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Chateau Marmont is a legend.
Think of any famous name, from the world of showbiz – past or present, film,
film, music or television – and there’s sure to be a Chateau Marmont anecdote, scandal or
connection.
This, after all, is where Paul Newman met his wife Joanne Woodward; where Jean
Harlow carried on a scandalous affair with Clark Gable while still on honeymoon
with cameraman Harold Rosson; where director Billy Wilder offered to sleep in a
bath rather than suffer the indignity of staying elsewhere; where Jim Morrison
of the Doors, high as a kite, jumped off the roof of a poolside cabana; where
tough guy Robert Mitchum was photographed doing the dishes in an apron; and
where John Belushi tragically died of a cocaine and heroine overdose.
Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard
has been an enduring feature of the Hollywood scene since the early
thirties. Unlike the garden of Allah, the Trocadero, the Mocambo, Schwab’s
drugstore and all the other star-studded hangouts that sadly no loner exist on
Sunset, Chateau Marmont is still
around. Ask a member of the old Hollywood set about the Marmont and their
eyes will twinkle as if talking about a naughty but likeable uncle who once
scandalized (and secretly delighted) the family with his outrageous
exploits.
But there is a pitfall to being such a legend – the risk is getting stuck in a
time warp. Not so Chateau
Marmont. It has changed enough to remain current, but not enough to
lose what it once had. This tricky balancing act between preservation and
restoration is the notable achievement of New-York-based nightclub, hotel and
restaurant impresario André
Balazs. On buying the legendary LA property in 1991, Balazs was keenly
aware of the prosaic reality that a hotel must update and improve or run the
risk of attracting an increasingly diminishing circle of clients. That, in
commercial terms, would be certain a death spiral. Yet he also faced
pressure from a group of hard-core fans (including the likes of photographer
Helmut Newton) to lose nothing of what the hotel had.
Thus, keeping in mind the advice of devoted regulars, the decision was made to
upgrade, albeit in a manner that was hoped would be hardly noticeable.
This was no easy task. André Balazs rejected three
separate schemes before settling finally on the combined talents of interior
designer Fernando Santangelo and production designer Shawn Hausman. Their
contribution, exactly as Balazs requested, was to make the Marmont look as you would imagine it
has always looked. Design was used to create and illusion (appropriately
enough for a Hollywood hotel): the illusion that it has always been so.
And it has worked…without skipping a beat. Regulars still wouldn’t dream
of staying anywhere else (enjoying, no doubt, the added extras of room service,
not an option in the old Marmont,
and an efficient telephone system, unlike the infamous ‘pot luck’ exchange of
the past). And new clientele are attracted by the forties-style glamour of
the rooms and the undimmed reputation.
The fact that Chateau Marmont was
never intended to be a hotel is probably what makes it such an attractive
one. Built in the twenties as an earthquake-proof version of the royal
Chateau Amboise on the Loire in France (its foundations are on solid rock), the
layout and size of the rooms at the Marmont owe their generous proportions
to the simple fact that they were originally designed as apartments.
Perhaps this also explains why some guests check-in for months at a time.
Robert de Niro lived in the penthouse for two years, and Keanu Reeves doesn’t
even own a place in LA, preferring instead the comfort of the Marmont. The most recent name to
make the Chateau Marmont a
long-term West Coast habit was writer Domink Dunne, who stayed there for the
entire duration of the O.J. Simpson trial, which he covered for Vanity
Fair.
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In the best Hollywood tradition, Chateau Marmont is the kind of place
where you can avoid leaving your room for weeks on end and no one will think
anything of it. Room service, as might therefore be expected, does a
roaring trade in this hotel. In fact so few guests venture out that the
lobby, terrace and dining room are hardly ever too crowded - a very pleasant
bonus for the odd guest not interested in locking him or herself
away. Whatever it is that Chateau
Marmont has going for it, one thing is certain: this is one Hollywood legend
that doesn’t disappoint in real life.
Lamps at the Chateau Marmont reflect the theatrical
flair of interior designer Fernando Santangelo
The lobby is a popular hangout for
actors summoned to the hotel for a script reading
A fountainhead in the courtyard of a
building modeled after the Chateau Amboise on the Loire
The generous proportions of the rooms
reveal the building’s original intended use as upmarket Hollywood
apartments
Impossible to label, the salon’s
interior is timelessly appropriate to the lofty dimensions of its beamed
space
Bathrooms, wherever possible, are a
carefully restored version of the thirties originals
Black-and-white picture in the
‘thirties’ phone booths are a reminder of the hotel’s legendary
history
The funky forties furniture, found by
production designer Shawn Hausman, preserved the old Hollywood
ambience
Despite being on Sunset Boulevard, Chateau Marmont is blessed with views
of green from all sides
The vaguely forties ambience of the
newly renovated suites is perfectly appropriate to the hotel’s vintage
The restaurant is a ludicrously intimate
place that seats no more than twenty and served French-Californian
food
The colonnaded private courtyard is a
popular spot for breakfast, a quiet coffee or a late afternoon drink
The salon, in contrast to the guest
rooms, is purposefully dark, moody and gothic
Embroidered Frette linen hint at the
luxurious attention to detail; there is more to this bed than
reputation
The gym, a recent addition, is hidden
away in the spacious, air-conditioned attic
In contrast to the dark and moody lobby
the rooms are bright and white, furnished in a faux forties style
Gothic shapes and a time-worn patina mix
well with most guests’ preference for basic designer black
Gothic, gothic, gothic – despite Chateau Marmont’s laid-back image, the
attention to detail is anything but
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