Millennium Biltmore Hotel

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Millennium Biltmore Hotel
Information
Location	506 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California
Status	Complete
Constructed	1923
Companies
Architect	Schultze and Weaver

Millennium Biltmore Hotel is a hotel located in downtown Los Angeles. At its opening in 1923, it was the largest hotel west of Chicago^[1] and by 1969 was designated a Historic Cultural Landmark by the City of Los Angeles. The Millennium Biltmore is operated as part of the Millennium & Copthorne Hotels chain. The hotel has 70,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space. From its original 1500 guestrooms it now has 683 due to room reorganization.^[2]

Contents 1 Architecture 2 Restaurants 3 Events 4 Films and TV shows 4.1 Movies 4.2 Television 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Architecture

Schultze & Weaver designed the Biltmore in a Spanish-Italian Renaissance style with Beaux Arts influence, meant as a throwback to the Castilian heritage of Los Angeles. The "Biltmore Angel" is heavily incorporated into the design—as a symbol of the city as well as the hotel itself. With a thick steel and concrete frame, the structure takes up half a city block and rises over 11 stories.

Inside, the hotel is decorated with vivid frescoes, murals, carved marble fountains and columns, wood-beam ceilings, imported travertine stone walls, crystal chandeliers, bronze stairwells and doorways, stately columns, fine mill work and heavy drapery. Most notable are the ceilings in the main Galleria and the Crystal Ballroom, which were hand painted in 1922 by Italian artist Giovanni Smeraldi, known for his work in the Vatican and the White House. Smeraldi and his team famously painted the ballroom's colorful, seamless fresco over a period of 7 months, decorating it with figures of Greek & Roman gods, angels, cupids and other mythological creatures. It was meticulously restored in the 1980s by Smeraldi's apprentice, Anthony Heinsbergen. The imported Austrian crystal chandeliers that adorn it are 12 feet in diameter.

The Rendezvous Court, once the hotel's lobby but now used primarily for afternoon tea, is decorated with a Moorish plaster ceiling painted with 24-carat gold accents, two imported Italian chandeliers dating back to 1923, and a grand Spanish-Baroque bronze doorway, whose astrological clock still keeps time today. Two figures appear on the stairwell front—on the left is the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres, while on the right is the Spanish conquistador Balboa. The current lobby at the hotel's Grand Ave. entrance still has its original travertine walls and oak paneling as well as the large artificial skylight ceiling, reflected in the custom carpet below.

Each ballroom on the Galleria level is themed either after the rooms’ original function or the hotel's overall California-heritage premise. The Emerald Room was once the hotel's main guest dining room; its decor features images of hunt and harvest, with hand-painted animals and fish on the cast-plaster ceiling beams. The Tiffany Room was formerly an open corridor used as a drop-off point for Crystal Ballroom functions. Now enclosed, the simple yet elegant space centers around exploration, with relief sculptures and panels depicting Queen Isabella, Christopher Columbus, and other Spanish explorers. The split-level Gold Room, once a dining room for elite guests, features Prohibition-era hidden liquor compartments and panels along the ceiling for press photographers to take pictures of the event below. It is decorated with a gold cast-plaster ceiling, hand-oiled wood paneling, and nine mirrored windows along three sides.

The South Galleria is painted with floral friezes inspired by the decor of Pompeii, Italy, and features a vaulted ceiling, marble balustrades and heavy Roman piers. Gold-painted wrought iron gates (made famous in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo) open to a staircase leading down to the Biltmore Bowl.

Also of interest is the hotel's health club and indoor pool, which was modeled after the decks of 1920s cruiseliners such as the Queen Mary. Solid brass trim on windows, doors and railings, teakwood deck chairs and hand-laid Italian mosaic tile on the walls and in the pool are original. All designs are of a nautical theme.

[edit] Restaurants

In 2009, four restaurants and bars serve the hotel, including Smeraldi's Restaurant (Italian cuisine), Sai Sai Modern Asian Cuisine and Sushi Bar, the Rendezvous Court, and the Gallery Bar.

[edit] Events

The Biltmore is known for once being a home to the Oscars. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences was founded at a luncheon banquet in the Crystal Ballroom in May 1927, when guests like Louis B. Mayer met to discuss plans for the new organization and presenting achievement awards to colleagues in their industry. Legend has it that MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, who was in attendance, immediately grabbed a linen Biltmore napkin and sketched the design for the Oscar statue on it. In 1977 Bob Hope hosted the Academy's 50th Anniversary banquet in the same room.

Eight Oscar ceremonies were held in the Biltmore Bowl during the Academy's early years of 1931, 1935-39, and 1941-42. The Biltmore Theater, situated at the corner of 5th and Grand (now the Biltmore Court & Tower), was open from 1924-1967. Will Rogers emceed the opening of the theater, which ran plays headlined by luminaries such as Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Mae West before its closure.

In 1929, Germany's Graf Zeppelin airship soared over the hotel on its round-the-world voyage, sponsored by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Crew and passengers were fed by Biltmore culinary staff, who also replenished their on-board supplies.

During World War II, the Biltmore served as a military rest and recreation facility, with the entire second floor set up with cots for military personnel on leave.

On March 7, 1952, the well-known yogi and author Paramahansa Yogananda, while giving a speech in honor of the Indian ambassador Binay Ranjan Sen, dropped dead of a heart attack at the Biltmore Hotel.^[3][4] This site within the hotel is now revered by many as the place of the yogi's mahasamadhi, or conscious leave of the body.

In 1960 the Democratic National Convention appointed John F. Kennedy as the party's presidential nominee; he set up his campaign headquarters at the Biltmore in the Music Room (now the Lobby), with running mate Lyndon B. Johnson across the hall in the Emerald Room. Their press conferences in the Crystal Ballroom were heavily photographed and documented.

The Beatles paid a visit to the Presidential Suite in August 1964 during their first U.S. tour. Due to the overwhelming number of fans crowding the sidewalks in front of the hotel, the "Fab Four" were forced to access their room by landing atop the hotel in a helicopter.(^{[citation needed]}

Other events included the hotel serving as headquarters for the International Olympic Committee during the 1984 Olympic Games and a 1988 gala for the Duke & Duchess of York hosted by Dr. Armand Hammer. Recently the Biltmore has hosted the semi-finals for American Idol, the yearly awards for the Cinemal Audio Society, visiting teams for the World Baseball Classic, and multiple Grammy Awards after-parties.

Preceded by The Ambassador Hotel Holllywood

Venues of Oscars 1941 - 1942

Succeeded by The Ambassador Hotel Los Angeles

[edit] Films and TV shows

The hotel's lobby was used in Britney Spears' video for Overprotected, and the swimming pool was used in the 1999 film Cruel Intentions.(^{[citation needed]}

Scenes from many movies and television shows have been filmed at the hotel, including:

[edit] Movies

Chinatown, A Star is Born, Splash, Bachelor Party, Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, True Lies, Independence Day, Blow; Ocean's 11, The Nutty Professor, Bugsy, Blue Streak, In the Line of Fire, Wedding Crashers, The Italian Job, Daredevil, National Treasure, Spider-man, and Prom Night.(^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Television

Charlie's Angels, Columbo, Beverly Hills 90210, ER, NYPD Blue, The West Wing, That '70s Show, Ally McBeal, CSI: New York, Nip/Tuck, 24, and Heroes.(^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Millennium Biltmore Hotel
• "It's De Limit" Forbes article by Finn-Olaf Jones on Biltmore architects Schultze and Weaver, April 24, 2006

Coordinates: 34°02′56″N 118°15′12″W / 34.048908°N 118.253295°W / 34.048908; -118.253295