by Baja Traveler® Press  ·  Travel News  ·  BajaTraveler.com
photos Courtesy Acapulco Tourism Board

 Acapulco, the oldest of México’s beach resorts, is known, to this day, as a glamour destination which caters to the Hollywood set. By the 1940s, leading men and ladies began beating a path to Acapulco, arriving by prop plane at the primitive airstrip swathed from the tropical bush.

Johnny Weismuller, the very first Tarzan, felt at home here amid the verdant vegetation and liana vines. He stayed on in Acapulco (his wife, Mitzi, still lives in the old city) and is buried here. A few savvy taxi drivers even know where.

That Latin lover of a movie star, Ricardo Montalban, found his way here in the 1950s and, would, along with other celebs, hang out at the Hotel Plaza Las Glorias, overlooking La Quebrada, the site where macho types have risked their lives daily for the last 65 years, diving 136 feet from its cliffs into the sea. Some of the most agile and handsome, like Raul Garcia, became celebrities in their own right. Garcia’s tanned, muscular body is seen in aging photos on the adobe walls of La Perla nightclub, where the graffiti is actually hundreds of signatures of early Hollywood’s rich and famous.

That Latin lover of a movie star, Ricardo Montalban, found his way here in the 1950s.

In the fifties, Elizabeth Taylor, with one of her first husbands, Mike Todd, celebrated her honeymoon in Acapulco. Like so many before them and since, they found ’round the clock romance, intoxicated by the natural, physical beauty. Its harbor is rivaled by few ports in the world, and is ringed by the fabled Sierra Madre Mountain range; the clean, golden beach spreads across the bay.

Los Flamingos was “the” hotel and later a private club, in the early ’50s, and was frequented by celluloid icons like John Wayne, Gary Cooper, handsome matinee idols like Errol Flynn and Tyronne Power and comedians such as Red Skeleton. Once again, it is being operated as a hotel. To walk its lobby is a return to yesteryear. (“The Duke” found Los Cabos early on, too, leading the way for many of his western sidekicks.)

No recounting of the early days can be done without mention of Teddy Stauffer. A German/Swiss playboy, he was the catalyst for attracting international aristocracy as well as his Hollywood cronies. This hedonistic host turned the Pacific port into a playground.

Teddy’s Club allowed guests to bathe nude, and all that goes with it, all the live long day and night. Carl Renstrom built the still-famous hill hotel, Villa Vera, where Stauffer lived for many years, and which to this day, registers many an anonymous film star.

It was not long after these decadent days when billionaire Howard Hughes was holed up at The Acapulco Princess, where he booked two floors for his doctor, a staff and his eccentric self.

Not all luminaries who chose Acapulco for their honeymoon are from Hollywood. Our publisher’s parents spent their honeymoon there back in 1956 – Mario and Tere Rodríguez; three years before, in 1953,  Politicos such as John Fitzgerald Kennedy brought his stellar bride, Jacqueline here and years later, Henry Kissinger came to Las Brisas with his Nancy. As years passed, other celebrated newlyweds brought notoriety to the resort town, like Bill and Hillary Clinton.

A 30-year employee of Las Brisas Hotel, who, chooses anonymity herself, recounts visits from British aristocracy. “More than 20 years ago,” as she tells it, when the royal yacht, Queen Elizabeth II had its maiden voyage, our President then, Miguel Aleman, held a reception here, with Prince Charles (pre-Diana) the honored guest. And, over the years, we have had our share of Arabian princes with their entourages.”

Las Brisas boasts a large percentage of return guests and Mexicophile Liz Taylor returned with Richard Burton, the year they remarried. “They were shooting a film here one local expat recalls. “I was only nine years old and was watching the shoot with my uncle,” she recounts. “The two of them were out in the bay bobbing around in an exaggerated motion. I asked my uncle why there were four people out there behind them and he answered, ‘Maybe they can’t swim.’ What I didn’t know, then, was that at ten in the morning they were both ‘full’ drunk and their crew was trying to hold them up!”

If you have never been, understand that Acapulco is one seductive destination. As they say at The Princess Hotel, “Here you can live life as it was meant to be lived, with flair and exquisite abandon.”

Fun in Acapulco was filmed between Jan – March 1963. While location shots featuring a body double were filmed in Acapulco,  Elvis Presley filmed all his scenes at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California, during March 1963, having never traveled to México for the film due to being declared persona non grata.  Allegedly, he was banned from México following riots at a cinema in Mexico City during previous film premieres in 1959 and 1961.

The eighties found Arnold Schwartznager in town to inaugurate his new Hard Rock Cafe. Sylvester Stallone became a familiar face as he shot three Rambos in Pie de la Cuesta, a simple but happening beach town, 20 minutes south of the city. When he was married to the 6′ tall, Nordic blonde, she would cause quite a stir amongst the male employees of Las Brisas, who reported that she was sweet and nice to everybody.

Sly’s handsome self can be seen on the rustic walls of El Embarcadero Restaurant on La Costera, the town’s main thoroughfare, along with 20 years worth of other stars. He went on to buy a mammoth white house on the ocean side of the road before it reaches Las Brisas, that looks like the new Getty Museum in Los Angeles. But Sly goes through houses like some people change jobs and he has since sold it to an American woman.

