The Lido Apartments (the lobby of which is where they shot
the interior gatefold Hotel California photo and
back). The address for this one is 6500 Yucca Street. It's got bars on the windows and across the door; you have to have a code to get in, but I was not deterred. I waited around a bit for someone else to enter, then I slid in behind them. Frankly, as you probably guessed from the security measures, it's not in the best neighborhood and is run down. While I was waiting, homeless men were trudging by. All my girls had gone back home by that point (it was Saturday night), but I had my cousin and her wife with me so I wasn't alone. Otherwise, I wouldn't have stood out there for more than a minute.
Still, I'm glad I did. It was cool to see the lobby. It's changed since 1976, unsurprisingly, but a few things are the same - like those small windows on the second floor balcony that peek down on the lobby. I stood in one, looked down, and imagined what it would be like to be at that photo shoot and be the girl so many people thought was Anton LeVay. The lobby had a portrait of the
Hotel California album hanging on the wall and a small sign saying "Welcome to the Hotel California" - those seemed to be the only visible nods to its claim to fame.
I took a few photos:
Lobby 1 |
Lobby 2 |
Looking down on lobby from second floor balcony |
Hotel California portrait hanging in lobby