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PALM SPRINGS: STARS DAY AND NIGHT Palm Springs, created by the rich for the rich and cast in their image, spreads across California's Coachella Valley as the ultimate mirage in the American desert. As much a fantasy as Las Vegas, the result nevertheless is attractive, desirable even glamorous. Country clubs memberships read like a list of "Who's Who in the West." The Beautiful People wander its boulevards during its mild winter and Rolls-Royces purr their way, albeit somewhat ostentatiously, along Palm Canyon Drive but, of course, people buy a Rolls not for conveyance but to make a statement. |
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Their statement might well be: Palm
Springs has cachet, it's exciting and this former Playground of the
Stars is still fun. The area's connection to the world of show biz
resists the passage of time. Sure most of the names that put it on
the map (and, in turn, were put on the map) have moved on but the
legends still live on broad streets carrying names like Frank Sinatra
Drive, Gene Autry Trail and Bob Hope Drive, even if today's younger
public, as fickle as the gods, may not recognize those names from
the past. |
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| Palm Springs, nevertheless, has had the
good sense to capitalize on its past. You can stay at small intimate
inns like the Ingleside Inn or Villa Royale, to catch a whiff of the
flavor of those romantic hideaways favored by movie stars in Hollywoods's
heyday or, better still, completely embrace the 1950s movie heritage
and live in it at the two hotels, the original Ballantines with 14
rooms at 1420 North Indian Canyon Drive and the newer Ballantines
Movie Colony with its 20 rooms at 726 North Indian Drive (800-780-3464
ballantineshotels.com). |
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Small colorful hotels in the 1930s much
favored by movie celebrities, they have in the last year been rebuilt
by a Scottish developer and his artist wife as kitsch, camp and quirky
leisure destinations. The rooms are decorated with 1950s furniture
and trimmings. Says Fraser Robertson, the hotelier, "We have
misconceptions from all those black and white photographs of the 50s;
we don't realize how colorful that time was." You do at Ballantines.
Bright pastels, particularly blues and yellows, predominate in its
hip world of Formica, vinyl and plastics and molded wooden chairs-many
originals by mid-century designers Ray and Charles Eames. The hotels
are located on the same street a short walk to the busy center of
Palm Springs and are at modestly priced ($139 and up to $395, a unit
that sleeps four). |
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Short stays in relatively inexpensive hotels saves money for other vacation treats like fine restaurants. Palm Springs has more of these than might seem likely as if all those wealthy retired couples who winter there don't use their kitchens much.
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