Copley’s on Palm Canyon – Cary Grant’s Former Guesthouse

Copley's Palm Springs (6 of 26)

One location that I had been chomping at the bit to stalk for what seemed like ages was Copley’s on Palm Canyon – a restaurant created out of what is said to be Cary Grant’s former Palm Springs guest house.  Because the eatery does not open until 6 p.m. each night, though (I am nothing if not an early bird), and because it is closed during the scorchingly hot summer months of July and August, I had never had the chance.  Until this past May, that is, when the Grim Cheaper and I happened to find ourselves just down the street from Copley’s on a Sunday afternoon at around 5:45 p.m.  Thankfully, it only took a little arm twisting to convince him to venture inside for a quick happy hour cocktail.  And I am so glad that we did, because the place is simply fabulous!

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Copley’s, which is named after its England-born executive chef, Andrew Manion Copley, first opened its doors in December 2004.  Andrew, accompanied by his wife, Juliana, landed in Palm Springs earlier that same year after culinary stints at numerous five-star sites including the Turtle Bay Resort in Oahu (where Forgetting Sarah Marshall was filmed), The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, The Park Lane Hotel and The Savoy in London, and The Lodge at Koele at the Four Seasons Resort Lana’i.  Upon migrating to Palm Springs, the couple, along with business partner Greg Butterfield, purchased a recently-shuttered Persian restaurant named La Shank House located at what was once supposedly the guest house of Hollywood legend Cary Grant.

 Copley's Palm Springs (5 of 26)

Copley's Palm Springs (8 of 26)

As the story goes (and I have, unfortunately, not been able to verify it), Cary purchased the property sometime during the 1940s and proceeded to use it as off-site guest quarters for visiting family and friends, many of whom were Hollywood royalty, through the 1950s.  I am not quite sure where in Palm Springs Cary lived during that time period, but I do not believe it was at the so-called “Cary Grant Estate” that I blogged about in July 2011.  (He owned that particular home from 1954 to 1972 and it had its own on-site guest quarters.)  I did find an article on the CaryGrant.net website that stated that in 1949 Cary and his third wife, Betsy Drake, “spent some time at a tiny place in Palm Springs which Cary used to refer to as ‘The Dump.’”  Because the abode was described as “tiny” and therefore most likely did not have room for guests, I am guessing that might be where he lived when he purchased the Copley’s site.  Unfortunately though, the website makes no mention of “The Dump’s” exact location.  So you know what that means!  I’ve got another locale to track down!  Is my work here never done?  Winking smile

Copley's Palm Springs (10 of 26)

Copley's Palm Springs (9 of 26)

After purchasing the site, Andrew and Juliana immediately began renovating and restoring the 3,500-square-foot property, which was originally built sometime during the 1920s.  During the renovation, which took 64 days to complete, the couple refurbished the estate’s original hardwood flooring, replanted every bit of foliage on the 0.50-acre grounds and transformed the former garden into an outdoor dining area.  The result is nothing short of spectacular!

Copley's Palm Springs (11 of 26)

  Copley's Palm Springs (13 of 26)

Because we showed up 15 minutes before Copley’s actually opened and they were nice enough to allow us in, we had the place entirely to ourselves.  And the super-nice bartender even went so far as to take me on a little tour to explain how the structure was set up when Grant owned it.  As you can see below, the indoor dining area is divided by cut-out arched walls.  During the Cary Grant days, those walls were filled in, sectioning off the building into several neighboring suites (I think there were a total of five separate suites), all of which opened out to the garden/patio.  So the property was essentially like a private mini-hotel.  How great would it be to have a place like that to stash visiting family and friends?  Love it!

Copley's Palm Springs (20 of 26)

One of the former suite areas is pictured below.

Copley's Palm Springs (18 of 26)

Copley’s definitely does not have the typical restaurant feel to it.  Being there is like hanging out at a good friend’s house – well, a rich good friend’s house.  Winking smile  And whether or not Cary Grant ever actually owned the place, it was still insanely fun to sit on the patio and sip champagne while imaging that the iconic actor had once done the exact same thing in the exact same spot.

Copley's Palm Springs (26 of 26)

Copley's Palm Springs (16 of 26)

And, bonus!  The Grim Cheaper was especially excited to learn that Copley’s offers $5 champagne on its happy hour menu – something that is not at all typical.  You can check out the full happy hour menu here.

Copley's Palm Springs (21 of 26)

Copley's Palm Springs (19 of 26)

And while we did not partake of any food while we were there, the dinner menu does look pretty darn uh-ma-zing (the Sesame Seared Tofu has my name written all over it!) and we are looking forward to going back there for a special occasion meal.

