Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles)

Background

Located at 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, between Catalina Street and Mariposa Avenue in present-day Koreatown, The Ambassador was set back from Wilshire Boulevard on 24 acres, which included the main hotel structure, a garage and numerous detached bungalows.

The Ambassador was built as part of the Ambassador Hotels System. At the time the hotel opened, on New Year's Day 1921, the chain consisted of The Ambassador in Los Angeles, the Hotel Alexandria in Los Angeles, The Ambassador in Santa Barbara, The Ambassador in Atlantic City and The Ambassador in New York. The Santa Barbara property burned down soon after on April 13, 1921, the Alexandria left the chain in 1925, while the Ambassador Palm Beach joined in 1929. The Schine family owned The Ambassador from its opening in 1921 until 1971.

The Ambassador Hotel was frequented by celebrities, some of whom, such as Pola Negri, resided there. From 1930 to 1943, six Academy Awards ceremonies were hosted at the hotel. Perhaps as many as seven U.S. presidents stayed at the Ambassador, from Hoover to Nixon, along with chiefs of state from around the world.

For decades, the hotel's famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub hosted well-known entertainers as patrons and/or performers, such as Lucille Ball, Shirley Bassey, Vikki Carr, Charlie Chaplin, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Douglas Fairbanks, Shep Fields, Henry Fonda, Sergio Franchi, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Cary Grant, Merv Griffin, Dick Haymes, Katharine Hepburn, Lena Horne, Evelyn Knight, Liberace, Little Richard, Martin and Lewis, Liza Minnelli, Marilyn Monroe, Mary Pickford, Richard Pryor, Ginger Rogers, Norma Shearer, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Yma Sumac, The Supremes, Gloria Swanson, Norma Talmadge, Spencer Tracy, Rudolph Valentino, Vivian Vance, Veloz & Yolanda, John Wayne, Nancy Wilson, Anna May Wong, Loretta Young, and many others. Studio heads and major studio executives such as Howard Hughes, Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg also frequented the Cocoanut Grove.

History

Early history

Designed by American architect Myron Hunt, the Ambassador Hotel opened for business at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1921, and quickly established a new standard of hotel luxury. Guests were greeted by a grand lobby upon arrival, with an oversized Italian fireplace, crystal chandeliers, oriental carpets and luxurious draperies adorning the lobby, along with a choice of 1,000 guestrooms and bungalows. The hotel occupied 23.7 acres at 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, bordered by Wilshire Boulevard at the north, 8th Street at the south, Catalina Street at the east, and nearly to Mariposa Avenue at the west. When the hotel's Cocoanut Grove nightclub opened on April 21, 1921, it officially solidified the hotel's social scene. In the 1980 book Are the Stars Out Tonight?, former Ambassador PR director Margaret Tante Burk recalled the Grove's opening night:

According to Photoplay, Joan Crawford and Carole Lombard were frequent competitors in the Charleston contests held on Friday nights; Lombard was discovered at the Grove. As Burk recalled, the famous artificial palm trees that adorned the Cocoanut Grove were left from Rudolph Valentino's 1921 silent romantic drama film The Sheik. The names of the hotel and its nightclub quickly became synonymous with glamour. As a result, “Cocoanut Grove" would become a trendy name for bars and clubs across the United States.

Beginning in 1928, Gus Arnheim led the Cocoanut Grove Orchestra, in which six to seven songs were sung each night. At one point, there was a two-hour broadcast of the orchestra on radio. On February 29, 1940, the 1939 Academy Awards ceremony was held in the Cocoanut Grove, with Bob Hope hosting the awards. The 1953 Golden Globe Awards also were presented at the hotel.

During World War II, U.S. servicemen mingled with movie stars at the hotel during numerous galas and fundraising events to help with the war effort.

Loyce Whiteman, singer for the Cocoanut Grove Orchestra, recalled, "the most beautiful thing about the Grove is that they stood in front of you when you sang and just swayed to the music. Joan Crawford would stand at the stand and sing a couple of choruses with the band. It was a house full of stars."

In November 1960 U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon, the 1960 Republican presidential nominee, watched the 1960 presidential election returns with his family and campaign staff from the Royal Suite of the Ambassador Hotel. One of the hotel's largest ballrooms was used as his election night headquarters. Nixon would narrowly lose the 1960 election to the Democratic candidate, Senator John F. Kennedy.

Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

Main article: Robert F. Kennedy assassination

On June 5, 1968, the winner of the California Democratic presidential primary election, United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy, gave a victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel to supporters.

Decline and closure

The death of Robert F. Kennedy marked the demise of the hotel coinciding with the decline of the surrounding neighborhood during the late 1960s and 1970s. The area also saw a surge of illegal drugs, poverty, and gang activity infiltrating the Wilshire corridor. Under the direction of Sammy Davis, Jr., the “Now Grove” replaced the classic Cocoanut Grove in 1970 in order to appeal to a modern nightclub crowd.

Preservation efforts

In 2004 and 2005, the Ambassador Hotel became the focus of a legal struggle between the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which planned to clear the site and construct a school on the property, and the Los Angeles Conservancy and the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, which wanted the hotel and its various elements preserved and integrated into the future school.

The Location Managers Guild organized an event together with the Jefferson High School Academy of Film and Television in March 2005, entitled Last Looks: The Ambassador Hotel. They mentored students in script breakdown and location scouting, using the hotel as a potential location to be scouted, documenting the property one last time. The images taken by both the students and the professionals were then exhibited side by side at Los Angeles City Hall.

After much litigation, a settlement was reached at the end of August 2005, allowing the demolition to begin in exchange for the establishment of a $4.9 million fund, reserved for saving historic school buildings in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Demolition

On September 10, 2005, a final public auction was held for the remaining fittings in the hotel's parking lot, with demolition commencing soon afterwards. On January 16, 2006, the last section of the Ambassador Hotel fell, leaving only the annex that housed the hotel's entrance, shopping arcade, coffee shop, and the Cocoanut Grove, which were promised to be preserved in some manner and integrated within the new school. A ceremony commemorating the demolition of the hotel was held across the street on February 2, 2006, at the H.M.S. Bounty restaurant, located on the ground floor of the Gaylord Apartments.

The Cocoanut Grove was renovated several times before, which destroyed much of its architectural integrity. It was promised that it would undergo yet another major transformation before becoming the auditorium for the new school. Also promised was preservation of the attached ground floor coffee shop, designed by architect Paul Williams. Studies by the LAUSD determined that the integrity of the Cocoanut Grove was weaker than anticipated and that they could neither use it within the planned school nor move it without risking its destruction. In 2004, the LAUSD board voted in favor of demolishing most of the Cocoanut Grove, retaining only the hotel entrance and east wall of the Grove. Litigation between the district and the Los Angeles Conservancy, which had sought to preserve the hotel, was settled out of court on December 18, 2007; demolition began on January 22, 2008.

New school

Main article: Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools

The Central Los Angeles New Learning Center #1 K–3, and Central Los Angeles New Learning Center #1 4–8/HS, along with the Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park, were built on the site.

The six schools were named as the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools. The K–3 facility opened on September 9, 2009, and the 4–8 and high school facility began operation on September 14, 2010. The north side of the new school has a slightly similar appearance to the original facade of the hotel and north lawns will remain much the same, as seen from Wilshire Boulevard.

In popular culture

Movies and television

The Ambassador Hotel was a filming location and backdrop for movies and television programs, starting with Jean Harlow's 1933 film Bombshell. An early MGM color short film, Starlit Days at the Lido (1935), was filmed in the Lido Spa at the hotel. In the 1980s and early 2000s, the hotel was filmed in Beverly Hills, 90210; Blow; Catch Me If You Can, Pretty Woman, Forrest Gump; The Italian Job; Mafia!; Murder, She Wrote; S.W.A.T.; and much more., and the kitchen was used in the 1997 made-for-TV adaptation of Disney's Tower of Terror.

The interactive movie/game based on the 1995 film Johnny Mnemonic was filmed there with a $3 million budget.

The last project filmed in the Ambassador Hotel's kitchen was "Spin the Bottle", a 2004 episode of the TV series Angel. The 2006 film Bobby was the last project to film on the hotel property, gaining access in late 2005 to film crucial establishing shots even while portions of the hotel were already in the process of being demolished.

The Ambassador Hotel itself has also been depicted in films. The Cocoanut Grove was recreated in the films The Aviator and The Thirteenth Floor.

Musical events and music videos

The Cocoanut Grove hosted musician Roy Orbison and several performers on September 30, 1987, for the television special Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night, first shown on Cinemax on January 3, 1988.

