The Most Famous Hotel You'll Never Step Foot Inside

One of the great ironies about L.A.: Because of all the film, TV and commercial shoots downtown, many of those old, dilapidated but wonderful old buildings -- most of which lost their lustre years ago -- nonetheless clock a ton of screen time.

Some of those buildings, of course, are now being reborn as fancy lofts. But most of the Historic Core is still a shadow of its bustling old self. I'm particularly fascinated by the area's once-grand hotels, such as the Alexandria, that one time housed diginitaries and now live on as flop houses.




Then there's the Hotel Rosslyn.

You've seen it dozens, maybe even hundreds of times, on TV or at the movies. Most recently, the Hotel Rosslyn serves as a backdrop for the music video to Hoobastank's "The Reason." The Rosslyn can also be seen in a recent Dr. Pepper ad, promoting the soda's tie in with "Spider-Man 2." You'll regularly see the Rosslyn in the background in shows and movies supposedly set in New York. But don't be fooled by its noteriety, or the ease in which it appears on TV. This is still a sad place, where drug deals are common and tenants are regularly forced to leave.

The Hotel Rosslyn, located at the corner of 5th and Main, opened in 1914 as a lavish, Beaux Arts-style 264-room hotel. It later spawned a sequel, in 1923, when the owners constructed a 422-room hotel across the street. The two hotels were connected by an underground tunnel. Large signs adorned both roofs -- the original simply announcing the "Rosslyn Hotel," while the other referring to itself as the "New Million Dollar Hotel Rosslyn."

But like much of downtown, the Rosslyn and its annex fell onto hard times by the mid-century. The annex is now called the Frontier Hotel; both are pay-by-the-week transient hotels.

Yet they're still famous. Downtown's hotels serve as the perfect backdrop for Hollywood's tales of innocence lost and various human tragedies.

U2's Bono became fascinated by the place when he and the band filmed their infamous rooftop video to "Where The Streets Have No Name" close by. They even shot this promotional pic on the roof:

Bono pitched the story that would later become Wim Wenders' film "Million Dollar Hotel." (Starring Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich, Mel Gibson and Jimmy Smits, "starts when a billionaire's son dies in a skid row hotel and a federal agent turns the lives of the miscreant residents upside down to find out if it was suicide or murder," according to IMDB.com.

According to a story on the International Cinematographers website, Wenders decided to shoot all of the movie at the Hotel Rosslyn/Frontier, even though it would have been easier to do elsewhere.

And it sounds like it wasn't easy: Since this was a $55-a-week hotel - a place with junkies, lunatics and people throwing needles off roofs - we were all wearing helmets since bags of urine could come flying down.

The lustre may be long gone... but at least one piece of the Rosslyn's past still survives: After at least half a century, the gigantic "Million Dollar Hotel" sign now shines once again, having been recently restored.