Chateau Marmont
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox building Chateau Marmont is a historic hotel located at 8221 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. Completed in 1929, the hotel was designed by architects Arnold A. Weitzman and William Douglas Lee.<ref name="washington">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn It was modeled loosely after the Château d'Amboise, a former royal castle in France's Loire Valley.<ref name="thesundaytimes">Template:Cite news</ref>
The hotel is known as both a long- and short-term residence for celebrities<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="shabby" /><ref name="vanityfair" /><ref name="kitsch" /><ref name="ahometo" /> – historically "populated by people either on their way up or on their way down"<ref name="checking">Template:Cite news</ref> – as well as a home for New Yorkers in Hollywood.<ref name="years50">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="talesof" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The hotel complex has 63 rooms, suites, cottages, and 4 bungalows.<ref name="vanityfair" />
History
Design and construction
In 1926, Fred Horowitz,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a prominent Los Angeles attorney, chose the site at Marmont Lane and Sunset Boulevard to construct an apartment building. Horowitz had recently traveled to Europe for inspiration and returned to California with photos of an ancient château (the Château d'Amboise, where Leonardo da Vinci is buried) located along the Loire River. In 1927, Horowitz commissioned his brother-in-law, European-trained architect Arnold A. Weitzman, to design the seven-story, L-shaped building based on his photos from France. When deciding upon a name for the building, Chateau Sunset and Chateau Hollywood were rejected in favor of Chateau Marmont, after the small street running in front of the property.Template:Sfn
On February 1, 1929, Chateau Marmont opened its doors to the public as the newest residence of Hollywood. Local newspapers described the Chateau as "Los Angeles's newest, finest and most exclusive apartment house [...] superbly situated, close enough to active businesses to be accessible and far enough away to ensure quiet and privacy." For the inaugural reception, over 300 people passed through the site, including local press.Template:Sfn
Conversion to hotel
Due to the high rents and inability to keep tenants for long-term commitments during the Great Depression, Horowitz sold the apartment building in 1931 to Albert E. Smith, co-founder of Vitagraph Studios, for $750,000 in cash (Template:Inflation).<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Smith converted the building into a hotel, an investment which benefitted from the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The apartments became suites with kitchens and living rooms. The property was also refurbished with antiques from Depression-era estate sales.Template:Sfn During the 1930s, the hotel was managed by former silent film actress Ann Little.<ref name="csmonitor">Template:Cite web</ref>
During World War II, the hotel served as an air-raid shelter for residents in the surrounding area.<ref name="csmonitor" /> From about 1942 to 1963, the Chateau was owned by Erwin Brettauer,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a German banker who had funded films in Weimar Germany, and was noted for allowing Black guests, breaking the long-standing color line in Hollywood and Beverly Hills hotels.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Designed and constructed to be earthquake-proof, Chateau Marmont survived major earthquakes in 1933, 1952, 1971, 1987, and 1994 without sustaining any major structural damage. Nine Spanish cottages, as well as a swimming pool, were built next to the hotel in the 1930s and were acquired by the hotel in the 1940s. Craig Ellwood designed two of the four bungalows in 1956, after he completed Case Study Houses.<ref name="Architectural Digest">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Acquisition by Sarlot-Kantarjian
Business was good for the hotel,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> although by the 1960s, the building was in disrepair, and the owners attempted to sell it multiple times.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> News articles about the hotel from the 1960s and 1970s described it as an "elderly castle",<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a "dowdy hotel",<ref name="kitsch">Template:Cite news</ref> "rundown",<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and "shabby-genteel".<ref name="shabby">Template:Cite news</ref>
After sitting on the market for two years, the hotel was sold in 1975 to Raymond R. Sarlot and Karl Kantarjian of Sarlot-Kantarjian, a real estate development firm, for $1.1 million.<ref name="ahometo">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="talesof">Template:Cite news</ref> Sarlot-Kantarjian planned to expand the hotel with a new wing.<ref name="washington" /><ref name="wing">Template:Cite news</ref> They repaired and upgraded many elements of the hotel, but tried to stay true to the hotel's character and history.<ref name="ahometo" /> In 1976, after their acquisition and improvements began, the Chateau was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.<ref name="LAHCM_list">Template:Cite report</ref><ref name="ahometo" /> In The New York Times, writer Quentin Crisp praised the Chateau's "avoiding undue modernization and stayed deliberately in the romantic past."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Restoration and operation under Balazs
The hotel was acquired in 1990 by André Balazs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Balazs needed to modernize the hotel while also preserving Chateau Marmont's character. For the restoration, Balazs strove to create the illusion that the hotel had been untouched, notwithstanding renovations. The entire facility was re-carpeted, repainted, and the public spaces were upgraded.<ref name="Architectural Digest" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
To preserve the privacy of the hotel and bungalows, higher fences plus coverings were used to discourage the public from looking into the grounds.Template:Citation needed
On July 28, 2020, Chateau Marmont announced plans to convert to a members-only hotel, although at least one restaurant would remain open to the public.<ref name=Forbes-2020>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Vanity-Fair-2020>Template:Cite news</ref> These plans were withdrawn in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On September 16, 2020, The Hollywood Reporter published a report involving accounts from more than thirty former hotel employees that accused the hotel's management and Balazs of fomenting racial discrimination and sexual harassment practices at the hotel; they also accused Balazs of neglecting to provide them with adequate health insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic and suspected the hotel's members-only conversion as an attempt to prevent unionization among the hotel's employees.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite the denial of the allegations by the hotel management and Balazs, multiple employment discrimination lawsuits were filed against the hotel, with the hotel facing picketing from labor union UNITE HERE and boycotts from numerous celebrities; in support of the boycott, a night shoot at the hotel for Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos was canceled just hours before the intended start of production.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Dining
