Why LA's Most Historic Hotel Was Demolished: The Ambassador

[@oldmoneymansions]

COMMENT: Do you believe the Ambassador Hotel’s full grounds should have been saved - or is the modern usage of a school in RFK’s honor a good one?

[@ronaldmiller2740]

SAVED!!

[@dreammix9430]

SAVED

[@silvacarl]

Because it cannot hide that many bodies in the walls and basement

[@jackbryan4676]

Saved. Architecturally speaking, the RFK Schools leave a lot to be desired, especially when the price tag was over half a billion dollars.

[@bobkohl6779]

Sadly LA ignores history, it's all about the money. I'm from LA

[@CenturyHomeProject]

It’s a shame it was torn down. That’s This is exactly why people who go to Los Angeles want to see. The golden age of Hollywood.

[@davidwesley2525]

Hollywood is Nothing but CRAP Today . 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩

[@latricegoodman9769]

I love the rich history of this Historic Hotel. It is so sad it wasn't Preserved for future generations.

[@holdencaulfield8429]

Well this lovely soulless AI-esque video is a fitting tribute.

[@mr.g1758]

I got to tour the ballroom in 2000 where RFK gave his final speech, but the manager wouldn't let me see the pantry room where he was shot. It was like an indoor ghost town. Glad I go to see it before it was destroyed.

[@epicone9255]

That an education institution decided to destroy this icon is truly appalling! There were many other sites that could have satisfied their need. A number of plans were suggested that would have preserved the hotel and still allowed for the new school were proposed abut summarily rejected by the district! I guess we still haven't learned from Penn Station!

[@NYCS19339]

And they could have kept the big room even if they didn't keep the hotel. Kids would have had a history lesson each day.

[@Barbarra63297]

Sad it's gone, used to go eat lunch there with a co-worker and a girlfriend of mine late 70's, beautiful place and a wonderful lunch buffet.

[@Modeltnick]

It could have been saved and should have. That conservancy managed to get Angels Flight saved!

[@brober]

Spent an afternoon wandering around inside the deserted Ambassador. Remember the smell of cat pee,peeling paint,moldy carpets. Went back to the Ballroom kitchen where Kennedy was shot. Pitch black .A cat knocked over something and the hair on my neck stood up. Ran out of there so fast. Was so glad to get back outside in the sun. If any place was haunted it was the Ambassador.

[@jamescalifornia2964]

Interesting. I walked around in the bottom floor around 1990. Was indeed eerie ... 😒

[@jayflores4267]

In 2006 through 2008 I would walk down Wilshire Boulevard to get to my job and I would always notice the tall post that once said Ambassador and the construction site behind it. Now finding now that it was such a grand place a historical place I am saddened that it’s gone, but I feel some type of connection to it. Thank you for this documentary..

[@NewRon2003us]

It should have been saved as a tourist destination

[@jstokes]

My parents stayed at The Ambassador Hotel after their wedding in LA for their honeymoon night. Saturday, September 1, 1962. Mom said the bellboy asked what her name was and she stumbled because she had previously just used her maiden name, not her new married name. They laughed when the bellboy said they would ask that of the newlywed brides. Mom said it was so hot that day, that rice thrown at them had gotten under her dress and cooked.

[@RoderickFernandez-ps5ci]

What is delightful story that was even though it was 3 years ago😊

[@optitom9033]

Back in the 60s we went to see Aritha Franklin in concert at the coconut Grove and it was an amazing evening. I was at a party at the Vanderlip estate in Portuguese Bend for Rose Kennedy and lunched with her the day before her son was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel, very sad time for our country.

[@blue.5058]

I filmed there often in the 90s through the 2000, through several low-budget movies and tv shows. For L.A. to eventually turn the hotel into a school is typical- there is no appreciation for history, so historical grounds are allowed to go to waste until they are unsafe, then they are enveloped for city use. The same fate befell the great ol’ Pan Pacific Auditorium- it was allowed to go to waste until the city could take it over for its own purposes. I’m still surprised the grounds of The Ambassador weren’t just sold to corporate real estate interest outright…

[@LAWoman323213]

There’s no mention of how the Ambassador Hotel was used for filming purposes all through the 90s - 2004 or 2005.

