It’s Halloween and our remaining 11 celebs are sinking their teeth into a spooky line-up of fresh dances on Strictly Come Dancing.
This week there’s a cameo from Sir Ian McKellen during the results show, Nikita Kuzmin as a vampire and there are two unexpectedly brutal twists.
For Halloween, three couples will be in the dance-off instead of the usual two and when one couple gets sent backing the judges will be voting to eliminate them, rather than save.
It’s getting brutal and we’ll be following tonight’s Strictly every quickstep of the way.
The Hotel Clark has been throwing its stately shadow across Hill Street since 1914, first as a fancy lodging in the formative years of downtown Los Angeles, then as a last-resort residential hotel for the aged and desperate, then as a vast, lifeless structure between Grand Central Market and Pershing Square (now Biddy Mason Park). The 11-story hotel hadn’t seen a paying guest for more than 30 years.
That is, until now.
Last month, downtown historian Nathan Marsak was at Angels Flight when, as he recalls, “A guy comes up and says, ‘You like the Clark? I just had drinks there.’ And he slaps his receipt down. And I lost my damn mind.”
The lobby inside Hotel Clark.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Marsak, who admits to “a fetish for old, lost Los Angeles,” once called the Beaux-Arts hotel a “great gray monument to grinding attrition.” Since the 1990s, Marsak has kept watch on the Clark, often labeled a “zombie building” because of its long idleness. Marsak included it in his 2002 book “Los Angeles Neon,” and has looked down upon it from his part-time gig taking tickets atop the Angels Flight Railway on Bunker Hill.
In the downtown community, there had been rumors of a reopening over the years, but that seemed less likely as time went on. Kim Cooper, a close observer of downtown politics and co-owner of Esotouric tours, said that after a while, it seemed that the hotel’s owner, the Chetrit Group, “just locked the door.”
To see that structure “so dilapidated and dirty and covered in bird droppings and decades of grime, it broke my heart,” Marsak said. Still, “as long as they didn’t tear it down, there was always hope.”
A ‘zombie building’ awakes
When he and relatives bought the hotel 27 years ago, owner Michel Attias of the Chetrit Group said people assumed they would flip the building.
“I guess they know by now that’s not the case,” he said. “Many of those people have left town by now.”
Michel Attias at the Hotel Clark.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Attias stood in the hotel lobby, whose design leans toward gray, black, white, earth tones and chrome. Guest rooms include zebra-print wallpaper and faux alligator-skin panels.
“We wanted chic modern but also comfortable and warm,” said Attias, noting that new artworks and rugs are still arriving. A “luxury sports bar” is due to open by Super Bowl Sunday. As of Oct. 21, general manager Adrienne Craig said, about 120 of its guest rooms were ready to rent, with others soon to follow. Rates start at about $200 nightly.
There have been at least three near-openings during his firm’s ownership, Attias acknowledged. But now, he said, it’s the right moment.
“We have a lot coming,” he said. “We have the Olympics. Downtown is starting to move again. I’m very, very confident that downtown is going to get back on its feet.”
Members of the Chetrit family, based in New York, hold extensive real estate through multiple companies, some of which have suffered legal and financial troubles in the last two years. In Los Angeles, the Chetrit Group also owns the long-idle Trinity Auditorium, also known as the Embassy Auditorium and Embassy Hotel. Also a 1914 Beaux-Arts building, it includes about 180 guest rooms along with an 1,800-seat performance space. Attias said he hopes to open the Trinity Auditorium before the Olympics.
“We’re not done,” Attias said.
Added Craig: “Hotel Clark is amazing. Trinity is out of this world.”
Vintage postcards and photographs are from the collection of historian Nathan Marsak.
(Courtesy of Nathan Marsak)
The Clark’s rise, fall and long slumber
Look closely at the Clark, including the rooftop neon and the old fire escapes with the initials “CH” in ironwork (for Clark Hotel), and you may catch hints of its tangled history, from early opulence to urban decay, international intrigue and municipal dysfunction.
Eli P. Clark made big money as a railway pioneer in Los Angeles and beyond. But by 1914 he had moved on to other investments. He built the Clark Hotel with 555 rooms, each with a private bath (a notable luxury at the time) and a bold sign outside proclaiming its “absolutely fireproof” construction.
