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. Retrieved 13 September 2018 – via LA Times. "Hotel Was Historic Host to Hollywood Headliners".
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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). 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).īetween 19, 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. For example, in the 1950 film 711 Ocean Drive with Edmond O'Brien, it was the backdrop of a syndicate meeting. The building's central-Hollywood location resulted in it appearing in numerous productions, either directly or indirectly. In 1999, a plaque honoring Griffith was placed in the lobby. In 1970, a renovation project converted the hotel into housing for senior citizens.
īy the late 1960s, the neighborhood had deteriorated, and the hotel became a residence primarily for drug addicts and prostitutes. In 1968, Graham Nash was staying there the day Cass Elliot picked him up to go meet Stephen Stills and David Crosby. Although Frawley had spent nearly 30 years living in a suite upstairs, he had moved to the nearby El Royale Apartments several months before. Contrary to popular belief, Frawley did not live in the hotel at the time. His nurse dragged him to the hotel where he died in the lobby. On March 3, 1966, veteran character actor William Frawley was strolling down Hollywood Boulevard after seeing a film when he suffered a major heart attack. 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. Elvis Presley stayed at the hotel (Room 1016) while making his first film, Love Me Tender (1956). 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. The duo was relaxing there with a couple of friends who were in on the gag. 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. Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio often met in the hotel bar. The hotel retained its glamor through the 1950s. Contrary to popular belief, Rudolf Valentino was not a regular at the bar, as the hotel opened after his death in 1926.
Griffith died of a cerebral hemorrhage on the way to a Hollywood hospital, after being discovered unconscious in the lobby of the hotel. On January 13, 1943, Frances Farmer was arrested in her room at the hotel after failing to visit her probation officer when scheduled. On Halloween 1936, Harry Houdini's widow held her tenth séance to contact the magician on the roof of the hotel. The hotel catered to the region's nascent film industry, and is the site for some of Hollywood’s most famous dramatic moments. It was finally completed in 1929 and rechristened the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel in June 1929. Frasier in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, the building was built as the Security Apartments, but never opened.