The Palm Court, also known at other times as the Franco-Italian Dining Room, the Grand Ballroom and the Continental Room, is a ballroom at the Hotel Alexandria in downtown Los Angeles, California. In its heyday from 1911 to 1922, it was the scene of speeches by U.S. Presidents William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson and Gen. John J. Pershing. It is also the room where Paul Whiteman, later known as the "Jazz King", got his start as a bandleader in 1919, where Rudolph Valentino danced with movie starlets, and where Hollywood held its most significant balls during the early days of the motion picture business. Known for its history and its stained-glass Tiffany skylight, noted Los Angeles columnist Jack Smith called it "surely the most beautiful room in Los Angeles". The Palm Court was designated as a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM#80) in 1971.
Palm Court's heyday 1911-1922 Built in 1906, the eight-story Hotel Alexandria was designed by noted Los Angeles architect John Parkinson. In 1911, the firm of Parkinson and Bergstrom was hired to design an addition that would double the capacity. The Palm Court was part of the 1911 addition. When the design of the new "crystal palmroom" was announced, the Los Angeles Times wrote:
"The room will be one of the largest of its kind in California and will be available for social affairs of every nature. Its primary object, however, will be more of a furnishing a convenient place for afternoon teas, card parties and evening receptions."
When the new ballroom opened in October 1911, it was acknowledged for its beauty. The room was "christened" in a gala attended by 385 of the city's "most prominent names." The Alexandria orchestra played throughout the evening," and the Los Angeles Times reported the next day on the city's spectacular new room:"The great room, over one hundred feet in length and seventy-five feet in width, was a sunburst of light. Great crystal chandeliers blazed from a dozen vantage points, while softer and smaller lights were placed along the four sides of the room. ... The perfection and symphony of the great room held the guests spellbound upon their arrival. As the stately ladies and gentlemen entered the salon the pause each made at the threshold as with intense interest they swept the salon with their gaze was noticeable."
For the next 12 years (until the opening of the Biltmore in 1923), the Palm Court was the city's most prestigious ballroom event location, hosting receptions for the likes of President Woodrow Wilson and Gen. John J. Pershing, as well as balls where Hollywood's silent film stars and early movie moguls mingled. By 1912, the Alexandria had become such an important gathering place that the Los Angeles Times wrote the following:"What Union Square was to old New York, what Forty-second street is to the present metropolis, and what the vicinity of the Cort Theater is to San Francisco, the Alexandria mezzanine seems to be to theatrical Los Angeles. ... Hardly ever does the day pass in which some nationally-known actor or actress does not linger in the low settees or pause at the golden rail, looking down into the lobby below -- pausing, lingering, while in whispered tones behind rises the chatter that his or her presence has caused."
Rudolph Valentino, whose untimely death at age 31 caused mass hysteria among his female fans, was a regular visitor to the dances held at the Alexandria's great ballroom. Actress Claire Windsor recalled that, when she and Valentino were "$5-a-day extras", they rode the streetcar from Westlake Park to dance in the Palm Court. Silent movie actress Mary MacLaren later recalled that her mother had "blighted a blossoming romance" with Valentino when she would not allow her to go dancing with "Rudy" at the Alexandria. A third actress, Marjorie Bennett, also recalled meeting Valentino at a tea dance at the Alexandria, when Valentino was "a handsome aspiring Italian actor, Rodolpho d'Antonguolla."
In the Alexandria's heyday, movie stars and other celebrities, including Valentino, Mary Miles Minter, Sarah Bernhardt, Enrico Caruso and Jack Dempsey were guests. Charlie Chaplin reportedly kept a suite at the Alexandria and did improvisations in the lobby, and western star Tom Mix reportedly rode his horse through the lobby. The large oriental rug in the lobby was called the "million-dollar carpet", because there was purportedly a $1 million worth of business done there every day. It was there that D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks met in 1919 to form United Artists. U.S. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson, and many foreign dignitaries, also stayed at the hotel while visiting Los Angeles.