[@Philflash]

Leprechaun 3 was shot there.

[@Modernaire]

I attended wedding reception at The Ambassador Hotel in the mid 80s. I grew up in and around Wilshire Center in the 70s, my childhood neighborhood. I remember I. Magnum department store and how great it was, elegant, art deco, so atmospheric with the best clothes, displays, marble, gold elevators, etc. Bullocks Wilshire also, just east of the I Magnum, my mom frequented those businesses, including a member of Jack LaLanne's European Health Spa! I even remember the Brown Derby! The area surrounding the Ambassador was always bustling with office workers, businesses, restaurants, steady traffic, and shopping. Now the I Magnum building, after it was turned into a swam meet and late night karaoke bars, nail salons, etc. has been completely been abandoned and blighted with graffiti vandalism all around. Another victim to the dominant demographic that moves from one business to the next, leaving ruins practically as they jump to yet another trendy temporary business. I point focus on these things as examples of what was before the 92 LA Riots where the area, neighborhood saw a serious decline and dramatic change of extreme poverty and extreme wealth. Tacky, badly designed luxury apartments replacing the Golden Era of that neighborhood and the Ambassador. Even if the Ambassador would have been refurbished, the evolving community wouldn't have appreciated it's history, significance and saw it as an old worn out hotel not worthy of repurposing and restoring. For who? Lasly, my wife is an LAUSD teacher, and she taught at the new school there for a short time and was left aghast at how most but not all kids and staff even when it was built for them, didn't appreciate the school and soon after opening immediately started to see a decline in cleanliness, order, etc. It's a sad part of lost Los Angeles at the hands of greedy developers, banks, and a community more interested in trendy hangouts than historic Los Angeles value.

[@Niteowlette]

I've mixed feelings. I was pro saving the Ambassador and making it a historical landmark. However, it would have been very costly to rehab, bring it up to fire and earthquake code and modernize the place. I'm fortunate that the big boss at the mid-Wilshire real estate firm where I worked in 1979 took me and another office gal there for a drink one day. I believe it was the Palms room. I was 20-something at the time and was quite impressed!

[@jimfesta8981]

You were working on Wilshire the same time I was. Worked at Chubb Pacific Indemnity corner of Wilshire and Vermont. Had lunch at the Ambassador several times.

[@Niteowlette]

@@jimfesta8981 The Ambassador was quite classy back in the day. I'm sorry it could not have been restored to her original glory.

[@EmmertFamily]

The schools cost $578 million to build - the most expensive school ever built in the US. Would adaptive reuse not have been less costly (as well as saving the history and buildings)? Also, the schools have some of the poorest academic ratings in the entire terrible LAUSD. A tragic loss and gross mismanagement of resources.

[@Modernaire]

My wife taught there soon after and was appalled at the experience and seeing students being so destructive and unnapreciative of what was given to them. The school staff, even worse, no pride or any kind of care for the new school.

[@CrankyBeach]

I was there exactly once... for a Star Trek convention in 1987.

[@mercenarygrip]

I worked on a MOW called "Sinatra" for Warner Bros. at the Ambassador back in the 90s. Rigging up in the ceiling above the stage where RFK gave his speech, I probably inhaled enough asbestos to kill an elephant. Ironically, I grew up & still live in Culver City. Did they ever open the time capsule buried at the entrance?

[@neildickson5394]

I think one of Marilyn Monroe's first outings as a model for the Blue Book Model Agency was at the Ambassador.

[@LeeTheVet]

Yes, correct! There is color footage of her in the pool area and she won an award in 1960 or very early '60s as she attended a ceremony in the Cocoanut Grove there. There is black and white footage of that of her getting the award.

[@annenelson5656]

It’s a shame they let it deteriorate beyond restoration. Greed? Laziness? Conflict of interests? Stupidity? Such a waste. I thought it was so cool and couldn’t wait to be 21 and go to the Coconut Grove - I ended up leaving for college well before that though.

