This is part 3 of a 7-part series
Hilton: Dawn of a new era
When Ethiopia’s Hilton opened its doors more than 50 years ago near the end of the era of Emperor Haile- Selassie, it quickly became Addis Ababa’s landmark hotel. Then the shantytown diplomatic capital of the continent and host to the headquarters of the African Union, it would be its first international hotel where the elite and the middle-class held much of their milestone.
Opened in 1969 by the emperor, it was the set for the 1970’s Hollywood movie, Shaft in Africa, where the NYPD detective character John Shaft is driven inside an old Russian Lada taxi into the hotel, later pausing next to a lion in front of the long signature corridor that leads one to the grand entrance of the hotel.
Hilton Addis held Jazz nights in its spacious nightclubs hosting the likes of the Godfather of Ethiopian Jazz, Mulatu Astatke, a young man
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