The Beverly Hills Hotel

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Beverly Hills Hotel
Beverly Hills Hotel
Hotel facts and statistics
Location 9641 Sunset Boulevard
Beverly Hills, California
Opening date May 12, 1912
Developer Margaret & Stanley Anderson
Architect Elmer Grey
Owner The Dorchester Collection
No. of restaurants 4
No. of rooms 204 guest rooms and suites, including 21 one-of-a-kind bungalows
Parking Valet Parking
Website beverlyhillshotel.com

The Beverly Hills Hotel is a hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. It was opened on May 12, 1912 by Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, who had been managing the Hollywood Hotel. The original main building of the Beverly Hills Hotel was designed by Pasadena architect Elmer Grey. The extensive gardens of the grounds were designed by landscape architect Wilbur David Cook. It was the first building in the greater area, leading to the creation of a surrounding city, and is often referred to, by the local population (and others such as cab drivers), simply as The Hotel. Since the city's inception, the hotel has been a central meeting place for residents and business people, especially from Los Angeles's movie and television industries.

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[edit] Hotel family

Beverly Hills Hotel, overlooking Beverly Hills, 1921.
Beverly Hills Hotel, front driveway and entrance, circa 1925

The hotel is managed and owned by the Dorchester Collection. The Dorchester Collection is a collection of seven luxury hotels in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and Italy and was organized in 1996 to manage the hotel interests of the Brunei Investment Agency.

Svend Petersen, the Danish-American pool manager at the hotel for 42 years, became a Hotel Ambassador in 2002. He notably opened up the pool after hours for the Beatles and he taught Faye Dunaway to swim a freestyle crawl for Mommie Dearest. He was also known for warning Southern California newcomers in drastic and memorable language about the scorching sun.

The hotel is also home to the famous Polo Lounge, and the exterior of the hotel was featured on the album cover art of The Eagles' 1976 LP "Hotel California".

Its strict resident owner from 1954 until his death in 1979 was former Detroit real estate magnate Ben L. Silberstein[1], who took it over from Hernando Courtright, later hotelier at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Some of the hotel's owners have been celebrities: Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, and currently (as noted below) the Sultan of Brunei. From 1928 to 1932, the hotel was owned by the Van Noy Railway News and Hotel Company.


[edit] Recent purchases

Marvin H. Davis bought the Hotel for $54 million from Silberstein's sons-in-law Burt Slatkin and Ivan F. Boesky. Boesky bought the 5% of stock that was outstanding for a reported fortune and decided to sell, despite Slatkin's desire to keep the hotel. Less than a year later Davis sold the hotel to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah for $110 million.

[edit] Notable guests

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Pink Palace by Sandra Lee Stuart ISBN 0-8184-0246-6 1978

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 34°04′53″N 118°24′49″W / 34.081437°N 118.413692°W / 34.081437; -118.413692

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