Palm Springs Holiday: A Vintage Tour from Palm Springs to the Saltan Sea

by Peter Moruzzi

Overview

This is the story of Palm Springs in its golden years, a city that had it all, including marvelous midcentury Modern architecture, fabulous fly-in hotels, and a swinging nightlife. Through vintage photographs, postcards, and other ephemera, Palm Springs Holiday recalls the Palm Springs area from the 1910s through the 1960s, where people vacationed in the desert, dined, danced, and lounged poolside. Features vintage images of the Coachella Valley and shots of the area’s famous hotels and gambling dens.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423604761
Publisher:	Smith, Gibbs Publisher
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	210,459
Product dimensions:	8.32(w) x 10.24(h) x 0.85(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Peter Moruzzi graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and later attended the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. In 1999, he founded the Palm Springs Modern Committee (PS ModCom), an architectural preservation group. He is the author of Palm Springs Holiday, Palm Springs Paradise, and Havana Before Castro.

Read an Excerpt

This is the story of the Coachella Valley—home of Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indio, and other desert cities—as experienced by the average tourist who vacationed here from the 1910s through the 1960s. It is the story of a Palm Springs holiday that you or I might have once taken to "America's Foremost Desert Resort."

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 7

Introduction 8

Early History 11

The Original Hotels 17

Arrival of the Spanish Style 33

The Desert's Gambling Dens 39

The Postwar Tourist Boom 45

Shopping! 65

The Palm Springs Hotel Explosion 75

Desert Dining 95

The Chi Chi and The Doll House 101

Desert Modern 109

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway 121

Going Down Valley 127