It's the most famous 'pub' in Los Angeles and within its dusky walls, celluloid history on and off the screen has been made. The Beverly Hills Hotel is Hollywood, the old guard and the new, and if only the walls could speak - because no-one who works at 'The Pink Palace' talks about anything but utter discretion.

Some places simply cannot be categorised. They stand apart with their own distinct appeal. And one such place is the Beverly Hills Hotel. Why? At first glance, the observer must only shriek PINK! Then you would see the familiar sign and recall that you have seen it somewhere before .... and you probably have. If you watch television; take in the odd movie or even have the vaguest interest in the media and movieland gossip, and let's be honest, as 20th century inquisitives you do, will or have had, then the name will undoubtedly ring a bell. Yes, the hotel is extraordinarily pink but it is most noted as a popular playground for Hollywood players, and, it is very, very private - for the protection of its guest's sometimes peculiar penchants.

On a Fort Knox visage, this hotel displays a very protective pout. Its spokespersons, a diplomatic, dedicated crew, emphasise a very tight-lipped discretion to carefully guard the requested privacies of otherwise very public personalities: celebrities, royalty, heads-of-state, for whom this hotel is more a home-away-from-home than temporary lodgings. Every day is its heyday. Tradition has made the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows an ongoing trend and written them into history as a universal landmark.

No other hotel on earth can boast such a legendary lofty celebrity count, for the palace of pink is a place where actors, divorced from their on-screen personas and obligatory public hype, can mingle freely and unencumbered amidst their own. Attracting the stars like bees to a honey pot, the Mediterranean inspired monolith occupying prime position on equally as legend Sunset Boulevard, has played a sweet retreat to three generations of Queen Hollywood and the spectrum of those who make up her glittering empire.

The Hotel's provenance can be claimed by a man named Burton R. Green who, in 1906 formed the Rodeo Land and Water Company to develop the land that was once the Mexican government-owned Rancho de Las Agyas. Green named the area Beverly Hills after his own home in Beverly Farm, Connecticut.

Intentionally setting out to lure the rich and famous, Green transferred surrounding lima bean fields into estate sized lots, converted cash crops into prime investment real estate and catalysed the exclusive residential enclave of current fame. He said California was the place they ought to be, so they packed up more than many trucks "and moved to Beverly...Hills, that is.. yes, swimming pools ... movie stars..." you know the score!

Opening on May 1st, 1912 at the then staggering cost of $500,000, the sprawling stucco structure was the first major building in the new non-demotic sense. It was Beverly Hills. Incorporated in 1914, the naming of the city was simple - just erase words one and four from the familiar sign that guards the porte cochere.

The focal point of the elite free settlers, the palatial palace played host to formal dances and weddings in the ballroom and today's Sunday Brunches were church services back then. In 1923, it hosted the inauguration of Will Rogers as mayor of Tinseltown. The now famous Polo Lounge, originally "El Jardin", pays homage to cinema's original cowboy, name changed in 1941 in his and friends Daryl Zanuck and Tony Hitchcock's honour. They played polo in the grounds behind the Hotel and always stopped by for postmatch refreshments.

By this stage, the colourful manor had withstood its sixth change of ownership becoming the pride and joy of Bank of America's former Vice President, Hernando Courtwright. Founder Burton Green's first hotel manager, Mrs. Anderson became proprietor number two in 1920, superceded seven years later by Interstate Corporation. As the door to the Depression opened, the doors to the Hotel closed in 1930, although its famous Bungalows continued to be occupied under individual leaseholds.

Courtwright joined with a trio of famous friends: Loretta Young, Irene Dunne and Harry Wagner to purchase the hotel in 1941. Courtwright, who would later own another of Beverly Hills' hotel landmarks the Beverly Wiltshire, was a much beloved bon vivant and personality in his own right and under his patronage, much of the folklore surrounding the hotel that exists today was instituted. Thirteen years later, however, yet another name would appear on the title, to remain there for a record quarter of a century. L. Silberstein, whose bequethal to his two daughters, Mrs. Muriel Slatkin and Mrs. Seema Boesky (spouse of the infamous Wall Street arbitrageur and soon to be trapped insider-trading tycoon Ivan B.) became operative in 1979. The Boesky's gained control in 1985 but did not hold the reins for too long. Scandal, the Hotel's silent partner, made a public appearance this time, exposing Ivan's illegalities and a $100 million fine which may have been what enticed him to accept a $135 million offer for the property.

