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A History of The Beverly Hills Hotel Stars, Style and Stupendous Deals
"From seven to eleven, millions of dollars are committed and are risked. Deals are made, schemes are hatched, plans are laid." Garson Kanin, author of Hollywood and other books, commenting on breakfast in The Polo Lounge.
On May 12, 1912, Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, opened The Beverly Hills Hotel. After unsuccessful attempts had been made to drill for oil, water was found. With that discovery, Burton Green formed the Rodeo Land and Water Company. He announced plans to build a city with large lots of curved, tree-lined streets. But Green needed a special attraction to set his city above all the other housing developments sprouting up around Southern California at the turn of the century.
A grand hotel was envisioned, and Green persuaded the Andersons of Hollywood Hotel fame to come and build their dream. Against all advice, they left their secure surroundings in Hollywood and came to the undeveloped area that was later to become the city of Beverly Hills, literally built around the new hotel.
In 1914, Beverly Hills had attracted enough residents to become incorporated as a city. Beverly Hills had started to become one of the world's
toniest
neighborhoods in 1920 when Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks built their country home in the nearby hills. Many silver-screen stars also built their homes there, transforming the bean fields surrounding The Beverly Hills Hotel into prime real estate.
The 1920s: Where the Silent Era's Stars Celebrated
It was a glamorous spot in the silent film era, attracting stars from the neighborhood like Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, and Rudolph Valentino. The hotel was also the place for community activities including children's schooling, holiday gatherings, and celebrations such as formal dances and weddings in the ballroom. Raucous parties on Saturday nights would give way to church services on Sunday mornings. Will Rogers was inaugurated as the first honorary mayor of Beverly Hills on the hotel grounds.
The stock market was running up through the 1920s, and Mrs. Anderson sold the hotel at the top of the market in 1928 to Hugh Leighten for $1.5 million. Months later the market crashed, and Leighten lost his investment.
The 1930s: Depression and Recovery
The Depression forced the hotel to close its doors, and Leighten had to relinquish ownership to Bank of America. However, some of the bungalows did stay occupied under individual leases. In 1932, Bank of America reopened the hotel with William Kimball as manager, but the hotel struggled financially, and in 1935, the bank installed one of its vice presidents, Hernando Courtright, to oversee foreclosure.
However, Courtright fell in love with the hotel and its cachet and couldn't bear the thought of foreclosing. He instead orchestrated a buyout, installed himself as manager, and presided over the period of the hotel's fastest growth. In the next decade, it became an even bigger celebrity spot than it had been in the 1920s.
Meanwhile, The Beverly Hills Hotel was still where stars met to see and be seen, as well as to conduct discreet affairs - Clark Gable and Carole Lombard used to rendezvous in the bungalows before his divorce and their marriage. A 1938 picture shows Jimmy Stewart and Norma Shearer at a charity dinner thrown by Bette Davis.
The 1940s: The "Pink Palace" Enters its Heyday
Under Hernando Courtright, The Beverly Hills Hotel entered one of its glossiest periods. In 1941, Courtright and some of his friends, including Loretta Young, Irene Dunne, and Harry Warner, formed a company that bought the hotel. Courtright was the one who changed the name of the El Jardin Restaurant to The Polo Lounge in honor of the celebrity band of polo players, including Will Rogers, Darryl Zanuck, Spencer Tracy, and Tommy Hitchcock, who played their matches in the bean fields near the hotel and toasted their victories at the restaurant afterwards.
Marlene Dietrich was often at the bar of The Polo Lounge, and changed the "No slacks for ladies" rule one day when she appeared at the bar in pants. Dietrich, a frequent guest, came to regard Bungalow 11 as hers, and had a 7' x 8' bed constructed for it.
Howard Hughes also took up residence in four of the hotel bungalows beginning in 1942: one for him, one for his actress wife Jean Peters, and two as decoys. Number 4 was his favorite. Off and on for 30 years, the reclusive billionaire lived in splendid isolation at the hotel, ordering pineapple upside-down cakes from his personal chef at 3:00 am and having roast beef sandwiches delivered to the trunk of a tree in the garden, so he could fetch them without seeing a soul. On occasion, he could be seen dancing with young starlets in the Persian Room, later named the Sunset Room.
Humphrey Bogart knocked back drinks at The Polo Lounge, and Katharine Hepburn once dove fully clothed into the pool after a tennis game.
