Dinah Shore and George Montgomery built their first desert home in 1952. Located in the old Movie Colony neighborhood of Palm Springs, the home was built on land purchased from the estate belonging to studio mogul, Daryl Zanuck.
Shore and Montgomery were longtime desert residents. They were members of the Racquet Club and avid tennis players. They divorced in 1962.
•See related story: History of Celebrities and Golf in the Desert.
For decades, Shore was the official hostess of the Colgate and later the Kraft Nabisco Women’s Golf Tournament, which was nicknamed “The Dinah” in her honor. Montgomery, a very talented artist as well as actor, left a great legacy of sculpture and hand-crafted furniture to the Palm Springs Art Museum. The couple is buried opposite each other in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cathedral City.
There is a multitude of ways to Explore Palm Springs, which turns 81 in 2019.
One of the more intriguing methods is by exploring Palm Springs history. The Palm Springs Historical Society will share a story whose time and place often corresponds with today.
The Palm Springs Historical Society is located at 221 S. Palm Canyon Drive. Visit pshistoricalsociety.org for more information.