Ambassador Hotel, pt 2
The Ambassador Hotel was opened on New Year's Day in 1921, in what was then the countryside. Its Spanish revival decor, rife with Italian stone fireplaces and tiled floors, replete with an alabaster fountain glowing in the lobby quickly attracted the jet-set. Even its coffee shop, designed by Paul R. Williams, one of the U.S.'s first pre-eminant African American architects, was a spectacular example of high art deco style, with its rounded white banquettes and swirling bar was one of a kind.
A number of stars in the thirties kept permanent apartments there, like Howard Hughs, Jean Harlow, Gloria Swanson and a significant number of 20th Century American Presidents. In fact, Nixon wrote his famous "Checkers" speech there (where he claimed that the only gift he had accepted from supporters was a cocker spaniel named Checkers.) Exotic silent movie star Pola Negri was known to walk through the tropical gardens with her cheetah on a leash. Marilyn Monroe was first signed in the Ambassador office of the Blue Book Modeling Agency. There was a time when if you were having a party, you had it at the Ambassador. Everyone from Mickey Mouse to Tallulah Bankhead was feted there. Even through the sixties, it maintained its relevence -- the Charles Manson jury was put up there during the trial.
Without question, the hotel achieved infamy when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in the kitchen beneath the grand ballroom (with it's detailed freezes of charioteers) shortly after giving a speech there in 1968. It was a turning point for the fabulous hotel. The area around it was falling into neglect, and as much as they flocked there at one time, people began staying away in droves.
In 1989, the famous hotel closed its doors to the public. It remained a popular movie location, as it was still a paragon of art deco style. One of its more famous roles was in 1967, as the Taft Hotel, where Anne Bankcroft and Dustin Hoffman famously canoodled in The Graduate. Other films shot there include Pretty Woman, the Mask, Charlie's Angles 2, Catch Me if You Can, Almost Famous, Forest Gump and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Throughout the nineties, the ameneties there were sold off -- some can even be found on Ebay still, and the hotel itself was sold to the LAUSD (after a stint being owned by Donald Trump) in 2001.
posted by kuaptic. @ 9:10 AM
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