SINATRA, LATHAM AND SIMMS AT CEMETARY

 Driving into Desert Memorial Park FM Mod 107.3 was playing Frank’s “Fly Me to The Moon” so we knew this was the right moment to honor him on the 100th year of his birth.

So modest a gravestone for such an important talent, I thought.  “The Best is Yet to Come” implies some notions about the hereafter.

What song would you pick for Frank's grave?  His gravestone is easy to find since it is decorated with flags.  Other celebrities are lost amongst the flat grave markers.

JACK LATHAM, MY FRIEND AT KNBC NEWS

CATHEDRAL CITY — KNBC news anchor Jack Latham is the one good thing I remember from working at KNBC/4 news in LA in 1963-64.  Latham took an interest in me, a flunky editorial assistant.  His career started at KHQ in Spokane and he appeared as a news anchor in the cult classic film “Wild in the Streets.”  He also had an uncredited part in the ‘30s classic movie “Showboat.”  

Three of us searched Desert Memorial Park last Friday for his grave marker. 

GINNY SIMMS, MINNESOTA MOVIE, RECORDING STAR

CATHEDRAL CITY —  Singer Ginny Simms, a Minnesota native, was well known for her movie and radio appearances.  She also owned Breezy Point Resort near Brainerd.  She appeared in the RKO ‘40s musical comedy “You’ll Find Out” with band leader Kay Kaiser with whom she was involved.  

Her grave stone was difficult to find. Loved ones spend thousands for burial here and it’s almost impossible to find the graves. 

DESERT DIARY 2015 DECEMBER

 MODERNISM CAPITAL IN DESERT

I am not wild about museums, but the one in Palm Springs gets kudos

for restoring a bank building into an architecture and design museum

celebrating the mid century.  The nod to the later is the model of the Frank Sinatra house near the museum.

The house was completed in 1950 just before Sinatra’s career collapsed.  The house, designed by a noted architect, features a piano shaped pool.

Riverside's Mission Inn is old California and dark but the city's historic restoration is very spotty with ugly 60s architecture interspersed.  

Altlhough Manheim Steamroller's Christmas music with a rock beat is enjoyable, the hard plastic seats at Fantasy Springs Casino are painfully uncomfortable.

Gas prices fluctuate wildly in the valley and some stations require a credit card PIN or cash.

Rare classic cars at the Westfield Mall included the Willys Aero coupe, AMC Gremliln and Studebaker Avanti.

Tomorrow's opera stars competed Dec. 5 in the Palm Springs Opera audience choice award event Dec. 5.  We rubbed elbows with desert millionaires who listen to G. Keillor on public radio.  I voted for the Russian in the blue dress.

The Town Center Cafe serves great Greek food in Palm Desert where the Goodwill has classic VHS movies including "Wolfman" and "Attack of the Crab Monsters."

We didn't skip aerobics here where Joslyn Senior Center was best.  Indio Senior Center's "Groovin' with Delores" is for fans of Richard Simmons manic work out. 

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

CATHEDRAL CITY — Driving into Desert Memorial Park FM Mod 107.3 was playing Frank’s “Fly Me to The Moon” so we knew this was the right moment to honor him on the 100th year of his birth.

So modest a gravestone for such an important talent, I thought.  “The Best is Yet to Come” implies some notions about the hereafter.

What song would you pick for Frank's grave?  His gravestone is easy to find since it is decorated with flags.  Other celebrities are lost amongst the flat grave markers.

PALM SPRINGS CONFIDENTIAL!

INDIO — At our Indian Palms apartment we were 40 minutes from Palm Springs on the I-10, a miserable freeway with freighters weaving wildly in the breeze.  Atheists get religion on Highway 60 to Riverside, jammed with semis. In Indio we are about 100 miles from the latest mass murder terrorist horror

story. 

Altlhough Manheim Steamroller's Christmas music with a rock beat is enjoyable, the hard plastic seats at Fantasy Springs Casino are painfully uncomfortable.

Gas prices fluctuate wildly in the valley and some stations require a credit card PIN or cash.  Expect to pay at least $3.00/gal.