In 1941, Hernando Courtright, a vice president of the Bank of America, purchased the hotel with friends including Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, and Harry Warner.

Courtright established the Polo Lounge, which is considered to be one of the premier dining spots in Los Angeles, hosting entertainers ranging from the Rat Pack to Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich.

The strict resident owner of the Beverly Hills Hotel from 1958 until his death in 1979 was former Detroit real estate magnate Ben L. Silberstein.

[8] He hired Anderson to build a hotel, which he named Beverly Farms, after his home in Massachusetts, believing that it would attract people to the area, billing it as "halfway between Los Angeles and the sea".

A May 11, 1911 edition of the Los Angeles Times announced the news that a "huge Mission-style hotel" was to be built by Anderson, with the motto that "her guests were entitled to the best of everything regardless of cost".

By 1914, Hollywood directors, actors, and actresses, such as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino, and Will Rogers, had purchased homes in the area, "transforming bean fields surrounding The Beverly Hills Hotel into prime real estate".

[17] In 1940, one of the hotel's long-time patrons, Marlene Dietrich, was instrumental in bringing about a change in policy in the Polo Lounge, which had made it compulsory for women to don skirts, which she refused to wear.

[13] The Beverly Hills Hotel underwent significant renovation in the late forties when the porte cochere was expanded and painted in stripes.

[8] "Back in the days when celebrity was worn with the elegance and grace of diamonds and mink, the Beverly Hills Hotel was where the stars played.

Joan Crawford regularly pulled up for lunch in a chauffeured Rolls-Royce the color of money, the Beatles slipped in through the back door for an after-hours dip in the pool, and Sidney Poitier danced barefoot in the lobby after winning an Oscar for Lilies of the Field.

Over the years, Hollywood discovered that the hotel's original 21 bungalows made an ideal spot to write a screenplay (Neil Simon), have a secret affair (Warren Beatty, pre-Annette Benning [sic]), and recover from plastic surgery or a broken marriage".

[7] The reputation of the Beverly Hills Hotel, as a leading luxury hotel with glamorous patrons, took off during the 1950s and attracted eminent guests, such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon, King Albert II of Belgium, Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and Princess Grace, John Wayne, and Henry Fonda.

The Polo Lounge became associated with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and the Rat Pack, where they held heavy drinking bouts.

In 1956, the pool of the hotel and cabana club was a filming location for Designing Woman, starring Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall.

[13] In 1963, the comedy picture Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?, starring Dean Martin, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jill St. John, and Carol Burnett, was shot at the hotel.

[32] In protest, a United States national LGBT advocacy organization, the Gill Action Fund, canceled its reservation to hold a conference of major donors at the Beverly Hills Hotel and demanded a refund of its deposit.

[35] Meanwhile, the boycott had attracted support from Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group, as well as numerous Hollywood executives and stars, including Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres.

[39] HR Magazine said that the protests are "misguided" and will not affect the government policy of Brunei when the Dorchester Collection's annual revenue is $300 million, while the BIA has over $30 billion in assets from oil and gas.

[41][42][43] Lili Bosse, the then-mayor of Beverly Hills, welcomed the resolution and added that she had made a "personal decision" not to return to the hotel until the situation had been resolved.

"[46] Dorchester Collection Chief Executive Officer Christopher Cowdray asked the public to consider that many brands are backed by foreign investors.

[36] The hotel and other Dorchester properties faced renewed calls for boycott in April 2019, when Brunei made gay sex and adultery punishable by death by stoning.

The boycott attracted support from LA City Comptroller Ron Galperin and more celebrities, including George Clooney and Elton John.

"[50] In May 2019, the Sultan of Brunei said that his country's "de facto moratorium" on capital punishment would apply to cases under the new laws, and promised to ratify the UN Convention against Torture.

The hotel engaged in multiple donation campaigns to various organizations, such as the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Hollywood Food Coalition.

[4] Judith Kirkwood of Orange Coast Magazine has stated that "The Beverly Hills Hotel is such an icon that my friend, Gretchen, and I wondered if it was a mirage when the taxi pulled up in the porte cochere and deposited us on a red carpet, but realized that it was "more like a peachy pink dream dusted with gold — and green and white striped accents".

[22] The original main building of the Beverly Hills Hotel was designed by Pasadena architect Elmer Grey, in the Mediterranean Revival style.

Built on a prominence above the main road below, it resembled a white colonial palatial mansion or mission, with verandas and arches fitted with wicker furniture,[14] and at the time was set in the countryside.

[56] He had notably opened up the pool after hours for the Beatles and taught Faye Dunaway to swim a 1940s freestyle crawl for her appearance in the film Mommie Dearest.

[17] Many of the rooms have their own balcony and are designed in the Beverly Hills Hotel colors of peachy pinks, greens, apricots, and yellows.

5 had been a favorite of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who had "a standing room service order for two bottles of vodka at breakfast, and two more at lunch".