The Queen Elizabeth () opened on April 15, 1958. The hotel was built and owned by the
Canadian National Railway and operated by
Hilton Hotels International, though it was never branded as a Hilton. Canadian National Railway selected leading architects and designers to give the interior decoration a "New France" theme, using Quebec handicrafts. The artists included
Albert Edward Cloutier (carved wooden panels),
Jean Dallaire (wall hanging),
Marius Plamondon (stained glass mural),
Claude Vermette (ceramic tiles) and
Julien Hébert (bronze elevator doors). Cloutier painted a mural for the main dining room of the Salle Bonaventure in the hotel. There was controversy over naming the hotel: Quebec nationalists wanted it called Château Maisonneuve in honour of Montreal's founder,
Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve. CN's president,
Donald Gordon, insisted it be named for
Elizabeth II of Canada, who had unexpectedly come to
the throne in 1952 while the hotel was still on the drawing board. ,
Yoko Ono, and guests, including
Timothy Leary (foreground), recorded "
Give Peace a Chance" in Room 1742 on June 1, 1969 Many famous guests have stayed there, including
Queen Elizabeth II (four times) and the
Duke of Edinburgh,
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother,
King Charles III,
Fidel Castro, who was the first head of state to visit the hotel,
Charles de Gaulle, and
Princess Grace of Monaco, during
Expo '67,
Indira Gandhi,
Jacques Chirac,
Nelson Mandela, the
Dalai Lama, Sadiq Raji,
Mikhail Gorbachev,
Jimmy Carter,
Henry Kissinger,
Perry Como,
Joan Crawford,
John Travolta,
Mikhail Baryshnikov, and
George W. Bush. The hotel reached worldwide fame when
John Lennon and
Yoko Ono, who had been refused entry into the United States, conducted their
Bed-In in Room 1742 at the hotel between May 26 and June 2, 1969. "
Give Peace a Chance" was recorded in this room on June 1 by André Perry. This song is the first solo single issued by Lennon and became an
anthem of the American
anti-war movement during the 1970s. It peaked at #14 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the
British singles chart. The
NHL entry draft was also held at the hotel ten times between 1963 and 1979. In 1970, the
Government of Quebec moved its centre of operations into the Queen Elizabeth in the midst of the
October Crisis. CN Hotels assumed direct management of the hotel on January 1, 1984, when the contract with Hilton ended. CN Hotels was sold to
Canadian Pacific Hotels in 1988. In 2001, Canadian Pacific Hotels was rebranded as
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, following their purchase of that smaller chain. The hotel was renamed Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth. In 2010, six doormen of the hotel were arrested on charges of racketeering and extortion. The hotel was the location of the
Beaver Club restaurant. The restaurant closed in 2014. From June 17, 2016, to July 10, 2017, the hotel was closed for a renovation. ==See also==