Hollywood Hideaways: Tales from the Chateau Marmont

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Estimated read time: 10 minutes

If you must get into trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont,” Columbia Pictures’ producer Harry Cohn once famously said. Welcome to this episode of On With The Show, where we dive into the glitz, glamour, and gossip of one of the entertainment world’s most iconic landmarks. Today, we’re checking into the legendary Chateau Marmont, the playground of the stars nestled in the heart of Los Angeles.

It’s persisted since the days of silent film, the golden age of hollywood, served as an air raid shelter during WW2, survived a dozen different owners over nearly as many decades, was at the center of counterculture cool in the 60s, and like a phoenix, survived decline and rebirth over the years in an improbable history. The hotel registrar includes a dazzling array of stars that have graced its storied halls over the last century. It is a place where the glamour of Hollywood became real, merging the dream world of the movies with reality.

“If you must get into trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont…”

From Dust to Dreams

Long before there was a “sunset strip” in Los Angeles, there was onions and agriculture, sagebrush and open land, and you were more likely to be seen hunting pheasants than wearing jewels and furs. Out in the proverbial middle of nowhere, the few buildings that did exist in this area at the time were either farm houses or some scattered mansions of the nouveau riche movie crowd. The road that Chateau Marmont would eventually sit on was in a section of unincorporated LA county known as “Sherman,” named for General Moses Sherman who built the LA trolley car system. This certainly was an unlikely place for a glamorous castle, but in 1926, shrewd defense attorney Fred Horowitz started exploring the area, looking for his next business venture. He was a man with a plan, and a vision that most would not fully grasp at first. Horowitz had never managed a property, let alone built one or financed one, but he was keenly aware of the explosive growth happening in the Los Angeles area. He was spot on. Between 1920 and 30, LA would double in population. And, with the upcoming 1932 Olympics scheduled to be held in Los Angeles, Horowitz correctly read the tea leaves and knew that his mansion would soon be in the middle of town, rather than the middle of nowhere. When surveying locations, Horowitz also pragmatically realized that since this location was in unincorporated Los Angeles county, he wouldn’t have to yet pay LA county taxes or follow building codes, but was still within walking distance of the trolley line. Still, building a luxury apartment building on a dirt road in what felt like the wilds of Los Angeles county was bold and unconventional. Horowitz chose the (real) gothic castle Chateau d’Amboise in the Loire valley in France as his inspiration, which had an impressive lineage of its own: The real castle in France was used as a playground by French kings, Mary Stuart of Scotland lived there for a time, and Leonardo daVinci was a frequent guest at the behest of his royal patrons. 

After recruiting some investors, including well known socialites and well heeled law school alums, ground was broken in April 1928. The Chateau and the street it is on were named for English film star Percy Marmont, a contemporary of silent era screen sirens Clara Bow and Ethel Barrymore. Already, the chateau was collecting bits of the stardust and polish of early Tinseltown.

On a cold January night in 1929, the castle on the hill opened to the public. The opening night party included original investors and select glitterati of the time. Chateau Marmont opened not as a hotel, but as apartment buildings, with rents so hefty that if you adjusted for inflation today, they would still be considered pricey. While the building exterior was unique and extravagant, the interiors seem to have lacked the polish and charm that it would later become known for. Lacking a cohesive design plan, furnishings included a mishmash of personal belongings from the investor’s own homes. Still, the Chateau was open for business! Then, that fall, came the stock market crash of 1929.

The Second Chapter

After only three years of ownership, lingering effects of the stock market crash and poor rental demand forced Horowitz to sell in 1932. Enter Vitagraph mogul Albert Smith. English born, and then New York based, Smith was fascinated by the early film world, including Thomas Edison’s projectors which were cutting edge technology at the time. Smith and his partner founded the fledgling film company Vitagraph and had a grand old time indulging their passion for the new industry. They produced one of the industry’s earliest Westerns, filmed Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders charging San Juan Hill, and launched the career of Florence Turner, known as “The Vitagraph Girl,” back before stars had enough leverage to receive billing under their own names. Vitagraph also launched the careers of Helen Hayes, Norma Talmadge, Rudolph Valentino, and the Chateau’s namesake, Percy Marmont. When it finally came time to sell Vitagraph, Smith used the profits to fund other passions, including purchasing the struggling Chateau Marmont. 