Towards the end of the decade, The Beverly Hills Hotel had its first major facelift. In 1947, Courtright opened the Crystal Room and the Lanai Restaurant (later named The Coterie). The exterior was painted its distinctive pink in 1948. In 1949, architect Paul Revere Williams designed the hotel's new addition, the Crescent Wing, and oversaw the redecoration of The Polo Lounge, The Fountain Coffee Room, and lobby in the distinctive pink and green motifs of today.
The 1950s: The Legend Grows Under a New Owner
In the early 1950s, while Detroit real-estate magnate Ben Silberstein was staying at the hotel with his family, his 17-year-old daughter, Muriel, fell in love with the place. "Buy it for us, Daddy," she pleaded. In 1954, he did, purchasing it from Courtright for $5.5 million.
The hotel's popularity with celebrities and royalty continued to escalate. Guests included Prince Philip, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden, King Albert of Belgium, the Crown Prince of Monaco, John Wayne, and Henry Fonda. Elizabeth Taylor's father had an art gallery in the lower level of the hotel, and Liz herself began a tradition of sharing bungalows with six of her eight husbands. In 1956, the pool and the Cabana Club were the setting for Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall in Designing Woman.
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and the rest of the Rat Pack used to engage in prodigious drinking bouts in The Polo Lounge. Towards the end of the decade, Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand stayed in Bungalows 20 and 21 while filming Let's Make Love.
The 1960s and 1970s: California Suite and New Change of Owners
The pool made history in the 1960s. Raquel Welch was "discovered" by the pool, and The Beatles were snuck in through the back way for a swim. A 1963 photo shows Barbra Streisand with then-husband Elliott Gould frolicking in the pool.
In the 1970s, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hid out in a bungalow for a week, and Charlie Chaplin, who frequented the hotel in the 1920s, returned in 1972 to accept a special Oscar. Faye Dunaway stayed there in 1977, after receiving her Oscar for Network. The hotel made another film appearance in 1978 when Broadway playwright Neil Simon, a frequent guest, filmed California Suite at the property.
With Ben Silberstein's death in 1979, ownership passed to his two daughters, Muriel Slatkin and Seema Boesky, wife of Ivan Boesky, Wall Street arbitrageur.
The 1980s: The Hotel for High Rollers Celebrates 75 Years
The Beverly Hills Hotel went through several ownership changes in the 1980s. Ivan and Seema Boesky gained control of the hotel in 1986 for $10 million. Later that year, when Ivan Boesky faced $100 million in fines and givebacks upon his conviction for insider trading, Seema Boesky sold the hotel for $136 million to Denver oilman Marvin Davis. In 1987, after a meeting with the Sultan of Brunei at Wimbledon, Davis sold the hotel to its present owner, Sajahtera Inc, a subsidiary of the Brunei Investment Agency.
During the 1980s, Michael Milken threw Drexel Burnham Lambert's notorious "no wives" Thursday night party - the highlight of his annual Predator's Ball.
In 1987, the hotel celebrated its 75th anniversary.
The 1990s: The Palace is Back in the Pink
The Beverly Hills Hotel has always stretched the limits to accommodate guests' unusual wishes, and in 1990, it remade Bungalow 5 to suit business magnate Walter Annenberg's wishes, adding a private swimming pool and jacuzzi.
The hotel closed on December 30, 1992 for a two-and-one-half-year restoration, reopening on June 3, 1995. The $100 million restoration added The Sunset Lounge tea room, a larger ballroom, a grand staircase, and a private dining venue, The Polo Lounge Private Dining Room. All rooms and suites are bigger and brighter. A cavalcade of 14 gardeners now tends to the lush new landscaping. New carpets, furnishings, and fixtures were all custom-designed for the hotel. Furnishings for the bungalows were upgraded so each is like a distinguished private home. Public areas have kept their familiar look. Decorator Don Loper's striking banana leaf design wallpaper is in hallways and The Fountain Coffee Room, looking fresher than ever.
The object was not to change the hotel, but to restore it, recreating the look of the hotel in all its timeless glamour. "The goal," as told to Architectural Digest, "is that guests come back and say, I didn't know it was so beautiful."
The Present
Today, the hotel continues to pamper its guests, who often include celebrated entertainers, politicians, foreign officials, and business leaders from around the world.
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