Denver's shrewd man of crude, Marvin Davis (Upon whom Dynasty is allegedly based) took control in 1986, but the television soap opera had a much longer run than did the oil baron as Hotelier. In the following year, coinciding with the Hotel's 75th anniversary, he resold the Beverly Hills Hotel to the Brunei Investment Agency, better known by its Chief and the world's richest man, the Sultan of Brunei, for $200 million.

But despite the colourful history and ownership sagas the heart of the hotel has always been its staff. With credentials of complete confidentiality, collectively they make up an almanac of the Hotel's guests and events.

To work at the Beverly Hills Hotel was Bill Bigsby's solo ambition. Arriving in LA in 1961 on a ticket that was a college graduation gift from his parents, his first stop from hometown Skancarcles, New York, was the Hotel to apply for a job! Shortly after, the 21-year old lad was behind the front desk where he has been ever since. Now Reservations Manager, he does everything to make the guests feel at home. With personal dossiers on each, including a computer list of favourite rooms, liquor preferences, bed type, sun exposure, colour fancy and even fictitious names, he could scoop comments for Hollywood's green-eyed vultures but innuendoes are not in keeping with the Hotel's entrusted hospitality maxim as Bill reiterates: "Privacy is the number one priority of our famous guests".

Veteran bellboy Kenneth Leffer, the Hotel's employee with the longest tenure, had many varied tasks beyond the call of duty including waking Marilyn Monroe in the morning, a directive from the platinum blonde's studio. As she slept soundly he would open her door with a passkey, go in, and then shake her until she stirred, not leaving before she had both feet firmly on the floor.

Part-time dishwasher to busboy to maitre d' and Room Service Manager, Emilio Trejo's career has celebrated a silver jubilee of service. He has waited on Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, Eddie Murphy ... but Emilio treats every guest like a celebrity with his room service motto: "We do the impossible!" For example, once a guest requested a magnum of 1976 Dom Perignon. "He bet me I'd never find one", Emilio has told. "We made dozens of calls on both coasts and finally located one bottle. He was very surprised". Presumably aghast at the feat and not the princely figure of $1400! He also remembers being awakened at home at 2 a.m. to organise a Chinese dinner for the infamous Adnan Khashoggi. The Hotel doesn't serve Chinese food and the kitchen was closed. Nevertheless, 45 minutes later Emilio delivered a six course meal for twelve to Khashoggi's bungalow door.

Amongst the hotel's supporting squad of secret-keepers the 'at one's disposal' principle is proudly read like a script and its rehearsal over and over again is a reassuring reminder that you'll never leave disappointed. A circumspect crew, you have to admire their no-speak ability. But stories have leaked over the years, a treat for gossip junkies.

Tucked beneath the palm fronds, the bungalows are a characteristic feature of the property's personality and an intense source of interest. Twenty-one in all, with one to four bedroom variations on a theme including living room, kitchen and bar, with main house service just a call away, each one is different and over the years has played cottage to various members of the rich and shameless.

In 1942 Howard Hughes had four of them, one for himself, one for his actress wife Jean Peters and two for use as decoys. As the hotel's memoirs recall, for 30 years on and off the Beverly Hills Hotel was Hughes' hedonistic hideaway and lovers lair, enveloping his eccentricity in a cocoon of privacy and a luxuriant fortress so essential to the nature of the character. The billionaire recluse was known for ordering pineapple upside-down cakes from his personal chef at 3 a.m., requiring that roast beef sandwiches be hidden for him in a tree in the garden, and dancing alone with young starlets in the Persian Room. He particularly liked Bungalows 45 and 6 because they were nearer the street for a speedy exit when required! There was the time he parked a white cadillac near his bungalow in Crescent Drive which is not unusual except that it remained there, undriven for two years. All four tyres went flat and the wheels became entwined with pavement pierced vines. No one dared touch it, not even the police. Well, it did belong to Howard Hughes.

The secluded nests became private rendezvous, for many a famous Hollywood couple such as Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, who met secretly prior to his divorce and their subsequent marriage; Marilyn Monroe who spent romantic evenings with Yves Montand in Bungalows 20 and 21 while filming 'Let's Make Love"; and Elizabeth Taylor who as an eleven-year-old used to visit her father's art gallery in the hotel's Promenade, later shared bungalows with all of her seven husbands, except, for obvious reasons, hotelier Nicky Hilton! At the time when she and Richard Burton enjoyed a drop, they would have a room service standing order of two bottles of vodka with the first meal of the day, and two or more with lunch.

