Coronado Hotel and It’s History Challenge Instructions

Hotel del Coronado is a beachfront hotel in the city of Coronado, just across the San Diego Bay
from San Diego, California, and is full of history. It is one of the few surviving examples of an
American Wooden Victorian beach resort. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in
1977 and a California Historical Landmark in 1970.

It was the largest resort hotel in the work when it opened in 1888, has hosted royalty,
celebrities and presidents. Actress Lillie Langtry (1853-1929) may have been The Del’s first
celebrity vacationer. Liberace, the undisputed king of keys and candelabras, was playing piano
at The Del when he was discovered in 1950.

Movies & Films

In 1957, Ronald Reagan filmed Hellcats of the Navy at Naval Air Station North Island, and was a
frequent visitor during his years in Hollywood. While Governor of California and later when he
was President, he continued to visit The Del. In 1958, Some Like It Hot starring Marilyn
Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon was filmed at the hotel.

Before the 1920s the hotel had already had hosted Presidents Harrison, McKinley, Taft, and
Wilson, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin
D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald
Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and
Barack Obama.

In the 1920s Hollywood's stars like Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, Clark
Gable, Errol Flynn and Mae West were a few of the many actors who stayed at the hotel.

Other notable guests include Thomas Edison, L. Frank Baum, Charlie Chaplin, King Kalakaua of
Hawaii, Vincent Price, Babe Ruth, James Stewart, Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn. More
recently, guests have included Kevin Costner, Whoopi Goldberg, Gene Hackman, George
Harrison, Brad Pitt, Madonna, Barbra Streisand and Oprah Winfrey.

Literature