Edith and Robert Scalise Celebrate 60 Year Anniversary with $23 Waldorf-Astoria Suite

Robert and Edith Scalise of Long Island celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for $23.10, the same price they paid in 1950.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on May 21 2010

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When Long Island couple Edith and Robert Scalise got married in 1950, they paid $23.10 for a night at the exclusive Waldorf-Astoria before heading off on their Bermuda honeymoon—quite a splurge, for those days. But the couple had sticker shock when they saw what the hotel’s rooms go for these days: the typical visitor pays between $600 and $800 for a stay at the Waldorf-Astoria these days.

But for their 60th anniversary on May 20th, the Scalises, now both 85, checked back into the famed New York City hotel after renewing their wedding vows at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in front of their friends, children, and grandchildren. They received a special anniversary rate: the hotel offered them the room for the same price they’d paid in 1950.

It was a wonderful way to cap off a beautiful day for the couple, who are still deeply in love after six decades of marriage. Robert had been smitten with Edith ever since they met at school when they were 12 years old, but their relationship didn’t become official until 10 years later, after Robert had returned from military service. Ever since then, they’ve been inseparable.

“It’s been an amazing journey,” Robert told the New York Daily News. “I married my childhood sweetheart, I always knew I loved her, I always knew I wanted her.”

“I guess we have kind of danced through life,” Edith said. “The secret is not to give up at the first fight.”

Filed under: General Interest,

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