boiling water
1. Coat the bottom of a Dutch oven with canola oil, add the meat, and brown the ribs on each side over high heat. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a little flour. Continue to cook until browned on all sides.
2. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and tomato sauce. Pour boiling water over to cover.
3. Cover and cook for 1½ to 2 hours, or until the meat is tender.
Actor and producer Ross Hunter with his date at the Cocoanut Grove entrance, 1948.
Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel
OPEN: 1921–1989
LOCATION: 3400 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90010
ORIGINAL PHONE: DRexel 7000
CUISINE: California-French Fusion
DESIGN: Myron Hunt (original design); Paul Revere Williams (extensive interior/exterior renovations)
BUILDING STYLE: Spanish Revival and Art Deco
CURRENTLY: Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools
The sprawling grounds of the Ambassador Hotel, home of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, 1943.
THE AMBASSADOR HOTEL WAS ONE OF THE MOST HISTORIC HOTELS ON THE WEST COAST. It was infamous for its celebrity clientele and as the location of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination. With its grand pools and palm-lined property, the twenty-four-acre Ambassador complex was the epitome of the California lifestyle.
The hotel was part of the Ambassador Hotels System, which at one time consisted of sixty-seven properties from coast to coast (the chain was dissolved in the 1930s). A city in itself, the hotel had a whopping 1,200 rooms and bungalows, plus golf courses, tennis courts, and Olympic-size pools. The arcade contained thirty-seven specialty shops, including dress shops, a post office, a hat shop, jewelry shops, a men’s cigar shop, an art gallery, and a British and European import shop called the Continental.
Many guests stayed at the property year-round. It was not uncommon for a celebrity to live at the Ambassador while filming or working. Howard Hughes and Charlie Chaplin lived there for a while. In 1927, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, moved into one of the bungalows on the property and reportedly trashed it. Rumor has it that they started fires in the bungalow and also burned their bill. Preparing for the 1928 Summer Olympics, Egyptian swimmer Farid Simaika used the Ambassador Swimming Club for his practices. In 1933, Amelia Earhart checked into the hotel for a short stay. In 1945, Emmeline Snively of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, which had offices on the premises, signed Norma Jeane Baker, who later changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. Baker paid $100 for makeup, beauty, fashion, and charm lessons from the agency, all deducted from her first salary.
The Ambassador also hosted many heads of state from every corner of the globe, as well as seven American presidents. In 1952, vice presidential nominee Richard Nixon wrote his famous “Checkers” speech in one of the suites. It was later broadcast live from the former El Capitan Theatre (now the Avalon Theatre) in Hollywood, with only Nixon and his wife, Patricia, who was off-camera, sitting on the stage.
During the 1920s, countless celebrities frequented the Ambassador’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub, including Louis B. Mayer, Douglas Fairbanks, Howard Hughes, Norma Talmadge, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, and Joan Crawford. When the hotel first opened its doors, the owners realized that its Zinnia Grill nightclub was not large enough for both their guests and the locals. Only a few months later, they converted the grand ballroom into the lavish, 1,000-seat Cocoanut Grove. Upon their arrival, guests were led down a majestic staircase into a large ballroom decorated with mechanical monkeys swinging from full-size palm trees, purchased after their use in Rudolph Valentino’s 1921 movie The Sheik. The nightclub’s ceiling was scattered with “stars,” and a waterfall flowed in the back of the room. The Grove hosted many famous performers, including Richard Pryor, Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Bing Crosby, Merv Griffin, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, the Supremes, Benny Goodman, Liza Minnelli, Vikki Carr, Sonny and Cher, and Liberace.
The Grove was also a French dinner club where Chef Henri used West Coast staples like citrus fruits and other fresh produce to create a California-French fusion cuisine. Despite the mass quantities of food that came out of the kitchen, the dishes were known for being very inventive and flavorful. For those wanting something lighter, the hotel also offered the Palm Bar & Coffee Shop, which architect Paul Revere Williams designed with the help of interior designer Don Loper. You can see the final iteration of the Palm in the 1996 film That Thing You Do.
Constance Bennett and Marquis Henry de La Falaise at a party for Marion Davies at the Ambassador, 1931.
In 1930, the Ambassador hosted the second Academy Awards; the hotel would host the event seven more times in the thirteen years that followed. During World War II, the hotel was used for countless fundraisers in the war effort, and the Cocoanut Grove became a hot spot for men and women on leave from the military.
On August 23, 1964, the Ambassador canceled a reservation for the Beatles because the hotel was packed with fans and security could not be guaranteed. Luckily, British actor Reginald Owen rented his Bel-Air mansion at 356 Saint Pierre Road to the Beatles for $1,000. That evening, the Beatles performed a sold-out concert at the Hollywood Bowl.
It wasn’t all glitz and glamour at the Ambassador, however. It was also the site of a horrific crime that convulsed the nation. On June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy stepped off the podium in the Ambassador’s Embassy Room ballroom after a brief victory speech. He had just won the California Democratic presidential primary election. Passing through the pantry area of the hotel’s main kitchen on his way to the press area, Kennedy was shot three times, along with five other people, with a .22 caliber Ivan-Johnson Cadet revolver. Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan was arrested at the scene and later convicted of the murder. Kennedy died from his injuries twenty-six hours later at the Good Samaritan Hospital. The other victims survived. Ever since that incident, the U.S. Secret Service has provided protection for presidential candidates. The hotel’s former location on Wilshire Boulevard was renamed “Robert F. Kennedy Parkway.”
Inside the Cocoanut Grove, 1939.
Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davis on the Ambassador’s front lawn, 1923.
In another instance of macabre notoriety, the jury members in the Charles Manson trial were sequestered at the Ambassador. The jury’s seven men and five women spent a costly 225 days at the hotel during the 1971 trial.
A very special employee at the hotel was Arthur Nyhaden Jr., the doorman who manned the Ambassador’s front doors from 1949 to 1989. He was the first person guests came in contact with upon their arrival at the Ambassador, and he could recall the details, preferences, and confidences of thousands of the hotel’s long-standing guests from memory. Art wore a black tie adorned with keepsake pins from every point on the