The Big Pink

Before arriving at the iconic Madonna Innfor a Christmas party this month, I made sure to bring my Canon camera. After all, according to the hotel’s website, the staff spends months decorating the place for the holidays, and this* is* the Madonna Inn — a place not known for subtlety.

It seemed like a good opportunity for fun photos.

The Madonna Inn is not named after the popular pop singer or the Madonna, who figures prominently at the nearby San Luis Obispo mission. Rather, it’s named after the late rancher and businessman Alex Madonna and his wife, Phyllis, who opened the hotel, fittingly, on Christmas Eve in 1958. Often featured on travel shows, the inn is known for its rock fireplaces, European fixtures, and one-of-a-kind themed rooms — the Caveman, Barrel of Fun and Jungle Rock rooms.

Also, lots and lots of pink.

Featuring over 100 rooms, the Madonna Inn is an eccentric mix of Disneyland, Hearst Castle and Graceland nestled on a 1,000-acre ranch clearly visible from Highway 101. Billed as a luxury hotel, “quirky” might be a better fit.

While San Luis Obispo is four hours north of Los Angeles, through the years, numerous celebrities have gone out of their way to stop here. Macaulay Culkin, whose “Home Alone” movies are a holiday staple, stayed at the Old Fashioned Honeymoon Room. Rocker Debbie Harry checked into the Country Gentleman room. Paul Newman ordered a beer and baked potato at one of the inn’s eateries, where Dustin Hoffman, Sam Elliot and Clint Eastwood have chowed as well. And on her most recent album, the chart-topping “Deeper Well,” Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves sang about the Inn’s famous pink champagne cake in her song “Dinner with Friends.”

As an entertainment writer, whenever I interviewed celebrities coming to perform in San Luis Obispo, several would randomly mention the famously pink hotel.

“Is that where the Madonna Inn is?” Moody Blues singer Justin Hayward asked me.

Then he recalled singing the Canned Heat song “Going Up the Country” as he and a bandmate pulled up to the Madonna Inn parking lot between gigs in the 60s.

“When I think of us in that car, turning off that road and into that hotel, I can only think of that song,” Hayward said.

Late Monkees star Davey Jones told me he stayed there three times.

“It’s kind of old-fashioned inside the hotel,” he said. “I remember the waterfalls inside there.”

A 60th birthday bash for Graham Nash, of Crosby, Stills and Nash, was held there. Former band mate David Crosby showed up to the party in a pink bunny suit.

“It was hysterical, man,” Crosby told me years later. “If you’d seen it, you would have died laughing.”

I didn’t see it, but Jackson Browne, Bette Middler, Stephen Stills and Eric Idle did.

To drop a few more names: John Wayne, a friend of Alex Madonna’s, was a regular. So was Dolly Parton. Steve Martin, Joni Mitchell and Lucille Ball all dropped by. Though Alex Madonna was said to shy from celebrity, photos at the inn show Madonna, who died in 2004 at age 85, with various familiar faces, including George Burns, Reba McIntire, Danny Thomas and Joe Montana.

Even those accustomed to the glitz of Hollywood wanted to see the Madonna Inn’s rock walls and waterfalls.

As Christmas neared this year, many visitors stopped by Alex Madonna’s Gold Rush Steak House, which offered its regular array of pink booths and rosy carpets combined with an elaborate display of Christmas trees, lights and decorations. Those who know about the inn also stopped by the men’s room, known for its famous waterfall urinal.

Before he became a household name himself, Weird All Yankovic — who attended college in San Luis Obispo — offered a nod to “toilets at Madonna Inn” in his song “Take Me Down.”

Even outside of the holidays, the inn is a sight to see. Doors, beams and railings feature hand-carved art. The hand-carved marble balustrade in the steakhouse came from the Hearst Castle, roughly 45 minutes north. And leaded glass, located throughout, was custom made for the inn.

Alex Madonna, whose funeral procession through the streets of San Luis Obispo was akin to that of a world leader, has a lasting presence on the grounds, including a painted portrait, a bust, and a life-sized statue featuring him on a horse.

So, if you visit the Madonna Inn – especially at Christmas – bring the camera.

And Musgraves is right: The pink champagne cake is pretty good, too.