This story is part of the July 7 edition of Sunday Life. See all 14 stories . On a picture-perfect day in midwinter, I’m riding a bicycle through the Old Las Palmas neighbourhood, a few streets west of Palm Springs’ trendy downtown.
Technically, I’m on Big Wheel’s star-spotting tour, but this is nothing like riding in a bus past imposing gates in Beverly Hills. For a start, it’s just me and a guide. We pause outside Elvis’s honeymoon house before freewheeling down the street past Marilyn Monroe’s rental home, across from Sammy Davis jnr’s place, down the block from Zsa Zsa Gabor’s bungalow.
And it’s all there because under the old Hollywood studio system, contracted movie stars couldn’t travel more than two hours from Hollywood while they had a film in production, and Palm Springs falls within that limit. Mid-century architecture in the Palm Springs style known as desert modernism. Credit: Bisual Studio / Stocksy United And yet if you’re coming to Palm Springs just to ogle dead stars’ homes, you’re missing the point.
You come to Palm Springs to live like them: being here is like taking a trip through time. Mid-century architecture – built in a style conceived right here, “desert modernism” – keeps the 21st century at bay. Every street looks like a vintage postcard, every hotel’s a portal into the past.
I’m staying in Villa Royale, built in 1947. There are cushioned lounges by the pool, set among black-and-white tiles and featuring a gra.
