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

by Peter Moruzzi

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Architecture

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Kevidently · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since my trip to Palm Springs in 2019, before the world fell apart, I have been fairly obsessed with its dedication to its own midcentury aesthetic. Googie stars and amoeba and Sputnik shapes, a high-end Shag store, tiki bars and breeze blocks and all the stuff that made the 50s great (and, at least to my tourist eyes, little that made it not). Currently it's a gay mecca, packed with folks who get lost in the kitsch of it all. Gay folk love our kitsch. And camp. And glitter.

I don't know if Peter Moruzzi is gay (though he alludes to the populace at one point), but he's absolutely hit on why those drawn to vintage California aesthetics from an ironic distance love Palm Springs. After laying the groundwork about men taming the desert in the early 20th century, Moruzzi dazzles us with imagery and extremely short essays on the backgrounds of those images. After that skimming of "Early History," we jump right into a chapter titled "The Original Hotels." Right there, you know what kind of book this is: one dedicated to entertainment, tourism, and the over-the-top indulgence of the jet set in the desert as the midcentury blooms before them.

There's some tantalizingly dark stuff in Moruzzi's words - the accidental creation of the Salton Sea, the gentrification that pushed a lot of indigenous people out of the slums, maybe some mob stuff - but the author wisely knows that this isn't the book for that. We want to read about pools and Desert Modern architecture and why neon was too tacky for the city so they had to come up with something else on their road signs. Nighclubs and supper clubs and tiki clubs and gentlemen's clubs. In the later chapters, we travel beyond Palm Springs "down valley," but almost all of Palm Springs Holiday remains in the comforting shadow of the San Jacinto Mountains, and the pleasure industry that sprung up there years before I was born.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There was a time in America—a bright and shining moment between the Great Depression and the late 1960s—when adults in cities throughout the country went to nightclubs to dine, hear a singer backed up by a good band, dance, and stay up past midnight.” It was all there in Palm Springs.

The author takes absolutely the right tone with his little book on Palm Springs—not too campy and not at all dull. The ephemera—postcards, menus, matchbook covers etc. add tremendously to the fun—especially the linen postcards. It’s a brief history from the Springs beginnings as a bathhouse built by the Cahuilla natives through its high period in the 50s and 60s. Sorry no Coachella Festival.

Moruzzi tells the history of the hospitality industry in the valley, covering early faux Spanish Colonial inns, dude ranches, motor hotels and fab resorts. There was something for everyone at every price point. The postcards tell a lot more than the basic story. You see mid century aspirations and dreams and a sense of fun without overt cynicism. Moruzzi occasionally slips in comments on the visuals such as one about some guests around a pool looking like zombies. Well yeah, now that you mention it….

The book makes you wish you could have been right there in the fun however Disney it was in reality. I’d love to spend the evening in the midst of tiki parties, silly faux south sea menus and lounge by the figure eight pool being served Mai Tai’s and Crab Rangoon appetizers. What a time and place—California desert, dark Spanish colonial vibe, mid century mod architecture, horseback picnics and fake Polynesia all together.

[Candy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In today’s social media world, postcards have become passé. I loved getting them, a surprise in the mailbox, making me sigh with longing for travel to exotic and distant places. This book made me long for time travel, to travel back in time to Palm Springs’ most glamorous era. Lounging by a tiki-themed pool all day, dressing in a gorgeous evening gown, dining at a supper club, listening to a band and dancing until midnight.

We have been to Palm Springs quite a few times, including twice in just the last year. In September we stayed in Desert Hot Springs to take in the benefits of the hot springs. December our visit focused on seeing the town lit up for Christmas, and shopping at the outlet malls and antique stores. We stayed at The Hotel California, and I had an interesting conversation with a local woman. The property is a boutique hotel with only 14 rooms, and had formerly been a small ranch. The room we stayed in had been part of the living area, and the breakfast/refreshment area had been part of the stable. She recounted how she rode her horse to school, in the 1960’s.

Even though I read the e-book, this would make a great coffee table book (does anyone do that anymore?). The vintage photographs, postcards and other memorabilia provides a visual history of the Palm Springs area from 1910 through the 1960s.

If you go, send me a postcard!

https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/

[Darlene Karalash · Rating 5 out of 5]

After just briefly glancing through it on display in the Palm Springs Historical Society gift shop of the McCallum Adobe (first permanent dwelling built in 1884), I purchased this book, the sequel to Palm Springs Paradise: Vintage Photographs from America’s Desert Playground, as a souvenir of my ten-day winter holiday in this area in March 2022....and am I ever glad that I did! The vintage artwork is amazing! The images are mainly reproductions of old photos, postcards, posters, menus, matchbook covers, restaurant placemats, etc. The text is simply written, occasionally a bit cheeky, while still managing to communicate a lot of information about Palm Springs as the holiday destination of choice by discerning adults, from the turn-of-the-20th-century to the end-of-the-20th-century. A coffee table book that everyone actually wants to read through...who knew?

[Andy Montero · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fun and quick read. Author Peter Moruzzi gives us lots of eye candy as he tells the story of America’s foremost desert paradise through the Mid-Century Modern era. I’ve always wanted to visit Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, and after reading this book, I’ve moved it closer to the top of my bucket list.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great historical picotgraph of Palm Springs -

[Brian Indrelunas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book on my coffee table for some time now and occasionally flipped through to look at some of the photos and illustrations, but Deb's story on Section 14 (http://bit.ly/a5kge4) prompted me to actually sit down and read the book from cover to cover. Palm Springs Holiday turned out to be more than just a coffee table book but also a good read, providing some interesting tales of days past in the Coachella Valley.