The Chateau Marmont Hotel in West Hollywood will sadly always be remembered as the place where Saturday Live comedian John Belushi died of a drug overdose. Fortunately, Chateau Marmont is also known as an opulent gateway for the rich and famous in the heart of the bustling and legendary Sun Strip.
Schwab’s Drugstore, Brown Derby restaurant, Trocadero and Mocambo are all closed at night. The Chateau Marmont Hotel is one of the few remnants left from Hollywood’s golden age in the 1930s. In fact, the Castle is still a hot spot for the rich and famous, thanks to boutique hotelier Andre Belazs acquiring the property in 1991. Thankfully renovated Hortel does not lose its historic beauty and character. His services have been upgraded by adding actually room service (yes, there is never a room service in Castle Marmont) and a small restaurant specializing in “French-California cuisine.”
When Château Marmont was built in 1927, it was intended to be an upscale apartment building, modeled after the Château d’Ambroise, a castle in France Loire Valley Valley where Leonardo DaVinci spent the last years of his life. Back in the thirties, Marmont Castle was turned into a hotel only because the high rents could not attract enough residents during the depression.
Since the Chateau Marmont was originally built as an apartment building, this worked to its advantage in that each room has the feel of an apartment, as opposed to the sterile feel of a typical hotel room. Another benefit: the structure of the building, unique in its time, was designed to be earthquake-proof, and indeed survived five major Southern California earthquakes earthquakes, including the devastating 1994 Northridge earthquake. These attributes, along with their tales of Hollywood glory and debauchery, have made the Marmont Castle a home from home for so many celebrities, who check in for months at a time.
According to the Hotel’s own release, “Chateau Marmont is the kind of place where you can avoid leaving your room for weeks on end and no one will think anything of it.” In the privacy of the Castle, it presents itself as a physical location, its inhabitants being able to go around all the public places to their cars. And there are “green” views from every direction, fortunately wrapped up in the Hotel’s proximity to the Sunset Strip.
Actor Robert DeNiro lived in the Castle for two years. Boris Karloff lived here for five years. In the fifties, the billionaire Howard Hughes occupied the penthouse, bringing a succession of ladies here. In the forties, Columbia Studios head Harry Cohn urged his tough male stars, such as William Holden and Glenn Ford, “If If you are going to get into trouble, do it at Castle Marmont.
Director Oliver Stone shot part of the movie “The Gate” in the castle, Jim Morrison replaced the break from the roof of his bungalow. Members of the rock group Led Zeppelin once rode through the hotel lobby. Screenplay written by William Goldman here “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” here. James Dean climbed through the window of director Nicholas Ray’s audition to audition for “Rebel Without a Cause.”
The hotel consists of fifty rooms and suites, four bungalows and nine cottages. Room rates start at $199 a night for a single room.
Address: 8221 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood 90046
Phone: (323) 656-1010
Sources:
http://www.andrebalazsproperties.com/pressarticles/marmont-independent_199405.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chateau_Marmont
http://www.andrebalazsproperties.com/pressarticles/marmont-independent_199405.html
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,312166,00.html
“It set the stage perfectly for fantasy,” A.M. Homes, Financial Times, URL: (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d73d0ea0-65a4-11db-a4fc-0000779e2340.html)
