The Castle on Sunset: Love, Fame, Death and Scandal at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont by Shawn Levy

Author: Shawn Levy 

Title: The Castle on Sunset

Publisher: W&N

Published: 2019

Pages: 384

Genre: Nonfiction / History 

     For nearly ninety years, Hollywood's brightest stars have favored the Chateau Marmont as a home away from home. Filled with deep secrets but hidden in plain sight, its evolution parallels the growth of Hollywood itself. Perched above the Sunset Strip like a fairy-tale castle, the Chateau seems to come from another world entirely. An apartment-house-turned-hotel, it has been the backdrop for generations of gossip and folklorMuch of what's happened inside the Chateau's walls has eluded the public eye - until now. With wit and prowess, Shawn Levy recounts the wild parties and scandalous liaisons, creative breakthroughs and marital breakdowns, births, and untimely deaths that the Chateau Marmont has given rise to. Vivid, salacious, and richly informed, the book is a glittering tribute to Hollywood as seen from the suites and bungalows of its most hallowed hotel.

     I suspect like me the Chateau Marmont's name means little to you. I only came across this book going on a deep dive for possible new books to read and this came up as an if like this one why not try. When reading the blurb I realized that this might just be one to hold my attention. A mix of old Hollywood and scandal and crime. It is a wonder that I never came across this book before.  It also goes to show us that no matter how much we think things change sometimes they just stay the same. 

     For me, I think this goes as a first reading a book about a building rather than a person or a whole city. But having read it I can understand why it deserves its own book. So much of Hollywood's past and indeed present is wrapped up within its edifice. It's the sort of place people properly say if only these walls could talk the stories they would have to tell. It also strikes me that it endures despite its self. As you delve deeper you realize that by now the place should have been torn down and replaced with some bland name brad hotel. As is the way of things in L.A, but instead she soldiers own through humorous owners never quite seeming to bring in the big bucks but loved wholly heartily all the same. 

It seems strange when viewed now that the hotel was originally built on a dirt track road intending to be residential apartments for those that could afford it. But as is so often the way things don't often work out the way we intend them to. It becomes the haunt of many of the big stars from Hollywood's golden age. Having been lucky enough to study film after leaving school a great many of these names came rushing back to me. I fear however that for many these names will mean nothing. But once again this is just the way of things one day the names Charlize Theron and Tom Hanks will mean just as little to the general public as those of the golden era.

     It is in part that this book works so well, for it not only tells the story of the chateau but also the rise of Hollywood and how from its first stages it has become a powerhouse known the world over. But this is not a book to sugar coat what has always lived just under the service of red carpets and big blockbusters. For as much as we would love to believe the hype for a great many, this is a land of failed dreams and abuse of many a young starlet with ambitions of reaching the big time. Maybe the only thing that's really changed is once in a while it comes up on the nightly news now. Never the less it makes for some interesting reading. We get to see a steady succession of the film and music industry's biggest and brightest come through their doors. 

      For their part, it does seem that those who owned this grand building and a great many who worked there tried their best to accommodate their guest and make the business a success. It would seem though that this love of the chateau never really seemed to end up with a financial gain. But instead for its guests and for the very building itself. It's one of those places you are sure has a soul of its own. When you read how people talk about it, it always seems like they have great warmth for it. I have no doubt that whilst not all its famous guests will ring a bell with you there will be plenty that you recognize and get a sneak peek into what they where are are like as people, if only for a few lines.  

     The Chateau Marmont seems to be one of the few fixed points in the whole of Hollywood. Whilst times change and the face going in and out of its doors have grown old and pasted into that of legends the grand old build remains. Levy himself clear has a great deal of love for the place never more obvious in the way he talks about it with such care and affection. But as with any great story of tinsel town, it can never be all shining lights and big breaks. So alongside its highs, we witness its crashes. Some times due to neglect others down to the actions of its guests. 

     For me, it was fascinating to delve into this side of the film industry. For one thing more often than not when such stories come up it is down to gossip with no evidence to back it up. Here due to Levy's long and intense research, the stories have grounding. And are also not the first and foremost thing they are used to give context to the changes to the hotel and also how the film industry has been shifted in the wake of scandles all bit it sometimes not for long.  

     If ever someone was to talk about a building as if it was a person I feel Levy has done it here. She becomes a character all of her own. And let's be honest you got to give the old building something, it's still as popular with the rich and famous now as it was back in the golden days of Hollywood. Whilst it seems all its contemporaries have been pulled down and replaced this little safe haven still sits there stoically. For me this was an enjoyable read giving us a look behind the curtain of where those always in the spotlight go to hide from the snapping cameras and sometimes create things that have gone on to become legends in their own right.