It is also the room where Paul Whiteman, later known as the "Jazz King", got his start as a bandleader in 1919, where Rudolph Valentino danced with movie starlets, and where Hollywood held its most significant balls during the early days of the motion picture business.

[5] When the design of the new "crystal palmroom" was announced, the Los Angeles Times wrote: "The room will be one of the largest of its kind in California and will be available for social affairs of every nature.

Great crystal chandeliers blazed from a dozen vantage points, while softer and smaller lights were placed along the four sides of the room.

"[7] For the next 12 years (until the opening of the Biltmore in 1923), the Palm Court was the city's most prestigious ballroom event location, hosting receptions for the likes of President Woodrow Wilson and Gen. John J. Pershing, as well as balls where Hollywood's silent film stars and early movie moguls mingled.

"[9]Rudolph Valentino, whose untimely death at age 31 caused mass hysteria among his female fans, was a regular visitor to the dances held at the Alexandria's great ballroom.

[4] Silent movie actress Mary MacLaren later recalled that her mother had "blighted a blossoming romance" with Valentino when she would not allow her to go dancing with "Rudy" at the Alexandria.

"[12] In the Alexandria's heyday, movie stars and other celebrities, including Valentino, Mary Miles Minter, Sarah Bernhardt, Enrico Caruso and Jack Dempsey were guests.

U.S. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson,[8] and many foreign dignitaries, also stayed at the hotel while visiting Los Angeles.

... Somebody also started the story that there was a mysterious room somewhere, and that all of a half pint of beer and nearly a whole bottle of perfume had been consumed, but the scandal was not verified, and I for one don't believe it, because if anything like that were on tap, Director Walter Edwards would have been on it, and he would have danced, whereas he never shook a hoof all evening.

[44] In February 1934, the Alexandria closed its doors, and many of its finest furnishings and fixtures were stripped and sold, including the famed million-dollar rug, marble columns, chandeliers, and gold leaf covering of the mezzanine lobby.

[8] In 1958, Pajarito Moreno drew crowds of 800 people to his training camp at the Palm Room prior to his featherweight title match with Kid Bassey.

"[47] In 1960, a Los Angeles Times article described the scene at the Palm Room where a dollar bought admission to watch world bantamweight boxing champion Jose Becerra and welterweight Battling Torres training for fights to be held at the Coliseum:"You enter the Alexandria Hotel and find the lobby liberally sprinkled with knots of people, most of them Latin.

It was the film industry's first home in the early 1900s, a place where dozens of studios maintained offices, where Charlie Chaplin and friends formed United Artists, where the lobby bustled with so many deal makers that a Persian rug there was deemed the 'million-dollar carpet.