Copley's Palm Springs (17 of 26)

Copley's Palm Springs (12 of 26)

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and InstagramAnd you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Copley’s on Palm Canyon is located at 621 North Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.  The eatery only serves dinner and is open each night starting at 6 p.m.  The property is closed on Mondays during the month of June and is closed completely from July through August each year.

Kirk Douglas’ Former Palm Springs House

Switzerland Group (1 of 1)

The Grim Cheaper and I are finally home from a blissful two weeks in Switzerland. It was so hard to leave my best friend and his amazing family (pictured above) and the beauty of their country – especially being that when we returned to Palm Springs, temperatures were around 122 degrees! I will be sharing some pictures from our trip (and I took plenty – by ten days in, I had filled up an 8GB memory card!), as well as a few Swiss stalking locales that I visited while there, in the near future. But for today, I thought I would once again blog about a Behind the Candelabra-related location that I stalked prior to leaving for the Land of the Alps.

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A few weeks ago, while doing some Behind the Candelabra research, I came across a The Guardian article in which Michael Douglas, who played the flamboyant pianist in the HBO biopic, talked about once meeting Liberace while visiting the desert home of his father, Kirk Douglas. Of the encounter, Michael said, “I met him once in passing. My father had a weekend house in Palm Springs and I remember driving out and we came to this cross-section and this Rolls-Royce convertible pulled up alongside. It was a sunny day and, my God, the reflections were bouncing off his gold jewelry and diamond rings and his hair was perfectly coiffed. Of course, we now know that he was wearing a wig.” Well, I, of course, immediately started itching to track down the house Michael was referring to in the article.

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (11 of 20)

As it turns out, I had actually stalked the home (at least what I think is the correct home) – and blogged about it – once before, way back in March 2008. My research on this location is not exactly definitive. In a The Irish Times article, Michael said that his encounter with Liberace took place around 1956. As Murphy’s Law would have it, though, Kirk Douglas moved from his first Palm Springs residence to his second right around that same time. Michael also mentioned in a Daily Mail article that his father’s house and Liberace’s house were in the same vicinity. But as Murphy’s Law would further have it, both of Kirk’s former desert dwellings are situated about two miles from Liberace’s earliest Coachella Valley abode, which is located at 1516 South Manzanita Avenue. Because the book Explorer’s Guide Palm Springs & Desert Resorts states that the pianist did not move into that home until 1957, though, I am 99.9% certain that the house where Michael’s Liberace encounter took place is the one pictured below.

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (1 of 20)

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (3 of 20)

Kirk’s original (and extremely nondescript) Palm Springs house, which he lived in for two years – from 1955 to 1957 – is located at 1069 East Marshall Way in the legendary Movie Colony neighborhood.

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (12 of 20)

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (18 of 20)

That property, which was recently remodeled and just sold about two weeks ago for $639,900, boasts three bedrooms, two baths, 2,095 square feet of living space, a one-bedroom, one-bath casita, travertine flooring, a pool, a 0.26-acre plot of land, and mountain views. You can check out some interior photographs of the dwelling here.

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (16 of 20)

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (17 of 20)

Kirk’s second desert house, which he owned for over four decades, is located at 515 Via Lola in the Old Las Palmas area of Palm Springs. The five-bedroom, five-bath, 3,790-square-foot abode, which sits on a 0.75-acre plot of land, was designed in 1954 by architects Richard Harrison and Donald Wexler. The modern post-and-beam residence, which originally featured four bedrooms, low ceilings, an asphalt and gravel roof, flagstone walls, and glass adornments, was commissioned by Robert Howard, the one-time owner of the Colony Palms Hotel, which I blogged about back in May. Howard put the property on the market two years after it was completed and it was subsequently purchased by Kirk and his second wife, Anne Buydens, in 1957. Upon buying the residence, the couple added a new façade, interior atriums, a three-car motor court, and quite a bit of square footage. They also transformed the garage into guest quarters. Kirk later bought an adjacent parcel of land on which he installed a tennis court, a gymnasium and a spa.

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (9 of 20)

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (10 of 20)

According to the fabulous book Palm Springs Confidential, the couple entertained quite a bit during their tenure at the home. Just a few of the famous guests who visited over the years include Natalie Wood, Gregory Peck, Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder, Yul Brynner, Warren Beatty, Burt Lancaster, Robert Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Lady Bird Johnson, and Lynda Bird Johnson. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn even leased the house from Kirk and Anne for a summer getaway on two different occasions and Vincente Minnelli held the wedding reception for his marriage to Lee Anderson (his fourth wife) there.

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (7 of 20)

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (6 of 20)

Kirk and Anne sold the home in October 1999 – for a cool $1.3 million – in order to move to Montecito to be closer to Michael.

