Page Places: The Chateau Marmont

For this installment of Page Places we're headed back down to L.A. to one of the penultimate Rock and Roll landmarks, The Chateau Marmont.

The Chateau Marmont, located on Sunset Boulevard, was built in 1927, and is modeled after the Chateau d'Ambroise in the French Loire Valley. The Chateau's place as the destination for Rock and Roll Royalty, has long been established, indeed, it is thought that the Chateau was the inspiration for the Eagle's epic number "Hotel California".

The Chateau has hosted an array of musicians over the years and a number of the most infamous events in rock history has occurred inside its walls. Jim Morrison claimed he used up 8 of his 9 lives at the Chateau due to his love of dangling from the higher floors. John Lennon stayed there during his "lost weekend" in the mid-1970's when he was exiled from the Dakota by his wife Yoko Ono. Anthony Kiedis and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers both stayed there, with Frusciante getting the boot after management saw what sort of squalor he was living in.

John Frusciante at the Chateau in 2002

The Chateau was a known entity to Jimmy Page prior to Led Zeppelin. He had stayed there before when touring America in 1967 with the Yardbirds. When Led Zeppelin needed somewhere to stay for their first tour of America in beginning in December 1968, Jimmy elected to choose the Chateau. He subsequently wrote an "On this day" blurb about it on his website:

ON THIS DAY… 23 DEC 1968
IT WAS LED ZEPPELIN’S FIRST JOURNEY TO THE UNITED STATES

The members of Led Zeppelin enter the United States for their first American Tour, and we stayed at one of my old Yardbird haunts – The Chateau Marmont. I had been used to touring the States with The Yardbirds over the previous two years, but for first timers Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones, it was not going to take long for them to be initiated in to the ways of the US.

Led Zeppelin at the Chateau Marmont

One of the crazier stories about Led Zeppelin is said to have occurred at the Chateau. Most likely apocryphal, as many of these stories are, with the only real source being road manager Richard Cole, it is said that in a fit of excitement, John Bonham rode his Harley Davidson motorcycle up and down the halls of the hotel. As stories like this go, it's hard to verify, but it certainly does add to the legends of debauchery surrounding the band, as well as adding to the mystique of the Chateau Marmont.

I have visited the Chateau numerous times in the past few years. The first time for me was in 2008 when I was in Los Angeles with my friend Nathan. We were cruising up and down Sunset Blvd checking out the sites, and decided to pull in and check it out. I will say this, the Chateau is like a fortress, and if you don't have a reservation, it is nigh on impossible to gain entry. We decided to have a drink at the hotel bar instead and take a few pictures. Once we had finished we left to the next famous rock and roll hotel in L.A. which I will tell you all about in a later post.

I would of course love to stay here one day, rooms run about $500 a night for the cheaper ones, so it would definitely need to be a special occasion. According to the Guardian UK however, "If you really want to go Hollywood A-List, stay in room 64, the two-bedroom penthouse (used by Howard Hughes so he could spy on starlets down at the pool). It has a marble hallway and an enormous wrap-around terrace overlooking the Strip. It just happens to be Bono's favourite room, too." So I might need to check that one out, haha.

Me in front of the Chateau Marmont