Palm Springs Secrets
PALM SPRINGS SECRETS – April 17, 2024 – Palm Springs, California, USA
After two years of begging, Phoebe’s lifelong friend, Yolanda, finally made it out to Palm Springs. Phoebe picked her up at the airport and within ten seconds they were discussing the weather. Yolanda complained that in Chicago you never knew when it might turn cold and windy. Phoebe assured her that Palm Springs would be predictably warm and sunny, but not yet too hot to keep them locked inside near an air conditioner.
Phoebe drove slowly home along Frank Sinatra Boulevard, gushing about how much she loved the long, wide palm-lined roads. She pointed out the neat, short-clipped grass and hedges outside the walls of country clubs and golf-course communities.
“Out here in the desert, you feel out of the way,” Phoebe explained. “You’re not in the middle of everything. You can appreciate life at your own pace.”
Phoebe pulled into her housing development which surrounded its own golf course. She parked inside the garage of her desert-tan stucco home, which had backyard views of the course’s 13th hole.
“Since when are you a golfer?” Yolanda asked.
“Oh, I’m not. Neither are a lot of my neighbors. We just like the view and how they keep the grass mowed. It’s like living next to a park.”
Yolanda toured Phoebe’s house, admiring the vaulted ceilings, spacious bathrooms, and tile floors. The air conditioner pumped out plenty of chilled air and was partially powered by rooftop solar panels. Most of the furniture came from Phoebe’s previous house. Phoebe poured glasses of cold lemonade and the two friends peered out of the sliding glass door facing the manicured golf course.
“What do you think so far?” Phoebe asked.
Yolanda looked down at the glass she was holding. She had drunk from the set when Phoebe lived in Chicago. “I dunno. I think I was expecting something different.”
“In what way?”
“When I heard Palm Springs, I imagined this glamourous placed filled with Hollywood celebrities. Everyone drank champagne and went to parties around swimming pools. I thought I would be in the middle of lots of action. But so far it seems like most people just stay inside. Like you said, you don’t feel like you’re in the middle of anything. Kind of boring.”
“What’s wrong with a little boring?” Phoebe asked with a laugh.
“Nothing, if that’s what you’re looking for. But Palm Springs got its reputation for a reason. I’d love to see what it was like before everyone lived in golf course houses.”
Phoebe smiled like she might be hiding something. “What it used to be like, huh? Well, I think I can show you. Yeah, I know just the place. How about we go tomorrow morning?”
The two friends set out the next day while the temperature felt cool. Phoebe insisted Yolanda wear comfortable shoes but would not give details about where they were going. She drove down another of the wide roads lined with palm trees until they reached the base of the scraggly rock mountain that bordered the city.
Yolanda read a sign as they pulled into a parking lot. “Tahquitz Canyon. What is this place?”
“You’ll see,” Phoebe assured her. “Bring your water bottle. You’re going to learn something.”
Tahquitz Canyon turned out to be a two mile hike up to a waterfall that overlooked the flat desert floor. A guide led the hike and pointed out the plants used by Native Americans who lived in the area. From the top of the canyon, the guide told the tour group to look down at the buildings which made up modern Palm Springs.
“Imagine the first native people arriving in the desert. Way off in the distance they discovered a bubbling spring of water and a few hundred of them settled around it.”
By the time Phoebe and Yolanda finished the hike, they were hot and exhausted. As they returned to Phoebe’s car, she said, “Now you know what Palm Springs used to be like.”
“I wasn’t really interested in going that far back in history. I was talking about its glory days. Like in the 1950s.”
“The glory days of the 1950s, huh?” Phoebe said with a laugh. “Okay, I’ve got just the place. We’ll go first thing tomorrow morning.”
The next day, the friends made another early start. This time, Phoebe took the freeway and drove southeast, away from the mountains and toward what looked like barren desert. She exited the freeway at a placed named Mecca and the scenery drastically changed. Citrus orchards and grape vines surrounded both sides of the road. Fields of lettuce grew next to date palms and pecan trees.
“What happened to the desert?” Yolanda asked.
“They added water,” Phoebe replied. “From the Colorado River. They can grow food year-round.”
“This is what you wanted to show me? Farms? This makes you think of glitzy Palm Springs in its glory days?”
“No, not the farms. You’ll see.”
They kept driving down Grapefruit Road until they saw what looked like a lake in the distance. Farm plots were replaced by abandoned cement buildings covered in graffiti. They soon reached the entrance to a State Park and drove through an empty parking lot big enough for a football stadium. A visitor’s center sat at the parking lot’s far end.
“That’s the Salton Sea,” Phoebe said, gesturing toward the body of shallow water beyond the visitor’s center.
“Okay. What’s so great about this place?”
“Nothing anymore. We should take a look around.”
The friends walked along the crusty shoreline that smelled like dead fish. The place looked abandoned and lifeless except for the birds standing in the shallow water that stretched to the horizon. Sun worn signs around the visitor’s center told the story of the Salton Sea’s accidental creation in 1905 when a dam burst. The unintended lake collected water from irrigation runoff and for a while it became a recreation hotspot. In the 1950s, so many boaters and sunbathers showed up, the state built a 15-ramp boat launch to handle the traffic. Then the lake turned salty and shrunk. It began to smell. It changed from a happy accident into a mistake.
Phoebe looked out at the empty water and said, “Imagine 10,000 people water skiing and picnicking on the beach.”
“I can’t,” Yolanda replied.
“You wanted to see what it was like in the 1950s glory days. This was it.”
Yolanda sighed over the dead water and cracked parking lot. “Oh, this is depressing. Thanks for dragging down my mood.”
