The Most Infamous Moments in the Beverly Hills Hotel Bungalows
Jaime Lalinde Arimeta Diop Savannah Walsh Condé Nast
From Howard Hughes to Marilyn Monroe, the roster of stars who crashed at the Beverly Hills Hotel is something to behold.
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Vanity Fair
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton honeymooned in the bungalows, and were frequently in residence, preferring to stay in No. 5. As legend has it, their standing room-service order included two bottles of vodka with breakfast, and another two with lunch.

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn met secretly in Tracy’s suite. Though their affair lasted 25 years, when Tracy first met Hepburn his only remark was, “Katharine Hepburn has dirty nails, hasn’t she?”

Eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes moved into Bungalow 4, where he lived on and off for 30 years. He occupied as many as nine bungalows at once, and the staff delivered his roast-beef sandwiches by leaving them in the crook of a tree.

Playwright Maxwell Anderson and Ingrid Bergman met to discuss her appearing in his play Joan of Lorraine, for which she would win a Tony. Two years later she appeared in the film adaptation, Joan of Arc.

Then an actor, producer Robert Evans was discovered at the pool by actress Norma Shearer. Of the hotel, Evans said, “Every memory I have of the place that I want to share, I wouldn’t want to see in print.”

While filming Let’s Make Love, Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand had an affair in Bungalows 20 and 21. Bungalow 7, Monroe’s favorite, is known as Norma Jean.

In the cabanas by the pool, actor Rex Harrison sunbathed nude with a handkerchief—a different color every day—as fig leaf.

Sidney Poitier danced barefoot in the lobby following his best actor Academy Award for Lilies of the Field.

When Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret checked into Suite 486, staff was told to speak only when spoken to and keep at least five feet away at all times.

When Vivien Leigh was at the hotel to see her lover, Laurence Olivier, he took her to meet agent Myron Selznick. Soon after, she was cast to play Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind.

Halston, the designer, was nearly thrown out when he refused to sign his full name on the register.

John Mitchell, campaign manager for Richard Nixon, was at the hotel when news of Watergate broke. “Son of a bitch,” he yelled. “They blew it!”

After arbitrageur Ivan Boesky (then the majority owner of the hotel with his wife, Seema Silberstein) turned federal informant, he wore a wire to a meeting with Michael Milken.