There is a building in downtown Los Angeles that has been holding its breath for over a hundred years.
The Millennium Biltmore opened in 1923 on South Grand Avenue — the part of the city that doesn’t try very hard to be discovered. It was built as a monument to old Hollywood’s idea of itself: marble floors, coffered ceilings, murals on every surface that wasn’t already gold. The most celebrated people in the film industry moved through it for decades. Some of what shaped American cinema happened in its rooms.
Some of what haunts it did too.