[@thebestisyettocome4114]

There was a time that the Ambassador was a grand showcase for Los Angeles. In reality, it was just a building. Times change and progress must move forward. Nothing lasts forever. Cherish the memories.

[@RoderickFernandez-ps5ci]

Have you ever been to Paris or London some of those buildings that are hundreds and hundreds of years old they don't tear things down willy-nilly I love that word

[@Mamadukee1]

Correct , just because time moves on , you should always cherish the past !!!!🇬🇧

[@bonwatcher]

The millions of dollars it would've taken to keep the Ambassador alive is what brought about its demise in the end. Not to mention the area is no longer what it used to be. I think it was as good a decision as could be made under the circumstances.

[@timmmahhhh]

I'm an architect in the Chicago area and I finally got to spend a week vacation in Los Angeles June 2024. I was hoping to find the Ambassador hotel to eventually learn it was torn down. I visited the site and the large white pillar at 3:14 is still there, a remaining clue of it's past. Along Wilshire is a monument plaza to Robert F. Kennedy which unfortunately is not well kept up. There is a mural of Bobby printed on metal spray painted with graffiti. And unfortunately like a lot of Los Angeles, it is occupied by the homeless. I looked up on Wikipedia that the neighborhood went to pot and that it wouldn't support a hotel like this anymore. As an architect, I would imagine that hotel rooms are shallower spaces than what classrooms would require, making preservation and conversion into a school difficult. A visit to downtown Los Angeles shows that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of appreciation for old things or Urban environments. There's a lot of beautiful Art Deco architecture downtown as well, though much of it is in the form of abandoned movie theaters.

[@Modernaire]

I'm sorry that was your experience, it's embarrassing. The demographics have changed so much that no one who runs businesses, residents, city leaders do anything to stop the vandalism in the area. It's all about trendy temporary hangouts while the area sinks in blighted disrepair.

[@13_13k]

I was the date of my high school sweetheart for her senior prom at the Ambassador/ Coconut Grove in 1984. I'm glad to have had a night of music and dancing the way it was in the past glory days, considering its fate only a couple years later. There was a strange feeling of age and a small touch of gloom from the knowledge of RFK's assassination. I was only 3 yrs old when that took place so it's not like I remembered it other than history books or tv shows. Being a product of L.A. Unified School District for my K-12 education, and seeing how they've driven the public school system in L.A. into the dirt, when at one time it spent years as some of the best schools in the state, until the Democrats and the Board of Education ruijed the education system just like they ruin every city that they have taken power over, they should never have been allowed to take over the hotel and property. There are enough very wealthy people in Los Angeles that money could have been raised to restore, and reuse the hotel and property. There are other old hotels that are older than the Ambassador in downtown which is a worse neighborhood than Mid City Wilshire District that have been renovated to first class hotels such as the over 125 years old Biltmore Hotel which also had many dignitaries, celebrities and Presidents stay as well as a top restaurant and many ballrooms. Of course the Biltmore isn't nearly the size of the Ambassador. The hotel and the 24 acres property should have become a multi use destination. Shrink tue actual hotel to half the number of rooms, turn the rest into shops and restaurants, revitalize the Coconut Grove into a modern venue for concerts and make the grounds into a lush park with an outdoor restaurant and gardens and water features. It would blow awayl the Farmers Market and the new Grove complex. That neighborhood has also been shifting into a gentrified area with the old large homes being restored and cleaned up and a safer place to live and shop than it used to be back in the 1960s - 1990s.

[@jamesrsfo]

It looks awful now! With all the security and high fences, it looks More like a prison and less like a school.

[@RoderickFernandez-ps5ci]

I thought it was very funny in the documentary they never showed the new building in his school

[@1234pouvez]

I went to the Grove way back in the day to see George Benson perform. Little did I know that I WOULD live within walking distance of it. Today I live in Korea Town a few blocks away. It hurts me that it was registered as a historical landmark. It was replaced with a school. The grounds still maintain the oval shape of the hotel.

