This book collects more than two hundred fascinating and rarely seen historical photographs of Palm Springs, newly digitized from the Palm Springs Historical Society's expansive archive. Featured are many Hollywood celebrities, including Sinatra and the Rat Pack, who vacationed there, the early days of the desert paradise, various architectural masterworks, such as the fabulous El Mirador Hotel and the extraordinary, outrageous, and irreverent people of Palm Springs. This book collects more than two hundred fascinating and rarely seen historical photographs of Palm Springs, newly digitized from the Palm Springs Historical Society's expansive archive. Palm Springs is linke no other place on earth. From its earliest days as a dessert oasis to its mid-century heyday as a getaway for the rich and famous, its relaxed ambiance and unique residents and visitors have provided countless fascinating photographic subjects. Palm Springs Paradise features more than two hundred vintage photographs, only a fraction of which have ever been seen by the public. Subjects include early Palm Springs, the fabulous El Mirador, architecture both refined and zany, Sinatra and his Rat Pack, and the irreverent people who make the desert so much fun. Historian PETER MORUZZI is the founder of the Palm Springs Modern Committee, an architectural preservation group, and the author of Havana a Before Castro: When Cuba Was a Tropical Playground, Palm Springs Holiday: A Vintage Tour from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea, and Classic Dining: Discovering America's Finest Mid-Century Restaurants. He's been infatuated with Palm Springs since his first visit in 1990. He now splits his time between his homes in Los Angeles and Palm Springs. Early Palm Springs Palm Springs is the ancestral home of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, who lived in the Coachella Valley for centuries before white people began colonizing the area to grow crops in the late nineteenth century. Floods and drought quashed that experiment. The area was next promoted as a tubercular sanatorium, but that was not to be Palm Springs’ destiny. Through toil and grit, the early pioneers—mostly sturdy women—forged a Shangri-la out of a failed agricultural colony and middling hospice. The transformation of Palm Springs into a winter playground was astonishingly rapid. By 1925, automobiles from Los Angeles—and the transcontinental railroad from the Midwest and East—filled the village with tourists. Palm Springs also attracted its share of artists, photographers, and sun-baked eccentrics, who chose the desert for inspiration.