The Legendary Hollywood Hideaway Since 1929, nestled In The Hills Just Above Sunset Blvd. The chateau was built in 1929 as an apartment block for stylish New Yorkers visiting Los Angeles, but the stockmarket crash forced the owners to sell to a wealthy man in the silent film business and the legend began.
Reading the list of visitors is like reading a who's who of the film world. Charlie Chaplin, Errol Flynn, the shadowy Greta Garbo, Robert Mitchum, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe … Clark Gable and Jean Harlow carried on their affair there while she was on her honeymoon. Jim Morrison jumped off its roof and John Belushi died from a drug overdose there. Howard Hughes hid himself in the penthouse but wasn't so reclusive he didn't enjoy watching the bathing beauties beside the hotel pool through his binoculars.
The Marmont is the famous replicate hotel of the stars, and therefore notorious for scandal. More often than not today's travel guides draw attention to the fact that John Belushi blew his mind here in 1982 with a speedball... that a drunken Jim Morrison dangled from a balcony, almost fell... that someone from Led Zeppelin rode a Harley through the lobby... and in the old days Jean Harlow, Robert Mitchum, Greta Garbo, Montgomery Clift, Carole Lombard and the likes had occasion to live here... or at least use it for romantic assignations.
Here are some juicy tidbits about the place:
Featured on the cover of Gram Parsons' solo album, GP, released in 1973. Gram Parsons also lived there for a time in the early 1970s.
In 1982, John Belushi died of a drug overdose in one of its garden bungalows.
this was his bungalow
Jim Morrison of "The Doors" used up what he called "the eighth of my nine lives" after he hurt his back here while dangling from a drain pipe, trying to swing from the roof into the window of his hotel room.
James Dean hopped in through a window to audition with Natalie Wood for Rebel Without a Cause.
Nicholas Ray, the director of Rebel Without a Cause, had a bungalow here in 1953, according to actress Shelley Winters' autobiography.
In 1992, Demi Moore, Annie Leibovitz and Joanne Gair shot Demi's Birthday Suit at the hotel.
Johnnie Ray lived within walking distance of the hotel.
Led Zeppelin band members rode their motorcycles through the lobby one evening to cheering guests, causing modest damage.
When Montgomery Clift was almost killed in a 1956 auto accident near her home, Elizabeth Taylor brought him to the Chateau Marmont, where she leased the penthouse as a place for him to recuperate.
Greta Garbo loved to stay in the Chateau Marmont for weeks during her infamous seclusion period and would not leave her room for days. She also attended many lavish and glamorous parties here in her movie star days.
Fashion photographer Helmut Newton died on January 23, 2004, after his car crashed into a wall on the driveway of the hotel.
Judy Garland sang by the lobby's grand piano with Kay Thompson during a party held by director George Cukor, where she exclaimed to Thompson, "Oh, Kay, let's just sing real loud!"
Vivien Leigh, estranged from her husband Laurence Olivier, had every surface space in her suite, 5D, covered with photographs of him. In the bedroom, however, there was only one: placed near her pillow was a photograph of Olivier and her together.[clarification needed]
Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante briefly resided in the hotel in 1996. During this period, Frusciante was dealing with a serious drug addiction that almost claimed his life. The New Times LA interviewed Frusciante at the hotel and published an article about the musician in which his physical appearance was described as "a skeleton covered in thin skin," whose flesh was noticeably scarred and bruised from injecting himself repeatedly with heroin and cocaine. Frusciante was kicked out of the hotel shortly after the interview.
Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded his vocals for "By the Way" in this hotel.
It's the setting for the majority of the book, "What's a Girl to Do?"
Jean Harlow spent her honeymoon in the hotel and was a regular guest.
It's where FOX series 'Fastlane' character, "Officer Donovan Ray," lives in order to maintain his undercover alias, "Van Strummer."
It appears in the HBO series Entourage, when director "Billy Walsh" meets with "Vincent Chase" to discuss Queens Boulevard.
Was briefly managed by former silent-film actress Ann Little in her later years.
The hotel is referenced in the Grateful Dead song "West LA Fadeaway"
Hunter S. Thompson was often a guest at the hotel.
Writer/Director Dustin Lane filmed the short film "Blue Skied an' Clear" in Room 79. The film stars Andrew Ramaglia, Brittany Shea and Olivia Alaina May.
Howard Hughes moved into the attic of the hotel and would spy on beautiful women in the pool area using prism binoculars.
His Penthouse suite balcony
Harry Cohn, founder of Columbia Pictures, told William Holden and Glenn Ford, "If you are going to get in trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont."
Lindsay Lohan stayed at the hotel following her July 24, 2007, arrest for drunk driving. She also lived at the Chateau between 2005 and 2006.
English author Nigel Williams documents his stay at the hotel in his 1994 travelogue, From Wimbledon to Waco.
Britney Spears was reportedly kicked out of the hotel.[citation needed]
Singer Ville Valo of the Finnish rock group HIM recorded the song, "Song or Suicide," at this hotel for its 2007 album, Venus Doom.
Niki Stevens, a fictional character from television's The L Word lived at the Chateau Marmont in Season 6.
Executive Chef Carolynn Spence was formerly Chef de Cuisine at The Spotted Pig, in New York City.
F. Scott Fitzgerald suffered a heart-attack in Chateau Marmont.
The Chateau Marmont web site describes it as "the one and only," but in reality, there is at least one other Chateau Marmont located in Châtillon sur Seine, France, named after Auguste Marmont.
In a video shown by The Insider and Entertainment Tonight on January 30, 2008, Heath Ledger is seen at a party where other people appear to be taking drugs. Eventually only promos were shown out of respect for his friends and family. Ledger had died a week earlier.
Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention make recorded reference to the Hotel in the infamous "Groupie Routine" at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, on July 7, 1971. Recording found on the 1988 album You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 (performance date corrected in the You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 liner notes).
British singer Lily Allen wrote the song Batman, Guess Who?, for her second album, in the hotel.
Before Rock Hudson became famous, he met his first live-in lover Kenneth G Hodge, who was living in the penthouse managing the Chateau Marmont for his aunt Bernadette. Hodge and Hudson then moved together to Hollywood to launch his career.
English playwright Charles Wood set his play, "Across From the Garden of Allah," in the hotel. It starred Glenda Jackson and Nigel Hawthorne.
The hotel was the site where actress Milla Jovovich said she was going to begin shooting the fourth installment of the popular Resident Evil film series at the end of 2009.
American/Filipino musician Nate Day stayed at this hotel in the summer of 2008; he recorded his demo for Universal records in his suite.
Where being seen by the pool having lunch is the thing to do, check out those red tables and remember them
There are many quotes stemming from the hotel, but one of the most famous came from Harry Cohn, founder of Columbia Pictures. He said, "If you must get into trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont."
I was convinced I was going to meet my Keanu by the pool, he used to stay here all the time, but of course now he has bought a home in LA so no longer, sigh
I love this place, the reason I bring it up is because I just noticed the hotel has charged over 1,000 to my credit card, give it back, and they did
For a stunning look inside and outside the hotel please visit this link:
Chateau marmont
go to the link that says Daveland Art Gallery, then up at the top where is says Photograpy, then look for C and you'll see the Chateau and click on that, the pics are fabulous!
Call me when your at the hotel and I'll come by
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