Raymond Sarlot - Life at the Marmont: The Inside Story of Hollywoods Legendary Hotel of the Stars—Chateau Marmont

PENGUIN BOOKS

LIFE at the MARMONT

Raymond Sarlot owned the Chateau Marmont Hotel from 1975 to 1991. He previously served in the Corps of Engineers during World War II, before moving to California, where he became a general building contractor. When Sarlot and his business partner Karl Kantarjian originally purchased the hotel, he was interested in it as a tax shelter, but a love affair with the landmark building soon developed, and instead, Sarlot committed himself to the hotels restoration. Sarlot is also a charter founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art and founder of the first Los Angeles Marathon. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California.

Fred E. Basten is the author of more than thirty-five books, including Glorious Technicolor: The Movies Magic Rainbow; Great American Billboards; Max Factors Hollywood; Marvin Gaye, My Brother (with Frankie Gaye); Steve McQueen: The Final Chapter (with Grady Ragsdale); The Lost Artwork of Hollywood; and Max Factor: The Man Who Changed the Faces of the World. He currently lives in Santa Monica, California.

LIFE

at the

MARMONT

The Inside Story of Hollywoods Legendary
Hotel of the StarsChateau Marmont

Raymond Sarlot
and Fred E. Basten

PENGUIN BOOKS

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

penguinrandomhouse.com

First published in the United States of America by Roundtable Publishing, Inc., 1987

This edition with a new afterword by Fred E. Basten published in Penguin Books 2013

Copyright Raymond R. Sarlot and Fred E. Basten, 1987

Afterword copyright Fred E. Basten, 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this product may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

All photographs are from the Chateau Marmont Collection, unless otherwise credited.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Sarlot, Raymond R.

Life at the Marmont : the inside story of Hollywoods legendary hotel of the starsChateau Marmont / Raymond Sarlot and Fred E. Basten ; foreword by Karl Kantarjian.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN: 978-1-101-59869-6

1. Chateau Marmont (Los Angeles, Calif.)History. 2. Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)History20th century. 3. Motion picture actors and actressesLos AngelesBiography. 4. CelebritiesCaliforniaLos AngelesBiography.
5. Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)Biography. 6. Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)Social life and customs20th century. 7. Los Angeles (Calif.)Biography. 8. Los Angeles (Calif.)History20th century. 9. Los Angeles (Calif.)Social life and customs20th century. I. Basten, Fred E. II. Title.

TX941.M366S27 2013

647.9579494dc23 2012041513

Version_3

W hen we first contacted Ginger Rogers for her remembrances about Chateau Marmont, she commented, If only the walls could talk!

The walls didnt talk, but hundreds of people did: former and current guests, staff members, and others who have been close to the Hollywood community over the years. Without their generous contributions, this book never would have been possible.

For opening doors, offering suggestions, and providing leads that proved invaluable to the researching of the Marmont story, we thank Rutanya Alda, Sandy Arcieri, Lu Artz, DeWitt Bodeen, Richard Bright, Ward Byron, Nancy K. Campbell, Dona Carn, Margaret Cormier, Thomas DeLong, Mary A. Fischer, George Fisher, Bill Hickman, Suzanne Jierjian, Edgar Kahn, Terry Kingsley-Smith, Dorothy A. Kuhn, Elmo Legg, Jona Liebrecht, Audrey Meltzer, Banks Montgomery, Tom Owen, Barbara Platoff, Mary Carol Rassett, Liz Roberson, Katie Roper, Leah Rozen, and Rosa Lee Sonney.

For sharing a part of their lives, and memories, we are especially indebted to the Arngrim family (Alison, Norma, Stefan, and Thor), Lauren Bacall, Hermione Baddeley, Billy Barnes, Greg Bautzer, Anne Baxter, Regina Bernstein, Bill Boling, Larry Bordeaux, Yul Brynner, Donald Carroll, Morgan Cavett, Richard Chamberlain, Quentin Crisp, John Crosby, Dolores Dorn-Heft, Glenn Ford, Jim Frank, Nicolas Gessner, Alex Gildzen, Guilford Glazer, James Haake, Sherry Hackett, Richard Haydn, James Hill, Doug Horowitz, Dr. Robert Horowitz, John Howell, Pam Hughes, Alexander Ives, Burl Ives, Jill Jackson, Henry Jaffe, Gavin Lambert, Burton Lane, Esther Long, Mary Loos, Louis Malle, Walter Matthau, Lorne Michaels, Inez Monter, George Montgomery, Ken Murray, Connie Nelson, Barry Norcross, Robert Osborne, Bernard Owett, Elsie Ferguson Pendleton, Joan Penfield, Tom Rafter, Tony Renis, Lynn Redgrave, Lee Remick, Ginger Rogers, Dawn Sandor, Natalie Schafer, Gwen Seager, Wallace Seawell, Martha Scott, Tom Sefton, Steffi Sidney, Inger Simonsen, James Gordon Smith, Donald Spackman, Michael Stewart, Alan Sues, Donald Sutherland, Noelly Tomayo, Casey Tibbs, Marc Wanamaker, Ilenna Welch, Tom Wheat, Boyd Willat, Marie Windsor, Joanne Woodward, and Eleanor Zee.

For their candid observations, anecdotes, and continued moral support, we are grateful to a special group of friends who asked to remain anonymous.

For their cooperation in helping track down and verify statistical data relating to the Marmonts early days, as well as its celebrity clientele, our sincere appreciation to the keepers of the reference files at the Los Angeles Times, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and the Los Angeles and Santa Monica Public Libraries.

For the files of Corinne Patten, which she generously left to the hotel. Corinne had hoped to one day write a book about her experiences at the Marmont. Extensive use of her detailed memoirs was invaluable.

For the opportunity of speaking often with a truly amazing lady, Ann Little, before she passed away. Though her remembrances were of times long past, she related them with such vividness that one almost believed that they had happened yesterday.

Above all, for her faith in this book, and her enormous contributions throughout its preparation, our deepest appreciation to Carmel Volti. Carmels friendship, enthusiasm, and colorful revelations about the Marmont filled each day with discovery and joy.

Finally, we must acknowledge Chateau Marmont itself, for graciously enduring Hollywoods many changes to link the past with the present.

Raymond Sarlot and Fred E. Basten

W hen my partner, Raymond Sarlot, and I bought Chateau Marmont in 1975, we had heard most of the legends about the hotel and its famous guests. The so-called tales of the Marmont had been circulating for so long that they had come to be accepted as fact.

The story of Chateau Marmont is practically a capsule history of Hollywood itself, from the decline of silent pictures and the start of talkies through the glamorous golden era and beyond. As the movie capital prospered, so did the Marmont. When Hollywood hit hard times, the hotel struggled as well. Somehow, they have both survived the seasons of changes to become legends in their own time.

Like Hollywood, Chateau Marmont has attracted the most celebrated and talented names in show business and the arts: writers, producers, directors, and stars. They came to Hollywood to work and to be seen. They came to the Marmont to live in seclusion.