Las Brisas came up with a fun concept, and Stallone was just one of dozens of celebrities to cooperate. The publicity ploy was to have stars put their signatures on the rear ends of the hotel’s pink and white jeeps which transport guests from the public areas to their individual casitas. It’s a common sight to see them enmeshed with the less colorful traffic on the Costera.

Baja Traveler’s cover girl, Maria Conchita Alonso.

Things do change and some 20 years ago a frequent visitor to Las Brisas, Steve Ross, bought the Villa Eden, just up the hill from the hotel. It has come to be known as The Warner Brothers House and is surrounded by a privacy wall. Alas, it is not as easy for the starstruck to see their favorite stars. However, all Villa Eden guests receive Las Brisas’ membership cards and one can spy them taking their breakfast at Bella Vista, the outdoor restaurant with the 360 degree view, or lounging at their La Concha Beach Club. Non-hotel guests are allowed to have lunch here under certain circumstances and anyone can come to Mexican Night on Saturdays, anyone willing to pay $50 for a buffet, open bar and Mariachi music. It is at the open air El Mexicano near the tennis courts and, yes, Villa eden.  You might just be in the buffet line with Placido Domingo, Barbra Streisand and Maria Conchita Alonso. 

Another Latin beauty Salma Hayek made the home of her friend Jaime Camil  in La Cima, the new, luxurious home in the Las Brisas complex, Sandra Bullock is a frequent visitor to Acapulco, too.

Acapulco – Gateway to the Sun and the Stars.

Las Brisas is not the only hotel in Acapulco for stargazing. The luxurious El Camino Real, sequestered on Puerto Marques Bay, gets its fair share. It is favored by U.S. and international politicos and sports figures, as well.

The Acapulco Princess, now a Fairmont Hotel and known for its discretion, pampered an earlier generation of stars like Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Briggite Bardot, Tom Jones, Elvis Presley, Ursula Andress and Johnny Mathis. More recently its oceanfront facilities and exceptional food have been enjoyed by stars such as Kevin Costner and Mariah Carey. However, when she and Luis Miguel became an item, she would be booked into his home near Las Brisas.

Mexico’s 29-year old heart-throb, a crooner of romantic ballads, who is also drop-dead gorgeous, Luis Miguel owns a second home, a walled beach compound on the road to Barra Vieja. Past the airport and to the right, it is a relatively undeveloped area, some 20 minutes from town, where one can enjoy the simple, local seafood restaurants with the freshest of fish, while watching the wave action.

Within running distance of Luis Miguel’s digs, with its native palapas (palm-thatched roofs), is an upscale, traditional gringo home, belonging to Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. Smack on Tres Vidas Golf Course, with ocean views, there is no wall here, but rather their kids’ playground.

A restaurant of celebrity choosing in this area is Cira La Morena. The duena of this establishment is a star in her own right. The matriarch of a large, four-restaurant family, the dark-skinned entrepreneur is bedecked in gold jewelry, her lame fingernails an extension of her many bracelets.

It is here that one sups on grilled shrimp – heads on – and a delicacy called char-grilled huachinango (red snapper) a la talla. Any number of stars have been spotted here, like Denzil Washington, Morgan Freeman, John Travolta, Madonna, Julio Iglesias, Farrah Fawcett, Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood, Halle Berry, Naomi Campbell, Bono and Bill Cosby, who were in for the Black Film Festival. Usually, the star-diners come in town with Yvonne Traeger, director of the film commission and often during one of the four annual festivals, like the French Film Festival (held in November), The Acapulco Film Festival, The Black Film Festival and the Music Festival, always held in May. Don Johnson went to Señora Morena’s when he was scouting Acapulco for his new cop series, “Nash Bridges.” He later invited Yvonne Traeger, formerly an actress, back to San Francisco to appear in three of the T.V. episodes!

In recent years, Harrison Ford and Gene Hackman shot segments of “Assassins” here. Scenes with Johnny Depp in “Blow” were filmed in an impressive house on Pichilingue Bay owned by Eduardo Ampudia, a local attorney.

Most of these film stars find their way to Sr. Frog’s, that whacky bar that serves fun food to the wee small hours of the manana. It is a link in a restaurant chain, with properties in Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun, to name a few. Frog’s promotions’ co-ordinator, Inaki Miranda, tells of guests like Danny Glover, Sean Connery and Gloria Gaynor – “I will survive”. When Mel Gibson came with his growing family (now seven offspring), Inaki took the two oldest sons partying at the Palladium disco.

Inaki always tries to strategically seat celebrity guests in an out-of-the-way table. And, as the young manager stood at the cliffside railing adorned by frog sculptures, he said, “Six months ago I watched Brad Pitt play football right down on this beach!” That would have been winter, high season, always the best time for celebrity watching.

“Six months ago I watched Brad Pitt play football right down on this beach!”

And Acapulco is not the only colorful Mexican location that is showing up on celluloid.

In 1989, Licence to Kill was filmed extensively in México, primarily in México City, Acapulco and the state of México.  The scenes in Acapulco were filmed at the Villa Arabesque. Between April and July 2000, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts filmed “The Mexicans” up North in Real Catorce, in the state of Guanajuato.

Maria Conchita Alonso attended the famed Tianguis Turistico with our publisher, Mayté Rodríguez Cedillo in 2007. And then there’s Cabo San Lucas… but that deserves its own article.