The building’s rooftop neon signage was apparently added a few decades later, along with the rounded letters that spell the hotel’s name and run vertically down one corner of the building. Dozens of vintage photos of the Clark’s ballrooms, restaurants, ashtrays, room keys, menus, postcards, matchbooks, coat hangers and candleholders are visible at BunkerHillLos Angeles.com, having been gathered by Marsak.
A mosaic by the pool inside Hotel Clark.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
But somewhere in the middle decades of the 20th century, as investors began to look away from downtown, the Clark hit the skids. In a 1975 classified ad in the L.A. Times, the Clark offered rooms at $75-$95 monthly, including “special waterbed suites.”
By the 1980s, the Clark had become a residence of last resort, housing many seniors and others on limited incomes. The nearby Rosslyn (built in 1914, now a mix of low-income and market-rate apartments) and Hotel Cecil (built 1924, now low-income and supportive housing) followed similar paths.
The pool inside Hotel Clark.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
By 1989, the Clark had been acquired by May Wah International Enterprises, which was rooted in China and associated with the Chinese government, Attias said. May Wah vowed to revamp the building with a “friendship store” to market Chinese imports and hotel above that might rival the Biltmore. But first May Wah wanted the old tenants out. Twenty of them filed suit against May Wah, saying they were subjected to spells without heat or water, and won a $1.7-million settlement. But by 1992, May Wah had succeeded in evicting the last two tenants.
By 1999, when May Wah sold it to the Chetrit family, the building was empty, its historic interiors rearranged in anticipation of the Chinese hotel that never opened. (During this period, Attias said, the building’s guest-room count changed from 555 to 348.) As Attias tells the story, the hotel was close to opening in 2008 when that year’s financial crisis hit. It came close again in 2013-14, when the Chetrit family invested in another renovation but ran into opposition from the hospitality workers union Unite Here Local 11 and L.A. City Councilman José Huizar.
“José Huizar,” said Attias dryly. “We know where he is now.” (Huizar, who served on the city council until 2020, pleaded guilty to corruption charges in 2023 and was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison.)
Though the hotel’s owners eventually got the city permissions they needed, Attias said, a partnership with other hoteliers dissolved and the Clark went to the back burner again, as did the Embassy Auditorium. Another near-opening followed in 2019.
Attias said the family decided in 2025 to finally open the Clark, later retaining OTH Hotels Resorts to manage it.
And now, said Attias, “we’re here.”
‘Nowhere to go but up’
In mid-September, the Clark had begun a quiet, soft reopening. Now configured with 348 guest rooms, it includes a Mediterranean restaurant called Votana; a cocktail lounge; a 17-by-29-foot courtyard pool, poolside bar and (in homage to Chetrit family history) a pair of Moroccan tile fountains.
In addition, a ballroom with space for 600 is due to be completed soon. Craig estimated that the business, a nonunion shop, employs about 100 people now and will likely reach 200 workers in coming months.
A guest room inside Hotel Clark.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
This rebirth may not comfort those seeking more affordable housing downtown, but for anyone eager to see more legal commerce on Hill Street or more hotel rooms in the run-up to the 2028 Games, it’s progress. This boost in room supply may also encourage travelers who have seen downtown hotel rates jump by more than 10% in the last year. Analytics company CoStar reports that downtown hotels averaged $200-$210 per night from June through September.
“There’s nowhere to go but up,” Craig said. “The possibilities here are endless.”
A few weeks ago, Craig’s team gave Marsak a tour of building (and bought a batch of Angels Flight tickets to distribute among guests. The historian declared himself mostly delighted.
“Having the Clark open, facing Hill Street — which can get rough — is so brave of them,” said Marsak. “I can’t applaud it enough.”
As for the inside and that zebra-print wallpaper, it’s “not what I would have done,” he said. “I believe that Beaux-Arts buildings should be Beaux-Arts inside and out. But you can’t have everything.”
Traditionally, international sides have played six games across three windows – all of which have featured two fixtures – in September, October and November.
But for the first time this year, the September and October breaks were merged.
Wales’ hopes of coping with the new schedule were not helped by a string of injuries, with stars such as Karl Darlow, Joe Rodon, Dylan Lawlor and Harry Wilson missing the entire camp and David Brooks dropping out of the squad after defeat by Portugal in the opening game.
