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The Chateau Marmont

The Chateau Marmont is a hotel built in West Hollywood, California in 1927 and modeled after the Château d'Amboise in France's Loire Valley. It has served as the backdrop for a number of events in the lives of well-known rock stars and actors. Fred Horowitz, a local attorney, began construction on the hotel in 1927. His project turned into the Chateau Marmont, named for the street running across the back of the property. The Chateau Marmont opened in February 1929 as an apartment house, but high rents and the Depression kept renters away. In 1931 the building was changed to a hotel.^[1] The hotel was bought in 1990 is currently owned and managed by Hotels AB, run by celebrity hotelier Andre Balazs.

The Chateau Marmont was designed and constructed as earthquake proof, and has survived major earthquakes in 1933, 1953, 1971, 1987, and 1994 without sustaining any major structural damage. Nine cottages were built in the 1930s next to the hotel, which were acquired by the hotel in the 1940s. Two of the 4 bungalows at the Chateau Marmont were designed by Craig Ellwood in 1956 after he completed Case Study Houses. The bungalows are like miniature case study houses.^[2]

• In 1982, John Belushi died of a drug overdose in one of its garden bungalows.
• Jim Morrison of The Doors used up what he called the eighth of his nine lives falling out of a window at the hotel.
• James Dean hopped in through a window to audition for Rebel Without a Cause.
• Johnnie Ray lived within walking distance from the hotel in a house with a swimming pool at 1654 Marmont Avenue. When he moved in in 1976, his major success as a singer in his native United States was long over. In 1987 the best gig Ray could get near the neighborhood was at El Camino College. He lived there until he died in 1990.
• Led Zeppelin rode their motorcycles through the lobby one evening to cheering guests, causing modest damage.
• Fashion photographer Helmut Newton died when his car crashed into a wall on the driveway of the hotel.
• Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded his vocals for By the Way in this hotel.
• It is the setting for the majority of the book What's A Girl To Do?.
• 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.
• 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".
• Actress Lindsay Lohan is renting out a room specifically for her clothes. Lohan also stayed at the hotel following her July 24, 2007 arrest for drunk driving. ^[3]
• 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 for smearing food across her face and yelling.
• Singer Ville Valo of the Finnish rock group HIM recorded the song "Song or Suicide" at this hotel for their 2007 album Venus Doom.
• Executive Chef Carolynn Spence was formerly Chef de Cuisine at The Spotted Pig in New York.

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, and named after Auguste Marmont.

• Chateau Marmont official website
• Hollywood Party Hotels
• Chateau Marmont official MySpace

1. ^ Gwenn, Carol (2005). The History of the Sunset Strip. Retrieved on 2006-04-12.
2. ^ Webb, Michael (December 1996), "Chateau Marmont Revisited: Fine-Tuning the Storied Hollywood Landmark", Architectural Digest: 76, 82, 88, 92, <http://www.chateaumarmont.com/architecturaldigest.pdf>
3. ^ http://perezhilton.com/?p=2139