Biltmore Hotel

Biltmore Hotel. . , Host of the Coast , Its lore is as rich as its tapestries, as its gilded cupids and carved marble. From the moment it opened on October 2, 1923, the 11-story Biltmore Hotel became Los Angeles' "Host of the Coast," a chandeliered statement to the rest of the world that, as a great American metropolis, Los Angeles had undoubtedly arrived. , The occasion was marked by 3,000 guests who dined on seven courses and danced to the music of seven orchestras and the birdsong of caged canaries. Among the guests were Cecil B. DeMille, Myrna Loy, Theda Bara and Ramon Novarro. , Built by a consortium of local businessmen at a cost of $10 million, the Biltmore was the biggest hotel west of Chicago, and its luxury made it the grandest. Like some of the stars who would work and play there, the hotel was an overnight sensation. And six months after the hotel's debut, the Biltmore Theatre opened, selling tickets printed on brass for opening night only. , Designed by Schultze and Weaver, the New York firm that also designed the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, the Biltmore was a success from the start, as was the 1,700-seat theatre. It eventually hosted 40 touring plays and musicals before the faded curtains dropped for the last time in 1964. , The Biltmore's Best Kept Secret , The Biltmore, like the rest of the city's hostelries, observed the official rules of Prohibition, but in the luxurious Presidential suite , accessible by private elevator and occupied by seven presidents and scores of luminaries , a button hidden in the paneling opened a secret liquor compartment that was kept stocked during the "dry" era and even today. , The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that hosts the Academy Awards, was born at a gathering of film luminaries in the ballroom in 1927; Cedric Gibbons sketched the design for the Oscar on a hotel napkin. Beginning in 1931, and many years thereafter, the hotel hosted the Oscar ceremonies themselves, in the Biltmore Bowl, which also became a showcase for the Big Bands of the 1930s and '40s. , In 1947, a young woman named Elizabeth Ann Short, one of hundreds of hopeful starlets, who only gained fame as a murder victim known by the nickname "Black Dahlia," spent a few hours in the Biltmore lobby, making phone calls. It was the last place she was ever seen alive; her mutilated body was found a week later, about five miles away. , Kept Guests , The Biltmore's pillows have been plumped for assorted royalty and seven presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy. , In 1964, the Beatles were dropped by helicopter to the hotel rooftop, and hid out for a few days during their first U.S. tour. , Lingerie saleswoman Thelma Becker was the hotel's best-known in-house celebrity, and its longest resident. She called the hotel home for 57 years, until 1997, when a broken hip forced her to check out and move into a convalescent home. If she was "in the mood and had time," she said, she conducted impromptu tours for VIP guests. When she retired in 1975, the hotel management cut her room rate to $33 a night and kept it there for 22 years. In 1980, her suite, 308, was renamed the Becker Suite. , The hotel has long been a favorite location for films. Movie fans and Angelenos alike would recognize it from scenes in "The Sting," "Chinatown," "Ghostbusters," "Beverly Hills Cop," "The Fabulous Baker Boys," and "Vertigo," when director Alfred Hitchcock used the 11 flights of ornate, wrought-iron back-stairs to create dizzying scenes. , Listed as a historical cultural landmark in 1969, the building has charms for moviemakers and guests alike, including the cathedral-like ceilings in the public rooms, ornamented variously with murals of angels and cherubs, and teepees and bison, and Spanish conquistadors. The decorative friezes elegantly camouflage Prohibition-era lookout windows in the Gold Room.