For nearly ninety years, Hollywood's brightest stars have favoured the Chateau Marmont as a home away from home. Filled with deep secrets but hidden in plain sight, its evolution parallels the growth of Hollywood itself. 
Perched above the Sunset Strip like a fairy-tale castle, the Chateau seems to come from another world entirely. An apartment-house-turned-hotel, it has been the backdrop for generations of gossip and folklore: 1930s bombshell Jean Harlow took lovers during her third honeymoon there; director Nicholas Ray slept with his sixteen-year-old Rebel Without a Cause star Natalie Wood; Anthony Perkins and Tab Hunter met poolside and began a secret affair; Jim Morrison swung from the balconies, once nearly falling to his death; John Belushi suffered a fatal overdose in a private bungalow; Lindsay Lohan got the boot after racking up nearly $50,000 in charges in less than two months.
Much of what's happened inside the Chateau's walls has eluded the public eye - until now. With wit and prowess, Shawn Levy recounts the wild parties and scandalous liaisons, creative breakthroughs and marital breakdowns, births and untimely deaths that the Chateau Marmont has given rise to. Vivid, salacious and richly informed, the book is a glittering tribute to Hollywood as seen from the suites and bungalows of its most hallowed hotel.

The Castle on Sunset

Bien sûr en ce temps-là, il y a John Wayne, Ray Charles, Marlon Brando et -évidemment - Elvis Presley. Mais entre 1957, date de la mort de son mentor Humphrey Bogart, et 1963, date de l'assassinat de son ami J. F. Kennedy, Frank Sinatra est la plus grande star de la scène américaine. Mieux - entouré d'un redoutable gang de vieux amis - le fameux Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop), « The Voice » incarne l'Amérique de cette époque. Une Amérique complexe, hédoniste et lumineuse, à l'image des néons des casinos et du soleil de Palm Springs. Une Amérique crépusculaire aussi, où entertainment tente de faire bon ménage avec politique et mafia, sur fond de racisme et de corruption. Entre New York et Miami, Los Angeles et Las Vegas, entre chefs-d'oeuvre pop et jazzy et films à succès, entre conquêtes féminines, whiskies on the rocks, fêtes avec les Kennedy ou les mafieux de Chicago, ce livre aux allures de roman noir, digne d'American Tabloïd de James Ellroy, retrace le bouillonnant âge d'or d'un immense parrain du showbiz et de ses complices, véritables aristocrates du cool.

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