With the 1932 Olympics only months away, Smith realized transitioning the property to a hotel would be much more lucrative. He started with some sweeping changes, including hiring general manager Ann Little, a former actress who had been signed with Paramount and starred in Cecil B. deMille’s The Squaw Man. Together, they gave the interiors a complete overhaul, and acquired more elevated furniture at deep discounts due to the ongoing depression. Little had a flair for design, and she was adept at putting pieces together in interesting and sophisticated ways, which gave the Chateau its characteristic bespoke theme, where no two rooms were exactly alike. She also introduced room service, elevating the experience at the Chateau for the newfound hotel guests. A few years later, Smith would build the first set of bungalows on the property – discreet, private and stylish boudoirs that allowed Hollywood’s tastemakers an escape from prying eyes. Guests in the 30s therefore had the best of both worlds – the refined and elegant (and public) main chateau, or the exclusive, private bungalows just out of view. And the guests in the 30s were the starriest of the stars at the time: Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy) was a frequent visitor, Lloyd Bacon (director of 42nd Street) threw parties most weekends for all his Warner Bros cronies, and Hedy Lamarr, the screen siren billed as the most beautiful woman in the world made the Chateau Marmont her first stop when she landed in the states for her premiere contract with MGM.

The Sunset Strip Starts to Sizzle

Los Angeles had now grown since the Chateau Marmont broke ground, and Sunset Boulevard was really coming into its own. Bars, gambling joints, swanky restaurants and more began to take hold, with tantalizing names like La Boheme, Maxine’s, the Clover Club and The Colony. When Billy Wilkerson, publisher of the industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter, opened the restaurant Trocadero, his Tinseltown connections vaulted the Sunset Strip to a new level of sophistication and style, courting the era’s stars and industry insiders. At this same time, Schwabs Pharmacy opened, and it quickly became the place to be, where the average joe could rub shoulders at the soda fountain with Tinseltown elite. Hollywood and pop culture royalty like Charlie Chaplin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Marx Brothers, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo and more frequented Schwabs. The Sunset Strip was soon becoming the buzziest of places to see-and-be-seen, and the Chateau Marmont was right in the center of it all. 

The Hollywood Hideout

While the Sunset Strip may have been booming, the Chateau Marmont was developing quite the reputation for privacy, discretion and exclusivity. Still, the lore around the property grew with every glittering guest. The Chateau’s intimate lobby and lack of restaurant or public pool (at that time) made it feel more private than other hotels like the Roosevelt or the Beverly Hills Hotel. “If you want to be seen, go to the Beverly Hills Hotel. If you don’t want to be seen, go to the Chateau Marmont” was one famed endorsement.

The Chateau hosted a wide variety of Hollywood royalty who were in various stages of marital meltdown. The Chateau was not just a place to hide, it was a place to lick your wounds after marital spats or bitter divorces. Rita Hayworth, Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe all stayed at the Chateau Marmont in various stages of disintegrating relationships. Screen queen Bette Davis nearly burned the hotel down by falling asleep with a lit cigarette during a respite from her fourth husband. Hollywood legend Humphrey Bogart would come to escape his volatile relationship with Mayo Methot before he was married to Lauren Bacall. And box office royalty Vivian Leigh nursed her wounds after her divorce from Sir Laurence Olivier. Desi Arnaz would stay at the Chateau whenever he and wife Lucille Ball were fighting. And the original Platinum blonde bombshell Jean Harlow frequented the Chateau so often that she even had two suites made over in her trademark “Harlow white” for she and husband number three. Too bad that the conjoined suites appeared to be slept in separately. Marital meltdowns, indeed. 

A Place for Everyone

After a decade of ownership, second owner Albert Smith was tiring of the headaches of owning a bespoke hotel. Though he had had significant success with building the first set of bungalows and keeping hotel rooms full, he was ready to move on. Act 3 was about to begin for the Chateau. Enter stage right, Dr. Erwin Brettauer. Upon landing in America in the 1930s, Brettauer (with a doctorate in studying radioactive substances turned NY real estate mogul) got bit by the film industry bug when he was in LA with his wife/    actress Lore Lane. He bought the Chateau Marmont in 1942, and immediately set to work on breathing new life into the property. In addition to adding the swimming pool that would eventually become fabled in its own right, Brettauer purchased adjoining land and expanded the bungalows, hiring famed LA mid-century modernist architect Craig Ellwood. 

