The Sunset Marquis is the Théâtre des Vampires of Hollywood.
Dark, a little dangerous and full of fun-loving frontmen, low-lidded babes and a few jangly bottles of JD.
And now, the Sunset’s celebrating 50 years with If These Walls Could Rock, a pictorial tome that captures all the hedonistic, star-studded nights the little pension off Alta Loma has played infamous host to.
Founded in the early ’60s, the Sunset was the boozy brainchild of real estate developer George Rosenthal, who got the idea for a musicians hotel after a visit to the Chicago Playboy Club.
The 20th century’s most debauched artists are all here, many posing bleary-eyed and smirking by the pool, where girls once unstrung their tops to coax Keith Richards onto his balcony.
Throughout, the book tells a father-son story about how this magical place went from a small apartment-hotel to a luxurious, 154-room outlaw haven, with rooms hidden among the bougainvilleas, a discreet whiskey snug and a basement recording studio.
It’s a place that’s been loved.
Just ask one of its more famous residents, Slash.
“Everyone who hangs out there really has an affinity for it. Nobody destroys the actual hotel … Just themselves.”
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