PALM SPRINGS, RING-A-DING-DING!

TRAVEL: DESTINATION PALM SPRINGS, RING-A-DING-DING!

SWINGING PALM SPRINGS IS A HOT SPOT WITH ENTERTAINMENT, SPAS, CASINOS AND CLUBS

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Just a short drive from Los Angeles, about two hours on a good day, there’s the little California oasis known as Palm Springs. It’s a place to relax and have fun, with lots of entertainment all around.

During the ring-a-ding-ding era of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, the desert became a swinging place. It’s always been a retirement community for Hollywood’s elite, but now the spas and casinos draw a younger crowd. It’s a hot spot for everyone from rockers, sports stars and top concert acts, such as comic George Lopez; to the sophisticated crowd that George Clooney and his pals bring to the destination.

If you want to enjoy the heart of Palm Springs, the Palm Mountain Resort and Spa is a comfy place with great amenities, conveniently located, and features Miko’s Day Spa and Salon. It’s a few footsteps away from the center of the Palm Canyon Drive, a shopper’s paradise of great boutiques, restaurants and clubs. It’s in the middle of all the action, plus just across from the historic Plaza Theatre, home to the world famous “Fabulous Palm Springs Follies.” It’s a must-see ultra-lavish production featuring veteran showgirls and stars celebrating music, dance and comedy.

Also providing top entertainment, for special occasions, or just to make an ordinary day special, there’s Buddy Greco’s Dinner Club. It opened last year and has turned into the latest hot spot in the Palm Springs area.

Greco is still singing and swinging with gusto, and he turns every show into a celebration at his cozy Cathedral City night club on the main road, East Palm Canyon Drive.

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It’s a great time in his life, the Philadelphia-born Greco says. He counts among his blessings his gorgeous wife Lezlie Anders who sings at the club. Her golden voice is reminiscent of a young Peggy Lee. And Buddy credits Lezlie with making the club a reality. “It was her idea. She did everything. Designed it, decorated the whole place. She thought to have a TV monitor so that everyone at every table could see me playing the piano. She put up the rogue’s gallery, with pictures from my career, starting out with Benny Goodman. There are shots from my days with Frank Sinatra, and so many great memories.”

After playing Vegas showrooms and the top clubs around the world, the super-hip singer and acclaimed jazz pianist, Greco said he wanted a place that brought back the ring-a-ding-ding atmosphere of the glory days of nightclubs.

“Lezlie helped me recreate the elegant, fun feeling that folks got when they went to places like the Coconut Grove and Mr. Kelly’s. A friend described the place as ‘a club I’d expect to find Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack hanging out,” Greco explains. That’s no surprise considering Buddy was part of that swinging scene.

The club immediately became “a happening place,” with celebrities friends from the desert community becoming regulars. “Friends like Jack Jones and Keely Smith sometimes join me on stage. Jerry Vale is here with all his golf buddies, and the place turns into a party,” Greco says with pride.

All part of the swinging scene in Palm Springs.
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Margie Barron has written for a wide variety of outlets including Gannett newspapers, Nickelodeon, Tiger Beat and 16 Magazine, Fresh!, Senior Life, Production Update, airline magazines, etc. Margie is also proud to have been half of the husband & wife writing team Frank & Margie Barron, who had written together for various entertainment and travel publications for more than 38 years.

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