Knickerbocker Hotel
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Phone: (323)462-8202
- Cross Street:
- Hollywood Boulevard
Editorial Review for Knickerbocker Hotel – by Mar Yvette
Overview
With a storied past that is as ghastly (suicides, seances and deaths) as it is glitzy (Tinseltown's most glam headliners all spent time here), the Knickerbocker Hotel is a Hollywood landmark with a tale made for movies. Orignally built in 1923, the eleven-story structure catered to the budding film industry.
The Background
In 1926, the hotel got its first taste of notoriety when Harry Houdini's widow held her yearly Halloween seance on the rooftop to contact the deceased magician. For the next ten years the effort proved futile. The hotel remained a hot spot throughout the 50's-- Elvis Presley was a repeat guest and Marilyn Monroe and Joe Dimaggio honeymooned here--but it fell into disrepair for several decades. In the 90's, the bar--a well-known haunt of silent film star Rudolph Valentino--reopened as the All-Star Cafe & Speakeasy, a romantically nostalgic coffee shop replete with chandeliers, fireplace, overstuffed chairs, pool tables and a Ouija board. Unfortunately, the cafe lost its lease and is no longer open to the public.
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Insider Tips
Know Before You GoThe hotel lobby features a large crystal chandelier, the exact site where legendary film director D.W. Griffith died of a stroke in 1948. You can still see it through the building's main door.
Macabre FactWilliam Frawley (Fred on "I Love Lucy"), who lived at the hotel for decades, dropped dead of a heart attack on the sidewalk on March 3, 1966.
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