Sticky Fingers Hold Keys to Hotel Museum

That ashtray filched from the Gallery Bar. The monogrammed towel and washcloth toted off in a suitcase from Room 912. That Scottish-made linen napkin pocketed down in the Crystal Ballroom.

The Biltmore Hotel would like them back, please.

Not because the 683-room Los Angeles landmark needs them for its guests. But because workers at the downtown institution want them for the museum they intend to open.

Employees who have searched through old hotel storerooms and cabinets for memorabilia that chart the facility’s 75 years of operation are now turning to former guests for help in filling the museum.

Old room keys, postcards, guest-room stationery and promotional Biltmore brochures as well as long-ago-pilfered hotel “souvenirs” are being sought--no questions asked.

“We won’t ask, and you don’t have to tell” why you have that cup-size silver teapot engraved with the Biltmore logo, or how you happened to come by that 50-year-old hotel ice bucket, said hotel spokeswoman Victoria King.

Biltmore officials plan to open the museum in October during a weeklong 75th anniversary celebration. They predict that the collection will chart much of the history of Los Angeles, as well as that of the Grand Avenue structure.

“Everyone has a history here--the Biltmore has touched everyone in Los Angeles’ life in one way or another,” said Randall Villareal, the hotel’s general manager.

“Generations have come here for proms or gotten engaged at our restaurants. The Biltmore occupies a unique place in the history of Los Angeles that deserves to be chronicled,” he said.

Along with amnesty, Biltmore souvenir collectors will be offered recognition, if they want it.

Returned items that are put on display will be credited to the donor. And those returning items will be invited to a VIP dedication reception that will mark the museum’s opening, Villareal said.

Old artifacts retrieved from the sprawling hotel’s storerooms include an antique bell captain’s sign, poster-size photos of the Biltmore’s pioneering health club (which in 1928 boasted its own “wave generator and colonic irrigation equipment”) and an unusual gown.

Then-famous fashion artist Peggy Hamilton conceived the Florentine-satin dress--whose design mirrors the ornate canvas painting that covers the ceiling of the 90-foot-long Crystal Ballroom--to wear herself to the hotel’s opening ball.

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Not only does the gown mimic the ceiling drawings of Biltmore designer Giovanni Smeraldi, but the garment’s pockets are sewn to resemble the distinctive opera-style boxes that line the sides of the ballroom.

Other items include original menus from hotel restaurants (complete steak dinners cost $3 in 1942) and from special events--such as the 1934 “Marion Davies Foundation Benefit” (where guests dined on “avocado pear and lobster supreme”).

A computerized, virtual-reality tour of the hotel will be available at the museum, to be opened off the Biltmore’s Main Galeria. Carefully maintained newspaper clippings that trace the hotel’s history from its 1923 opening through today are also being scanned into a computer that will be accessible to visitors.

That history is a rich one.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded during a 1927 Crystal Ballroom luncheon, where the idea for the Oscar statuette was sketched out on a linen napkin. Academy Awards ceremonies were frequently held at the hotel in the 1930s and ‘40s.

The Biltmore was John F. Kennedy’s headquarters when he was nominated for president in 1960 at the Sports Arena. The hotel was the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee’s headquarters for the 1984 Summer Games. Movies ranging from “Chinatown” to “Ghostbusters” to “Independence Day” have included scenes filmed there.

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Joe Villapando, a banquet chef who has worked at the Biltmore for 40 years, was a waiter in 1960 when he was picked to serve meals to Kennedy and his family in the 11th-floor Imperial Suite.

“I think people will be surprised when they see the role this hotel has played in this city,” the chef said.

General manager Villareal said the hotel is appealing through its World Wide Web site for former guests to describe notable moments at the hotel and to contribute Biltmore memorabilia to the museum. Several items--a menu, room keys and a 50-year-old embossed “Biltmore” whiskey bottle--have been returned so far, he said.

Other original items, including the hotel’s 75-year-old gold tableware, are still in use at the Biltmore, owned for the past 18 months by Regal Hotels International.

But that 70-service collection is now kept under lock and key, said executive chef Roger Pigozzi.

“When we bring out the gold service for a special function, everyone here appreciates they’re holding something that is a one-of-a-kind piece of art,” he said.

Something the staff doesn’t want to become somebody’s souvenir.