And there were the three days Faye Dunaway spent celebrating her Oscar win for the film "Network". A stream of $150 bottles of Cristal champagne maintained a constant flow and after she left, some thirty empties were fished from under the bed, the lawn and the surrounds.

The bungalows have also been "home" to W.C. Fields, Errol Flynn, Marlene Dietrich, Aristotle Onassis, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, The Beatles and Royals from kingdoms at all compass points... the hotel has the licence to namedrop. Leslie Caron and Warren Beatty shared Bungalow 14; John Lennon and Yoko Ono didn't surface for a week from Bungalow 11, the same shack that Dietrich once had redecorated with a 7 x 8 foot bed; glamour actress Martine Carol added another suicide attempt to another broken love affair in Bungalow 8; and Bungalow 9, the dollar sign daddy of them all at more than $3,000 a night, is Perry Como's preferred tariff.

In Polo Lounge star quarters, leisurely chatting with the hotel's food purveyor, a sideways glance espies a vocal Chevy Chase in the foreground. The Polo lounge is a legend in its own right, orchestrated with ease by three highly regarded and tuned-in maitre d's who serve as combination diplomat, executive secretary and confidante to a virtual who's who of the Hollywood entertainment industry. Bernice Philpin belongs to breakfast and referees morning mania with an erudite poise. She came to LA in the early forties from Nebraska and began working as a waitress at The Beverly Hills Hotel in 1950. She became the Lounge's first hostess. Arriving at 6 a.m. every morning she diplomatically juggles the reservations, strategically table placing entertainment entrepreneurs, corporate heads and prominent politicos to their favourite positions where in seclusion they'll take part in the daily ritual of "power breakfasting", secretly sipping from the cup of plenty and chewing over a juicy multimillion dollar deal. Jack Valenti, President of the Motion Picture Association of America, can usually be seen in one of the six prime booths in the front room.

The tables here aren't just for placemats and elbow leaning. They have a value all of their own. Dynamic wheeling and dealing is a characteristic entree to the day and rampant egos and movie moguls will therefore wait at the door before the Lounge opens to ensure they occupy a strategic post. "Naturally, our regular guests have their favourite table" says Bernice, "And you always try to accommodate them. Our guests are treated like they're at home, but a home where they'll receive the utmost in pampering service. That's what keeps people coming back to the Polo Lounge, and I love making it all work".

Emilio Trejo blows the whistle for the lunchtime crowd whilst Nino Rosti umpires the dinner brigade. One night, at the height of the dinner hour, a Polo Lounge regular called Nino to order 20 pounds of Dungeness Crab for a party the next day. The problem? The customer was in upstate New York. So between seating guests and taking reservations, Nino managed to book a flight, and by midnight he had one of his waiters on the plane, crab in hand, carrying his personal American Express card. Leaving nothing to chance, Nino called the next day from home to be sure the waiter (and the crab) had arrived in time for the party.

The Polo Lounge is the place of pace, every shift ambled with what appears to be relative ease. But table number 3, numero uno in the table stakes, is the galloping gait that puts all the maitre d's through their paces.

"This table here" as Chief Chef Michel points out, "is our Number One table. This is it! Everybody wants to sit at this table. We have a lot of problems with this table. Not that one (pointing), or that one... but this one. This table; 'Table 3' is everybody. All the big shots, regular guests who come for lunch, they say 'I want this table'. And the maitre d's says, 'Sorry Mr. so and so, you didn't call me so I gave to them'. They say 'I don't care, I will come back 20 minutes later, I need this table'!

"The story behind it is that from table 3 you can see everything. When you sit at this table you are it.. when the people come they see you, you don't need to be put on the stage, you are on the stage already here. You are on the podium. It is the whole focus of the whole room!"

Executive chef Michel Saragueta is the hotel's discerning culinary department head. The hotel provides much more than great star spotting and his French/Californian continental cuisine sits comfortably on the menu side-by-side recipes of the Hollywood stars. Michel enthusiastically caters for every taste, mood and fancy.

A jovial master of the kitchen, Michel's exuberance promotes the character of the Beverly Hills Hotel. "I love so much this place, this ambience" he exclaims with a friendly English/French grammatical mix. "I love so much all the kind of gossip that happens here. It is a part of the life. I start my day every morning at 8 o'clock. I leave sometimes at 2 a.m.".

Born in the Basque region of France, "not East, not West, Basque, yah", he did not expect to become a chef, but behind every successful man is usually a woman and from the age of 12 he helped that woman, his mother. "She was a great chef... I was always with her". Procuring a maternal cordon bleu he earned his Master Chef Diploma at the prestigious Biarritz Hotel school in France.

