Renamed the Beverly Wilshire Hotel by new owners, it was renovated with a ballroom in the 1940s by architect Paul Revere Williams to accommodate the popular big bands of the day.

[8] On Saturday, October 9, 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald lunched at the Beverly Wilshire with Ginevra King, whom he'd known when they were both young and who is held to have been a model for Daisy Buchanan, in his The Great Gatsby.

[9] During a tour in 1940, the Beverly Wilshire was the only major Los Angeles hotel willing to accommodate Paul Robeson due to his race, at an exorbitant rate and providing he registered under an assumed name, and he therefore spent two hours every afternoon sitting in the lobby, where he was widely recognised, "to ensure that the next time Black[s] come through, they'll have a place to stay."

[10][11] On November 18, 1966, Sandy Koufax, star pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, announced his sudden retirement from baseball at the age of 30 due to his ailing arm in a press conference at the Beverly Wilshire.

[13] The American socialite and Woolworth department store heiress Barbara Hutton spent her last years in near poverty and poor health in the hotel and died there in May 1979.