Romantic vintage hotels: Stay where Hollywood's most iconic couples lived out their love stories

While legends like Elizabeth Taylor and Vivien Leigh were starring in some of Hollywood's most famous love stories (think 'Cleopatra' and 'Gone with the Wind') off-screen they were living passionate love stories... ones that often led them to gorgeous and highly exclusive hotels.
As Valentine's Day approaches, click through to explore some of the most famous silver screen couples' most iconic hideaways – hotels where you can stay for yourself to capture the essence of old-fashioned romance.
By Heather Galloway

CLARK GABLE AND CAROLE LOMBARD The Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica, CA www.georgianhotel.com

When 'Gone With The Wind's Clark Gable and silver screen star Carole Lombard began their affair, they chose one of California's most famous speakeasies to hide the liaison from his wife and the rest of the world. Built in 1933, the Georgian Hotel was deliberately exclusive, tucked away along the heavily-wooded shoreline of Santa Monica appealing to the rich and famous as well as notorious figures such as Bugsy Siegel and Fatty Arbuckle.

Despite their attempts at discretion, Gable and Lombard caused quite a scandal and the studios gave Gable an ultimatum – finish the affair or marry the girl. Madly in love, Gable promptly divorced his wife and married Lombard.

Photos: www.georgianhotel.com, Keystone/ Getty Images

Despite its refurbishment in 2000, the Georgian Hotel still evokes the lavish ambience it enjoyed during 1930s prohibition when Gable and Lombard's entanglement became legendary, giving fans a chance to experience the luxury for themselves.
Photo: www.georgianhotel.com

SPENCER TRACY AND KATHARINE HEPBURN The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA www.dorchestercollection.com

Much of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy's romance played out in the grounds of Hollywood's 'Pink Palace,' The Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. They lived like a married couple during the 1940 and 1950s in one of the hotel's five-bedroomed bungalows while Tracy's wife famously lived on a family ranch in San Fernando Valley.

Together they led a charmed existence at the hotel where Hepburn played tennis every morning at 6am ­– famously jumping into the pool once fully-clothed–while Tracy played polo at a nearby ranch in the afternoons before returning to the hotel for cocktails in what became known as the Polo Lounge.

Photos: The Beverly Hills Hotel, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/ Getty Images

The hotel still has a quintessential air of classic Hollywood about it and with a chance to stand in the palm-studded 12-acre gardens you can easily imagine Hepburn and Tracy's 26-year Hollywood love story unfolding.
Photo: The Beverly Hills Hotel

PAUL NEWMAN AND JOANNE WOODWARD Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, CA www.chateaumarmont.com

One of Hollywood's most devoted couples, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward used the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard as the 'set' for their courtship during the 1950s. As Corinne Patten, the Marmont's housekeeper at the time, once told a reporter, "Joanne swears she met Paul here at the hotel. And, of course, this is where the two of them courted. They looked so in love. Everyone knew they would marry one day and we were all so happy when they did.”

Photo: The Chateau Marmont, Silver Screen Collection/ Getty Images

The pair married in 1958, and were married for 50 years. Their secret? “Correct amounts of lust and respect,” Paul once said, while Joanne famously attributed their blissful marriage to the fact that “sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh everyday, ah, that's a real treat.”

Photo: Getty Images

LAURENCE OLIVIER AND VIVIEN LEIGH San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, CA www.sanysidroranch.com

One of Tinseltown’s most intense relationships, English actors Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh were crazy about each other starting in the 1930s, as a cache of their letters now kept in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, reveals. In one, Olivier writes, “You are in my thoughts and weighing so heavily in my heart all the time. I am only existing until I see you again and only just managing to do that.”

Photos: www.sanysidroranch.com, Express/Getty Images

In 1940, they decided it would be best to have a low-profile wedding outside of L.A. and drove to Santa Barbara to tie the knot at Ronald Coleman's guest ranch, San Ysidro.
One of California’s most exclusive retreats, the San Ysidro ranch has a view of the Montecito mountains – which Olivier and Leigh faced as they said their vows, apparently so they would be facing England. The hotel is still a favorite haunt for Hollywood stars and with evidence of the Olivier-Leigh nuptials adorning the walls along with photos of Jackie and JFK’s honeymoon, the atmosphere is awash with retro glamour.

Photo: San Ysidro Ranch

ELIZBETH TAYLOR AND RICHARD BURTON Casa Kimberly in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico www.casakimberly.com

For Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the attraction was pure chemistry – “We couldn't get enough of each other,” said the actress – with the sparks first flying on the set of 'Cleopatra' in 1962. They were both married at the time, which led to the tabloids having a field day. So when director John Huston wanted them in Puerto Vallarta, then an off-the-radar pueblo on the Mexican Pacific coast, to make 'The Night of the Iguana,' they were more than happy to retreat, settling into his villa, Casa Kimberly, and taking a speedboat across the bay each day to the movie set.

Photo: William Lovelace/Express/ Getty Images

During the course of the shoot, Burton bought Casa Kimberly for Taylor's 32nd birthday and a villa across the street for himself. Reflecting the 'Can't live with you, can't live without you' nature of their relationship, Burton had the two villas joined by a pink bridge which they called variously 'Lover's Arch' or 'the Reconciliation Bridge.'
Once the couple's historic love nest, Casa Kimberly has now been converted into a boutique hotel, complete with the 'Elizabeth Taylor Suite', once her personal quarters, where couples can sample some of the magic of that famously passionate romance.

Photo: The Barry Group

HUMPHREY BOGART AND LAUREN BACALL Inn at Mystic in Mystic, Connecticut www.innatmystic.com

At 19, Lauren Bacall found herself in a Warner Brothers studio with 44-year-old Humphrey Bogart after a modeling shoot for Harper's Bazaar won her a contract. Bacall found Bogart “friendly” but when director Howard Hawks proposed casting her in a movie with either Cary Grant or Bogart, she told Vanity Fair that she thought to herself, “Cary Grant – terrific! Humphrey Bogart ­– yuck!”

Of course, Hawks chose Bogart as her co-star in 'To Have and Have Not', released in 1944, and despite Bacall's misgivings, Bogart helped calm her nerves on set by telling her silly jokes and calling her Slim. After three weeks, they were on their first date. By 1945, he and Bacall were married.
Photos: www.innatmystic.com, Victor Drees/ Evening Standard/ Getty Images

The pair honeymooned in Room 8 at The Inn at Mystic, a colonial mansion built in 1904 where the gardens run down to a quay and guests can go out sailing.
Photo: www.innatmystic.com

Today, the modern hotel still remains classic and idyllic, as picture perfect as a set from one of Bogie and Bacall's films together. Though, of course, as Lauren herself once said, “No one has ever written a romance better than we lived it.”

Photo: www.innatmystic.com