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THE HOLLYWOOD ROOSEVELT
M
y tour of Old Hollywood, both the gritty and the glamorous, had one more stop:
my hotel, the Hollywood Roosevelt, located across the street from the world-
famous Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Like Musso & Frank Grill, the Roosevelt is one of the
last survivors from early Hollywood. Built in 1927 in Spanish colonial revival style, it
was financed by Tinseltown luminaries Louis B. Mayer, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary
Pickford. In 1929, the first Academy Awards were held here, a ceremony that lasted
only 15 minutes.
Beautifully restored, the hotel’s soaring lobby has painted Spanish castle beams
and vintage tiles. I located the ornate staircase where Bill “Bojangles” Robinson
famously taught Shirley Temple how to tap-dance and did a quick shuffle step.
Fortunately, no one was looking, because today the hotel is home to cool young
Hollywood. Actors and the industry crowd pass through the unmarked door to
Teddy’s nightclub or join the trendy scene around the swimming pool.
By day, the white poolside lounges fill with gaggles of aspiring models,
who do a truly professional job of casually hanging out. They paddle in a
million-dollar work of art; the pool’s bottom was painted by British artist David
Hockney, with blue crescents once described as “swimming parentheses.” By
night, the adjacent indoor-outdoor Tropicana Bar draws quite a few celebrities.
Under the swaying palms, I sensed a lingering aura, a faint trace of early
Hollywood magic. Was it because Marilyn Monroe had done her very first
photo shoot on the diving board (now gone) and lived for months in a balcony
suite overlooking the pool?
After a day exploring the movie capital, I realized that Hollywood is less a
geographical location than a state of mind. The old glamour still remains, if you
just look beyond the veil.
That night I dreamt of movie stars’ limousines gliding up to a
gala premiere as searchlights crossed a Technicolor sky.
OLD HOLLYWOOD
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