Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel opened in 1927 and was the venue for the very first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, held in its Blossom Ballroom. This glamorous hotel has hosted Hollywood's biggest stars for nearly a century and remains one of the most iconic hotels in Los Angeles. Marilyn Monroe lived here for two years in the 1940s when she started her modeling career, and Montgomery Clift stayed for three months while filming From Here to Eternity.

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel opened on May 15, 1927, financed by a group of Hollywood royalty that included Louis B. Mayer, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Sid Grauman—the man behind the famous Chinese Theatre across the street. The $2.5 million Spanish Colonial Revival masterpiece, designed by Fisher, Lake & Traver, was named for President Theodore Roosevelt and immediately became the social epicenter of the film industry. The guest list during its golden decades read like a who's who of Old Hollywood: Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Errol Flynn, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Shirley Temple, who learned to tap dance on the hotel's Spanish-tiled steps under the tutelage of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

On May 16, 1929, the hotel hosted the first Academy Awards ceremony in its Blossom Ballroom. Just 270 guests attended the intimate dinner, with tickets costing five dollars. Academy president Douglas Fairbanks presented all twelve awards in just fifteen minutes—still the fastest ceremony in Oscar history. The World War I epic Wings took home Best Picture, the only silent film ever to do so. Charlie Chaplin received an honorary award. It was the only Academy Awards ceremony never broadcast on radio or television. The ghosts of that glamorous night, some say, have never quite left the building.

Marilyn Monroe is the hotel's most famous spectral resident. In the early 1940s, before she was a star, Hollywood executives rented her a second-floor poolside cabana while she pursued her modeling career. She lived there for two years, and it was at the Roosevelt's Tropicana Pool that she did her first professional photo shoot. The haunting began in mid-December 1985, two weeks before the hotel's grand reopening following a $12 million restoration. Staff member Suzanne Leonard was cleaning a full-length mirror in the general manager's office when she saw a reflection that wasn't her own—"a blonde girl right where her hand was dusting." When Leonard turned around, no one was there, but when she looked back at the mirror, the reflection remained. The manager later revealed the mirror had come from Monroe's former poolside suite. The sightings became so frequent and so disturbing to guests that staff moved the mirror to the lower-level elevator area, where it remains today. Visitors still report seeing Monroe's face gazing back at them from the glass. Her ghost has also been spotted dancing in the Blossom Ballroom and lounging by the Tropicana Pool where she once sunbathed.

Montgomery Clift occupied Room 928 for three months in 1953 while filming From Here to Eternity, which would earn him his third Academy Award nomination. Playing an Army bugler in the film, Clift practiced his trumpet obsessively in his room, much to the dismay of neighboring guests. He would pace the ninth-floor hallway memorizing lines, his dedication legendary among the cast and crew. Clift's life took a tragic turn in 1956 when a devastating car accident left him disfigured and in chronic pain. He turned to alcohol and drugs, and his once-brilliant career slowly dissolved. He died in 1966 at age 45. But guests in Room 928 still hear the mournful notes of a trumpet echoing through the walls. Many report feeling cold spots, an overwhelming sensation of being watched, and gentle nudges or caresses from an unseen presence. Renowned psychic Peter James spent a night in Room 928 during a 1992 investigation and witnessed Clift's ghost sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, watching him for several minutes before vanishing.

The Gable-Lombard Penthouse, a 3,200-square-foot duplex on the twelfth floor with views of the Hollywood Hills and the iconic sign, was the secret love nest of two of Golden Age Hollywood's biggest stars. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard began their affair in 1936, but Gable was still married to his second wife, Ria Langham. The couple rented the penthouse for five dollars a night—about ninety dollars today—to conduct their romance away from prying eyes. They eventually married in 1939, but Lombard died tragically in a 1942 plane crash while on a war bond tour. Both have been seen separately in the penthouse suite. Hotel staff spend as little time as possible in the room, well aware of its permanent residents.

A child ghost named Caroline is perhaps the hotel's most poignant haunting. She and her brother allegedly drowned in the pool while their father was out running errands—though no hotel records confirm this tragedy. Psychic Peter James first encountered Caroline in 1992 in the Academy Room, later communicating with her in the Penthouse Library, where he found her crying. When asked what was wrong, she said she was afraid her mother was hurt, then vanished when James tried to comfort her. Caroline wears a blue dress and is often seen playing in the hallways, skipping through the lobby, and calling guests from the house phone. She and her brother have been spotted playing in the jacuzzi, leaving no wet footprints when they disappear. Employees and guests frequently mistake her for a living child before she vanishes.

The Blossom Ballroom, where those first Oscars were handed out, harbors its own spirits. A man in a vintage tuxedo is regularly seen wandering the room, apparently searching for his seat at an awards banquet that ended nearly a century ago. Psychics believe he was an Oscar nominee who never moved on from his attachment to his career and dreams. Another apparition—a man in a white suit—has been seen playing the piano, but the music stops the moment anyone enters the room. Staff and guests report phantom footsteps across the polished floors, inexplicable cold drafts, and lights that flicker when someone enters alone. Some believe the man near the piano is Errol Flynn, who was known to have created his recipe for bootleg gin in the hotel's barbershop tub and was notorious as "the original bad boy of Hollywood."

The paranormal activity intensified dramatically after the hotel's 1984 renovation. By then, the Roosevelt had fallen into disrepair—occupancy was at five percent, graffiti covered the walls, and lawn chairs littered the once-grand lobby. The $12 million restoration awakened something. In December 1985, two weeks before the grand reopening, Alan Russell, personal assistant to the general manager, was sweeping the Blossom Ballroom when he encountered an intensely cold spot that defied explanation—no drafts, no air conditioning. The cold spots have been documented ever since, along with shadow figures in hallways, mysterious whispers, and doors that open on their own. When Peter James conducted his comprehensive investigation in 1992, he detected Montgomery Clift in Room 928, encountered Caroline by the pool and in the Penthouse Library, and sensed Marilyn Monroe's presence strongly at the Tropicana Bar. His findings confirmed what staff and guests had been reporting for years: the Hollywood Roosevelt is home to far more than memories. The stars who made it famous in life have chosen to remain in death, forever walking the same halls where they once dazzled the world.