declaration of “neutrality” is clear, \u201cI stick my neck out for nobody.\u201d At Hotel Eggers the “tough guy” had been Ebba Eggers. In 1942 at her husband Axel’s passing, she went from liquor cashier at the American Bar to full operational management and owner. By reputation, she ran the “velvet” establishment with an iron hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neutrality at Eggers was strictly enforced by the Swedish Secret Service. While a British naval attach\u00e9 might be sipping a dry martini at one counter, a Nazi trade delegate might be sitting in the adjacent velvet booth. At Rick’s Caf\u00e9, these bristling edges would have been smoothed by Sam’s piano and song, anchoring the room emotionally. Played by Dooley Wilson, he is one of the film’s most important supporting characters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jussi
Jussi Bj\u00f6rling (1911\u20131960)<\/strong>, Sweden’s great tenor. H\u00f4tel Eggers in Gothenburg was one of his regular hotels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eggers had an equally legendary musical connection, only real. Opera tenor Jussi Bj\u00f6rling made the American Bar at Eggers his personal playground. While spies were mapping out shipping lanes in the corners, Bj\u00f6rling was unwinding at the bar, holding court with admirers. He had made this his sanctuary away from an exhausting global performance schedule. Because of its superb acoustics, it had to be Room 136, on the first floor. With its balcony overlooking Drottningtorget, the door ajar, he loved to practice the scales. Bj\u00f6rling had become an international star after performances in Vienna. The Metropolitan Opera in New York became his principal international stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depending on its use, something no larger than the olive in a martini, became a focal point in the war. Gothenburg SKF was the world’s leading manufacture of these parts, and Hotel Eggers sat just 78 steps from the Gothenburg Central Station. Its location was ideal for surveillance. The intelligence battleground centred on a component vital to both the Nazi Luftwaffe and and Allied aircraft production \u2013 ball bearings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gay
Gay Viking<\/em> was particularly successful, completing several runs carrying Swedish SKF ball bearings and other strategic materials back to Britain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Code-named by MI6 as Operation Bridford, the brains behind it had been George Binney. Its objective was simple \u2013 bring ball bearings, and other strategic materials to Britain. Binney modified a fleet of high-speed Motor Gun Boats, and disguised them as civilian merchant vessels. Gay Viking<\/em> was the first to pierce the German blockade, supplying 40 tons of high-grade ball bearings and specialized machine tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Casablanca
Casablanca<\/strong> was directed by Michael Curtiz and starred Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ebba’s tenure at Hotel Eggers, however, turned out to be short-lived. On February 12, 1948, she was a passenger aboard the Danish Air Lines DC-3 Sejr Viking, flying from Copenhagen to Z\u00fcrich with a planned stop at Frankfurt. The aircraft crashed near Ulrichstein, Germany. Ebba was among those killed. Her death brought the Eggers family era of the hotel to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The last scene in Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart as Rick at the airport with Ilsa, the Ingrid Bergman character having boarded her flight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just three years after the tragedy in 1951, our family arrived in Gothenburg, Sweden. Travelling as we had by rail from Stockholm, in just 78 steps we had a temporary home in a white hotel in the shape of a square with a courtyard. As a five-year-old by the window, after endless hours facing the interior, this particular feature of Hotel Eggers as a designed space, etched into my mind permanently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Steve
Steve Rockwell, 1996, <\/em>Meditations on Space (Galerie Jamileh Weber, Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland)<\/strong>, acrylic on masonite, 32 x 32 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Later in life, these early reflections laid the groundwork for a series of fabricated panels. Painted white and modelled after the hotel structure, each 32 x 32 inch square had an 1\/8″ cut to define a border and a 24 x 24 inch interior “courtyard.” Inspired by 175 visits to gallery spaces in Europe and North America, the “meditations” had begun at the Bruno Bischofberger Gallery in Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland. My project ended in Los Angeles, California at the Zero One Gallery in 1997. The Z\u00fcrich business that Ebba Eggers had intended in 1948 had been left for future fulfillment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Steve Rockwell In 1940 Murray Burnett, co-wrote Everybody Comes to Rick’s with Joan Alison. The play, though not produced, served as a model for Rick’s Caf\u00e9 in the story that became Casablanca. Rick’s Caf\u00e9 had not been a complete screenwriter invention. A few years prior, Burnett and his wife had stumbled on a caf\u00e9 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Little Detail that Wags the Big Picture”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4952"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5019,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952\/revisions\/5019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}