Legendary hotels: The beverly Hills Hotel

The Beverly Hills Hotel: The Celebrity Favourite

By Paula Móvil

There’s never a dull moment at the iconic Beverly Hills, with anecdotes written in golden letters. It was the place where Elizabeth Taylor spent six of her eight honeymoons, and she feasted on her favourite dish of fried chicken with mashed potatoes and large quantities of gravy during her regular stays there.

Home to celebrities, deal-making nexus, headquarters for the crême de la crême, and the host of parties that defined the careers of Hollywood’s greatest glories. Everything that could happen has happened at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and each of its stories is bathed in doses of extravagant glamour, as well as a halo of timeless mysticism. Would Beverly Hills be the same without this, its hotel? Frankly, we doubt it. The Beverly Hills Hotel actually existed before the city of Beverly Hills itself. Initially opened as “Beverly Farms” in 1912, the hotel was owned and managed by Margaret Anderson, who opened it as a place for real estate investors to stay while looking for property in the area. Little did she know then that the whole zone would soon be built around it.

In the 1920s, film stars such as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks moved to the zone, encouraging the rest of Hollywood, such as Charlie Chaplin and Valentino, to follow the leaders. The ‘Pink Palace,’ as The Hotel is also known, started out as a terracotta-coloured building before being dyed in its current colour in 1948 to complement the sunset. This was the decade that also saw billionaire Howard Hughes make Bungalow 3 his ‘Home Sweet Home.’ When staying at The Hotel, Hughes often registered several other bungalows under his name, so that no one would ever know which one he was occupying. For a hotel to be considered an icon, it needs to have, in addition to impeccable service, a guest book full of famous names and stories capable of making anyone blush.

From Sidney Poitier dancing barefoot in the lobby after winning an Oscar to John Lennon and Yoko Ono giving peace a chance during their week-long bed in. From Princess Margaret of England making the hotel her refuge during her American tour to Robert Kennedy’s children tragically learning of his assassination in Bungalow 3.

But if there is one celebrity, one diva, one star who left her legacy here, then she was Elizabeth Taylor, who paraded six of her eight husbands through its corridors. Her link with the hotel goes back even further because her father founded an art gallery there when she was a child, planting the roots of a relationship that was destined to last an eternity. Not for nothing did the Beverly Hills Hotel name one of its suites ‘Elizabeth Taylor Bungalow 5’ after her.

Recently, celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson have been spotted walking hand in hand through its corridors, confirming that the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel still has a lot of life, and stories, left in it!