Effort in works to save mural

Or at least, thereabouts, she says. Ford is waging an 11th-hour campaign to save a mosaic tile mural near the private swimming pool in what was the Bellemont’s prestigious Pan American Suite, the crown jewel among the Airline Highway motor hotel’s more than 250 rooms.

The mural, Pan American Suite, Great Hall and all the rest of the sprawling 18-acre landmark hotel complex is being demolished. Ford would like to rescue the mural and place it in a safe spot free from vandals.

The mural covers about 300 square feet and is made from Italian tiles with bold, playful images of a sun, shellfish and other objects.

Patrick Jeansonne, of Busted Knuckle Build Services, is holding off his demolition crews a few more days, more as a favor to Ford in her effort to save the mural.

Meanwhile, Ford is drumming up as much awareness as she can muster in hopes a fairy godmother may step forward.

“It’s basically word-of-mouth,” Ford said of her campaign. “And we need word-of-mouth pretty quickly to save that wall.”

Her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.

Carolyn Bennett, executive director of the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, said she has been keeping the organization’s board and members informed about Ford’s campaign because, “If you have one person interested in saving something, you can have success.”

Bennett said she plans on viewing the mural and has invited an official in the state’s Office of Culture, Recreation and Tourism to also take a look because the agency has experience with similar salvaging efforts.

“We basically want to see if it can be sectioned out and transported,” Bennett said of the mural.

Access to the Bellemont site is strictly controlled and no one is allowed to roam the area, but Bennett said Jeansonne is cooperating with those involved in the effort to save the mural.

The $40,000 salvage figure is an estimate provided by Jeansonne to remove the wall, and Ford conceded the cost may not actually be that high.

“We don’t even know if that’s a firm figure. The demolition company is just estimating that,” she said.

An August 1957 article in The Register described the mural this way: “The color from the mosaic in the pool-patio lights the living room and cheers the entire suite. It is huge in size, 17 feet wide and 18 feet tall, made from Italian tile in vivid colors, an abstract theme centered around South American culture. The swimming pool located in the patio dominated by this mosaic makes an appropriate reflective medium for this outstanding work of art.”

In the 1950s the Pan American Suite’s decor called up images of South and Central America, though with a modern twist.

The suite and private pool were the pinnacle of 1950s Hollywood glam. Over the years, the suite hosted guests like Steve McQueen, Clark Gable, The Who, Gerald Ford and countless Baton Rouge honeymooners, all in search of life in a dream, if only for a night.

Room rates for the Pan American Suite in the 1950s hovered around $150 a night, Ford said. By the 1980s those rates were closer to $350, she added.

As for the future of the South American-inspired mural, Ford thought it might make a nice attraction for the Baton Rouge Zoo, or even a restaurant — any place where it could be well-supervised and not fall to vandalism or neglect.