These Iconic — and Exclusive — Hollywood Institutions Opened Their Doors to Fire Victims

It’s not every day the average person can waltz into the Magic Castle in the heart of Hollywood. Typically, the exclusive venue hosts invitation-only affairs; in order to enter for an evening of entertainment by top-tier magicians, you have to adhere to a strict formal dress code and either be a member of the Academy of Magical Arts or have a guest pass from a member. But starting on Tuesday, Jan. 14, the Castle began welcoming a different crowd, inviting Los Angeles residents who have been impacted by the city’s recent wildfires to pick up immediate relief in the form of food, clothing, and other donations. 

“It was heartbreaking to see what was happening in real time,” Magic Castle general manager Hervé Lévy tells Rolling Stone in the Castle’s parking lot that morning, where tables are set up with piles of clothes and toys. “When we were watching the news, we were watching all those people who lost everything. They don’t have a house to go to. They lost their furniture, their lives, their memories, so we decided to do something, because we are human and we need to help out.”

On this sunny and relatively calm day, stunned families mill about the lot, sifting through the donated goods. Lévy and his staff have done their best to create an uplifting, and even distracting, environment — music plays across the lot, and some small children hold balloon animals. Volunteers hand out sandwiches and water bottles. A Van Leeuwen ice cream truck idles not far from a table loaded with Vans. A handful of magicians are sprinkled around the lot, ready to perform tricks that might give the grieving victims a brief respite. One magician is hard to miss in his bright green shoes and green tie, handling a deck of green cards to entertain a father and three teenage boys.

“My goal and the other magicians’ goals who are here is to take people away from what has happened,” says Paul Green, his uniform living up to his name. “It’s devastating, so for a moment, we want to give them that sense of being a kid again and being filled with a little bit of wonder and put a smile on their face.”

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A week prior, the historic venue, which opened in 1963, had its own brief scare after the Sunset Fire broke out in nearby Runyon Canyon. As flames loomed behind the building that evening, the Castle was evacuated, with a few staffers hosing down the exterior before they left in an effort to keep it safe until the fire department arrived. Luckily, the structure was ultimately unscathed. “To think, it could have wiped this neighborhood,” Lévy said. “I mean, Hollywood would have been gone.”

IN NEARBY WEST HOLLYWOOD, another exclusive institution transformed into a safe haven as the fires closed in from all sides. When the Palisades and Eaton Fires started to burn across the city, residents seeking refuge from endangered neighborhoods piled into the famed Chateau Marmont hotel on the Sunset Strip, owner André Balazs says, until the Sunset Fire broke out and forced those very guests to evacuate the space. Balazs watched the fires burn from a wraparound balcony on the sixth floor that overlooks most of Los Angeles from east to west. The evacuation period was brief; by the next morning, he says, people were back to stay. 

“We were upstairs, and you could see everything. You can hear the wind, you can see the plane dropping water, and the flames engulfing the mountains,” Balazs tells Rolling Stone while seated in the hotel’s lounge on a quiet Tuesday afternoon. By that point, the hotel had settled into its temporary new normal: hosting a revolving door of first-time guests while the city pauses its social calendar that would typically lead a starrier clientele to events there, especially at the height of awards season. 

Balazs decided to open up the Chateau’s nine residential cottages to firefighters who are on breaks from long and grueling shifts and union members from L.A.’s creative industries who were evacuated or lost their homes. The idea, Balazs says, is to allow people who have been impacted by the fires to stay for two nights to get their feet under them and find a moment of reprieve before landing on a more long-term housing solution. With the bungalows in limited supply, he wants to accommodate as many people as possible for short stints of time.

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“People don’t have homes and that’s what we sell, shelter. It seems like a natural thing to do,” he says. “I’m happy that people who have been seriously traumatized can find a little sliver of calm before trying to pull their lives together, which is no small feat.”

According to Balazs, it only took a couple of hours after the hotel posted the offer to its Instagram page for people to start calling. In classic Chateau Marmont fashion, there is a waitlist for those who want to stay in one of the bungalows; but a representative for the hotel insists it isn’t a long one. “When things like this happen, it’s a sense of community that, for all the tragedy and all the hardship, we can take with us,” Balazs says. “We want people to feel like, ‘I actually did experience a community.’”