[@SRW_]

There was a documentary a few years ago named After 68. I could never find it online.

[@lisagilmour-qf4pj]

Yes, it would have been great if the hotel could have been preserved given its iconic Los Angeles history. However, I have the good fortune to have so much memorabilia from the hotel and stories about the hotel from the early days. You see, my mother and her family lived in the Rincon bungalow from 1921-38 when her father, Ben Frank, and her grandfather, Abe Frank ran the hotel during those years. In fact, it was her grandfather who conceived of the idea for the Cocoanut Grove and it was her father who came up with the idea for the Ambassador Lido and the sandy beach. I am finishing up my mother's memoir about her life growing up at the Ambassador. It is a fascinating and engaging story of life at the hotel during Hollywood's Golden Age amid the explosive growth of Wilshire Blvd and Los Angeles.

[@jetsons101]

Back in the late 70's and early 80's we would hold a huge car show each year. The show was "Ambassador Concours D'Elegance," I was a judge for a couple of years. All the cars were parked on the front lawn, it was a sight to see. By then the hotel was a little rough around the edges but walking the grounds and through the building was like falling in a giant pool of history, it was great.

[@gildavis8266]

On June 5th, 1968, I was watching the news that evening waiting for the later programing and heard Robert Kennedy give his last speech. A few minutes later tragedy struck, and the nation was forced to endure another tragic event.

[@singularseeker]

my heart hurts

[@annehersey9895]

Why do we in the US destroy old things when Europe is proud of the longevity of its first class hotels! The Ambassador and Coconut Grove could have been modernized to flow with the times. The Grove especially could have easily rolled with the times moving from genre to genre.

[@AnnacolleenEtters]

If Colonia Williamsburg was saved, along with DC's Williard Hotel, the Ambassador could've been saved. I watched as Old Town Alexandria was brought back to beauty that surpassed the original, during the 1980s. Townhouse, after townhouse was saved. Yes, the Ambassador could have been saved.

[@chaswr]

They were able to save another building with a dark history, the Texas Schoolbook Depository. It almost faced the wrecking ball but now houses the Sixth Floor Museum.

[@paullewis2413]

The Cocoanut Grove was the most famous aspect of this hotel. By the 1960’s its decline had started and quality wise it was no match for the downtown Biltmore Hotel which survives.

[@tessinman]

At :40 into this video, your narrator is describing the photo of the Embassy Ballroom, but is calling it the Cocoanut Grove. Thank you for this video. I worked on several film projects at The Ambassador after the hotel was closed. I became obsessed with the history; photographed the hotel, the demolition, the building of the new schools, and became friends with Paul Schrade, who worked with RFK and was shot in the skull in the kitchen pantry. Paul worked for years to help create the Robert F Kennedy Community Schools. There are 6 schools, which serve about 4,000 students who live in the area. For 20 years, Los Angeles taxpayers had to pay for school buses to take those kids to Simi Valley every day, an expensive commute on the freeway. The Hotel was historical and lovely, except that it was structurally damaged quite badly in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. There was a huge horizontal crack near the lobby ceiling. The hotel suffered from mold and water leakage. There was asbestos all over, and lead in the outdoor ground tiles. I watched as the Cocoanut Grove was demolished one afternoon. It was merely 1921 era concrete and rebar. I firmly believe that if the hotel had been refurbished as was, it would be very dangerous to the students. I also think the old hotel would disintegrate in a large earthquake. The past can be romanticized, but I am more interested in the potential of the students in these schools having modern facilities. They are our future.

[@ChosenOne6666]

The comments are from locals? I was born and raised in Hollywood.

[@Mamadukee1]

Unfortunately, it all comes down to money , the past is so important and must be respected !!!!!😊🇬🇧

[@LAWoman323213]

While it's unfortunate that a piece of L.A. history is gone, I believe it's ultimately positive that LAUSD purchased the property. I grew up just a mile or two from the Ambassador. Had we remained in the area, I would have attended University High School in West L.A., which is quite distant from Koreatown. There's a pressing need for more schools in that neighborhood.

