By
1914, Beverly Hills had attracted enough residents to incorporate
as a city. Famous Hollywood directors, actors and actresses
such as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin,
Gloria Swanson, Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino and Will Rogers
soon built homes there, transforming bean fields surrounding
The Beverly Hills Hotel into prime real estate.
Since the city's inception, the hotel has been a central
meeting place for residents and business people, especially
from Los Angeles's movie and television industries.
Svend Petersen, the Danish-American pool manager
at the hotel for forty-two years, became a Hotel Ambassador
in 2002. He had notably opened up the pool after hours for
The Beatles and taught Faye Dunaway to swim a freestyle
crawl for Mommie Dearest.