Guns N' Roses filmed the video of their song "Patience", in the hotel in 1989.

R&B singer Chuckii Booker filmed the video of his song "Games" from the album Niice 'n Wiild at the hotel in 1992.

The hotel served as the filming location for the video of the 1997 Marilyn Manson single "Long Hard Road Out of Hell," off the soundtrack for the Todd McFarlane motion picture Spawn.

In November 1997, punk-rock band Green Day filmed the video of the song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" in the hotel.

Rock band 311 used the lobby of the hotel as the backdrop for a photo shoot of the cover of their 2003 album Evolver.

Also on October 29, 2002, rock band Linkin Park held their press photo shoot for their album Meteora at the hotel.

References

References

1. (1921). "Nineteen-Twenty in Retrospect". The Hotel World: The Hotel and Travelers Journal.
2. "The Ambassador Hotel". Gary Wayne.
3. Not stated. "Ambassador Hotel (Demolished)". The Los Angeles Conservancy.
4. Not stated. "Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, CA". Alan Michelson.
5. Alleman, Richard. (6 March 2013). "Hollywood: The Movie Lover's Guide: The Ultimate Insider Tour of Movie L.A.". Crown Publishing Group.
6. [https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/02/23/Bandleader-Shep-Fields-who-rose-to-fame-in-the/6536351752400/ Shep Fields Obituary - Shep Fields with Veloz & Yolanda at the Ambassador Hotel in 1934 - United Press International Feb. 23, 1981 on UPI.com/Archive]
7. [https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/02/23/Bandleader-Shep-Fields-who-rose-to-fame-in-the/6536351752400/ Shep Fields Obituary -Shep Fields with Veloz & Yolanda at the Ambassador Hotel in 1934 United Press International Feb. 23, 1981 on UPI.com/Archive]
8. Not stated. (December 13, 2017). "The Ambassador Hotel & Cocoanut Grove". Finding Lost Angeles.
9. "The Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles".
10. Burk, Margaret T.. (1980). "Are the Stars Out Tonight? The Story of the Famous Ambassador and Cocoanut Grove, "Hollywood's Hotel"". Round Table West.
11. Knowles, Mark. (May 2009). "The Wicked Waltz and Other Scandalous Dances: Outrage at Couple Dancing in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries". McFarland & Company.
12. Staff writer. (December 21, 2013). "Six Big Band singers reminisce". YouTube, LLC.
13. Faith, William Robert. (April 2003). "Bob Hope: A Life in Comedy". Da Capo Press.
14. (27 February 1953). "Correspondents Announce Film Award Winners". Los Angeles Times.
15. (White, The Making of the President 1960, p. 389)
16. Reynolds, Christopher. (16 December 2005). "Remains of the day". Los Angeles Times.
17. Streeter, Kurt. (11 September 2005). "Ambassador Has Its Final Checkout". Los Angeles Times.
18. Meares, Hadley. (June 21, 2013). "The Gaylord Apartments: Luxury, Socialism, and L.A.'s First Failed Co-op". KCET.
19. (January 16, 2008). "Deal seals fate of Cocoanut Grove". Los Angeles Times.
20. Facilities Services Division. (26 February 2010). "Project Details: Central LA New Learning Center #1 K-3, 55.98046A". Los Angeles Unified School District.
21. Facilities Services Division. (26 February 2010). "Project Details: Central LA New Learning Center #1 MS/HS, 55.98046". Los Angeles Unified School District.
22. Bratkovich, Colin. (2014). "Just Remember This". Xlibris Corporation LLC.
23. Nichols, Chris. (22 January 2014). "Movies Filmed at the Ambassador Hotel". Los Angeles Magazine.
24. "Disney Podcast - TOWER OF TERROR'S D.J. MACHALE - Dizney Coast to Coast - Ep. 437".
25. Commentary. Episode "Spin the Bottle". ''Angel'', Season 4 DVD set.
26. "Ambassador Hotel and Bobby: Robert Kennedy's Assassination".
27. Louvau, Jim. (May 30, 2013). "Marilyn Manson: "I Like to Smoke and Hang Out with the Gangsta Rappers"". [[Voice Media Group]].
28. (September 24, 2018). "Evolver : Album Cover Photo Shoot".
29. Linkin Park. (2023-02-23). "07. Meteora Photo Shoot - Linkin Park".