The Georgian Hotel from “BH90210”

While I was initially on the fence as to my feelings regarding BH90210, I have to say the meta-revival has really grown on me.  Though I did not particularly love the pilot, by episode 4, I was absolutely enthralled and am so saddened that Season 1 will be coming to a close this week.  And it’s not just the nostalgia factor that is hooking me.  The show is really well done and really funny.  Can I hear it for a Season 2, please?!?  One thing about the production that I cannot get behind is the fact that none of it is shot in L.A.  In a perplexingly move, Fox chose to shoot the reboot of one of the most famous series about Los Angeles in Vancouver of all places!  Sacrilege, I know!  BH90210 doesn’t even really make use of SoCal establishing shots.  So I was thrilled to finally see a local spot, Santa Monica’s The Georgian Hotel, pop up as the exterior of the private club Jason Priestley belongs to in episode 4.  I actually stalked the locale years ago, but never blogged about it.  Figuring now was the perfect time to do so, I scanned through my extensive photo library to look for my pics of it, but couldn’t find them anywhere.  So I called upon my friend Brian, of the Celebrity Net Worth website, who lives in L.A., to stalk the property on my behalf the next time he was in the area.  Incredibly, he obliged the following day!  Thank you, Brian!

The Art Deco masterpiece that is The Georgian Hotel was commissioned by judge Harry J. Borde, owner of the neighboring Hotel Windermere which was originally established by his mother, Rosamund, on Ocean Avenue in 1909.  (That site has long since been demolished.)  As Santa Monica grew in popularity with vacationers, Borde decided to build a second, adjacent lodging, figuring it would also be profitable.  Ground broke on his new project in 1931.  Designed by architect Eugene Durfee at a cost of $500,000, the striking Georgian opened to the public in 1933.

At its inception, the 8-story hotel, commonly referred to as “The Lady,” boasted such modern amenities as a beauty parlor, a formal dining room, a barber shop, and, per a 1933 newspaper ad, “electrically-equipped kitchens.”  Rates started at $40 a night.  Oh, how times have changed!  Today, rooms at The Georgian run about $300 on the low end.

The Georgian became a celebrity haven from the outset.  Not only did the beach provide more temperate climates than other areas of L.A., but hidden in the hotel’s basement was a speakeasy.  Some of the stars who frequented the place during its early days, whether to illegally imbibe or just relax, include Charlie Chaplin, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Bugsy Siegel, Al Capone, and Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle.

The lodging has gone through several renovations and transformations throughout its 86-year existence.  It even served as an upscale apartment building in the ‘60s, housing the likes of Rose Kennedy, who summered onsite.

Today, the property offers 84 rooms (28 of which are suites), turn-down service, complimentary Wi-Fi (a rarity in L.A.), 24-hour room service (yes, please!), a gym, views of Palisades Park and the Pacific Ocean, the alfresco Veranda Restaurant, a business center, and event space.  What happened to the basement speakeasy, you ask?  Per the hotel’s website, it is being re-opened as Nineteen33 Underground Kitchen & Bar in the very near future.

Thanks to its exclusivity, The Georgian remains a celebrity enclave today, with such luminaries as Matthew Perry, Al Pacino, Tim Robbins, Matt LeBlanc, Robert Downey Jr., Ron Yerxa, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Claire Danes, Nicolas Cage, Oliver Stone, Robert De Niro, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Charlie Webber all known to stop by.

On BH90210, The Georgian masks as the private club Jason Priestley belongs to (and is a founding member of), where the cast regularly hangs out.  It’s kind of like the modern-day Peach Pit.  Oddly, while the club has appeared in every episode from “The Pitch” on, typically only the interior is shown.  The Georgian did not pop up until episode 4, “The Table Read.”  The two establishing shots featured are below.  The very same images were also used in episode 5, “Picture’s Up.”

Only the exterior of The Georgian is utilized on BH90210.  The Interior of Jason’s club is nothing more than a set created at North Shore Studios in Vancouver, where the series is lensed.

Said set actually reminds me a lot of the Beverly Hills Beach Club set from the CW’s 2008 90210 reboot, which you can see images of here.

BH90210 is not the only production to feature The Georgian.  Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Det. Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) chase down a hit man there in the Season 4 episode of Starsky & Hutch titled “Ninety Pounds of Trouble,” which aired in 1979.  As you can see, the hotel looked very different – and much less colorful – then.

The following year, it popped up in an establishing shot of the Los Angeles hotel where con man Harley Dexter (Vincent Baggetta) stayed in the Season 4 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Three for the Money.”

Chili Palmer (John Travolta) heads to The Georgian to track down Ray ‘Bones’ Barboni (Dennis Farina) and retrieve his stolen “black leather jacket, fingertip length, like the one Pacino wore in Serpico” in Get Shorty.

In the 1995 classic, The Georgian is said to be located in Miami.  It is not very hard to see how it got pegged for the role, being that it does have a very Florida look and feel to it.

Lucia DeLury (Lisa Kudrow) and Bill Truitt (Martin Donovan) also check in to The Georgian while visiting Los Angeles in the 1997 comedy The Opposite of Sex.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Brian, from Celebrity Net Worth, for stalking this location for me and taking all of the photos that appear in this post. 

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Georgian Hotel, aka Jason Priestley’s private club on BH90210, is located at 1415 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica.  You can visit the property’s official website here.

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