“Amid the glitz and glitter of a bustling young movie town at the height of its golden age, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was a star in its own right; a beacon for the show business elite.” The Hollywood Tower Hotel is the name of the building that serves as the location of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (WDW) attraction. It is a fictional hotel located in Los Angeles, CA, just toward the end of Sunset Blvd.
Description[]
The Hollywood Tower Hotel is a 13 floor tall Neo-Mediterranean located on the grounds known as, "Sunset Hills Estates" at the end of Sunset Boulevard. The hotel was situated between the studio for G-Force Records and the Hollywood Hills Amphitheatre while visibly nearby the Hollywood Sign. While it was once grandiose, the hotel was left in a state of darkness and decay since 1939 and is infamously haunted. In addition to holding several ghosts, the hotel served as a portal between the material world and the 5th Dimension, also known as the Twilight Zone.
Features[]
- Stardust Room - MEZZANINE
- High Society Suite - PENTHOUSE
- Billiards - LOBBY LEVEL
- Lounge - LOBBY LEVEL
- Library - LOBBY LEVEL
- Sunset Room - LOWER LEVEL
- Beverly Room - LOWER LEVEL
- Fountain Room - LOWER LEVEL
- Steam Baths - LOWER LEVEL
- Gift Shop - LOWER LEVEL
- Tip Top Club - TOP OF TOWER
History[]
Background[]
Origins[]
- “Where the stars stay and play”
- ―Slogan
The Hollywood Tower Hotel was opened in 1917 and during the golden age of Hollywood it was landmark locale, famous for being the premier hotel to the show business elite. In 1928, the grounds which the hotel were situated on was turned into, "Sunset Hills Estates", presumably holding the residencies of many other Hollywood big-names. The hotel's operations were also quite close with their next-door neighbours G-Force Records and the two often intertwined their business. Of the hotel's offerings were the, "Tip Top Club", a grandiose gentleman's club located on the hotel's 13th floor.
The Hollywood Tower Hotel would mysteriously come to bare paranormal phenomena. The first known example of this occurred the July 15 of 1931 when a wealthy Hollywood family known as the Hermans boarded an elevator heading for the Tip Top Club. Due to an elevator malfunction, the Hermans crashed and were presumed dead although no corpses were ever recovered from the rubble. This event was covered by the world's first international newspaper First International News, leading many to believe that this would mark the end of the hotel's proud career.
Despite this incident, the Hollywood Tower Hotel managed to repair the elevators and reclaimed its star status. In 1939, the American Automobile Association awarded the hotel the, "Thirteen Diamond Award", making the Hollywood Tower Hotel the only known hotel to have achieved this status.
Halloween incident[]
In 1939, the hotel arranged for a large Halloween party to be thrown on October 31 with a top-tier guest-list. On the 31, the hotel's elevators were inspected by one Cadwallader, a man of apparent supernatural connections. That night, four guests by the names of Gilbert London, Carolyn Crosson, Sally Shine and Emeline Partridge boarded one of the elevators in the lobby with a bellhop named Dewey Todd. At 8:05, the hotel's elevator shafts were struck by paranormal lightning originating from the 5th Dimension once again plunging the elevators and their passengers down. The lightning caused the wings holding the elevator shafts to vanish leaving a black scorch mark across the side of the hotel while those five who were inside became ghosts bound to the hotel.
The night of the incident, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was closed down and left seemingly frozen in time while in a state of decay. It is unknown what became of the other guests of the hotel however it is known that an executive from G-Force Records managed to escape the Tip Top Club under mysterious circumstances. The hotel turned from being a place of pride to being a tower of terror which made many wary of entering its area of Sunset Boulevard, resulting in weakened business for the neighbourhood. All the while, the hotel continued to be haunted by its five victims while further being absorbed into the 5th Dimension and becoming a sort of portal to the realm.
Reopening[]
After 56 years of the closure, the Hollywood Tower Hotel mysteriously reopened in the July of 1994. The reopening of the hotel seemingly correlated with a sudden spike in success from G-Force Records who had recently managed to score big-name deals with names such as Aerosmith. At this point the hotel was staffed by a crew of unnatural if not outright malevolent bellhops who seemed frozen in the 1930s and wished to bring new guests into the 5th Dimension. The bellhops would go about this by utilizing the maintenance service-elevators in the boiler room of the hotel rather than the decommissioned elevators in the lobby. On at least one incident, a group of would-be-victims were encountered by a being from the 5th Dimension known as, "The Narrator" who informed them of the hotel's past and nature allowing at least some of them to escape a dark fate.
Alternate versions[]
Tower of Terror (film)[]
It is the sister hotel to The Manhattan Tower Hotel. The mystery was covered by various media sources, such as NewsView, The Clarion, and The Los Angeles Banner.
Appearances[]
Attractions[]
BaseLine Tap House[]
A wall-painted advertisement for the Pacific Electric Railway features the Hollywood Tower Hotel.
Camp Discovery[]
On a First International News newspaper pinned up by the League of Adventurers to celebrate their 1931 rediscovery of the Temple of the Crystal Skull was also a story on the Herman family going missing in the hotel.
Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT![]
In the Collector's fortress office in this attraction are bookmarks and bellhop's hat with the Hollywood Tower Hotel logo on them.[1]
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror[]
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (Walt Disney Studios Park)[]
Within Tower Hotel Gifts, a framed photograph of the hotel is visible.[2]
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (Walt Disney World)[]
This version of the attraction is set in the Neo-Mediterranean.
Film[]
Printed-materials[]
Disney Kingdoms: The Haunted Mansion[]
The Hollywood Tower Hotel makes a cameo appearance within a photograph in this story. The photograph is shown hung up in the Ghostly Materials Gallery of the Haunted Mansion in New Orleans where it is one of many paranormal locations connected to the mansion via the manor's endless stairway. The Hatbox Ghost is implied to have visited the hotel as he is caretaker of the Ghostly Materials Gallery and the stairway.
The Pilgrims of Rayne[]
The film version of the Hollywood Tower Hotel is alluded to in this book which features the Manhattan Tower Hotel.
Behind the scenes[]
The hotel was built in a Neo-Mediterranean style to blend into the Morocco Pavilion at Epcot from which it is visible.
The Hollywood Tower Hotel has become an icon or, "Park weenie" for Disney's Hollywood Studios. The traditional icon was the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard which is often obscured by stages, shows, and the short-lived, "Sorcerer's Hat" stage which was official icon for a time. Another icon was the Earful Tower water-tower that was removed in 2016.
Gallery[]
References[]
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