Since opening in 1929, Chateau Marmont has been a beloved retreat for actors, writers, musicians, and directors who crave a temporary (and sometimes not-so-temporary) home away from the prying eyes of the public and media. It has become. As the old Hollywood saying goes, “If you want to be noticed, go to the Beverly Hills Hotel. If you don't want to be seen, go to the Chateau Marmont.”
The chateau was the brainchild of Los Angeles lawyer Fred Horowitz, who hired architects Arnold A. Weitzman and William Douglas Lee to create an apartment building inspired by European castles, particularly the Château de Amboise in France's Loire Valley. was constructed. Horowitz chose 8221 Sunset Boulevard as the site for the complex, located on a hillside on the northwest side of Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard and Marmont Lane. This location was an earthquake-resistant structure made of concrete and steel reinforcement. His L-shaped building with French influence has a turret and steep slate roof above it and is set above a garage with valet parking. Inside, the architects placed his 43 apartments with a variety of floor plans and Gothic details. Chateau Marmont he opened on February 1, 1929 and offered furnished apartments of one to six rooms. The largest penthouse was $750 a month (about $13,453 today).
Chateau Marmont was sold in 1931 to Albert E. Smith, founder of the film company Vitagraph, for $750,000 after Horowitz and his investors were hit by the Great Depression. Smith took advantage of the surge in tourists heading to Los Angeles for the 1932 Summer Olympics by converting the property into a hotel. Smith hired silent film actress Anne Little to manage the estate, and she helped develop the chateau's distinctive aesthetic. Using an eclectic mix of properties from Southern Californians looking to make up for their losses after the Great Depression, the chateau was slightly renovated and added amenities such as basic room service.
By the mid-1930s, the Sunset Strip had become a hotspot, and Sunset Tower, Trocadero, and Schwab's Pharmacy opened near the Chateau, further increasing the area's appeal. In 1937, Smith purchased the land east of the chateau that contained several of his existing two-story rental houses and converted them into the first of his now famous bungalows. With the hotel already closed, Hollywood He was supposed to offer the star even more privacy.
Smith sold the hotel in 1942 to German banker Erwin Brettauer for $350,000. While the new owners eliminated many of the amenities and traditions Little incorporated, they also made investments in the property, including hiring costume designer Don Roper to renovate the penthouse. Brettauer added a small outdoor pool in the summer of 1947, and the hotel quickly became a gathering place. In 1951 he purchased land in the north-west corner of the property and in 1952 he hired Elwood, a modernist architect known for his House of Studies, and furthermore he built two contemporary bungalows. It opened in .
Brettauer sold Chateau Marmont in 1963, and the property passed through several owners throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Meanwhile, the hotel fell into a state of disrepair. In 1975, he was purchased for $1 million by Sarlot Kantarjan, a real estate development and construction company owned by Raymond Sarlot and Carl Kantarjan.
