Millenium Biltmore Hotel, Los Angles, CA. April 1990
The start of something big
Back in the early '90s, law school students from the Ivy League were sought after by big firms with very white-sounding names that included commas and ampersands. The spring of Brian's second year those sirens started singing. Brian knew he would be picked up as he had high grades and worked on a journal. The question was "where"? He wanted New York because it would provide him the best opportunity to be sent overseas, but LA - that would also be a nice place to live and make a total life restart. The process started with students interviewing in the spring for jobs in the summer as "summer associates". Where one went as a summer associate was life-determining since that was likely the firm that would give a student an offer of employment post-graduation.
Brian interviewed at White & Case in New York and got a position as a summer associate, but he ALSO wanted to interview at O'Melveny & Meyers in LA for a position there.
Why the back story? My first trip to la la land was tagging along with Brian on his summer associate interview trip to LA one weekend. Everything was paid for except my airplane ticket. I booked a flight - I was gonna see LA!
I will be the first to admit, LA had never been never on my radar at all. I visited San Francisco years before to see Georgetown days bestie, MA, (and loved it) but SoCal just did not call to me. I was willing to give it a chance. Hey, a free weekend awaited.
The firm sent a limo to pick up Brian at LAX. I guess that was my first limo ride. I was impressed - yet underwhelmed. Why on earth would anyone need all that space just to go back and forth to the airport? I was excited nonetheless - it was an auspicious beginning. Then we arrived at the Biltmore, Los Angeles. One of those old hotels that they just don't build any more, I was "gobsmacked". Wow, just wow. The interior was over the top and I wasn't just going to pass through the lobby, I was actually going to stay in one of the rooms (admittedly, not as opulent as the lobby seemed to pre-sage). It struck me that maybe I had to give LA a re-think.
The Biltmore opened in 1923 and, at the time of opening, was the largest hotel in the USA west of Chicago. It originally had 1500 rooms (now pared down to 683)
The architectural firm Schultze & Weaver designed the Biltmore's exterior in a synthesis of the Spanish-Italian Renaissance Revival, Mediterranean Revival, and Beaux Arts styles, meant as an homage to the Castilian heritage of Los Angeles. The "Biltmore Angel" is heavily incorporated into the design—as a symbol of the city as well as the Biltmore itself. With a thick steel and concrete frame, the structure takes up half a city block and rises over 11 stories.
The interiors of the Biltmore Hotel are decorated with: frescos and murals; carved marble fountains and columns; massive wood-beamed ceilings; travertine and oak paneled walls; lead crystal chandeliers; cast bronze stairwells and doorways; fine artisan marquetry and millwork; and heavily embroidered imported tapestries and draperies. Most notable are the frescoed mural ceilings in the main Galleria and the Crystal Ballroom, which were hand painted in 1922 by Italian artist John B. Smeraldi, known for his work in the Vatican and the White House.
...
The Rendezvous Court, once the hotel's lobby but now used primarily for afternoon tea, is decorated with a Moorish Revival styled plaster ceiling painted with 24 Carat Gold accents, two original imported Italian chandeliers from 1923, and a grand Spanish Baroque Revival bronze doorway, whose astrological clock still keeps time today. Two figures appear on the stairwell front—on the left is the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres, while on the right is the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa.
(Wikipedia)
The photo above is of the "Rendezvous Court". It was my impressive introduction to the City of Angels.
If all the architectural opulence were not enough, the place had history as well. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded there at a luncheon in 1927. John F Kennedy was named the Democratic Presidential Candidate there in 1960. The Beatles stayed there on their first US tour and had to be taken in and out of the place via helicopter on the roof, so large were the crowds. A long list of movies and TV shows were filmed there (it was LA after all). The place was built to impress - it was successful.
While Brian interviewed and they wined and dined him, I actually explored downtown LA on foot. It felt foreign after New York City - empty by comparison. I remember discovering Olvera Street - the "Pueblo of Los Angeles" and feeling impressed at how the current city had morphed into this totally different place from just a few adobe buildings. I liked that little corner of LA, much to the disdain of my LA resident friends . I also visited Union Station to see the end of the line for coast to coast trains (when there used to be such things). I was underwhelmed - too empty. Grand Central it was not. I returned to the Biltmore from a day of touristing to hear Brian's update.
They offered him a summer internship. I got to see LA. Brian and I flew back to New York.
Life was about to change hugely.
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