Palm Court (Alexandria Hotel) - Decline and Use For Boxing Events

Decline and Use For Boxing Events

The hotel declined after the Biltmore opened in 1923 and replaced the Alexandria as the city's most prestigious hotel. The opening of the luxurious Biltmore put an immediate dent in the Alexandria's business. In October 1923, the Los Angeles Times wrote:

"The exodus of the Associated Cofraternity of Lobby Loungers of Los Angeles was completed yesterday from the Hotel Alexandria to the new Hotel Biltmore. Its members, like members of similar organizations in all large cities, must have the very newest in hotels ..."

By 1932, the Alexandria Hotel Realty Company was bankrupt, leaving $1,159,000 in outstanding bonds. In February 1934, the Alexandria closed its doors, and many of its finest furnishings and fixtures were stripped and sold, including the famed million-dollar rug, marble columns, chandeliers, and gold leaf covering of the mezzanine lobby. The hotel reopened in 1937 but declined again in the 1950s and became a transient hotel. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Grand Ballroom (as the Palm Court was then known) was used as a training ring for boxers. In 1958, Pajarito Moreno drew crowds of 800 people to his training camp at the Palm Room prior to his featherweight title match with Kid Bassey. Sports columnist Braven Dyer noted, that on learning that Moreno was training in a ballroom, his barber sarcastically commented,

"A ballroom, yet! What's this frijole expect? That he's gonna have hisself a ball with this here Hogan Bassey? Or maybe he's training for a waltz? Why didn't he go get Fred Astaire for a sparrin' pardner?"

In 1960, a Los Angeles Times article described the scene at the Palm Room where a dollar bought admission to watch world bantamweight boxing champion Jose Becerra and welterweight Battling Torres training for fights to be held at the Coliseum:

"You enter the Alexandria Hotel and find the lobby liberally sprinkled with knots of people, most of them Latin. They lounge lazily and converse in low tones. But when the door marked 'Palm Room' is thrown open, the scene suddenly becomes animated. Everybody surges toward that door, including women with babies in their arms or toddlers at their sides. ... The admission charge is $1, and bills rain down on the man at the little desk, though some don't appear to be that affluent."

Noting that Woodrow Wilson had once given a speech in the same room, the writer observed: "The (boxing) session ends to long applause -- probably more than President Wilson received. After all, he packed no punch."