Gary James' Interview With The Co-Owner of The Highland Gardens Hotel, Formerly The Hollywood Landmark Hotel
Jack Baklayan
What a history the Highland Gardens Hotel has! Once known as the Hollywood Landmark Hotel, it hosted a who's who in the Rock world. We're talking Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Creedence, Jefferson Airplane, Ten Years After, Joe Cocker, and the list goes on and on. Jack Baklayan fills us in on the history of this legendary place.
Q - Jack, what is your position at Highland Gardens and how long have you worked there?
A - The Highland Gardens Hotel is a family owned business and has been operating as such since 1975. I am one of the owners and am in charge.
Q - I take it the hotel industry was something you always wanted to work in.
A - My background is architecture and I have a degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. After graduating, I worked for many years as an architect for a large, international pharmaceutical company. After many years of working, my father, who was 80 at the time, was starting to get ill and needed some assistance with some of the family real estate. Highland Gardens was one of the properties. He passed shortly after. I have been in charge ever since, for the last twelve years or so (since 2008). My mother also works here in accounting, along with my daughter, a recent graduate of Pepperdine who was let go of her job due to the COVID pandemic.
Q - Who built this hotel, formerly known as The Landmark Hotel?
A - The hotel was designed by Edward Fickett, a very well-known mid-century modern architect.
Q - How did the Landmark get this reputation as the place to stay when Rock stars were in town?
A - Basically musicians and actors preferred the Landmark/Highland Gardens because it is close to all the big recording and movie studios. It's also not on a main street and provides some privacy and seclusion.
Q - Do people ever call and say, "I want to stay in Room 107 where Jim Morrison stayed."?
A - Yes, all the time. Many of our rooms have celebrity provenance and are requested all the time.
Q - The hotel clerk who was the last person to speak with Janis Joplin, is he alive?
A - Not sure.
Q - Are there people who work at the Highland who remember when Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin stayed there?
A - No. I have a personal memory of more recent celebrities, including Ozzy Osbourne who just filmed his latest music video here, Under The Graveyard, in 2019.
Q - One gentleman stated online that he stayed in Janis' room a few years back and it's haunted. He said strange things happened. Have people said that to you? If so, what did they say?
A - Nothing tangible. Pictures falling off the wall occasionally, phone ringing with no one on the line.
Q - Janis Joplin's is unlike the other rooms. It's basically the same today as it was back then. Who made that decision? You?
A - I am the one who wanted to preserve the room and history of the hotel for future generations.
Official Website: www.HighlandGardensHotel.com
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