Notable events from the Palm Court's heyday
From 1911 to 1923, the Alexandria ballroom (now known as the Palm Court) was the site of many of the city's most important gatherings. The following list identifies some of the notable events associated with the room. 1911 October 1911 – U.S. President William Howard Taft delivered a speech on international peace at a banquet at the Alexandria Hotel. Taft noted that it is always "the wrong men" who are killed in war. He said that the rulers, legislators, diplomats and bureau chiefs sleep in safety while the soldiers who usually "have not the least idea of what the war is about shoot at each other on the battlefield." Taft advocated the creation of a court of nations to decide disputes between countries and suggested that "there should be no armies or navies except the army and navy of the allied powers which would enforce the decree of the court." The Los Angeles Times called the speech "masterful and statesmanlike in every sense of the word." 1912 February 1912 – The city's leaders gathered at the Alexandria for an elaborate banquet in honor of the 75th birthday of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, editor in chief and general manager of the Los Angeles Times. December 1912 - The city's first subscription ball since 1910 was held at the Alexandria, and the Los Angeles Times reported: "The social season of 1912-13 had its opening and it apotheosis last night in the ballroom of the Alexandria." 1913 February 1913 - At a Mardi Gras costume ball, the Alexandria ballroom was decorated with "clownish faces of elfs of mischief" grinning down from every angle, and a girt with hundreds of small yellow bulbs, "each light covered with a grotesque masque", all presenting "a scene of ghostly enchantment" and casting "a halo of unreality." The Times described the following scene on the dance floor: "Serpentines glided in and out among the throng; someone started the Tango dance, a weird conception of rhythm and action which came all the way from Argentina and which offers something entirely new." 1915 May 1915 – A.C. Bilicke, the Los Angeles millionaire who built the Alexandria and was president of the Alexandria Hotel Company, died while a passenger on the Cunard liner Lusitania, which was sunk by a German torpedo off the coast of Ireland. June 1915 - The Photoplayers Ball at the Alexandria ballroom was described by the Los Angeles Times as the "most brilliant entertainment which the photoplayers of Los Angeles have ever given." The dance was held in the ballroom and on the mezzanine with punch being served in the adjoining anterooms. Dinner was served at midnight in the grill. The event was enlivened by "brilliant little impromptu contributions in the way of witty speeches, songs and recitations" by actors, including Raymond Hitchcock, Tom Meighan and Carlyle Blackwell. Jesse Lasky made a speech on the future of motion pictures, and the other guests included Mary Pickford, Dorothy Gish, Francis X. Bushman, George Damerel, Billie West, Charles Clary, Herbert Rawlinson, Samuel Goldfish (later known as Samuel Goldwyn), Emma Carus, Myrtle Vail, Edmund Lowe, Mary Alden, Charles Winninger, Blanche Ring, Walter Catlett, Kathlyn Williams, Anita King, Fay Tincher, Bessie Barriscale, Augusta Anderson, Charlotte Walker, Marjorie Rambeau, Camille Astor, Anna Little, Cleo Madison, Blanche Ring, Florence Dagmar and Louis Bennison. September 1915 – In "one of the pleasantest social events of the motion-picture world", a dinner was given honoring dancer Anna Pavlova. Mack Sennett gave a speech at the dinner. Following the dinner, Mlle. Pavlova "graciously consented to do her celebrated 'Glow Worm Dance.'" December 1915 – A convention of the Produce Exchange was entertained by barefoot and Oriental dancers and whirling dervishes, and a complete cabaret show hosted by Irish comedian Harry Coleman. The Los Angeles Times reported, "Joy reigned supreme" at the banquet, as more than 250 guests gathered in the ballroom and "the fun was uninterrupted until the small hours of the morning." 1916 February 1916 - Plans were announced to construct the Pacific Coast's first indoor ice skating rink in the Alexandria ballroom. Plans called for refrigeration coils to be placed at the bottom of an oval tank. March 1916 – At a spirited luncheon at the Alexandria attended by more than 100 prominent businessmen, the California Prosperity League launched its campaign against prohibition in California. The group advocated a vigorous campaign against the forces advocating the destruction of one of California's most valuable industries – the vineyards and wine manufacturers. Charles F. Lummis spoke and suggested that the Prosperity League also be known as the Sanity and Freedom League. December 1916 – The Cherry Blossom Players from Japan opened a month-long engagement at the Alexandria offering a production that included "Samurai, symbolic and humorous interpretive dances, folk songs with koto, samisen and shaquahachi music and several one-act plays mimed in the Japanese classic manner." 1918 March 1918 - After the Alexandria's chef, C.B. Nagel, made unspecified comments at a Red Cross Society midnight frolic that were perceived by some to reflect disloyalty, a Department of Justice special agent lodged a complaint with the hotel's manager. Nagel, one of the most noted chefs on the Pacific Coast, was forced to resign. The hotel's manager said, "Mr. Nagel is a good man in his line, but it is impossible for the hotel to keep in its employ anyone whose loyalty is challenged. Mr. Nagel is a German and the war situation had become decidedly tense." April 1918 – The lower floors of the hotel, mezzanine, lobby and ballroom were turned over for celebration of Women's Liberty Loan Day. Several thousand "patriotic women of Los Angeles" participated in the rally. Actress Marie Dressler gave a speech in the ballroom boosting Liberty Bonds. April 1918 - Japanese Vice-Admiral Kantarō Suzuki was honored at a banquet. Suzuki pledged the friendship and goodwill of the Japanese people to the United States and noted, "No yellow peril ever had its origin in Japan." Suzuki was opposed to Japan's war with the United States, before and throughout World War II. He was the Japanese Prime Minister at the time of its surrender at the end of World War II. July 1918 - A Submarine Base gala to benefit sailors was held at the Alexandria featuring entertainment by Charlie Chaplin, Lillian Gish, Fannie Ward, Bert Guterman, Juanita Hansen, Fritzi Brunette, and Mary Miles Minter. August 1918 - The Stage Women's War Relief held an auction of kisses at the Alexandria ballroom to benefit soldiers and sailors and their families. The Los Angeles Times reported that "100 beautiful young picture actresses have consented to auction off their kisses at the benefit." Billie Mason and Wallace Reid were the auctioneers and referees at the event that also included dancing, music and vaudeville entertainment. The program included Belle Bennett, Wilbur Higby, and Jane Novak. Soldiers and sailors received their kisses free of charge.