The Ambassador Hotel
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The Ambassador Hotel's nightclub, the Cocoanut Grove, circa the late 1950s. |
The Ambassador Hotel was a landmark hotel in
Los Angeles, California. It was best known as a favorite of celebrities from the early
1920s until the late
1960s and the site of many
Academy Awards ceremonies. Perhaps as many as seven U.S. Presidents slept there, from
Hoover to
Nixon, along with heads of state from around the world. The hotel's famed
Cocoanut Grove nightclub for decades was played by the biggest names in entertainment, serving as the launching point of such performers as
Barbra Streisand,
Bing Crosby and
Richard Pryor. It was also the site of the
assassination of
Robert F. Kennedy in
1968, following his California Primary victory speech. The hotel was located at 3400
Wilshire Boulevard.
The death of RFK coincided with the beginning of the hotel's demise, hastened by the decline of the surrounding neighborhood. By the
1970s, the
gang and
drug problems in the area near the hotel were already becoming severe, and worsened as time went on. Despite a renovation of the Cocoanut Grove in the mid 1970s, under the creative control of
Sammy Davis, Jr., the hotel was not able to return to its former splendor, and closed in
1989.
From its closing in 1989 until 2004 (and even long before closing), it was a frequent site of movie, music video and television filming, having served as a location for such films as
The Graduate,
Beaches,
Catch Me If You Can and
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The television series
Angel holds the distinction as being the last production to shoot in the hotel for an episode in its first season, although
Emilio Estevez' RFK
biopic Bobby [1] managed to film there in late 2005, even as the adjoining wing was being demolished. The hotel's Cocoanut Grove also played host to rock legend
Roy Orbison and several rock preformers in the 1987 TV special
Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White NightFrom 2004 to 2005, it was totally closed and was the focus of a battle between the
Los Angeles Unified School District, who wanted to clear the site and build a school;
Sirhan Sirhan, who, through his lawyer the late Lawrence Teeter, wanted to conduct more testing in the pantry where RFK was shot; and preservationists (L.A. Conservancy and the Art Deco Society), who wanted the hotel and its various elements saved and integrated into the future school.
Following much litigation, a settlement was reached at the end of August 2005, allowing the Ambassador demolition to go forward in exchange for the establishment of a $5 million fund, earmarked for saving historic school buildings in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
On September 10, 2005, a final public auction was held for the remaining hotel fittings and work soon began on demolition of the hotel. On January 16, 2006, the last section of The Ambassador Hotel fell, with most of the demolition taking place in 2005, leaving only the annex that housed the hotel entrance, a shopping arcade, the coffee shop, and the Cocoanut Grove, which will be reused for the school. A
wake attended by hundreds was held for the Ambassador on February 2, 2006 at the Gaylord Apartments and adjoining restaurant H.M.S. Bounty [
2], both part of a historic building built in 1924, directly across the street from the Ambassador;
Diane Keaton, who was one of many who fought for the preservation of the hotel, was among the speakers at the ceremony.
The Cocoanut Grove nightclub has been renovated a number of times before, destroying much of its architectural integrity, and will undergo yet another major transformation before emerging as the auditorium for the new school. Also being kept is the coffee shop, designed by one of the earliest noted African-American architects,
Paul Williams. The coffee shop shares the ground floor corner of the same building as the Cocoanut Grove. Portions of the area where Kennedy was shot have been set aside, but those remnants have been removed from the site. The north side of the new school will reflect the original facade of the hotel and north lawns will remain much the same, as seen from Wilshire Boulevard.
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"Late Check-Out: Images From The Ambassador Hotel's Final Two Years" Photo Book published in 2006.
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TheAmbassadorHotel.com*
The Ambassador's Last Stand : ongoing coverage of the L.A. landmark's final days.
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Seeing Stars: The Ambassador Hotel
