Cocoanut Grove 17 images Created 3 Oct 2019
The Ambassador Hotel formally opened on January 1, 1921. Located at 3400 Wilshire Blvd. in the mid-Wilshire District, the hotel was designed by Pasadena architect, Myron Hunt. The Ambassador Hotel's Coconut Grove restaurant and nightclub was a favorite of Hollywood personalities during the Roaring Twenties, attracting the likes of Louis B. Mayer, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Howard Hughes, Clara Bow, Rudolph Valentino, and Gloria Swanson. From 1930 - 1943, six Academy Awards ceremonies were held at the Coconut Grove. The club became a playground for such film legends as Norma Shearer, Errol Flynn, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, and countless others.
As many as 7 U.S. Presidents stayed at The Ambassador Hotel, from Hoover to Nixon, along with heads of state from around the world. For decades, the nightclub hosted the biggest names in entertainment, such as Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Bing Crosby, Lisa Minnelli, The Supremes, Dorothy Dandridge, Perry Como, and Richard Pryor. The 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy hastened the hotel's demise in an already rapidly changing neighborhood. Despite a renovation in the mid-1970s, the hotel was unable to return to its former splendor and was closed in 1989.
The 17 photographs in this gallery showcase the nightclub in its heyday between 1922 - 1949.
As many as 7 U.S. Presidents stayed at The Ambassador Hotel, from Hoover to Nixon, along with heads of state from around the world. For decades, the nightclub hosted the biggest names in entertainment, such as Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Bing Crosby, Lisa Minnelli, The Supremes, Dorothy Dandridge, Perry Como, and Richard Pryor. The 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy hastened the hotel's demise in an already rapidly changing neighborhood. Despite a renovation in the mid-1970s, the hotel was unable to return to its former splendor and was closed in 1989.
The 17 photographs in this gallery showcase the nightclub in its heyday between 1922 - 1949.
