Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/18929
NOVEMBER 2010 THE BEST OF LONG BEACH 76 FACES & PLACES : LOCAL HISTORY SPLENDOR ON THE BEACH WRITTEN BY CHERYL SCOTT The Breakers Hotel has been a dominant feature of the Long Beach skyline since 1926. Its Spanish Baroque style stands as an icon of a bygone era, and it seems built for gentlemen with pencil-thin moustaches and ladies smothered in fur. The hotel has had more ups and downs than an Otis elevator during its reign as a waterfront resort and gathering spot for the Hollywood elite. The 15-story, 320-room hotel was built by Long Beach banker and financier Fred B. Dunn at a cost of $3 million, somewhat more than the projected budget of $100,000. But the money was well spent. The hotel was touted by Mayor Fillmore Condit, who spoke at the grand opening banquet, as a harbinger of an era of success for the city. The evening's entertainment included a roster of stars from Vaudeville. Built three years before the completion of the Villa Riviera, the Breakers was the tallest structure in Long Beach. The 15-story hotel was promoted as one of Southern California's finest luxury resorts. Elite travelers passed under bas relief mermaid busts and sculptured heads of Neptune as they entered the resplendent lobby where it would not be surprising to glimpse F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda in a palm-sheltered niche sipping bootleg hooch from gilded flasks. Among other amenities, it housed a 500-seat dining room aptly called "The Hall of the Galleons." Flirty flappers visited a bank of "smart shops" while their well-heeled escorts indulged in a Turkish bath. But most newsworthy of all, each room could receive radio broadcasts, made possible by state- of-the-art technology allowing guests to plug in