[@zroy9263]

I live a few blocks from this historical landmark. It's a public school named after RFK today. I think that it's unfortunate that Los Angeles has always been incapable of preserving its historical landmarks. But that's exactly why LA will NEVER be as great as my hometown NEW YORK CITY!😊

[@sadielampduo3762]

In the 80s I belonged to Ambassadors Health Club . Worked out and swam in the pool doing some laps . Totally sorry it was demolished by an education dept .

[@tagbarzeev8283]

I remember the health club from the 60's . I remember when Nikita Kruschev was there met the daughter of Harry Belafonte,the helicopter landing pad , my parents had a cabana there and on July 4th they had a diving exhibition and the putting green.

[@jimfesta8981]

Beginning in the 1970s the surrounding neighborhood had gotten worse. It wasn't had to imagine the hotel would eventually succumb to the wrecking ball.

[@davidyoung5114]

Was this the place where FatBoy Slim recorded the video for Weapons of Choice with Christopher Walken?

[@DaveSCameron]

City of Lights 🇺🇸

[@kirknitz3794]

LAUSD was lusting after the property. Imagine how much more property they could have obtained instead of the Ambassador Hotel site.

[@eddieandrews3854]

The Ambassador... statues of American patriot heroes...our God-given history and way of life, all being dismantled.

[@stache1954]

Went to an event 1989 was able to look around quite a bit.

[@L.Spencer]

Who's narrating this?

[@garrettmeadows2273]

Whoever is narrating, he has a great voice.

[@francoamerican4632]

AI narration most likely.

[@RoderickFernandez-ps5ci]

It should have been saved and made it to something else it could have been apartments could have been should have been many things didn't have to be torn 🎉down. When I lived in Hollywood in the 1960s I went there just to see it and to see the Coconut Grove it was pretty tatty was pretty worn out in that at that time

[@ronaldmiller2740]

AFTER CLOSING THE AMBASSADOR HOTEL SAD TO SAY THEY RAPED THE HOTEL IN SALES TO SELL EVERY THING ANY THING TO PEOPLE IN THE PARKING LOT OF ITEMS LIKE DOORS , LIGHTS, SINKS, DOOR KNOBS ,, FURNITURE ,, LAMPS,, TABLS ,, AND MORE YOU CAN GUESS.. VERY SAD!!!

[@francoamerican4632]

So in your opinion they should have hauled everything to the dump instead of repurposing it?

[@gerhardrohne2261]

sorray, but this hotel looks like any german "siedlung" from the twenties...

[@johnwhitley2898]

Interesting observation... I had to look up "siedlung" and in doing so it became very relevant that it certainly did. I remembered the HUGE Luftwaffe school that is "East" of Berlin and is a Urbex site, now strictly monitored by the government. It was in the East German Zone and used as a military school/barracks, etc.until unity in the mid 1990''s. (There are several satellite sites in the area as well) . Though, that design architecture was cutting edge here in the States, I see those "reservations" and encampments as well as the huge vacation buildings that were built by the Reich, that were never used, I think we (the US) may have been a little bit more detached from the world than we should have. I'm not throwing any Shade on these architects but while they were reading "Building It Today" magazine, they MAY have just thrown some Red tiles on the roofs and Saltillo Tiles on the floors along with the marble and say "Voilá, here's your plans". Even the furniture mimics that "Luxury Bauhaus Moderne" to make up a Genre for this Luxury Siedlung view...... Not arguing about it, I am just saying "You have something there...". L.A. loved it and it was the toast of the town. I grew up in Tucson, Arizona. We had the "El Conquistador" hotel and resort. It's all gone now and is a parking lot.. lmao! But, it was the Ritz on the Ritzy. Seriously. If it were 1935, and I had a choice, I'd ride SP to Tucson and stay at the Conquistador. Little bit more private, personal, and intimate. A lot more friendly as well!

[@maryannallen9885]

My senior high school prom was held at the ambassador, just for short years after Robert Kennedy was murdered there