5930 Franklin Ave.
Formerly: Château Élysée
Purchase price: $1.5 million, 1973
Architect:  Arthur E. Harvey     Builder:  Luther T. Mayo, inc.

This 1929 replica of a 17th century French château is now known as a murder site and also as the Celebrity Centre International. It was built by Eleanor Ince, widow of Thomas Ince, the original movie mogul. He pretty much invented the silent movie western genre.  The Château attracted the rich and famous like Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Carol Lombard, Ed Sullivan, George Burns, Lillian Gish, Carey Grant, George Gershwin and Ginger Rogers.

Some believe that in 1924 William Randolph Hearst shot and killed Thomas Ince on his yacht the "U.S.S. Oneida."  There was no autopsy. Hearst then paid Ince's widow hush money to cover it up, according to the rumor.  It was this hush money that was allegedly used to build the hotel .  That's a pretty big "hush!"  Hedda Hopper, then unknown, was also on the boat. It is suspected that Hearst gave her a job as a gossip columnist for his papers to shut her up.  All of this was dramatized in the excellent 2001 movie "The Cat's Meow" with Carey Elways playing Thomas Ince. In the movie Hearst is portrayed as a trigger happy nutcase shooting seagulls with a pistol, which is practically impossible.

As Hollywood fell into disrepair starting in the 1960's this great hotel did too.  Then, in 1992, the Church of Scientology devoted over one million hours to restoring the Château to its 1929 state. The lobby is Rococo.  Other features include the Renaissance restaurant (open to the public), a garden, waterfall and gazebo, bookstore and, of course, the hotel itself.  The building is open to the public and tours can be arranged.  Just don't buy anything in the gift shot with a credit card.  They will find out who you are and  probably charge a bunch of things you didn't buy on your poor plastic.

Gay ex-members have told me that when the Church finds out one of their parishioners is Gay they are shunted over to the Celeb Centre to take their courses. It is sort of a Hollywood dumping ground for the Homosexuals of Scientology.  So called "acting workshops" are often held here to try and sucker in attractive young people.  Promises are made of "free seminars on how to get an agent."  What attendees discover is an hour long bore-fest featuring five minutes of career advice followed by fifty-five more minutes of "hooray for Scientology."

Katie Holmes is said to have come almost every day in 2006 to study Scientology, and we all know how that turned out. Tom Cruise's mother and sister have lived (not just stayed) at the hotel in the past.  I don't have many protest videos of this site because it is practically a walled off castle and you can't get close to it without trespassing.

According to protester "Happy Smurf" every room in the hotel is bugged.  John Travolta lives in Florida but stayed at the Celeb Centre while in LA working on movies.  He was dumb enough to take men up to his hotel room and have sex with them.  The cult now has audio of these events.  It was because of him that the "John Travolta" suite was installed. It features, guess what, a large mirror on the wall.  Behind that mirror is a camera which video recorded Travolta having sex with men.  Should he ever try to leave this material will be leaked to the Internet to discredit him.  Smurf says he was told of these recordings by David Miscavige himself.



Château Élysée On Wikipedia