“You’re supposed to imagine what it was like back then. You keep saying you want the old Palm Springs.”
“Even if the lake had crystal blue water in it, it’s not what I would imagine for Palm Springs. I don’t think of water skiing. I think of Hollywood royalty getting together for parties. All the famous stars had houses here. Elvis and Marilyn Monroe came out for weekends. I wanna see their Palm Springs.”
“Marilyn Monroe, huh? Okay, tomorrow we’ll go somewhere that will definitely remind you of her.”
The friends sped away from the Salton Sea and saved their next expedition until the following morning. Phoebe drove downtown and parked near an art museum. She led Yolanda a few blocks over to a giant plastic statue of Marilyn Monroe. It was so large, Yolanda only stood as tall as Marilyn’s knee.
“You wanted Marilyn, there she is,” Phoebe said.
Yolanda shook her head in disappointment before they joined a throng of tourists strolling popular streets. Some sidewalks had gold-colored stars with famous people’s names embedded into the cement – much like the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Phoebe pointed out a few of the celebrities and made sure Yolanda noticed the historical markers declaring how some buildings were designed by famous architects.
“I can’t believe they tore it down,” Yolanda said after reading about an historic hotel. She looked around at the T-shirt and souvenir shops next to chain restaurants. “This looks like any other street in a tourist town.”
“What did you expect?” Phoebe asked with a teasing grin.
“I dunno. A certain iconic look. I thought the buildings would be bright white. Short, but with roofs that looked like wings bent at strange angles. Kind of like those big cars from the 1960s. I thought I’d see turquoise-colored pools and yellow shade umbrellas, with celebrities hanging out in corners plotting their next movie. Or maybe plotting where they’d be going that night to dance and listen to a live band.”
“Sounds exciting. And fun. We could keep looking for a place like that if you want.”
“You don’t sound that interested.”
“I kind of decided to enjoy the place the way it is now.”
The friends walked around a little more before returning to Phoebe’s house. On the way, they took another one of the wide, palm-lined roads. As they passed an intersection, Yolanda suddenly shouted.
“Look at that hotel! That’s the kind of place I’ve been hoping to see. Let’s stop!”
Phoebe pulled into the driveway for a two-story hotel. The doors and eves for each room were painted different pastel colors. The roof was long and flat and extended way beyond the building’s walls. The large neon sign near the lobby looked lost in time compared to the modern cars parked around it.
“What is this place? Have you ever been here?”
Phoebe shrugged her shoulders like she was not sure. She followed her friend into the hotel’s lobby where Yolanda expected to be transported to another era. Instead, she found a modern looking interior, including electronic screens attached to the walls. Guests wore casual, 21st century clothes instead of the charming suits and dresses Yolanda hoped she would see.
An assistant manager walked by and noticed Yolanda’s disappointed face. “May I help you with something?” he asked.
Yolanda gestured toward Phoebe and said, “We saw your hotel from the road and had to come inside. I was expecting it to look different. More classical. To match the exterior.”
The assistant manager chuckled. “We remodeled a few years ago and replaced the old furniture and the rotary phones. We updated the artwork and the mattresses.”
“Don’t visitors want to experience a little taste of history? Palm Springs at its glamorous peak?”
“Most people are only interested in that for a few minutes. The outside of the hotel is enough. Inside, they want WiFi, big screens, and controllable air conditioning.”
“Are you sure? What about the glamour of a dance hall and a live band? Getting close and personal with a movie star.”
“People might like that, but they love convenience even more. They’re more interested in seeing movie stars on their phones than leaving their rooms to see them in person. If we didn’t keep the hotel up to modern expectations, we’d be out of business.”
“Well, I think that’s sad.”
The assistant manager shrugged his shoulders and walked away.
Phoebe added, “Like I said, I think we should appreciate the place for the way it is now. Maybe Palm Springs isn’t in the middle of all the glitz and glamour anymore, but it’s a nice, quiet place to live.”
“You’re right,” Yolanda said with an agreeable laugh. “Okay, I’m not going to say anything else about my fantasy version of Palm Springs. But before we leave, I’d like to get a look at the pool.”
Before Phoebe could protest, Yolanda followed a hallway that led outside to an area surrounded by a high fence. Signs hung everywhere warning that the pool was private and for guests only.
“Maybe we should go,” Phoebe advised.
“I just want a peek inside,” Yolanda replied, hurrying toward what looked like a gap in one corner of the fence. She put her eye up to a little crack and gasped. “You’re never going to believe this! I think that’s George Clooney in there. And Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie. And there’s someone who looks exactly like the young Elvis.”
Phoebe acted surprised. “Can’t be. You’re just wishful thinking.”
“No. It’s really them. This place is full of famous people. And they’re plotting something. Maybe a movie.”
“Huh, well that seems kind of strange.”
Yolanda backed away from the fence and carefully examined her friend. “You’re not surprised at all, are you? You knew about this place.”
Phoebe blushed. “Sort of. I didn’t want to say anything because we locals have kind of a code. We don’t like to invade anybody’s space. We try to stay cool.”
“Okay, I get it. I can be cool,” Yolanda replied, breathing heavy. “But I might need to borrow some clothes.”
“What for?”
“The dance club. Where they go to see live bands.”
“We should probably leave them alone. How about something quieter? Like staying in and watching a movie.”
“I didn’t come all the way to Palm Springs to watch a movie. I’m here to see the people in the movies.”
Phoebe sighed. “Okay, but don’t you dare ask for selfies with George and Leo. They hate that.”
Please remember to subscribe for weekly reminders about new stories. You can subscribe by clicking here: Subscribe. You can also follow new content on any Podcast platform or on YouTube. For the full list of stories, return Home.