Alas no more, demolished during the Covid lockdown, the Excelsior has been a popular filming location over the years, perhaps most famously for the lift farting scene in
Revenge of the Pink Panther. In this film it appears to be that Gallagher (Leslie Nielsen) has some sort of private residence on the roof, but I believe this was the "Talk of the Town" bar on the - then - top floor. At some point the hotel looks to have encapsulated the previous open roof section around the 34th floor and incorporated it into the main structure. The second batch of images below, shows the previously open roof section around the bar - behind where the hotel name sign was.
Talk of the Town? Please feel to comment if you ever went there. I only ever made it as far as the Churchill Bar in the basement with a bunch of folks from Gwulo many years ago.
The area on the roof by the bar
The scarring on the hillside in the background is the start
of construction of the Lai Tak Estate.
Roof terrace entrance/exit
We then get afew shots of the hotel interior as Pruit tries to escape from Gallagher. You can compare the entrance lobby lift shot to the same area a few years later for the aforementioned
Pink Panther movie.
This clearer shot above shows the same place in Revenge of the Pink Panther
12 comments:
From what I could tell, Excelsior really did not change much. I stayed there briefly in 2005 or 2006 and everything was as I remember it in the good old days. It was well-run and clean, but the rooms looked dated. I ate there a few times before 2020, but did not make a final visit before it was demolished. Of course, I was sad to see it go and Mandarin Oriental did not even sell the site, as I believe was their initial intention. MO also owned a house in Shek O.
By the way, I cannot watch anything with Richard Basehart without seeing his preposterous role in the episode of Columbo, Dagger of the Mind. At least that episode had Honor Blackman looking delectable at 47.
Hi Rodney. They certainly didn't redecorate between 1973 and 1978. But definitely the extra floor(s) was added on the top at some point. I remember when MO first requested a valuation. Of course they denied any redevelopment as is usual and the proceeded to demolish the place. I guess it had a fairly long life for HK standards (certainly compared to the Ritz Carlton in Central). Phil
I want to say the extra floor was added around '83. From the opening to around '77, it was always referred to as having 1,003 rooms. Then by '85, when Hongkong Land was shopping the hotel around, it was said to have less than 950 rooms. Land actually signed a letter of intent to sell the hotel to Singaporean interest for around HK$800+ million, but the deal fell through. Fast forward to the sale attempt in 2017, Bloomberg reported they got a bid as high as HK$30 billion that still did not meet expectations.
interesting info Rodney, thanks. So the additional floors removed some rooms? Or perhaps the rooms were removed via some other internal renovation. Sadly I never made it to the top so I have no idea what was included in the additional flooring. Phil
An article in SCMP notes Talk of the Town did not open until '79 as a disco and bar. It was renovated in the mid-'90s and I may have been there once in summer '97. I distinctly remember going to Excelsior with some girl, only to hop in a taxi with a driver that did not know the Chinese name of the hotel. He dropped as off at Sun Hung Kai Centre in Wanchai and we walked. Anyway, maybe the establishment on the top-floor at the time of filming operated under a different name.
It seems there might have been two renovations from '77 to '87. In my previous comment about HK Land trying to sell the hotel from late-'84 to Singaporean interests, all the articles I read mentioned 948 rooms. When Mandarin Oriental was spun out of Land and itself became a listed company in '87, there was apparently another reno. I read that as part of a HK$200 million programme, all the common areas of The Excelsior were renovated by the time of MOIL's listing and similar work inside the rooms as well as Talk of the Town would commence shortly thereafter.
According to MOIL's financial reports, the last incarnation had 869 rooms. I believe it was 848 rooms and 21 suites. I looked at some guest reviews and the rooms were definitely updated again after my 2005 stay.
hmmm, interesting note about TOTT. Moddsey on gwulo posted a couple of matchbooks which he has put a 1975 date on, so it wouldn't surprise me if the place opened a little earlier under that name, even if it wasn't named that in 73. Looking at older images and the 3d model on google earth, it looks as though a single floor may have been added to the top at the back with the front section (i.e the bar) getting enclosed to form a complete floor. But I could be interpreting it incorrectly. Phil
Searching for adverts and articles from the 1973 opening using the hotel's English name hasn't turned up anything about the rooftop bar and other dining facilities. I'll try the Chinese name.
Initially, the hotel was a joint venture between Land and Jardine. There was East Point Hotels, which owned the actual hotel and listed on the stock exchange. Then there was Ewo Land that owned the shopping centre connected to the hotel and World Trade Centre. Finally, the management contract was held by East Point Management. Land made an offer to buy out all the other shareholdings in December 1979 and take full ownership.
Most articles from the mid-1980s regarding the sale claimed the hotel did not fit within Land/Mandarin because it was only 4-star and a 'bidnessman's hotel' that made most of its revenue from functions instead of rooms. However, the old girl remained profitable to the very end. In its last full year of operations, it contributed US$24 million of the entire group's $65.1 million underlying profit. The room number did see a final drop from 883 in 2015 to 869 in 2016.
Cheers Rodney, let us know what you find. It's not beyond belief that the original rooftop was just empty space, but given Hong Kong's famous skyline I'd be surprised if the original plan didn't include something up there with a view. Maybe it just wasn't facing the right way for them top bother?
I had a look at Moddey's posts of the matchbooks, including the very old one with Trusthouse Forte's name on it. THF was the original manager of the hotel, though I'm not sure it had any equity in the property itself. Since Land took full ownership of East Point Management at some point in 1980, it does not appear THF was in the fold for long.
I managed to track down the Carousell listings of the matchbooks and while I was there, I also found an advert from 1979 announcing the grand opening of 'Talk of the Town'. Clearly there was something up there from the beginning. From the 1979 advert, it sounds plausible that it was a reopening with the addition of live music.
Hi Rodney, yes the ownership and management of a hotel are often different companies. For example Li ka Shing owned the hotel building that was formerly on the site of the Cheung Kong ctr, but the management was provided by Hilton. It's a standard hotel industry practice (the missus had a stint as an in-house lawyer for one of HK's larger hotel groups). The management company usually signs a contract for X years and provides that service, under their name, for an (often) annual fee.
It's a head scratcher this one. Everything seems to confirm the 1979 open date but it's quite obvious from this film that something was already up there in 1973.
Phil
Thanks for the reminder about K.S. and Hilton. After you mentioned it, I remembered Cheung Kong had to buy out the duration of the management contract. I looked it up and it was initially a 50-year management contract with 20-years to run and Hilton was bought out for US$125 million, so they could rebuild right away.
As for Excelsior, Trust Houses Forte did own a stake of 20% initially that may have been diluted a bit after East Point Hotels was listed. THF sold its stake of either 15, 16 or 17% in 1976, but I could not see its full annual report. BOAC/BAAC had an initial 8% that it sold around 1979/80.
BOAC featured prominently in the adverts and the early matchbooks Moddsey posted. A pre-opening article from 1972 even referred to it as BOAC's new hotel and included a room count. In its initial 1,003 room form, there were 56 singles, 775 twins, 156 doubles and 8 suites equivalent to 16 doubles. The same article noted there was a rooftop bar and a later tourist guide also merely referred to it as the rooftop.
"The Rooftop" - it's as good a name as any!. Thanks for the extra info.
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