The Beverly Hilton

The Beverly Hilton is a hotel located on an 8.9-acre (3.6 ha) property at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards in Beverly Hills, California, United States. The Beverly Hilton has hosted many awards shows, charity benefits, and entertainment and motion picture industry events, and is particularly known as the venue of the annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony.

In 1949, the Hilton Hotels Corporation entered into an agreement to lease a new hotel set to be constructed by the Crummer Development Corporation on a 9-acre plot in Beverly Hills. In 1950, after the deal with Crummer fell though, Hilton decided to purchase the company (and the property) for $3.07 million and erect the hotel itself. Crummer Development Corporation was renamed the Beverly Hilton Development Corporation prior to its liquidation and absorption into the parent company.

In August 1953, construction began on the $12 million, 416-room hotel, designed by architect Welton Becket. As construction costs increased, and the hotel's planned 1954 opening was postponed, Hilton was forced to take out a $5 million mortgage that year on the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. to cover the rising costs.

The formal opening of the Beverly Hilton was held on August 11, 1955, attended by Conrad Hilton and his longtime companion Ann Miller. Vice President Richard Nixon presided over the raising of the American flag at the ceremonies.

The hotel proved to be an immediate success and its Bali Room ballroom was doubled in size in 1957, at a cost of $400,000, reopening in 1958 as the 1700-seat International Ballroom, the largest on the West Coast. Since 1961, the International Ballroom has hosted the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, presented annually (until 2023) by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In 1960, the hotel was further expanded with the 2-story Lanai wing, with 41 rooms whose sliding glass doors gave out directly onto the pool and patio.

In March 1961, Hilton Hotels sold the property to a group of private investors for $13.4 million, under an arrangement where it leased the hotel back for 35 years, with renewal options for a further 64 years, and retained the right to repurchase the hotel at its sale price in either 1966 or 1967. The hotel also completed a new 500-car garage in 1961, giving it parking for a total of 1500 cars, the largest hotel parking facility in the world. The new garage was sold to and leased back from the same group in 1962 for a further $900,000. In March 1966, Hilton exercised its option to re-buy the hotel and garage, for $14.3 million. In June of that year, construction began on a 180-room addition, a connecting 4-story building surrounding a new swimming pool, completed in 1967, which brought the hotel to a total of 630 rooms. At the same time, the lobby and International Ballroom were renovated and a new ballroom was also added.

In 1975, Hilton sold a 50% interest in six of its hotels, including the Beverly Hilton, to the Prudential Insurance Company. The two companies co-owned the Beverly Hilton through a new entity called the Beverly Hilton Joint Venture. The partnership sold the hotel to entertainer and businessman Merv Griffin for $100.2 million in December 1987.

The Beverly Hilton had completed a $35 million renovation prior to Griffin's purchase. The hotel was Griffin's second choice, as he had expressed an interest in buying the 260-room Beverly Hills Hotel, which had recently been sold to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei for $200 million by a group headed by Denver oilman Marvin Davis.