Knickerbocker Hotel (Los Angeles)

The Hollywood Knickerbocker Apartments, formerly the Knickerbocker Hotel, is a retirement home located at 1714 Ivar Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Designed in 1923 by architect E.M. Frasier in Spanish Colonial Revival style, the building was built as the Security Apartments, but never opened. It was finally completed in 1929 and rechristened the Knickerbocker in June 1929.[1][2] The hotel catered to the region's nascent film industry, and is the site for some of Hollywood’s most famous dramatic moments. On Halloween 1936, Harry Houdini's widow held her tenth séance to contact the magician on the roof of the hotel.[3] On January 13, 1943, Frances Farmer was arrested in her room at the hotel after failing to visit her probation officer when scheduled.[4] On July 23, 1948, filmmaker D. W. Griffith died of a cerebral hemorrhage on the way to a Hollywood hospital, after being discovered unconscious in the lobby of the hotel.[5] In 1968, Graham Nash was staying there the day Cass Elliot picked him up to go meet Stephen Stills and David Crosby.[6]

The Knickerbocker Hotel

Filming

The building's central-Hollywood location resulted in it appearing in numerous productions, either directly or indirectly. For example, in the 1950 film 711 Ocean Drive with Edmond O'Brien, it was the backdrop of a syndicate meeting. The hotel and its surrounding street also served as the backdrop for the opening scene of a first-season episode of the 1966 series Mission Impossible, titled "Operation Rogosh" (Season 1, Episode 3).

Between 1964 and 1970, viewers of the ABC variety series The Hollywood Palace would regularly see the hotel building and its neon sign in the background of performances videotaped in the Hollywood Palace's parking lot, directly behind the hotel.

The sign over the front entrance identifying it as a hotel was still in place when the TV series Mannix filmed a scene there for the 1970 episode, "Only One Death to a Customer" (Season 3, Episode 20).

Celebrity guests

The hotel retained its glamor through the 1950s. Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio often met in the hotel bar. Elvis Presley stayed at the hotel (Room 1016) while making his first film, Love Me Tender (1956).[3] For many years, it was the residence of actor William Frawley. Laurel and Hardy stayed in room 205. Graham Nash lived there in 1968. Director D. W. Griffith, died in the lobby there in July 1948.

Media
Postcard circa 1940s

On December 1, 1954, a camera crew from the NBC program This is Your Life surprised retired comedy legends Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy in room 205 of the hotel. The duo was relaxing there with a couple of friends who were in on the gag. While both comedians were polite throughout the show, Stan Laurel was apparently privately somewhat displeased to be put on television without his consent or prior notice.[7]

Events

In 1962, celebrated Hollywood costume designer Irene Lentz, believed to be despondent over Gary Cooper's death, committed suicide by jumping from her 11th-floor room window.

On March 3, 1966,[8] veteran character actor William Frawley was strolling down Hollywood Boulevard after seeing a film when he suffered a major heart attack. His nurse dragged him to the hotel where he died in the lobby. Contrary to popular belief, Frawley did not live in the hotel at the time. Although Frawley had spent nearly 30 years living in a suite upstairs, he had moved to the nearby El Royale Apartments several months before.

Also contrary to popular belief, Rudolf Valentino was not a regular at the bar, as the hotel opened after his death in 1926.

Retirement Apartments

By the late 1960s, the neighborhood had deteriorated, and the hotel became a residence primarily for drug addicts and prostitutes. In 1970, a renovation project converted the hotel into housing for senior citizens. In 1999, a plaque honoring Griffith was placed in the lobby.

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References
  1. Meares, Hadley (2015-06-19). "Off the Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Knickerbocker Hotel's Haunted History". KCET. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  2. Festivities to Mark Opening of Apartments. Los Angeles Times, June 16, 1929.
  3. Lord, Rosemary (2003). Hollywood Then and Now. San Diego: Thunder Bay Press. p. 87. ISBN 1-59223-104-7.
  4. Frances Farmer Resists Arrest. Los Angeles Times January 14, 1943.
  5. Pioneer Film Man D.W. Griffith Dies. Los Angeles Times, July 24, 1948.
  6. Source: Graham Nash interview with Anthony deCurtis on YouTube
  7. This is Your Life - December 1, 1954 Laurel & Hardy episode
  8. Rasmussen, Cecilia (26 July 1998). "Hotel Was Historic Host to Hollywood Headliners". Retrieved 13 September 2018 – via LA Times. Four years later, William Frawley, best known as Fred Mertz on TV's "I Love Lucy," walked out of the hotel's bar--where he always ordered a walnut with his drink--and dropped dead on the sidewalk. By 1966, when Frawley died, the Knickerbocker had become something of a dump.


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