http://www.thestar.com/Travel/article/251055

PHOTO COURTESY OF FAIRMONT HOTELS & RESORTS

The Scottish castle-style mountain resort appears to be in the middle of nowhere, and that's made it a favoured stop for a long list of stars and celebrities.

BANFF, ALTA.–He's worked there for several decades and has seen kings and queens, presidents and movie stars parade through the doors of the storied Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.

Guest relations manager Dave Moberg has juicy stories about many of them and is happy to share.

One of his favourites is about the man he affectionally calls "my old buddy" – actor Lee Marvin.

Marvin came to town to shoot the 1981 movie Death Hunt. And Moberg was there to greet him at the front of the hotel.

"Can I escort you to your room?" he asked Marvin.

"Hell no," came the reply. "Take me to the bar."

Then there was the time in the early 1950s when Marilyn Monroe twisted her ankle while filming River of No Return.

"The bellmen would flip a coin to see who would be the lucky one to push her around in her wheelchair," Moberg says.

Toronto-based Fairmont – the largest luxury hotel management company in North America – is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The original San Francisco Fairmont opened in 1907.

Banff Springs is older, built by Canadian Pacific in 1888 to take advantage of the hot springs discovered by railway workers five years earlier.

Set above a bend in the Bow River, this majestic mountain resort was originally a four-storey wooden building with 250 rooms, starting at $3.50 a night, including meals.

The central "Scottish castle" portion was constructed in 1913 and the complex of buildings we know today was completed in 1928.

The famous photos are somewhat deceptive. The resort appears to be in the middle of nowhere, rising up from the trees that surround it. In fact it is on the edge of town, although the wilderness, says Moberg, "is only 100 yards away."

There are 770 rooms, 12 eateries, four lounges, a spa, tennis courts and a 27-hole golf course. Extensive renovations have taken place over the last decade – it became a Fairmont property in 1999, when Canadian Pacific Hotels acquired Fairmont Hotels.

"Over the years it has never been as beautiful as it is now and it is well utilized," says Moberg, who has worked there for 45 years and is the hotel's longest-serving employee and resident historian.

He began as a printer, putting out daily menus, then went into housekeeping and guest services, working as doorman and bellman. He worked his way up to superintendent of services.

"I actually started here when the company believed in child labour and the scenery was part of my salary," Moberg jokes.

The hotel was not in particularly good shape at the time.

"These railroad hotels were tired and in disrepair and our parents and grandparents didn't want to stay at them, they wanted stay at these new motor hotels called Howard Johnson and Holiday Inn."

The turnaround was close at hand, however. The opening of the Rogers Pass in British Columbia cut travel time from the West Coast from two days to one. Skiing had taken off as a winter sport and the Banff Springs became a year-round resort in 1969.

Famous employees include filmmaker Norman Jewison, who worked at the hotel in the 1950s (and helped produce a revue that satirized management) and Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy ("he was a doorman.")

Moberg reels off the names of politicians who have stayed over the years – almost every Canadian Prime Minister, Mikhail Gorbachev, Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, King Hussein of Jordon. Robert Kennedy was here in 1966. Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was a regular visitor.

"I am a Conservative but Trudeau had presence, a real charisma," Moberg acknowledges. "I used to wait outside his door with a single flower on a platter."

Speaking of presences, the hotel has several ghosts, although Moberg admits to being a skeptic.

One is the so-called dancing bride, who was ascending a staircase to join the wedding party when she tripped and fell to her death.

"Guests and staff have sworn they have seen her ghostly apparition, dancing the wedding waltz that death denied her," Moberg says with not a little relish.

Then there's Sam, the former bellman, who swore he would come back to haunt the place. Shortly after his death, a mysterious bellman fitting Sam's description and dressed in an old-style uniform, suddenly arrived to rescue two elderly ladies who were locked out of their room.

"Dave will come back and haunt us too," jokes general manager David Roberts.

In the meantime, Moberg has yet more stories.

Like the time he was escorting Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas to a convention centre.

"I had the pleasure of meeting your father and Sophia Loren," he told Douglas. "Dave, dad does get around," Douglas replied.

Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Williams, Meg Ryan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, sporting icons such as Wayne Gretzky, Jack Nicklaus and John Daley – the names roll on and on.

Then he pauses, turning serious.

"You can drop names until the cows come home but it is really all about the individual guests."

"One of the biggest thrills is a happy guest, someone for whom we have gone above and beyond. People dream of coming here and the overall charm, coupled with the modern convenience, is something they remember with great fondness."