Bellamy said Dan James was not fit enough to play against Denmark after he was left on the bench at the Cardiff City Stadium, and acknowledged Ben Davies probably should have been rested after he was withdrawn late on.
“If we have a few injuries, which we had more than one or two, they miss four games,” said Bellamy.
“We can deal with two, do you understand? And then the squad will get really tested. The intensity of the squad, the athleticism, really I think [the four-game break] is designed for the elites.
“[They can] say, we can go, we can go, we can turn over these games really, really quickly and we can change, we can change [the team] like for like because we have the numbers. So, it puts a real stress on a lot of us.”
Wales will again be without the likes of Karl Darlow, Joe Rodon, Dylan Lawlor, David Brooks and Harry Wilson due to injury as they look to maintain the momentum gained thanks to the Norway triumph.
Bellamy says he has no choice but to make changes to the side which began on Thursday as Wales seek to make amends for last Sunday’s defeat in Denmark.
Having emerged with some credit despite losing their Nations League opener against Portugal 10 days ago, Wales were well beaten on a demoralising evening in Copenhagen.
Davies hopes the Cardiff City Stadium factor will be key as Wales chase victory against a Danish side who, in 21st, are 17 places above them in the Fifa rankings.
“It does make a big difference going away. We didn’t get a grip on the game [in Denmark] whereas when we played Norway in Cardiff, it’s our home, our fans, our atmosphere,” he said.
“It felt like a different game and we had much more control… you just know you have to try to make your home advantage count.”
And yet it was the performance perhaps more than the result that appeared to win fans over again and reset the relationship between supporter and head coach.
“If they wanted to turn, that was their chance,” Bellamy said on S4C of the crowd response to Oscar Bobb’s opener after 11 minutes in what was Wales’ first home game since those Burnley links. “But they didn’t, they drove players on.”
Indeed, there had been only a Red Walled-willingness for Wales – and Bellamy – to be better throughout the 90 minutes, the noise lifting as Haaland remained contained and the hosts continued to move forward. They liked what they saw. Action, not words.
Bellamy admitted to having an “identity meeting” with players to try and re-establish what had been the hallmarks of his initial time in charge. It evidently did the trick given the way the tempo and aggression returned.
On the ball there was plenty to please the eye, not to mention the resilience to close a game out – a key criticism of that World Cup campaign.
One win is only one win, but there were red-shirted signs of redemption, from Liam Cullen’s performance – a player Bellamy has been criticised for selecting over others – to Neco Williams’ free-kick following a difficult night in Denmark.
But suddenly the Nations League campaign has new life and the chance of remaining in the top tier, and maybe even a seeding boost for those Euro 2028 qualifiers.
“It felt more like what we saw at the start under Craig,” said former Wales midfielder Joe Ledley.
“I think people have wanted to see it back but they saw it here. Fans don’t always have patience, decision-makers don’t always have patience so I think everyone knew we needed to see a result – but we also saw the performance and things we’ve not seen for a while. That’s a Craig Bellamy side.”
So instead of breaking point, was this a turning point?
“I hope so,” said Robert Earnshaw, another former Wales teammate of Bellamy and now part of the Match of the Day Wales team with Ledley.
“Craig needed it, the team needed it, I think the whole nation needed it,” said Earnshaw.
“Our levels dropped after the disappointment of the World Cup and it was about how could we bounce back – and here we felt that energy and excitement again.
“They had to give the crowd things to be cheerful about, because they were missing that for a while. Against Denmark we were miles away from what we’ve seen.
“This was a statement win.”
And – although the next test fast approaches against Denmark in Cardiff on Sunday – maybe it was also a line drawn.
Former Wales striker Bellamy, who was appointed national boss in July 2024, faced criticism from some fans after holding talks over a potential move to Burnley in June.
In a lengthy news conference after the Norway triumph, he said he feels people “could be kinder to each other” after revealing the negativity aimed at him had also affected his family.
“It’s not me but I have kids and a wife; it’s for them – they see it,” he said.
“I’ve lived in this environment and I had it as a player, but I think there’s ways we can speak to people, and just because it’s the game we love, it doesn’t give us the right to think we can say whatever we want to.
“We’re such a small country, I’m like… why can’t we have each other’s backs? Why don’t we look after each other more? Maybe that’s me.
“I’m not saying everyone’s above criticism, far from it. But I think it’s too easy, and we’re too quick.”
