About Me
For many years I was a 'Lucky Lady' for many people! I was originally designed by Myron Hunt (who also designed the Rose Bowl too.) Construction started on me back in 1919 and I opened on New Years Day two years later on 1921 My address was 3400 Wilshire Blvd. I was worth the wait and just in time for the JAZZ AGE (I was young, sexy and sassy, like a young Barbara Stanwyck!) I quickly became the centerpiece of the young City of Los Angeles (before I came along Wilshire Blvd. was a dirt road down to the ocean!) Not long after I opened up the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, with a little help from some fake palm trees from the set of Rudy Valentino's movie The Sheik (thanks to the my savy Grove manager Johny Manos.) I was the place! Everyone came to me Movie Stars, wouldbe & couldbe movie stars, Presidents, Kings & Queens, Eastcoast Society Folks (Rockerfellers, Vanderbilts, Duponts etc.) ,Gangsters & G men, F.Scott & Zelda.. anyone who was anyone in the 1st half of the 20th Century. Around the late 50's & early 60's people started moving more west closer to the ocean... The once thriving, Dowtown L.A. was, already biting the dust. But With my name and reputation I was still hanging on. Then on June 5th 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot here after giving a victory speech in my Embassy Ballroom. That didn't help things. Sammy Davis Jr. was brought in as the musical director of the Cocoanut Grove to give it a boost. But even THE WHAM OF SAM couldn't bring back the people & my luster, as people were now seemingly willing to traveling out to Las Vegas for their live entertainment. Eventually all my movie star friends either got too old to visit or just died... (although it seems after many had passed on surprisingly a few came back and checked in indefinitely... if you know what I mean?) What really cut me down to my knees was the construction of The Century Plaza Hotel in the new area Century City (that was once the backlot of 20th Century Fox can you believe that?) Soon The President had a new place to stay while visiting Los Angeles. The tough lady that I am (picture me as Barbara Stanwyck in The Big Valley) I held out until they closed me for good in 1989. But you know me I wasn't going quietly... I held on for almost 20 years thanks to my old friend Hollywood who would use me like a film & TV studio through those uncertain years (think of me then like Barbara Stanwyck in The Thornbirds.) My dear friend RAY RAMOS, who worked in my filming department used to tell the movie people "you can film a whole movie here at The Ambassador! Often they did sometimes two at the same time... I was a busy gal. Many of my new Hollywood friends would come and visit repeatedly: Tom Hanks, Val Kilmer (he loved the stray cats, but was freaked out by the big band music that sometimes was heard coming from the Cocoanut Grove late at night... when no one was there?), Ray Liotta, Tony Scott, Sly Stallone, Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp, David Mamet and Brittany Murphy. She loved my company and requested her sexy Maxim magazine shoot to be done at the hotel. She would have been fun to have around in my golden era. I could just see here in a charlston contest. I thank them all. Sadly there was no happy ending for me. Though some nice people tried to save me, like actress Diane Keaton. I was torn down begining in 2005 by The Los Angeles Unified School District who bought me through a little piece of skullduggery called emmiment domian. They said that they would keep certain pieces of me The Grove, RFK Panrty, The Paul Williams designed Coffee Shop ... they lied. I was destroyed by the very town I helped build. Just Like my friend from across the street The Brown Derby and nearby Perrino's. I guess that's the way of the world or maybe just in Los Angeles. My time had passed on like all my old friends: Howard Hughes, Valentino, Tom Mix, Chaplin & Keaton, Swanson, Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, Gable, Lombard & Harlow, Bing & Bob, Coop & Duke, Errol(that rascal!) Joan Crawford, Loretta Young, Cary, Orson, Rita, Marlene and dear Marilyn (who was discovered at the Blue Book Modeling Agency housed in the first floor, casino area)... Remember me... I loved you. Tell a friend and comeback and visit again. Forever yours, The Ambassador
