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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
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
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
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
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,
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EXTRAS
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.
To be continued...
A photograph of Sunset Strip circa 1930s. The tower in the distance
(top centre) is the Chateau Marmont “Hotel to the Stars”
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.
If you must get in trouble, do it at the
Chateau Marmont
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