The Hotel del Charro was a resort hotel in La Jolla,California, famous for its discreet hospitality to deal-makingpoliticians, wealthy industrialists, and Hollywood celebrities,including Richard Nixon, Joseph McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover,John Wayne, William Powell, Elizabeth Taylor, Mel Ferrer,and La Jolla native Gregory Peck. Charro in Spanish is acostumed horseman.[1]
First constructed in June 1931, as a riding club, thepredecessor to the del Charro was located at the junction of La JollaCanyon (now Torrey Pines Road) and Ardath Road (now La Jolla Parkway)on a 4-acre tract. Until 1937, it was run by a Miss Jean Moore, afterwhich it was purchased by a Captain W.W. Beckwith, who operated it asLa Jolla Riding Stables.[1]
About 1945, the property was sold to Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Marechal, of Texas,who converted it to a motor hotel with riding facilities, opening asthe Rancho del Charro in 1948. Because of its proximity to the La Jolla Playhouse,which had been founded by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer in 1947,the hotel soon hosted many Hollywoodand Broadway celebrities.[1]
In 1951 the Marechals sold the property to a Nevada corporation widelyunderstood (by insiders) to be controlled by Texas billionairesClint Murchison and Sid Richardson. (E.g., fundsfor the purchase were borrowed from an insurance company owned byMurchison.) Renamed the "Hotel del Charro", the buildings were remodeled and aswimming pool was added. Thereafter, one or another of the co-ownerswere frequently in residence at the hotel.[1] [2]
“Serious citizens in La Jolla tend to feel that Hotel del Charro is aTexas enclave, not too much concerned with the town’s welfare,”observed a local in 1954.[3] By then, the hotel was nationally famous. A NewYork Times piece on San Diego's post-war boom described it as a"fabulous hostelry" with every guest room having either a privatepatio, sundeck, or balcony. "Its restaurant, built around a hugejacaranda tree, has not one chef, but two, one imported from Scotland,the other from Palm Springs." The pool was described as "Texas-size",crescent-shaped, with pool-side cabanas.[4]
Celebrity guests of the time included John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor,William Powell, Jimmy Durante, and Betty Grable, along withMurchison's Texas oilman friends Effie and Wofford Cain, Emily and Billy Byars,and Jodie and Pug Miller. A Texas flag flew overhead, and there wasa Dow-Jones stock ticker machine in the lobby.[5]
Close to the Del Mar racetrack (itself later acquired by Murchisonand Richardson), the hotel attracted wealthy horse-race aficionados.A 1956 article in the Daily Racing Form by the hotel's own generalmanager gave this description of racing season at the hotel: "Thechauffeurs arrive from town with the longest and blackest of theGeneral Motors products. All are air-conditioned, about the samelength as a Pullman car, and a trifle less expensive. One of thesebelongs to oil tycoon Roy Woods, who has a dollar for every dropof water in Niagara Falls. Bob Bowden, the 6-foot 6-inch maîtred’hôtel, is discussing J. Edgar Hoover’s dinner for Vice PresidentNixon with the chef."[6]
Hoover, along with companion Clyde Tolson, wasaccustomed to staying at the hotel for two weeks every year duringracing season, occupying "Bungalow A", one of the hotel's stand-alone cabins.Columnist Jack Andersonreported in 1971 that Hoover's bill was always "comped" by the hotel'sowners. According to Anderson, manager Witwer told him that over theyears Hoover ran up a total tab of $15,000.[2]
Hoover sometimes entertained guests in his bungalow, one of whom wasArthur Samish, a lobbyist who was said to represent organized crimeinterests in the liquor industry, and another of whom wasHoward Hughes. On first entering the bungalow, Hughesreportedly asked for Hoover's assurance that the premiseswere not bugged.[2]
Senator Joseph McCarthy was another frequent guest. “McCarthy wasvirtually on Murchison’s payroll,” manager Allan Witwer related.“He’d get drunk and jump in the pool, sometimes naked. He urinatedoutside his cabana, flew everywhere in Murchison’s plane.”Eventually, after one drunken brawl too many, McCarthy was declaredpersona non grata at the hotel.[7] Joan Crawford was another celebrity declared persona non grata,reportedly for flirting excessively with billionaire co-owner Richardson.[2]
Physicist Leo Szilard, famous as author of the Einstein–Szilárd letter toPresident Roosevelt, lived with his wife Trudy for many years until his death in 1964in one of the more elaborate bungalows on the property. His guestsfrom time to time included Niels Bohr, Edward Teller, and other famous physicists.[8]
The Hotel del Charro finally closed in the early 1970s. The buildingswere razed and replaced by condominiums, now known as "Del Charro Woods".Some of the larger trees are original to the property.[1]
The Hotel del Charro plays a prominent role under the fictitious name"Rancho Descansado" in Raymond Chandler's finalPhilip Marlowe novel, Playback. Chandler hadlived in La Jolla, whichhas become "Esmerelda" in the novel, for the previous decade. A cab driver characterdescribes the place as, "Bungalows with car ports. Some single,some double. Office in a small one down front. Rates pretty steepin season." Marlowe and other characters are attacked on the premises.[9] [10]