Despite its sometimes turbulent history (over the years the hotel and its owner have weathered criticism including allegations of sexual misconduct, racial discrimination, and a toxic workplace environment), Chateau Marmont has been a celebrity mainstay. More often than not, paparazzi can be found lurking outside the entrance. Just days before the Palisades and Eaton Fires started, the Chateau hosted the Golden Eve Party, a star-studded event to celebrate the Golden Globe Awards. Less than one week later, firefighters, makeup artists, crew members, and stunt performers replaced A-list Golden Globe nominees. (“In a way, I prefer the firefighters,” Balazs jokes.) 

The cottages are accessed through a separate entrance from the rest of the hotel, down a winding brick path surrounded by trees and overgrown greenery. At around 5:00 p.m., as the sun is about to set, a man who appears to be in his 40s heads toward one bungalow, head down and wearing a backpack. Two women walk through the quiet oasis together on the way to their cottage, casually dressed and engaging in a heartfelt conversation. In a small courtyard connecting some of the cottages, empty wine glasses sit next to a stone Buddha statue on the edge of a rectangular pond. 

While these residents are picking up the pieces of their disrupted lives, the fires still not even fully extinguished, the question of what will happen to the rest of awards season lingers. The Critics Choice Awards, which were supposed to take place on Jan. 12, have been postponed twice. Oscar nominations have also been postponed twice, and the Academy has canceled its annual nominees luncheon to instead honor first responders. Still, Balazs believes moving forward with the shows and parties makes the most sense.

“I think the best thing that can happen is economic activity,” he says. “Especially for this creative community that’s represented by the various unions. Yes, this is a tragedy, but why compound the tragedy? It’s not the people who are presenting or receiving awards who are bearing the brunt of this. Yes, they may have lost their homes, but relatively speaking, they can live with it. It’s the other people who are running the show [behind the scenes] who can’t necessarily deal with it, and why pull the rug out from under them even more? I think life should go on. It’s the right thing to do.”

A LITTLE MORE THAN one mile down the Sunset Strip, the legendary Whisky a Go Go — where The Doors were once the house band — likewise turned itself into an aid destination. A few days after the fires began burning, L.A. resident Jowell Doughly, who organizes an annual charity concert at the Whisky to raise money for the Midnight Mission homeless shelter, reached out to office manager Chrystal Scanlon to ask if the venue would be willing to offer its space to collect and distribute donations. It was an immediate yes from owner Mikeal Maglieri Jr., who took over the Whisky after his father Mikeal Maglieri Sr. died in 2023.

“This all feels wild and unimaginable,” Scanlon tells Rolling Stone while standing outside the club’s doors. “The Whisky and the [neighboring] Rainbow Bar & Grill are a family business, and Mikeal wants to continue to serve the community not just through the music and the history that we have here but through things we can do today.”

With just one day’s notice, Scanlon transformed the iconic music hall into a space for people to drop off and pick up necessary items. Their doors opened at 10:00 a.m. — not exactly the time of day people are accustomed to pouring in and out of the nightclub. On Tuesday afternoon, the sunlight from Sunset Boulevard beams into the dark room, where bags of clothes and blankets are piled into its red leather booths. Stickers mimicking the Hollywood Walk of Fame remain on the wooden floors from Doughly’s Midnight Wonderland charity concert in December, displaying inspiring messages like, “Believe in your hopes…not your fears.” Guitarist Sophie Lloyd, who plays with Machine Gun Kelly, rehearses onstage for an upcoming performance as people rotate in and out of the venue with their donations. 

“Sophie was in love with the idea and has allowed us to have our doors open, which is even more awesome,” Scanlon says. “So fans can come in, take in a great music act, and have that experience which is all part of the Whisky tradition.”

Now that the Whisky is finished accepting donations, they’re encouraging those who have been affected by the fires to stop by and pick up whatever they need. Meris Thomas, who mainly helped Scanlon organize the offerings, also assisted a couple of families from Pasadena and Altadena in gathering baby items and clothing from the piles. “What they had in their cars is everything they have left,” Thomas says. “It’s devastating. But I’ve never seen a community response like I have in this town. It really gives a ray of hope for the future and rebuilding. It’s terrible what is happening and what is going on, but this little sliver of history on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Clark Street that’s been here for so long has given West Hollywood a bit of hope.”