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The free-wheelin’ grit and charm of ’90s Hollywood is back, baby. At least on paper.
The bestselling “Chateau Marmont Hollywood Handbook,” which tells the official story of the famed Sunset Boulevard hotel — and the true story of how it became a glorious, decadent celebrity hideaway — is finally back on shelves for the first time since 1996. It’s currently available to pre-order on Amazon and will officially ship out on Feb. 4.
Chateau Marmont Hollywood
The cult-classic book is edited by Chateau Marmont owner himself André Balazs, who reveals the true fact and fiction about the storied L.A locale and its evolving culture. The book also includes contributions from dozens of writers such as William Faulkner, Lilian Ross, Budd Schulberg, Gore Vidal, Jay McInerney, Dominick Dunne, and Anthony Haden-Guest, and photographs from Helmut Newton, Dennis Hopper, Annie Leiboviitz, Jack Pierson, and Wolfgang Tillman.
“Checking into the hotel is like stepping into a living history,” acclaimed American writer A.M. Holmes writes in the book. “It’s out of time, suspended from the constraints, the issues, the concerns of the real world…In a city without a center, you could call this spot the epicenter: this is where deals are made – where love is won or lost – sometimes all in one night.”
The book, which first released in 1996, is one of dozens of non-fiction and fictionalized books about the Hollywood hotspot, including Shawn Levy’s “The Castle on Sunset” and “Life at the Marmont.” But edited by Balasz himself, with other contributors from the insider milieu of which its centered, “The “Chateau Marmont Handbook” is considered the most official account of the hotel’s history — and up until the now, the hardest to get your hands on.
Pre-order “The Chateau Marmont Handbook” on Amazon, and check out the best Old Hollywood podcasts here.
