Hotels

Charlie Chaplin slept here: hotels in Los Angeles and Palm Springs

Chaplin's fame is such that his name has been used to sell hotel beds across California, some with only tenuous claims. Here is a selection of the most credible, well-established options
Charlie Chaplin's LA: a black and white odyssey
View from Cadillac Hotel, LA
View from Cadillac Hotel, LA. Photograph: Alamy

Los Angeles Athletic Club

Chaplin lived in this downtown Los Angeles club for long periods during his first decade in California. In his autobiography, he praised its sports facilities: an Olympic-sized pool, cycling studio, squash courts, billiards room, and an indoor running track all open to hotel guests – which are still exceptional today. The bedrooms are classic, comfortable and recently redecorated, and there are vintage images around the halls of some of the sports stars who have trained here. Nearby is Cole's, the oldest public house in LA, opened in 1908, which serves "French dip" (meat) sandwiches with jus on the side and pickle spears.
• +1 213 625 2211, laac.com, rooms from $170

The Culver Hotel

Culver Hotel in downtown Culver City, Los Angeles
Culver Hotel in downtown Culver City, Los Angeles. Photograph: Alamy

Opened by Chaplin and Harry Culver in 1924, the hotel hosted stars including Douglas Fairbanks, Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford. Many of the cast of the Wizard of Oz, including the munchkins, stayed here during filming in 1938. The wedge-shaped building is now a graceful boutique hotel, with small but glamorous rooms and friendly staff. It's next door to the large, colonnaded Culver Studios, where the burning of Atlanta scenes for Gone with the Wind were filmed, and is close to Sony Pictures Studios, open daily for tours ($38pp).
• +1 310 558 9400, culverhotel.com, rooms from $249

The Cadillac Hotel

View from Cadillac Hotel, LA
View of Venice Beach from the Cadillac Hotel, LA. Photograph: Alamy

This was once Chaplin's summer residence, before becoming a tourist hostel, and then what the owners call a "radically, extra-affordable, definitely different" hotel. Rooms are basic but comfortable and clean, and it's in a lively part of Venice Beach. Hire a bicycle and go to Santa Monica state beach, where you'll find the Annenberg Community Beach House with free tours of the remaining part of Marion Davies's estate. Davies was a silent screen star and long-time girlfriend of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. She once led Winston Churchill on a hunt around her beach house to find the gin she'd secreted in the toilet tanks, away from Hearst's disapproving gaze.
• +1 310 399 8876, thecadillachotel.com, rooms from $119

Casa Cody, Palm Springs

Casa Cody Hotel

In the early days of film, many studios stipulated in actors' contracts that they could not travel more than two hours from Hollywood. Palm Springs became a thriving desert resort as a result. Harriet Cody, cousin to Buffalo Bill, opened her hotel here in 1932. In its grounds is a small adobe house once occupied by opera star and actor Lawrence Tibbett, a great friend of Chaplin, who would perform on the tiny stage in the house for their Hollywood friends. The adobe house is available to rent and many of the other hotel rooms have large closets and small kitchens, a legacy of the actors who would stay through the winter. Try a Best of the Best tour of movie star homes – our guide Jack was full of energy, and limitless knowledge.
• +1 760 320 9346, casacody.com, rooms from $79. The Palm Springs portion of the trip was arranged through the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism

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