STACK #155 Sep 2017

FEATURE EXTRAS

long-term leases – peaking at $750 per month ($10,000 in today’s money). But in October of that year, the Wall Street stock market crashed. The signed up residents at the chateau fled in panic as their paper fortunes evaporated overnight. Horowitz suddenly found himself with practically an empty complex and no immediate hope of refilling it. He had gambled on a dream and lost. Two years later in 1931, the beleaguered and almost bankrupt Horowitz managed to sell the Marmont to one Albert E. Smith. As a co-founder of Vitagraph Studios, Smith had sold his film company to Warner Bros. in 1925 and instead of investing in movies, now dabbled in LA real estate. Despite the worsening economy of the Great Depression, Smith gambled on the 1932 Olympic Games – hosted by the city of Los Angeles – attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors all needing accommodation. To make the chateau more attractive to visitors he decided to scrap the original

A photograph of Sunset Strip circa 1930s. The tower in the distance (top centre) is the Chateau Marmont “Hotel to the Stars”

long term leasing policy and offer residency on monthly, weekly, even daily rentals. In effect, turn the Marmont into a hotel.  However, the magnificence of the building was not reflected in the room furnishings which Smith had identified as being of extremely poor quality. The Depression had caused the closure of many mansions in the exclusive areas of LA, forcing the previous owners to auction off all of their antique furniture and fine artefacts. Smith attended dozens of estate auctions where he purchased hundreds of valuable pieces at rock bottom prices. With his purchased classic furnishings now ensconced in all of the suites, a fully

If you must get in trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont

who was a vision of romance as long as she kept her mouth shut. This was highlighted when she played the eponymous role in Du Barry, Woman of Passion  (1930). Her lines of dialogue, such as “The quality of moicy” (mercy), delivered in her thick Brooklyn accent, had movie audiences roaring with laughter. (The incident was memorably lampooned in the classic 1952 movie Singin’ in the Rain ).  The theatre was now absolutely essential to the Hollywood studios, which could provide them with a ready source of experienced performers who knew how to deliver lines of dialogue. Studio recruitment personnel were dispatched to New York and the East Coast to sign up stage actors and actresses along with playwrights, directors, composers, musicians and sound engineers. The influx of new creative talent that descended on Hollywood during the early 1930s all required temporary/permanent accommodation. Through a pre-arrangement with Albert E. Smith, the movie studios provided that accommodation by booking them into... The Chateau Marmont. 

competition and for many weeks after, the Marmont was filled to capacity. Unlike the former owner, Smith’s tenuous gamble had paid off. Furthermore, through

Silent screen actress, Ann Little, had a distinguished career in film but retired at the advent of the “talkies”. In 1931 she became the resident manager of Chateau Marmont.

his association and contacts within the movie industry, his hotel would continue to flourish over the following decades. The early 1920s were years of immense growth and prosperity for the Hollywood movie business, but the coming of sound in late 1927 threw the whole industry into chaos. Everything was new and nobody fully understood the technology. Voices now had to match the actors' on-screen characters and for many silent stars, their voice did not lend itself to sound. One prime example was the case of Norma Talmadge, a huge star of the silent screen,

equipped kitchen to serve guests with the finest cuisine, and a trusted resident manager – the former silent screen actress, Ann Little – in position, Smith reopened Chateau Marmont. The large attendance figures for the 1932 Olympics' opening day at the LA Memorial Coliseum, and all the events that followed, were far greater than the games' organisers had anticipated. Consequently, throughout the

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To be continued...

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