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (8 of 20)

To me, the residence exemplifies the Rat Pack-style of architecture that Palm Springs has become so synonymous with. I absolutely LOVE the two palm trees that are the focal point of the front yard.

kirkdouglashousecollage

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for even more stalking fun! And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Kirk Douglas Palm Springs house (2 of 20)

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Kirk Douglas’ longtime former Palm Springs home is located at 515 Via Lola in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs. His first desert home can be found just about a mile away at 1069 East Marshall Way in the Movie Colony.

Stalking Barry Manilow, Part II

Last time I was in Palm Springs I did a little stalking of Barry Manilow’s house, but thanks to Richard, who posted a comment on my previous Barry post telling me that Mr. Manilow’s home actually has TWO addresses, I was able to stalk the other side of his house this weekend while I was in the desert. Barry’s house is so ginormous that it apparently fronts two roads and therefore has two addresses!! Unfortunately, though, there isn’t a whole lot to see from this side of the house either. 🙁

While we there Barry’s gate opened and a Porsche SUV with Nevada license plates drove out! It wasn’t actually Barry driving, but I am pretty sure it was his car, as he is now performing regularly in Las Vegas. We followed the car (only because we had to drive in that same direction – honest!) and the person drove into the local car wash. My guess is that it was the personal assistant out to get Bar’s car washed. 🙂 The pic to the left is a farway shot of the car that came out of his house.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Barry’s house can be found at 200 W. Camino Encanto in Palm Springs. The back side is located at 2196 S. Camino Barranca. Even though you can’t see much of the house thanks to large gates and trees, being that I am a HUGE Barry fan, it was still pretty cool just being there. 🙂

Liberace’s Former House

This weekend, while visiting the desert, and thanks to my friend EJ at the Movieland Directory, I got to stalk Liberace’s former Palm Springs manse. His home is an absolutely beautiful Mediterranean estate and there is no doubt whatsoever that it once belonged to Liberace. Besides the large candelabra located in front of the house, there are several “L’s” strategically placed throughout the exterior of the property – including on the garage doors, in the driveway, and in mosaic tiles in the cement in front of the side door.

Before becoming Liberace’s home, the estate was a Palm Springs motel. Liberace named it “The Cloisters” as it reminded him of a monastery. The home was quite ornately decorated in Liberace’s day – he even had a “Safari Room” – and you can see pictures of the interior here. While you can’t tour this home, if you are dying to see the inside of it, you can see a re-creation of Liberace’s bedroom at the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. Sadly, this Palm Springs home is where Liberace lived his final days. He passed away on February 4, 1987.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Liberace’s Palm Springs house is located at 226 W. Alejo Road, right on the corner of Alejo Road and North Belardo. The house is just a few blocks away from Frank Sinatra’s house.

My Kind of Town

While in Palm Springs this weekend, besides stalking Mr. Barry Manilow, I also got to do some stalking of Frank Sinatra’s former desert retreat. I was given Frank’s address courtesy of my good friend EJ over at the Movieland Directory. According to EJ, not only did Marilyn Monroe have her very own special bedroom at Frank’s pad, but this is the same house where Old Blue Eyes once reportedly threw all of Ava Gardner’s belongings onto the driveway after she tried to catch him cheating on her with Lana Turner. That’s life! Franks’s house is a definite desert classic – it has that old 50’s style look to it and an old Palm Springs vibe. I would definitely recommend stalking this house – it’s gorgeous!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Frankie’s place is located at 1148 East Alejo, just east of Palm Canyon Drive. After stalking Sinatra, head to nearby Downtown Palm Springs – there are some really cute shops along Palm Canyon Drive, including Bella Fashions (114 N. Palm Canyon) which sells fab shoes, Shoe-La-La (275 S. Palm Canyon) which has awesome clothes, and of course no shopping trip is complete without my fave – Starbucks (101 S. Palm Canyon)! 🙂

More Desert Stalking!

Barry Manilow\'s House Thanks to my good friend EJ over at the Movieland Directory I was able to do some more Palm Springs stalking this weekend while visiting the desert for a wedding. EJ was so kind as to give me the address of Barry Manilow’s desert home which I was just dying to stalk!! I do love me some Barry! Unfortunately, aside from the massive “No Trespassing” signs and security cameras you can’t see much of Mr. Manilow’s house from the road.

When I got home I did some Zillow stalking of Barry’s place- and WOW!!! – the house is ginormous! I guess writing the songs that make the whole world sing pays really, really well! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Barry’s house can be found at 2196 S. Camino Barranca in Palm Springs. The home’s address is unmarked, but you can see it by driving to where Camino Barranca ends and looking uphill to the left. You can’t miss the “No Trespasing” signs. 🙂