Marbella Club Hotel
Marbella
(Málaga)
The origins of Marbella’s Golden Mile lie in this emblematic five-star hotel, which was the ultimate expression of luxury holidays led by Prince Alfonso de Hohnelohe. After buying Finca Santa Margarita in the 1940s to make it his private residence, the aristocrat ended up transforming the property in the following decade into a small hotel to accommodate the many friends who came from Europe and the United States to his events. Its exclusivity reached such a point that in the summer of 1967, the Marbella Club had to turn down 4,000 guests and getting a reservation meant a real social recognition. Just take a look at their guest register: Grace Kelly and Rainier from Monaco, the Baron and Baroness Thyssen, the Duke of Windsor, Ira de Furstenberg, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Deborah Kerr, Sean Connery, Tony Curtis, Liza Minelli, Gina Lollobrigida, Lola Flores or the pianist Arthur Rubinstein, amongst others. At the end of the 70s, he created one of the first ‘kid’s club’ for the children of the guests and in the 80s he went to the architect Melvin Villarroel for his five-star expansion.
Filmed here
Prince Alfonso de Hohenlohe’s parties at Marbella Club filled pages and pages of tabloids around the world. But the sharp-eyed aristocrat didn’t rest until he also attracted Hollywood cinema by hiring the very same apple of Hollywood’s eye, Kirk Douglas, to promote – bare-chested and in bell-bottoms- his establishment in a now somewhat forgotten film, ‘Once is Not Enough’. The actor was also seen at the other great icon of Marbella, Puerto Banus, where he took a walk with some dogs for the film. It is also advisable to visit this singular and unique marina. With or without a dog.
Another international film shot in this luxury hotel was the psychedelic and rock film ‘The Idol’, although in the plot it pretended to be a Bermuda resort. The film was starred by a singer who was rising in the 1970s, David Essex, who, like the film, soon became a cult artist. Coinciding with the film’s premiere, he released his album with songs that included the track ‘Gonna Make You a Star’, Essex’s first number one hit.
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