"It is so funny how I came to be here", continues the ebullient Michel. "I wanted only to go to the 21 Club in New York. When the 21 Club opportunity came, I moved to New York for one year. The new owner of the Beverly Hills Hotel, Marvin Davis, was a guest there. He asked the owner of the 21 Club: 'Can I have your chef for my place?"

"I had a problem with the food when I first came here because it was too old. And what we did is give it new life, I say French modern. Before I came here, four years ago, two cooks were serving five to six hundred people, chicken with rice, peas and carrots. Now when I do the parties, I line up myself eight, nine, sometimes ten cooks to make old dishes look beautiful. Sometimes we do 2,000 in a day, that's lunch and dinner. We can sit 550 in one room plus upstairs we can sit another 600".

There are six banquet rooms including the Cinema Room for private screenings. The gourmet dining room is a discreet den for the discriminating diner looking for an unobtrusive repast; and for informal dining there is no shortage of choices: the Cabana Club Cafe at the poolside, shaded by wide brolly brims; the nostalgic Fountain Coffee Room: or the Patio/Loggia of the Polo Lounge where two can loll in the landscaped courtyard and share that romantic cocktail or an indulgent afternoon tea.

The locals however have a different idea.

"Basically in Beverly Hills, it is salad", admits Chef Michel who would rather tuck into a hearty carving of select prime fillet sautéed in a liquor-laced cream sauce. "It is very difficult to please Beverly Hills people because they're thinking all the time ... salads ... they're thinking healthy, thinking this, thinking that, and the people miss a lot of good items like veal ... I man what is wrong with veal? It's fantastic. But they go all the time with the same thing ... with the chicken and salad, salad, salad!"

But this doesn't cramp the contented cook's inventive style. "A lot of the time I have to design special menus and I love to do this kind of thing; to make special things with a lot of courses, six, seven or eight different appetizer size courses. When I do this I make sure they're one after the other and as soon as I send out one dish I have the next close by, ready to go, because the worst thing is waiting between courses. One time every trendy restaurant was doing this. It was terrible! I am opposed to this. You can't make a guest wait".

Surely this good humoured Frenchman can inject some funny stories. He chuckles to himself, no doubt several anecdotes spring to his private mind, but they're not for the telling. Its taboo to ask what the famous do but equally discreet is what they eat!

"Ah, the day doesn't pass without something going on. Left and right, we have so many requests. We never say no. It doesn't matter what it is, if I have the ingredients, I do it. We can do lobster in a thousand sways. I am personally very open to that. I understand guests' wishes and I understand that".

With a hint of European romantic, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Kerman Beriker grew up and wad educated in Lousanne, Switzerland. "We treat everybody the same. If you have been coming here for 20 years you will be recognised but if its your first time you will receive the same attention; and we are very discreet, you know that", echoes the boss in a relaxed, charismatic voice. "Its so tough ... so tough. You have to be fair, it's very important for us not to tell anything that happens here. We are more discreet than even doctors and lawyers because we see more really. When you go to the doctor, the doctor knows what sickness you may have. If you go to the lawyer, he knows your private life and financial business, but here we see everything. But then again we are trained in a way that ... we don't see, we don't hear ... we are here to serve them and this is the reason why they keep coming back".

"There's so many people related to this hotel in a way. They may have been discovered here, they get married here. The Hotel's history goes back to the people that really are so famous today. We had a party here a couple of years ago, honouring Frank Sinatra, and I mean the whole of Hollywood was here. I happened to know them because I have been involved with them before at other hotels, but I've never been at a party like this before where all the celebrities felt so comfortable because for them it's almost coming back home.

After training at the Hotel School in Switzerland, followed by 30 years' experience in top hotels in Europe, Canada and the US, "I opened 12 hotels myself", in two years he has settled in nicely to The Beverly Hills Hotel, the self-defined pinnacle of his efforts. "I just wanted to have a find. You find your property and then it becomes a part of your whole life.

A softly, well spoken gentleman professional, Beriker is firmly dedicated to service.

"This has always been my philosophy, and that is, first of all, we never say never to our guests. If you are staying in this hotel you are going to get, one way or the other what you want. I have worked at hotels that if you wanted something it was 'no, we sell it this way'... there is no such thing. We are here to provide them with more than what they can have in their own homes. And as far as I am concerned this is my home, it's our home, and we need to serve them. My attitude is always going to be: 'Is there anything I can do for you', otherwise you shouldn't be in this business.