The hotel restaurant terrace features market-fresh California cuisine from chef Dean Yasharian.<ref name="Los Angeles Times">Template:Cite news</ref> The restaurant Bar Marmont closed in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In July 2018, Chateau Hanare, a new restaurant, opened in a former residential building on the eastern edge of the property.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Hollywood Reporter" /> Balazs had spent five years courting the restaurateur, Reika Alexander of New York City's EN Japanese Brasserie.<ref name="Hollywood Reporter">Template:Cite web</ref> It later closed without announcement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In popular culture
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Throughout the years, Chateau Marmont has gained recognition.<ref name="NYTimes.com">Template:Cite news</ref> Anthony Bourdain,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Johnny Depp, Tim Burton,<ref name="NYTimes.com" /> Death Grips,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> F. Scott Fitzgerald,<ref name="NYTimes.com" /> Anthony Kiedis,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Annie Leibovitz,<ref name="NYTimes.com" /> Courtney Love, Lana Del Rey,<ref name="thesundaytimes" /> Jay McInerney,<ref name="NYTimes.com" /> Helmut Newton,<ref name="NYTimes.com" /> Dorothy Parker,<ref name="NYTimes.com" /> Nicholas Ray,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Terry Richardson,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hunter S. Thompson,<ref name="NYTimes.com" /> and Bruce Weber,<ref name="NYTimes.com" /> among others, have produced work at the hotel. Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor married the band's hairdresser Tracey Wilson at the hotel in 1982.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On film
Director Sofia Coppola shot her film Somewhere at the hotel in 2010.<ref name="NYTimes.com" /> The hotel also appears in the Academy Award-winning films La La Land (2016)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and A Star Is Born (2018),<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> as well as The Night Walker (1964),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Strip (1951),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Myra Breckinridge (1970),<ref name="kitsch" /> Blume in Love (1973),<ref name="shabby" /> The Doors (1991),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Dangerous Game (1993),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Laurel Canyon (2003),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Maps to the Stars (2014).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The opening scene from The Canyons (2013) was shot at the now-closed Bar Marmont.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In literature
The Chateau is featured—often as a setting—in many books, including Martin Amis's Money (1984) (as the Vraimont),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Eve Babitz's Eve's Hollywood (1974)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Slow Days, Fast Company (1977),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> James Ellroy's The Big Nowhere (1988),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Dominick Dunne's An Inconvenient Woman (1990)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Another City, Not My Own (1997),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Charles Bukowski's Hollywood (1989),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Lee Child's Bad Luck and Trouble (2007),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Lauren Weisberger's Last Night at Chateau Marmont (2010),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Michael Connelly's The Drop (2011).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is also the office of fictional paparazzo Patrick Immleman in the Panel Syndicate web comic The Private Eye.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In music
The hotel has also been referred to in many songs, including the title track "Plastic Hearts" by Miley Cyrus from her 2020 album, "chateau" by blackbear from his 2017 album digital druglord,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Panic! At The Disco's "Dying in LA", the Grateful Dead's "West L.A. Fadeaway" from the album In the Dark,<ref name="Annotated Grateful Dead">Template:Cite web</ref> Lana Del Rey's<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 2011 single "Off to the Races" from Born to Die,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Father John Misty's "Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins)" from I Love You, Honeybear (2015),<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Angus & Julia Stone's 2017 single "Chateau" from Snow,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Lily Allen's 2017 single "Trigger Bang" from No Shame,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Joshua Radin's 2020 single "Chateau."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2017, Jarvis Cocker and Chilly Gonzales collaborated on a concept album of music inspired by the hotel, named Room 29, after one of the rooms with a piano.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The cover photos for various albums have been taken at the hotel, including Gram Parsons's GP and Death Grips's infamous No Love Deep Web, and many musicians have performed live at the hotel, including Miley Cyrus<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and Anne Pigalle.Template:Citation needed
In art and fashion
Actor James Franco created a replica of the Chateau's Bungalow 2 for his Rebel Without a Cause exhibit at MOCA in 2012.<ref name=LaTimes.com>Template:Cite news</ref> The hotel's stationery has featured in work by artists André,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gary Baseman,<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Robert Gober,<ref name="vanityfair" /> Martin Kippenberger,<ref name="vanityfair" /> and Claes Oldenburg,<ref name="vanityfair">Template:Cite magazine</ref> among others. The Chateau's branding was featured in a capsule collection from fashion label Gucci in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Deaths
John Belushi died of a drug overdose in Bungalow 3 on March 5, 1982.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Photographer Helmut Newton died on January 23, 2004, after suffering a heart attack and crashing his car when pulling out of the driveway.<ref name="NYTimes.com" /><ref name=obit>Template:Cite news</ref>
See also
References
- Notes
- Citations
- Works cited
- Further reading