Having fled Europe, Brettauer had personally witnessed the rise of anti-semitism, and introduced an ethos of acceptance and tolerance that became a hallmark for Chateau Marmont at this time. Determined that his hotel would serve all, regardless of race, religion, sexuality and the like, Brettauer welcomed Black entertainers in a time when other hotels would not. The legendary Duke Ellington himself was the first African American welcomed as a guest at Chateau Marmont, followed by other luminaries including Miles Davis, Sidney Poitier, Quincy Jones, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt and Josephine Baker. 

And it wasn’t just royalty from the music and film industries. With its distinctly European architecture and air, the Chateau Marmont welcomed European royalty as well. Viscountess Thelma Furness also lived at the Chateau for a time while she was having a torrid affair with the Prince of Wales Edward VIII. Later, she would introduce him to her friend Wallis Simpson. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Hollywood’s Living Room

Chateau Marmont served many roles for Tinseltown’s luminaries.  Some lived as long term residents, and some stayed only a short time. Some were on their best behavior, and some…were not. Screen swashbuckler Errol Flynn was known to have gone into a drunken rampage in one of the famed bungalows. Elizabeth Taylor’s co-star and close friend Montgomery Clift holed up at Chateau Marmont following his tragic car accident that nearly killed him. 

Sometimes, the Chateau was a refuge, and sometimes it was a source of creative inspiration. Famous guests like Judy Garland, Duke Ellington and Van Morrison would play the piano in the lobby to entertain fellow guests and staff. And famed director Francis Ford Coppola would check in for long-term stays, using the suites and bungalows to get his writing done. The landmark movie Rebel Without a Cause was written, cast, and rehearsed at Chateau Marmont. And Sunset Boulevard director Billy Wilder was so enamored with the Chateau Marmont that he slept in the hotel bathroom antechamber during a Christmas time trip when the hotel was fully booked. Hollywood couldn’t get enough of the Chateau.

A Little Bit of Vegas

In the postwar years, the Sunset Strip started to attract another type of customer, including up and coming mobsters Mickey Cohen and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. They were regulars on the Sunset Strip, and were known to be flashy, audacious and attract a lot of attention. Siegel honed in on Billy Wilkerson’s plan to build a hotel casino in the middle of the Nevada desert, before Las Vegas became what it is now. In 1946, the Flamingo would open, and travel between LA and Las Vegas became commonplace. By the early 1950s, the Vegas strip would start to rival the Sunset Strip, and Vegas resorts would soon start to pay extravagant fees, luring entertainers away from LA out to Vegas. The most conspicuous iteration of this was right outside the Chateau Marmont, where in 1957 the “Sahara showgirl” was installed atop a billboard. At 40 feet tall, made of plastic molded in just the right curves, she embodied the excess and temptation of Vegas. In high passe on top of the lit billboard, she spun night and day, tipping her cowboy hat with one hand and in a barely-there outfit. Infuriated hotel guests complained and petitioned hotel management to require it to come down, yet as the billboard was on LA county property, with very little regulations, she was now a long-term resident of the neighborhood until the mid 1960s.

Changing Tastes

As times changed and Los Angeles evolved, other glamorous hotels popular with the industry started to close, and the Sunset Strip continued to change. In 1964, the famous bar and venue the Whisky A Go Go opened and became an overnight sensation, changing the face and vibe of the Sunset Strip. This change in entertainment tastes brought new clientele to the area and to the Chateau including Jim Morrison (who fell off the roof during some of his routine hijinks), Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and many more. Increased crackdown and regulation on the Sunset Strip came to a head in Nov 1966, when the ‘youthquake’ exploded and resulted in the “Sunset Strip riots” or the “hippie riots.” Bemused hotel guests watched the chaos from their balconies. 

The hotel changed hands again multiple times, fell into disrepair, and was finally declared as a historic-cultural monument by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage board. Sold yet again in the 1990s, new life was once again breathed into the property and after painstaking restoration and reinvention, Chateau Marmont was once again restored to its rightful level of glamour and cache.

Hallowed Halls

Thanks for joining me for today’s episode of On With The Show. One thing’s for sure: With all the famous guests to grace its hallowed halls, Chateau Marmont has long been at the nexus of the entertainment world.

Show Notes and Sources

“A Place Like No Other” by Town and Country

“Secrets of the Chateau Marmont” by Vanity Fair

“Castle on Sunset” by Shawn Levy