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As I checked into a budget motel in Palm Springs last weekend, the desk clerk eyed my registration information and remarked on my city of residence.
He knew something about Claremont: “That’s near L.A., isn’t it?” He also connected the town with post-secondary education — of a sort.
He asked: “Don’t they have a junior college there?”
A junior college!
I kept a poker face and explained that Claremont is actually home to several four-year colleges. He nodded.
Tip for Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer and Scripps colleges, and Claremont Graduate University too: Better concentrate some marketing efforts in Palm Springs. Word isn’t quite getting out.
Me in PS
What was I doing in Palm Springs? As little as possible.
That said, I still did a bunch of stuff. It’s part of my brand.
“Gradations” is an exhibit of paintings by Norman Zammitt at the Palm Springs Art Museum. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
At the Palm Springs Art Museum, an exhibition of paintings by Norman Zammitt, titled “Gradations,” was a delight. Zammitt, a new name to me, was a master of color theory. His work had elements of Hard-Edge style — precise bands of complementary colors — and Light and Space airiness.
Meanwhile, a small exhibit of photographs, “The Motel Series, Desert Hot Springs, California,” caught my eye due to the Inland Empire theme.
These are documentary images taken by Loretta Ayeroff in the early 1980s of small spa resorts in that desert community. These post-World War II, motel-like resorts, fed by natural hot springs, were nicknamed “spa-tels.”
I wonder: Were there any “no-tell spa-tels”?
Frey ride
A few blocks away, the art museum’s spinoff institution, the Architecture and Design Center, is devoting an exhibit to architect Albert Frey, who did more than anyone to establish the Palm Springs look.
Visitors entering the city on Highway 111 pass the former Tramway service station with its soaring, wedge-shaped canopy. And many have bided time in the Aerial Tramway’s Valley Station at the base of the mountain. Frey did both buildings.
He also designed homes and commercial buildings around the city from the 1930s to the 1980s, playing off the desert landscape with the Modernist architecture that’s now the city’s signature.
Among architect Albert Frey’s buildings in Palm Springs is City Hall, dating to 1957. Even the city’s seat of government is Midcentury Modern. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Palm Springs City Hall is another of his notable designs. Curious, I made a point of stopping there on a bright Saturday afternoon.
It’s across the street from Palm Springs International Airport. That must be handy for any locals who want to pay a utility bill before jetting off somewhere.
The 1957 City Hall has palm trees growing through a cut-out in an exterior overhang, a touch very much of its era. Outside the Council Chambers, this motto is inscribed over the entry: “The People Are The City.”
That’s got to hearten anyone who’s heading inside to argue with the City Council.
Sunshine and shadows
The Moorten Botanical Garden had been stuck on my list of places to go sometime. This visit, I went.
Unusually, this is a family-owned garden, not an institution. Occupying one acre, it’s said to have 3,000 varieties of desert plants. The $5 entry fee is a bargain.
I may have to return and book a tour. For now, it felt good to wander through like any tourist.
My weekend in Palm Springs was timed to coincide with the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival, 25th anniversary edition.
I went in 2023 — at the urging of Murray Gilkeson, a reader from La Verne who is a festival regular — where I enjoyed “Scandal Sheet,” a lovably over-the-top 1950s crime film set in the newspaper world.
The Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival marked its 25th anniversary over its four-day run in Palm Springs May 9-12. Festival director Alan K. Rode offers remarks on May 10 prior to “Across the Bridge.” (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
This year I watched “Across the Bridge,” a 1957 suspense film starring Rod Steiger as an American business tycoon who goes on the lam before his financial crimes can be exposed.
Seeing him off at the train station, an assistant asks why he isn’t fleeing by plane. There are three reasons.
“There are no passenger lists on trains. Reporters are at the airport, not the train station,” Steiger’s character replies. “And I like trains.”
I like this guy.
More reason to like him: He demands that at every stop, a porter bring him all the newspapers. He tears through them nervously. A couple of days in, here’s the screaming headline of the St. Louis Herald: “GIANT FRAUD EXPOSED.” Oops.
It’s now a race against time to cross the border into Mexico before authorities can catch up to him. To elude them, Steiger kills a fellow passenger, a man named Paul Scarff, and assumes his identity. He’s in the clear — he thinks.
Because as he enters Mexico, he’s sent reeling by another newspaper headline: “Paul Scarff — Killer.” Sub-headline: “This man has a price of 100,000 pesos on his head — dead or alive.” Double oops: Steiger assumed the absolute worst identity possible.
Always great to see a movie from an era when people’s lives hinged on newspapers.
Some like it hot
This was my first time at Village Fest, a street fair that takes over Palm Canyon Drive on Thursday nights. A huge number of people turned out. It was fun.
Over three days I ate good meals at Sherman’s, Manhattan in the Desert, Palm Greens Organic Cafe, Bill’s Pizza and El Mirasol, all familiar to me, and Cheeky’s and King’s Highway, which will be familiar to me when I return.
Every afternoon was spent at Koffi, a coffeehouse with three locations, each of which I visited, book in hand.
A favorite element of any stay to Palm Springs is the warm evenings.
As someone who is usually cold, it’s satisfying to eat outside in Palm Springs at 8 p.m. in a T-shirt and shorts, temperature still above 80, and feel absolutely comfortable for a change.
Key moment
This room number inspired an impromptu TV-nostalgia quiz at a Palm Springs motel check-in. Our columnist passed. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
I’ll leave you with a second anecdote from my surprisingly eventful motel check-in.
The 60-something desk clerk handed me my key. Its sleeve bore my room number: 222. Recognizing me as someone near his age bracket, he said: “Here’s a quiz. Who was the redhead on ‘Room 222’?”
“Karen Valentine,” I replied instantly.
The clerk hit the desk bell twice with his palm, as if this were a game show, and exclaimed: “That’s right! That was a good show.”
“It was,” I said. “And she was a real cutie.”
You don’t even need a junior college education to know that.
David Allen schools you Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.
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Courtesy : https://www.pressenterprise.com/2024/05/19/palm-springs-weekend-art-architecture-film-food-desert-plants-laughs/