Five Hotels Hollywood Made Famous
28 February, 2018
- Words by
- Gilly Hopper
Los
Los
Angeles has been home to the Academy Awards since the first
ceremony was held on 16 May 1929 at the
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Eight Oscar trophies were handed out
that night, including one to Wings for Outstanding Picture. In the
following decades, numerous Best Picture winners have filmed in the
metropolis, but it wasn’t until the 77th Oscars in 2005 that a Los
Angeles-based
film – Clint Eastwood’s 2004 boxing drama Million Dollar Baby –
earned the top prize.
Despite La La Land’s slow rise to Oscar recognition, the city’s
hotels have played a starring role in the film industry, including
cameo appearances, press junkets and raucous after-parties. If only
the walls could talk.
hotel
The Beverly Hills Hotel
Steeped in Hollywood history for over a century, The Beverly
Hills Hotel has been a home to the stars and a backdrop for many
films. In 1957, the pool and cabana club were the setting for
Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall in Designing Woman; in 1973 the
“Pink Palace” made its way into The Way We Were with Barbara
Streisand and Robert Redford, and in 1975 was the location for
Shampoo starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn. It
was also at The Beverly Hills Hotel that Terry O’Neill photographed
Faye Dunaway resting poolside post-Oscar win for Vanity Fair in
1977. Three decades later, the hotel flashed across the screens in
Bewitched starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell and more recently
was featured in Saving Mr Banks, where a portion of the movie was
filmed at the front entrance of The Beverly Hills Hotel.
hotel
Hotel Bel Air
Hollywood legend Grace Kelly took up residence at Hotel Bel-Air
before her wedding and after winning an Oscar for The Country Girl.
More famously, in 1962 Marilyn Monroe posed for photographer Bert
Stern at the hotel for a Vogue photo shoot which resulted in
hundreds of images and a published book, The Last Sitting. Oprah
Winfrey has also broadcast her show from the hotel.
hotel
The Hollywood Roosevelt
hotel
The Beverly Wilshire Hotel
hotel
The Chateau Marmont
The landmark Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel was originally built in
1927 and was the location of the first Academy Awards ceremony in
1929. Marilyn Monroe, who lived in a room above the Roosevelt’s
pool for two years, is one of the countless luminaries who have
stayed at the property throughout its history. In Catch Me If You
Can, the hotel masquerades as the Tropicana Motel, where Tom Hanks
almost catches up with Leonardo DiCaprio. The hotel’s rear entrance
– which leads to its poolside lounge (named the Tropicana Bar) –
serves as the main entrance of the film’s motel.