The Manor Hotel was built as a luxury hotel/apartment house in 1929 by Eleanor Ince, widow of Thomas H. Ince, the highly successful pioneer silent film producer. The Manor Hotel (originally the Chateau Elysee) was the most impressive of all the Hollywood chateaux built during the booming 1920s.

Designed by eminent architect Arthur E. Harvey, The Manor Hotel is a prominent seven story replica of a 17th Century French-Normandy castle.

When construction started in 1927, a new era for Hollywood was dawning. The first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, with Al Jolsen, was released that year. In a spirit echoing her husband’s contributions in the formative period of the film industry, Mrs. Ince provided a home for many of the artists that were now being drawn to Hollywood. Residents of The Manor included some of the most famous names of the 1930s and 40s: Bette Davis, Errol Flynn (room 211), Edward G. Robinson (room 216), Carol Lombard (room 305), Edgar Rice Burroughs (room 408), Humphrey Bogart (room 603), Clark Gable (room 604), Ginger Rogers (room 705), Ed Sullivan (room 501), Gracie Allen and George Burns (room 609), Katherine Hepburn, George Gershwin and Cary Grant.

As the center of the film world’s “chateau life” in the 1930s, The Manor Hotel was often the scene of glamorous parties and saw frequent visits by Hollywood nobility dwelling in nearby estates.