A recent Architectural Digest article spilled the beans about my favorite hotel ever, the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. The first paragraph says it all:
Since it opened in 1929, the Chateau Marmont has been a beloved retreat of actors, writers, musicians, and directors craving a temporary (or sometimes not so temporary) home away from the prying eyes of the public and the press. As the Old Hollywood adage goes: “If you want to be seen, go to the Beverly Hills Hotel. If you don’t want to be seen, go to Chateau Marmont.”
The story mentions many of the hotel’s famous guests and the rooms that they stayed in. The article uses a number of stock photos that weren’t even shot at the Chateau; I will attempt to rectify that. You know already that I’m a visual kind of guy.
In discussing famed director Billy Wilder (“Sunset Boulevard” and “Some Like it Hot”), the description of his room sounds a lot like Room 16, which also happens to be the very first room I checked into during my first few stays there.
Rather than go to another hotel, he stayed in an antechamber beside the women’s restroom for several days until a room opened up.
If I have the room correct, what was then the women’s room near the lobby is now a men’s room…but it’s still located next to 16 (shown above, looking larger than it is, thanks to my wide angle lens). The women’s room moved to a hallway off the bar located next to the lobby (which was once a formal dining room). 16 can also count Barbra Streisand, Buddy Hackett, and Warren Beatty as former guests.
29 is where Myrna Loy lived for a number of years (once again, according to Vanity Fair). What a great balcony!
One of the most infamous rooms is 54 (below), for which the phrase, “If you must get into trouble, go to the Marmont” was coined.
To keep two of his biggest male stars out of the tabloids, Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn rented suite 54 for William Holden and Glenn Ford so that they could carry on with their affairs in private. According to Vanity Fair, David Niven ended up tagging onto their little deal with Cohn. I’m sure that kind of stuff doesn’t happen anymore.
Both Howard Hughes and director Lloyd Bacon stayed in the penthouse (room 64, below).
Director Lloyd Bacon’s weekly penthouse parties attracted a who’s who of Hollywood in the mid 1930s.…Howard Hughes rented the penthouse off and on for years and used binoculars to spy on women at the pool below.
Howard’s view from 64:
Vanity Fair “allegedly” stated that Greta Garbo stayed in 64, signing the guest register under her alias, Harriet Brown.
Montgomery Clift recuperated at the Chateau in 1956 after getting in a horrific car accident (below) leaving Elizabeth Taylor’s home. He stayed in a two-bedroom suite on the sixth floor during his residency.
To my knowledge, 64 is the only two-bedroom suite on the sixth floor. Add Clift to that fabulous roster of guests who have slept there.…unless you read Vanity Fair, which states that 36 is where Clift stayed after his accident, which says the star emerged…
onto the terrace from time to time to scream obscenities in the nude.
The terrace of 36. You be the judge.
Director Nicholas Ray rented a bungalow for eight years, beginning in 1952. While living there, he made “Rebel Without a Cause” and carried on an affair with one of the film’s stars, Natalie Wood.
Today, it is numbered as bungalow 1.
While actor Anthony Perkins lived at Chateau Marmont, he would use the payphone in the lobby to avoid the listening ears of the switchboard operators.
While the phone itself may have changed, one of these three doors is probably the one Perkins hid behind.
Based on this photo, you can also add Perkins to the guest roster for 54.
In 1955 he [Anthony Perkins] met Tab Hunter by the pool, and they quickly began a relationship.
The diminutive pool still seems magical, all these years later. Another instance where size just doesn’t matter.
Bette Davis frequently caused a stir at the Chateau. In 1958, her bungalow caught fire when she fell asleep with a lit cigarette.
Shown here is the courtyard to the poolside bungalows, most likely where Bette was staying.
The Doors frontman Jim Morrison lived in a poolside bungalow in 1970 and was known for swinging between windows and balconies, once falling two stories.
Although Morrison may have stayed in the bungalow, this shot was definitely taken inside the main hotel.
I am off by at least one floor from where Morrison posed; the fire escape stairwell behind him angles to the left; the one I shot (below) angles to the right.
Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate lived at Chateau Marmont as newlyweds. They gave up their apartment when Tate got pregnant.
I was told that the two stayed in room 54; however, in Polanski’s autobiography he states that they stayed on the fourth floor. This shot of Sharon shows her hanging over the balcony of 54. According to an article in Vanity Fair:
The McGraths hosted a brunch salon every Sunday, drawing the likes of Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski (who lived below, in 54, before moving to Cielo Drive in early 1969).
Since I’ve stayed in 54 and been on that balcony, too, I’ll side with Vanity Fair over Polanski’s memory.
Back to A.D.:
The hotel’s most famous resident may be John Belushi, who died of an overdose in bungalow three in 1982. Pictured here is the scene outside the hotel after his death. Several celebrities, including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Rick James, specifically requested to stay in bungalow three after Belushi died there.
Vanity Fair credits Errol Flynn with a drunken rampage in bungalow 3 back in 1959. There must have been something in the air. How it looked when I stayed there a few years ago:
Johnny Depp was a frequent visitor to the hotel and once claimed that he and his ex-girlfriend Kate Moss had sex in all 63 rooms.
Probably good that I don’t bring a black light when I stay there. Some things are best unknown.
Photographer Helmut Newton (above) was a regular guest. He and his wife, June, would arrive the week of Christmas and stay until March each year.
Newton stayed in room 49. Here’s how the desk/window looked last December:
In 2004, he died after having a heart attack and crashing his car outside the hotel.
The plaque outside the hotel that commemorates the spot where it happened.
Scarlett Johansson lived in the hotel in 2004 and was famously rumored to have had a dalliance with Benicio Del Toro in the elevator after the Oscars. In 2022, she set the record straight on a podcast, saying, “That was a story that followed me for a long time. But I always thought that was outrageous.”
That sounds like she neither confirmed/denied.
Stephen Dorff lived in the hotel in his 20s and returned to live in suite 69 while filming “Somewhere,” in which he played an actor living at the Chateau Marmont.
Room 59 was used for the film, as seen by this balcony shot of Dorff:
A shot of room 69, where Dorff resided during filming:
Vanity Fair names room 33 (below) as the one where Lindsay Lohan stayed in 2012. It’s also the one she was booted from for accumulating $46,350.04 in unpaid bills. Yikes. VF names 33 as the honeymoon suite for Jean Harlow and third husband, Harold Rosson.
The most famous guest of the Chateau refused to be interviewed for this post. He just wants to be left alone.
See more Chateau Marmont photos at my main website.
