Jack discovers the Overlook scrapbook

On November 1, while his wife Wendy and son Danny are hiking, Jack Torrance goes down to the Overlook Hotel's basement to check the boiler pressure. On impulse, he takes a flashlight and begins exploring the vast piles of old papers, invoices, and newspapers that have accumulated there over decades. The basement is a repository of the hotel's entire history, with rotting cardboard boxes spilling yellowed flimsies and bundles of newspapers tied with hayrope. Jack is fascinated by the commonplace sense of history, finding gaps in the records that correspond to periods when the hotel was closed. He discovers that the Overlook's spectacular location should have guaranteed its success, yet it has changed hands repeatedly since its construction in 1907-1909 by Robert Townley Watson, the grandfather of the current maintenance man.

The Scrapbook and Its Contents

Standing beneath a cobwebby light, Jack notices a thick scrapbook with white leather covers, its pages bound with two hanks of gold string tied in gaudy bows, balanced atop a pile of boxes. He takes it down and blows off the dust. Inside, a card flutters out: an invitation from Horace M. Derwent to a masked ball celebrating the grand opening of the Overlook Hotel on August 29, 1945. The invitation depicts the hotel with every window alight and Japanese lanterns decorating the lawn. Jack is captivated by the image of the richest men in America and their women in tuxedos and evening gowns, the clink of glasses, and the pop of champagne corks. Turning the pages, he finds newspaper clippings detailing Derwent's ownership, including a 1947 feature article calling the Overlook a "showplace of the world." Derwent, a mysterious California millionaire with rumored ties to bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling, had sunk over a million dollars into the hotel. Jack skims an article about Derwent's rise from poverty to become a wealthy inventor and entrepreneur, noting his involvement with Top Mark Studios and his reputation as perhaps the richest man in the world. Yet Derwent could not make a success of the Overlook, selling out in 1952.

The Hotel's Darker History

The scrapbook reveals a succession of failed ownerships: a California group, a Colorado group that went bankrupt amid corruption charges, and a period of decay. In 1961, four writers leased the hotel as a writers' school, but one student fell to his death from a third-floor window. The most damning clippings detail the hotel's use as a Mafia key club in the 1960s. A 1964 article by muckraker Josh Brannigar lists underworld figures who visited, including Charles "Baby Charlie" Battaglia, Richard Scarne, Peter Zeiss, and Vittorio Gienelli, known as "Vito the Chopper." Jack reads that Gienelli was shot dead in the Presidential Suite in a gangland-style execution in June 1966, along with two bodyguards. Below the clipping, someone has written in ball-point pen: "They took his balls along with them." Jack stares at this for a long time, feeling cold. The scrapbook also documents the hotel's subsequent use as a brothel run by Derwent's ex-wife, Sylvia Hunter, where a U.S. senator died of a heart attack while wearing women's clothing. Jack realizes that the Overlook's history is far more sordid than Ullman had led him to believe.

Consequences and Aftermath

Jack is deeply affected by the discovery. He feels the weight of the Overlook bearing down on him, and the scrapbook ignites a passionate desire to write a book about the hotel's history. He begins to see the hotel as an index of the post-World War II American character. When Wendy calls him from the stairs, he hides the scrapbook under a pile of bills, feeling guilty, as if he had been drinking secretly. His mouth is bleeding from constant rubbing. The discovery marks a turning point: Jack's obsession with the hotel deepens, and he becomes increasingly alienated from his family. He later calls Ullman to confront him about the hotel's past, leading to a heated argument that nearly costs him his job. The scrapbook becomes a symbol of the hotel's malevolent power, drawing Jack into its orbit and setting him on a path toward destruction.