Welcome to the Palm Springs Life Desert Living Edition — our 48th celebration of the bright, colorful California desert lifestyle.
This annual edition is loaded with information for visitors to Palm Springs Desert Resorts and serves as an indispensable reference for our booming number of year-round residents. The good life abounds in the pages of Palm Springs Life — celebrity sightings, sophisticated fashion, luxurious homes, fine art and dining, and a world-class array of retailers.
The most provocative of the many features in this edition must surely be “Hollywood’s Wet Set” by contributing editor Howard Johns, author of Palm Springs Confidential: Playground to the Stars (Barricade Books).
“Throughout the years, some of the world’s greatest movie stars have enjoyed sunbathing, splashing, and submerging themselves in the valley’s refreshing pools,” Johns writes. “During Hollywood’s golden age, when these silver-screen idols were worshiped like Greek gods and goddesses, carloads of photographers were dispatched to the desert to preserve their likenesses for posterity. Sexy photographs of scantily clad female stars — which proliferated in the 1950s and ’60s — became known as ‘cheesecake,’ and its male equivalent, ‘beefcake.’”
Johns’ trenchant research and revealing text and photography — including our never-before-published cover image of Marilyn Monroe at the Palm Springs Racquet Club — will give you a deeper appreciation for what many Hollywood luminaries still consider a desert playground worthy of frequent retreat.
Palm Springs Life celebrates the desert’s heritage in fine fashion, but we’re hardly stuck in the old days. Our greatest asset as a desirable destination is unquestionably the desert’s magnificent landscape — particularly the
surrounding mountain range, which six years ago gained the important national monument designation. Landscape photographer Kirk Owens captures the beauty of the mountains in a stunning photo essay, accompanied by compelling text by Ann Japenga, who regularly contributes environmental and historical features to Palm Springs Life.
There’s more: Fashion Editor Susan Stein and photographer Jay Morel showcase new and traditional styles at a shoot at an award-winning home in Bella Clancy, a beautiful community in Rancho Mirage.
The relaxing and spiritual nature of Palm Springs Desert Resorts (see our spa feature, “Wizards of Ahhhs,” on page 341) makes it an enduring success. Those who visit will likely return time and again. Some of us never leave. That’s what happened to me some 48 years ago. Palm Springs Life has grown with the community and emerged as its arbiter of taste, style, and sophisticated living — “California’s Prestige Magazine.”
Don’t miss the 2006-2007 Desert Guide Calendar and Great Restaurants sections, included in this valuable edition. Desert Guide also features listings to all the area’s best attractions, spas, galleries, shopping, nightlife, and much more.
It’s a lot to take in — as is the desert itself. We hope you’ll want even more and subscribe to our monthly edition. By doing so, your order will include the 2007/2008 Palm Springs Life Annual Desert Living Edition.
Enjoy your Palm Springs Life!
MILTON W. JONES
Publisher