The Beverly Hills Hotel

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The Beverly Hills Hotel

The southeast corner of The Beverly Hills Hotel
General information
Location 9641 Sunset Boulevard
Beverly Hills, California
Coordinates 34°4′53.17″N 118°24′49.29″W / 34.0814361°N 118.4136917°W / 34.0814361; -118.4136917
Opening May 12, 1912
Owner Dorchester Collection
Management Dorchester Collection
Design and construction
Architect Elmer Grey
Developer Margaret & Stanley Anderson
Other information
Number of rooms 204 guest rooms and suites, including 21 one-of-a-kind bungalows
Number of restaurants The Polo Lounge
The Cabana Café
The Fountain Coffee Room
Bar Nineteen 12
Parking Valet Parking
Website
www.dorchestercollection.com/en/beverly-hills/the-beverly-hills-hotel

The Beverly Hills Hotel, also called The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, is a hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California.[1]

History

It was opened on May 12, 1912, before there was even a city called Beverly Hills.[2] By 1914, Beverly Hills had attracted enough residents to incorporate as a city. Famous Hollywood directors, actors and actresses such as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino and Will Rogers soon built homes there, transforming bean fields surrounding The Beverly Hills Hotel into prime real estate.[3]

The original main building of The Beverly Hills Hotel was designed by Pasadena architect Elmer Grey, in the Mediterranean Revival style. Twenty-three separate bungalows are located in the gardens north of it. A New Wing was added to the east side of the main building in the 1940s. The extensive gardens of the grounds were designed by landscape architect Wilbur David Cook. The iconic signage and the addition were designed by Paul Williams.[citation needed] It was the first building in the greater area, leading to the creation of a surrounding city, and is often referred to, by the local population (and others such as cab drivers), simply as The Hotel.[4] Since the city's inception, the hotel has been a central meeting place for residents and business people, especially from Los Angeles's movie and television industries.[5]

The popularity with royalty and celebrities continued to escalate over the years. Guests included the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, John Wayne and Henry Fonda. Elizabeth Taylor's father had an art gallery in the lower level of the hotel. Howard Hughes lived at the hotel on and off for thirty years.[6] The hotel is also home to the Polo Lounge, and the exterior of the hotel was featured on the album cover art of the Eagles' 1976 LP "Hotel California".[7] Svend Petersen, the Danish-American pool manager at the hotel for forty-two years, became a Hotel Ambassador in 2002. He had notably opened up the pool after hours for The Beatles and taught Faye Dunaway to swim a freestyle crawl for Mommie Dearest. He was also known for warning Southern California newcomers in drastic and memorable language about the scorching sun.[citation needed]

On December 30, 1992, the hotel closed for a complete restoration. The project lasted two and a half years and the hotel reopened on June 3, 1995, with upgrades to furniture and fittings.[citation needed] In 2012, the hotel celebrated its 100-year anniversary and began to remodel the hotel's lobby, with the Polo Lounge, pool cabanas and Cabana Cafe, and guestrooms and suites to be renovated by 2014.[citation needed] The hotel was also named the first historic landmark in Beverly Hills on September 12, 2012.[8]

Ownership

The original owners were Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, who had been managing the Hollywood Hotel.[9]

From 1928 to 1932, the hotel was owned by the Van Noy Railway News and Hotel Company. Its strict resident owner from 1954 until his death in 1979 was former Detroit real estate magnate Ben L. Silberstein, who took it over from Hernando Courtright, later hotelier at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.[10] Some of the hotel's owners have been celebrities: Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, and currently (as noted below) the Sultan of Brunei.[citation needed]

Marvin H. Davis bought the Hotel for $54 million from Silberstein's sons-in-law Burt Slatkin and Ivan F. Boesky. Boesky had bought the 5% of stock that was outstanding for a reported fortune and decided to sell, despite Slatkin's desire to keep the hotel. Less than a year later, Davis sold the hotel to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah for $110 million. The hotel is managed and owned by the Dorchester Collection, organized in 1996 to manage the hotel interests of the Brunei Investment Agency. The west coast regional director for the Dorchester Collection oversees The Beverly Hills Hotel as well as Hotel Bel-Air.[citation needed]

Gallery

  • The Beverly Hills Hotel, overlooking Beverly Hills, 1921.

  • Original part of The Beverly Hills Hotel, front driveway and entrance, circa 1925

  • The east wing (called the New Wing) of The Beverly Hills Hotel as seen from Crescent Drive

  • The southwest exit side of the hotel as seen from Sunset Boulevard

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The" is part of the name, according to the Beverly Hills Hotel website.
  2. ↑ David Gebhard, An Architectural Guidebook to Los Ángeles, Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2003, p. 152
  3. ↑ Stuart, Sandra Lee (1978). The Pink Palace: Behind Closed Doors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Secaucus, N.J: L. Stuart. ISBN 0-8184-0246-6. 
  4. ↑ Stuart, Sandra Lee (1978). The Pink Palace: Behind Closed Doors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Secaucus, N.J: L. Stuart. ISBN 0-8184-0246-6. 
  5. ↑ Stuart, Sandra Lee (1978). The Pink Palace: Behind Closed Doors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Secaucus, N.J: L. Stuart. ISBN 0-8184-0246-6. 
  6. ↑ Stuart, Sandra Lee (1978). The Pink Palace: Behind Closed Doors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Secaucus, N.J: L. Stuart. ISBN 0-8184-0246-6. 
  7. ↑ Ochs, Micheael. 1000 Record Covers. Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-4085-8. 
  8. ↑ Eliza Fisher (27 June 2012). "Beverly Hills Hotel Is Historic Landmark: Iconic Hotel Named First Historic Landmark In Beverly Hills". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 13 January 2013. 
  9. ↑ Stuart, Sandra Lee (1978). The Pink Palace: Behind Closed Doors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Secaucus, N.J: L. Stuart. ISBN 0-8184-0246-6. 
  10. ↑ Stuart, Sandra Lee (1978). The Pink Palace: Behind Closed Doors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Secaucus, N.J: L. Stuart. ISBN 0-8184-0246-6. 

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