Culver City will close out its year-long centennial celebration with the Culver Hotel’s Centennial Finale Vintage Masquerade Saturday, Sept. 23.
The black-tie event will take place at 8 p.m. and will feature dancing, cocktails, live music, and dinner.
Culver Hotel owner Maya Mallick said the event be very historic as it celebrates not just the 100 years of the city but also the 10 years that Mallick has owned the hotel and transformed it into a classically modern beacon of culver city.
Although she is still compiling the guest list, Mallick expects Culver City Mayor Jeffrey Cooper as well as other key members of the community to attend.
In addition to key members of the community, Mallick said the hotel will be joining with some Culver City-based businesses, including Smashbox, a photo studio founded by the great-grandsons of famed Hollywood makeup artist Max Factor; and the Movember Foundation, the only global charity focused solely on men’s health that raises funds to deliver innovative, breakthrough research and support programs that enable men to live happier, healthier, and longer lives.
Mallick said the theme of the gala will be Culver City: Then and Now.
“The goal is to highlight Culver City’s very rich past in all these different areas and highlight how innovative and dynamic it is now and going into the future,” Mallick said. “I really wanted to celebrate the history of Culver City so that’s where the ‘then and now’ came from.”
To support that theme, Mallick is teaming up with the Francis Ford Coppola Winery who will be supplying all of the wine for the evening. The wines that will be served will be the King Kong and Wizard of Oz wines from Coppola’s “Director’s Great Movies” wine label. The Ruby Slipper, which was chosen as the official centennial cocktail, will also be featured at the celebratory event.
In addition, Duke Spirits, a whiskey company founded by Ethan Wayne, son of legendary Hollywood actor John Wayne is also set to participate in the event.
When Mallick bought the Culver Hotel 10 years ago, it was not in the best shape but seeing how her efforts improved the look and image of the hotel mirrored how she saw the city itself grow and change all around her.
“From the time I’ve been here I’ve already seen such a huge change in the past few years,” Mallick said. “There’s so many new projects going on such as the Culver Steps [outdoor retail center] that is happening right in front of the hotel which will bring a whole new energy to the downtown area and the Ivy Station.”
With the 100-year anniversary of Culver City landing on Sept. 20, taking the time to honor its past, present, and future with this celebration gala is something that Mallick believes city founder Harry Culver himself would think was a neat idea.
“Its great story Culver City and think Harry Culver would be proud,” Mallick said. “He really had a great vision and as we kick off the next hundred years, there’s all that energy that’s come back and that’s like a jumping board for all of these very exciting things that are coming our way.”
Tickets for the event are $110. For more information about the Culver Hotel’s Centennial Finale Vintage Masquerade, visit www.culverhotel.com.