Farewell to L.A.‘s Ambassador Hotel
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 12.19.05 | 6:02 PM ET
Not too long ago I took a drive east along Wilshire Boulevard from Koreatown to downtown, a part of Los Angeles that many people seem to be avoiding these days. It’s just too painful for a lot of them, Ken Bernstein, director of preservation issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy, recently told the L.A. Downtown News. The reason: That’s where the demolition of the Ambassador Hotel, a Los Angeles landmark since 1921, is currently taking place.
I’m too young to remember the hotel’s heyday, so as I whizzed past at 40 mph, I didn’t feel the same pains a lot of other native Los Angelenos are experiencing. But I’m familiar enough with Ambassador’s place in L.A. and U.S. history to be saddened as wrecking crews turn it to dust.
The Ambassador was designed by Myron Hunt, and it became a hot spot soon after it opened. Hollywood stars turned its nightclub, The Coconut Grove, into the place to be. In the 1930s, the club hosted the Academy Awards several times. Howard Hughes lived in the hotel for a spell, and several U.S. presidents checked in for stays. Richard Nixon reportedly wrote his Checkers speech there in 1952. Its most notorious moment occurred in 1968, when Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in the pantry. The Ambassador stopped operating as a hotel in 1988, but it lived on as a popular site for Hollywood productions. It has appeared in countless films, including “Almost Famous,” “The Graduate” and “L.A. Story.”
After the demolition is complete, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the current landlord, will build a state-of-the-art campus for more than 4,000 students. Until then, locals are keeping tabs on the hotel’s last days. I’ve been periodically visiting The Ambassador’s Last Stand, a blog that has been chronicling the hotel’s fate since 2003. The Los Angeles Times also has a photo essay (link in right-hand column) with some terrific shots by local high school students, including the one on this page by Jefferson High School 11th grader Jovan Henderson.
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
Mary Ellen 12.20.05 | 1:31 PM ET
A sad site that Ambassador Demolition. LA needs to work harder to preserve its rich history. A 4,000 student school in an urban environment does not seem like a good idea to me.
Steve Porter 12.25.05 | 12:21 PM ET
Just another instance of America wanting to get rid of the bitter reminders of its past, I suppose. It’s a difficult qustion, whether to preserve the site of an infamous assassination still steeped in controversy or to “get over it” and get on with “progress” for the city of L.A.
But given the fact that most people believe Sirhan killed RFK with no help or prompting from others, what would be the point of preserving the site where a potential president and brother of another assassinated politician was murdered? That kind of history, apparently, we don’t want to preserve for any future investigations that might reveal “the Truth” about what really happened that night in June, 1968.
john 02.06.06 | 9:26 PM ET
It’s too bad the Ambassador
john 02.06.06 | 9:30 PM ET
It’s too bad the Ambassador
couldn’t be preserved as a
historic landmark.As for the
LAUSD,I wonder how they would
feel if someone demolished a
hollywood landmark that they
cherished.
Ray Ramos 05.07.06 | 4:01 PM ET
Anyone, who has an interest in The Ambassador Hotel, I would like to Invite you to My new black & white photo exhibit: THE GHOSTS OF THE AMBASSADOR HOTEL. It is being presented by The Epoxybox Gallery @ 602 Venice Blvd. @ the corner of Abbott Kinney. I worked @ The late great hotel for six years, and it’s aura runs deep inside of me… And I hope you’ll agree that it shows in my work. I hope you can make the effort & see this very unique exhibit. It will continue to run from May 6,7, to May 13,14 (weekends only) but you can call the Gallery @ 310-862-4242 for special appointments.