Early history
Designed by American architect Myron Hunt, the Ambassador Hotel opened for business at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1921, and quickly established a new standard of hotel luxury.[8] Guests were greeted by a grand lobby upon arrival, with an oversized Italian fireplace, crystal chandeliers, oriental carpets and luxurious draperies adorning the lobby, along with a choice of 1,000 guestrooms and bungalows. The hotel occupied 23.7 acres at 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, bordered by Wilshire Boulevard at the north, 8th Street at the south, Catalina Street at the east, and nearly to Mariposa Avenue at the west.[9] When the hotel's Cocoanut Grove nightclub opened on April 21, 1921, it officially solidified the hotel's social scene. In the 1980 book Are the Stars Out Tonight?, former Ambassador PR director Margaret Tante Burk recalled the Grove's opening night:[8][10]
"'...on the night of April 21, 1921… the new club officially opened its Moroccan style, gold leaf and etched palm tree doors... The Cocoanut Grove was aptly named, guests agreed as they were escorted by the maître de and captains down the wide plush grand staircase... Overhead, soaring about the room were cocoanut trees of papier mache, cocoanuts and palm fronds which had been rescued from the sandy beaches of Oxnard where they had served as atmosphere of the 1921 classic, The Sheik. Swinging from their branches were stuffed monkeys blinking at the revelers with their electrified amber eyes. Stars twinkled in the blue ceiling sky, and on the southernmost wall hung a full Hawaiian moon presiding over a painted landscape and splashing waterfall.'"
According to Photoplay, Joan Crawford and Carole Lombard were frequent competitors in the Charleston contests held on Friday nights; Lombard was discovered at the Grove.[11] As Burk recalled, the famous artificial palm trees that adorned the Cocoanut Grove were left from Rudolph Valentino's 1921 silent romantic drama film The Sheik.[2] The names of the hotel and its nightclub quickly became synonymous with glamour. As a result, “Cocoanut Grove" would become a trendy name for bars and clubs across the United States.
Beginning in 1928, Gus Arnheim led the Cocoanut Grove Orchestra, in which six to seven songs were sung each night. At one point, there was a two-hour broadcast of the orchestra on radio.[12] On February 29, 1940, the 1939 Academy Awards ceremony was held in the Cocoanut Grove, with Bob Hope hosting the awards.[13] The 1953 Golden Globe Awards also were presented at the hotel.[14]
During World War II, U.S. servicemen mingled with movie stars at the hotel during numerous galas and fundraising events to help with the war effort.[8]
Loyce Whiteman, singer for the Cocoanut Grove Orchestra, recalled, "the most beautiful thing about the Grove is that they stood in front of you when you sang and just swayed to the music. Joan Crawford would stand at the stand and sing a couple of choruses with the band. It was a house full of stars."[12]
In November 1960 U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon, the 1960 Republican presidential nominee, watched the 1960 presidential election returns with his family and campaign staff from the Royal Suite of the Ambassador Hotel. One of the hotel's largest ballrooms was used as his election night headquarters.[15] Nixon would narrowly lose the 1960 election to the Democratic candidate, Senator John F. Kennedy.
Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
On June 5, 1968, the winner of the California Democratic presidential primary election, United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy, gave a victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel to supporters.[8] After the speech in the Embassy Room, Kennedy was shot three times along with five other people in the pantry area of the hotel's main kitchen shortly after midnight. Kennedy died the following day at Good Samaritan Hospital; the other victims all survived. Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan was arrested at the scene of the shooting and later convicted of the murder, though Kennedy's assassination continues to be subject to numerous conspiracy theories. During the demolition of the Ambassador Hotel in late 2005 and early 2006, portions of the area where the 1968 shooting occurred were eliminated from the site. The section of Wilshire Boulevard in front of the hotel has been signed the "Robert F. Kennedy Parkway".[16]
Decline and closure
The death of Robert F. Kennedy marked the demise of the hotel coinciding with the decline of the surrounding neighborhood during the late 1960s and 1970s. The area also saw a surge of illegal drugs, poverty, and gang activity infiltrating the Wilshire corridor. Under the direction of Sammy Davis, Jr., the “Now Grove” replaced the classic Cocoanut Grove in 1970 in order to appeal to a modern nightclub crowd.[8] However, patrons lost interest in both the hotel and the neighborhood surrounding it, which caused the Ambassador Hotel to fall into disrepair throughout the years. The Ambassador Hotel closed to guests in 1989, but it remained opened for filming and hosting private events. In 1991, Donald Trump, who had bought the hotel in hopes of tearing it down to build a 125-story building, sold off silver serving platters with the hotel's eagle-topped crest, tiki-style soup bowls from the famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub, and beds and nightstands from the rooms.[17]
Preservation efforts
In 2004 and 2005, the Ambassador Hotel became the focus of a legal struggle between the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which planned to clear the site and construct a school on the property, and the Los Angeles Conservancy and the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, which wanted the hotel and its various elements preserved and integrated into the future school.
The Location Managers Guild organized an event together with the Jefferson High School Academy of Film and Television in March 2005, entitled Last Looks: The Ambassador Hotel. They mentored students in script breakdown and location scouting, using the hotel as a potential location to be scouted, documenting the property one last time. The images taken by both the students and the professionals were then exhibited side by side at Los Angeles City Hall.[18]
After much litigation, a settlement was reached at the end of August 2005, allowing the demolition to begin in exchange for the establishment of a $4.9 million fund, reserved for saving historic school buildings in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Demolition
On September 10, 2005, a final public auction was held for the remaining fittings in the hotel's parking lot,[19] with demolition commencing soon afterwards. On January 16, 2006, the last section of the Ambassador Hotel fell, leaving only the annex that housed the hotel's entrance, shopping arcade, coffee shop, and the Cocoanut Grove, which were promised to be preserved in some manner and integrated within the new school. A ceremony commemorating the demolition of the hotel was held across the street on February 2, 2006, at the H.M.S. Bounty restaurant, located on the ground floor of the Gaylord Apartments.[20]
The Cocoanut Grove was renovated several times before, which destroyed much of its architectural integrity. It was promised that it would undergo yet another major transformation before becoming the auditorium for the new school. Also promised was preservation of the attached ground floor coffee shop, designed by architect Paul Williams. Studies by the LAUSD determined that the integrity of the Cocoanut Grove was weaker than anticipated and that they could neither use it within the planned school nor move it without risking its destruction. In 2004, the LAUSD board voted in favor of demolishing most of the Cocoanut Grove, retaining only the hotel entrance and east wall of the Grove. Litigation between the district and the Los Angeles Conservancy, which had sought to preserve the hotel, was settled out of court on December 18, 2007; demolition began on January 22, 2008.[21]
New school
The Central Los Angeles New Learning Center #1 K–3,[22] and Central Los Angeles New Learning Center #1 4–8/HS, along with the Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park, were built on the site.[23]
The six schools were named as the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools. The K–3 facility opened on September 9, 2009, and the 4–8 and high school facility began operation on September 14, 2010. The north side of the new school has a slightly similar appearance to the original facade of the hotel and north lawns will remain much the same, as seen from Wilshire Boulevard.
