6

The rather swanky Andaz Singapore advertises that some of its rooms, like this one, have "Hollywood Twin beds". No further detail is provided, although from the picture the beds look a little larger than usual:

enter image description here (courtesy Andaz, not freely licensed but I'm sure they won't mind the free advertising)

What exactly are Hollywood Twin beds?

Improve this question
4
  • 1
    That photo looks horizontally stretched out, so the beds may not actually be larger than usual.
    – shoover
    Commented Oct 11, 2022 at 22:07
  • 1
    @shoover That's probably correct; it is shot wide angle to make the room look bigger. The pillows on the foreground bed, probably both beds, also have been pushed to right of center to make the beds look larger, as well.
    – travelgasm
    Commented Oct 11, 2022 at 23:43
  • @shoover / travelgasm I'm fairly sure this image is a render. This is common with newish hotels, as they'll produce PR images before the hotel has been finished.
    – StrangerToKindness
    Commented Oct 12, 2022 at 14:09
  • 1
    @StrangerToKindness I don't think so, I've stayed here and the hotel rooms really do look like that. Of course there's professional lighting and wide angle lenses in use.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Oct 12, 2022 at 14:37

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
8
+200

In general, "Hollywood Twin" can be used to refer to a hotel room set up with two "single" beds intended for one person each — sometimes called "twin" beds — and that usually share a headboard.

The idea is that the two beds can be easily configured separately or pushed together and sometimes "zipped" together to form a single larger bed, as well. Here is at least one credible source — a hotel in Tokyo — that defines the term as just two beds "arranged side by side" in a close configuration. Another hotel in Okinawa mentions the "zip" beds option. A "California King" refers to a specific — and gigantic — US mattress size, but Hollywood Twin does not.

My understanding always has been that the "Hollywood" in this naming convention is a nod to classic 1950s Hollywood sitcom I Love Lucy and similar programs. Throughout its run, I Love Lucy had various studio-imposed/self-censorship requirements — sometimes referred to as the Hays code in legal circles — for the characters' bedding options.

In I Love Lucy, the beds sometimes were configured separately with one character expected to keep a foot on the floor. Other times, the beds were allowed to be pushed together, but they had to be visibly separate with separate blankets (as demonstrated by iconic Getty Images photos from the show). This configurability of the twin beds in Hollywood of this era likely is what lends Hollywood Twin its name in a hotel context, as well.

Improve this answer
10
  • 4
    It wasn't just I love Lucy. Hollywood itself had a lot of restrictions imposed on them via the Hays code during that era.
    – Peter M
    Commented Oct 11, 2022 at 12:31
  • 1
    Oops .. didn't see that one of your links was to the Hays code via the tropes
    – Peter M
    Commented Oct 11, 2022 at 12:37
  • 1
    @PeterM Indeed. I can elaborate if you think it is worthwhile; was just trying to keep the answer fairly succinct. Believe that I Love Lucy generally is considered the most notable example of the configurability of the twin beds, but there no doubt are others, etc.
    – travelgasm
    Commented Oct 11, 2022 at 13:08
  • 1
    This is quite a tangent, but it actually isn't a complete fabrication for television: "By the 1920s, twin beds were seen as a fashionable, modern choice. “Separate beds for every sleeper are as necessary as are separate dishes for every eater,” wrote Dr Edwin Bowers in his 1919 volume, Sleeping for Health. “They promote comfort, cleanliness, and the natural delicacy that exists among human beings.”". For the time period described, this would be comfortably within living memory.
    – Tom W
    Commented Oct 11, 2022 at 19:36
  • 1
    to extend the tangent with an anecdote: my grandparents and that grandmother's parents also had separate single beds, so it is absolutely not a TV invention.
    – Yorik
    Commented Oct 11, 2022 at 21:51

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .