Todays Palm Springs History Lesson: Desert Air Hotel…a fly-in resort...POSTED: 1/4/15 TEXT: Rancho Mirages Desert Air Hotel: A stylish way to getaway In 1951, visitors to the Desert Air Hotel could fly their small planes directly into what is now Rancho Mirage, park them right in front of the hotels restaurant, grab their bags and walk to their stylish cottage, all while mingling with celebrities, industrialists, and heads of state. Originally not more than a humble ranch with a small cottage and sandy landing strip, H. L. (Hank) Gogerty transformed 200 acres of desolate open desert (now home to Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa and environs) into a unique destination. Opened in early 1951, the Desert Airpark and Air Hotel claimed one grass landing strip, a semi-circle shaped lanai room, cocktail lounge, dining room, heart shaped swimming pool, and bungalows. All were designed by Gogerty himself, an accomplished architect who designed hundreds of schools and even the buildings for Hughes Aircraft where the Spruce Goose was constructed. By 1952 the hotel advertised tennis, swimming, sunbathing, riding, dancing, sightseeing, golfing, airplane rides, chuckwagon breakfasts, moonlight rides, bar and cocktail lounge, and delicious food. The advertisement read, Sip your liquids in the Luau Hut and have dinner in the Compass Room while watching the aeronautical activity at the airpark landing strip (if all that activity while eating doesnt disturb your ulcers). The 1950s were a busy time for the hotel. In 1954, the Desert Airpark was the terminus for the second annual Transatlantic Air Cruise. Starting in Philadelphia, 64 pilots flew their planes (required to be less than 300 horsepower) the 2,579 miles across the United States. The following year, Desert Air Hotel served as the starting point for the Cruise. In 1955, The Desert Air Hotel played host to the worlds oldest active licensed pilot, 93 year old James W. Montee. Many Hollywood people frequented the hotel and airpark. Producer Leon Gordon (Tarzan and His Mate, I Love You Again), Hopalong Cassidy, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Wilcoxon, Edgar Bergen (sometimes with Charlie McCarthy) and his daughter Candy, Princess Luana (Hawaiian Nights, Keep Em Flying), Esther Williams and Ben Gage (who were actually forced to land there due to mechanical issues with their Piper plane), Bobby Webb (casting director at MGM), Henry King (Love is a Many Splendored Thing, The Sun Also Rises), Pat Boone, Peter Lawford (who arrived in Conrad Hiltons DC3), Richard Burton, Bing Crosby (who landed his Aero commander at at Desert Airpark on its very first flight), the entire cast and crew of 1964s The Satan Bug, and in November of 1961, the Bob Cummings Show was filmed on location there as well. According to Bob Cummings himself, In the series I play an adventurer, a positive thinking guy who cant resist airplanes ... I fly six Beechcrafts, an aero-car, a seaplane and live in the most forward thinking community in the world – Palm Springs. Roberta Shore played a character on the show named Henrietta Hank Gogerty after the real owner of the hotel. The series lasted 22 episodes. Industry leaders also visited the hotel; Mr. and Mrs. Albert Ralphs (Ralphs Supermarkets) visited, so did Al Boyer of Hughes Aircraft and Lawrence Tibbett Jr. of Lockheed Aircraft. In fact, even Allen Lockheed himself visited the Desert Air. Nearly the entire Hearst family were guests at one time or another and even heads of state and other notables made their way to the Desert Air; including Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Secretary to President Eisenhower Mary Jane McCagree, Commodore Harold R. Gillespie of Matsons SS Lurline and Illionois Supreme Court Justice Ray Klingbiel. Secretary of State Charles Carpentier, artist James Swinnerton, Antique Airplane Association president Bell Hawes, author Aldous Huxley, Secretary of the Army Elvis J. Stahr, and Lieutenant Governor of California Glenn Anderson. One of the most popular annual events at the Desert Air Hotel was the Luau held annually at the end of May. The occasion attracted entertainers such as Hilo Hattie, George Kainapau, Tani Marsh, Fred Letuli and Lani, and Thurston Knudson who performed a jungle drum ceremony. Guests to the event were asked to dress in their best Polynesian costumes and were served exotic tropical foods. Women were even given leis flown in from Hawaii. Oddly enough, during the uranium craze of the 1950s, the Desert Air Hotel became a destination for Geiger counter carrying hunters. Gogerty himself had noticed that there was a certain spot near the strip where the compass on his instrument panel would go crazy. According to the Villager magazine, this was the location where he decided to put the hotels dining room. An outstanding architect, he designed a circular dining room over the spot, with a compass rose in the center, and named it the Compass Room. The article went on, No one seems to be able to explain why compasses go haywire at this particular place, (pilots think it may be a meteorite). But since the discovery of uranium, invention of scintillators, et al, his popular night spot is also the hot spot for speculation as to the possibility of precious hidden materials and metals. The thousands who annually dine in the Compass Room may be sitting only a few feet above one of the richest ore veins in the west ... but of what? Hank accepts this phenomenal perplexity with genuine desert humor. Besides hosting flyers from all over the nation, his Desert Air Hotel has become a magnet to prospectors testing with their detectors. Guess well have to build a check room for all the equipment people bring he said, especially at the next big Luau. Things didnt always go according to plan at the Airpark. In late 1954, Mark Todd of Los Angeles became the shakiest guest at Desert Air Hotel when he was forced to land his Cessna 190 on Highway 111 after he engine lost power. The addition of a polo field was made in 1956, using part of the grass landing strip for play. In 1958, it was said to be one of the best fields in the country. Many official polo games were held at this field including the Eight Goal Pacific Coast Tournament in 1957. Teams from San Francisco, Long Beach, Valencia, Palm Springs, and Rancho Mirage participated. In 1957, Hank Gogerty undertook $150,000 worth of additions to the hotel. He had already added a second landing strip to the property and this further expansion included nine cottages (equaling more than 9,000 square feet). Three of the cottages were to have three rooms and the remaining five, two rooms. Gogertys talent as an architect was reflected in the plans for the addition. In each of the three-room units the center room will have a large corner fireplace, with metal hood reaching to the ceiling. The bedrooms will have private, enclosed patios for sunbathing, with partial roofs for shade and individual entrances. Rooms will have telephones and be wired for music. All cottages will have year-round air-conditioning provided by an advance design reverse cycle heat-pump unit, with interior design and furnishings by H.L. Gogerty. He will use contemporary Hawaiian décor, with beamed ceilings. Interior walls will be imported Japanese parquet hardwood paneling and plaster. Plaster will be covered with attractive polyvinyl plastic fabric. Exterior walls will be stucco and volcanic rock wainscoting and trim, with redwood siding over the wood framing. Sliding aluminum and glass doors and picture windows will open onto the patios. Window sash will be aluminum. Rooms will have acoustical ceilings, wall to wall carpeting, dual wardrobes, including shelves and drawers, bookshelves in the living rooms, and convertible twin studio beds. Adjoining baths will have ceramic tile, with combination tub and shower. After the expansion, the Desert Air hosted the Mad Shipwreck party held to celebrate Phil Harris being appointed as honorary Mayor of Rancho Mirage. Guests were asked to wear what they felt they would be wearing at the time of a shipwreck. Subsequently, attendees came dressed in pajamas, life preservers, and bath towels. During Christmas, the Desert Air Hotel was often a surprise stop for Santa Claus who had ditched his reindeer for a much sleeker Beechcraft or Cessna. In fact, in January of 1952, Gene Waltreus of Vista Escrow Company flew in full Santa regalia complete with toys for 130 children. In 58, Santa flew in on Christmas Eve and over the entire desert area on Christmas Day, dropping balloons inviting children to the Desert Air Hotel for their gifts. The Hotel and Airpark were both closed by circa 1970 and subsequently demolished, making way for the developments that exist on the site today.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 15:23:02 +0000