The Fabulous Biltmore

It is hard sometimes to admit that you are bad at things. I do really like photography and do think I do a fairly good job at taking some artistic looking photos. One thing I am truly bad at is taking indoor shots that have muted lighting. Most of these are washed out or look like I am taking photos of shadows in the dark. I am thinking about this as I scrapple together some photos for the tour I am going to talk about in these next paragraphs.

I really wanted to know more about the city I live in, its history, its architecture.  I did learn a bit from the (500) days of summer walking tour I took a couple years back. Several times they mentioned the LA Conservancy.  And I have heard that name mentioned a lot through friends and the Angel’s Walk kiosks all around the city. Two of those kiosks are very close to my house 1) The Brown Derby-which is now has a strip mall built around its cap.  I think that there is a Boiling Crab in its original space 2) the Ambassador Hotel which is now a K-12 high school. They still have the original doors to the Coconut Grove as part of their theater, I snuck in one day. Part of what the LA Conservancy does is preserve these places so that they do not get turned into strip malls or worse yet, torn down.

Last Sunday I went to the tour of the Biltmore Hotel, which was famous for many reasons. One for hosting the Oscars on and off in the 30s and 40s and for being the birthplace of the Academy Award idea by Louis B Mayer and the Oscar statue by a MGM production designer.  I was able to stand in the room where that idea was born, which was set dressed for a movie shoot.  Other reasons why you should remember this hotel was that it was John F. Kennedy’s headquarters for the Democratic National Convention and the last place the Black Dahlia was seen alive. They have a drink named after her in the hotel bar, it is black. We were there just a bit too early to try it, but maybe sometime.

We met outside the hotel, where the tour guide told us the history of the area, Pershing Square, the Hotel, much better public transportation. He told us about how the facades were designed to reflect California, Mexico, Spain and mythology with architecture similar to the Palazzos of Italy with Beaux Arts touches.  You can see some of those details in these photos.

We entered through the Rendezvous Court, which served as the old lobby, but now is a place where you can sit and have an elegant afternoon tea. I didn’t end up doing that, I felt too underdressed. Plus a bit spendy for me who cannot eat towers of scones with clotted cream.

We toured the ballrooms, bars, the galleria that they ended up having to take out all the seating because of the celebrity looky lous. We saw a secret passage used for get-aways during prohibition.

We learned about the interior designer Smeraldi who turned the ceilings into baroque works of art hiding, all types of flora fauna and zodiac signs. Some of his other work can be found in the Vatican and the White House.

We saw photos of old Hollywood enjoying the Biltmore. Big Bands, Dancing, Dining, Laughing. It helped me to see what the hotel was then, much of it now hidden under casino style loud carpeting.

Next I will be going on the Art Deco tour, at $10 a pop it is silly not to go on them.