"Just to tell you how we operate this hotel ... two weeks ago a lady calls me, hysterical, it's 8 o'clock in the morning and she says 'Mr. Beriker can you arrange to open the mens' store? My husband forgot to bring his suit'. I said 'I will certainly try. When do you need the suit?' She said 'in 20 minutes'. 'by the way' I said 'what is his size?' She said '42 tall' and I said 'shame, I am 42 regular' and she tells me 'I wish you were taller' and I said 'I wish I was taller too! But by the way, don't go away, I have a suit. I was in England three months ago and I picked up a suit that I have never had altered, and the pants are too long. Let me send it to you and in the meantime I will try to call the store to bring another to you'. I called the bellman who picked up the suit and she calls me after five minutes: 'Don't worry, we can wear it' ... That kind of thing; you even give your own suit to satisfy the guests!"

In a town where some people come from nothing to instant stardom, the sort of electricity that surges through its resident clique of financiers, film-makers and famous celebrities also draws a throng of sightseeing visitants who come for the novelty sojourn novelty of rubbing shoulders with the stars.

"Everybody wants to come here, to come to the Polo Lounge, have a drink and a dinner, to look around at everybody. This place really is the focal point of Hollywood. This place is the place in Los Angeles and the place in Beverly Hills.

"We mainly get the entertainment industry as our hotel guests. It could be entertainment-related lawyers or insurance, although for the last two years we have been working very actively, very successfully at increasing our international market. Now 25 per cent of our business is international. We've gone from 5 per cent to 25 per cent.

"This year for the first time we went to Europe. We went with our sales group to London and Paris. We are after a certain market, and that market understands us because we do provide what they need. This hotel provides the privacy but in the meantime, if you want to be in the action you are in it. We provide it all. Our advertising and promotions are very subtle. Its really just to refresh their memories. It's amazing how many people already know about our hotel.

But is what they're really selling the idea that you can come to LA, to this hotel, and meet the stars? An enviable marketing tool to say the least.

"Yes, that's our image. but also its a unique property. There are a lot of beautiful hotels in the world but here you are on 12 acres. You can work around and you're in the middle of the city, 25-30 minutes from the airport, 5 minutes from Rodeo Drive and 20 from the beach, and this is the most prestigious residential area. We are really living in a surrounding that is one of the finest cities in the world.

The host with the most, the facilities cater for the commercialist and hedonist alike. You can complement your stay with hair and manicuring salons for both sexes, and Harry Winston exquisite jewellery, or your wardrobe from Lina Lee designer womens' and Amir mens' wear. For social or serious sport there are twin lighted tennis courts, where private instruction is available from grandslam champion Alex Olmedo; and nearby is the pool area, well-known for its trading as well as wading. It used to have a special sunning area filled with imported white sand in the days when Esther Williams went for a dip; and in, 1957 it was the setting for Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall in "Designing Women". Today, with 200 lounge chairs, chilled towels in summer, a competitive-sized swimming pool, 22 private cabanas and 52 phone lines, it's the perfect place to mix business with pleasure. "Sometimes you pass by and hear 'buy it for $20 million ... $10 million ... it's well worth it.

Similarly the architecture is unique in its own way. Not all brass and glass like they say about a lot of American hotels, "And we don't want it that way" interjects Beriker. Likewise the dimensional dissimilitude. "We have 248 keys altogether" he adds, 'including 23 bungalows and 51 suites. It's a good mix". by American standards it's small but 248 here is worth the same as 2,000 in any other hotel".

The rooms are distinctly Californian, lavish with comforts and wall-papered bamboo green with a well-known banana leaf motif that is a relic from World War II days. "The people that own that pattern" informs Beriker "are making lots of money because we may receive every week about five to six calls inquiring as to where they can purchase that wallpaper. I saw in an architectural magazine where one famous person (and he's not mentioning who) decorated his entire home with this wallpaper. What I'm doing now is using that wallpaper and coming out with a scarf, Hermes quality. The souvenir part ... is doing extremely well. Anything that says The Beverly Hills Hotel, I tell you, it sells!"

As the sun sets on the Boulevard of the same name, the silhouette of tall Californian palms stand in stationary guard, shrouding the twelve acres of old world charm. The hotel, a castle of curiosities in the place you can trust, for privacy, for consistency; where familiar faces emit a friendly warm welcome and impossible challenges are always handled with aplomb and above all, discretion.