History in the making! - La Quinta Chamber of Commerce

The beginningBorn in San Francisco in 1874, Morgan was theyoungest son of John S. Morgan, the wealthy owner ofthe Morgan Oyster Company. The distinguished-lookingMorgan came to the desert in 1921 for health reasonsand purchased 1,400 acres of land named “HappyHollow” by the Cahuilla people, the original inhabitantsof the area. Morgan envisioned creating a small, selfcontained,secluded retreat where guests could enjoybeing pampered in the privacy of their own guest-rooms.Many believe that Morgan chose the name “La Quinta”after hearing a local rancher in Mexico tell the tale of abig country house surrounded by cottages.In 1925, to help him turn his dream into a reality,Morgan hired then-budding Pasadena architect, GordonKaufman. Famed for his architectural designs thatinclude the Los Angeles Times Building, the Athenaeumat the California Institute of Technology and the SantaAnita Raceway, Kaufman was relatively unknown whenhired by Morgan. La Quinta Hotel, as it was first called,was Kaufman’s first major success.In 1931, two years after the stock market crashed,the local newspaper announced Walter H. Morgan’s deathdue to carbon monoxide poisoning. Words ofhis last note to his wife were never disclosed;however, it was speculated that the decline of hisfamily’s fortune in to the Great Depression andword from his doctor that he should leave hisbeloved “country home” to move to a sanitariumfor his tubercular condition were overwhelming.The great flag located at the hotel’s entranceflew at half-mast on its 125-foot pole. Morgan’sbody was cremated, his ashes were spread overhis precious date groves and flower gardens, andLa Quinta Hotel closed its fifth season in financialturmoil.Morgan’s Dream Becomes a RealityTogether, Morgan and Kaufman devised theultimate getaway. Kaufman planned main buildings,the lobby areas, the open-air, glassed-in diningroom, the guest casitas and the grounds. In addition, he designed the furnitureand lights and supervised all the construction, including the firing of the bricksused on the premises. The original kiln was located on the site that is currently LaQuinta Resort’s Mountain Course. Mexican laborers crafted more than 100,000adobe bricks, 60,000 roof tiles and 5,000 floor tiles.The total construction cost was estimated at $150,000, at a time when a Fordtouring car cost $250 and a pound of coffee was 50 cents. Morgan also brought thegolf industry to the Coachella Valley, with the construction of a nine-hole courseconstructed at a cost of $50,000 and designed by golfer Norman Beth. It was thefirst golf course built in the valley and was open to the public for a greens fee ofone dollar.La Quinta Hotel’s doors were first opened to an elite group of Morgan’s friendsduring the Christmas holiday in 1926; the hotel’s grand opening to the public washeld in late January 1927. The resort entertained such guests as Charles Taft, sonof President William Howard Taft, and William Crocker from San Francisco. Aftera successful first season, Morgan announced the building of another 14 casitas andthen went to Los Angeles to pass the word of his retreat to the Hollywood community.Morgan was a well-educated, sophisticated man with charm and charisma.Through his family’s connections, he knew the right people in the business andsocial worlds. Although Morgan was opposed to advertising, he had a special talentfor publicity and public relations. He made La Quinta Hotel a social “must” bycarefully inviting Hollywood’s finest.4Hollywood comes to townLa Quinta Hotel had a commodity Hollywoodcelebrities wanted – privacy. Accordingly, theycame to La Quinta Hotel, riding the extra 20miles past Palm Springs in “town cars,” whichlacked air-conditioning, to escape the studios,the deadlines, the pressures and the fans. In the“touring” days, the most sought-after and highlypaid were the hotel’s discrete chauffeurs andfootmen, who skillfully wheeled across the poordesert roads, often stopping to change a tire“blow out” while the passengers shared a picnicbasket. Marie Dressler, Greta Garbo, GingerRogers, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery,Errol Flynn, and Joan Crawford are buta few of the many stars who routinely made thetrek over the mountains and through the desertto La Quinta Hotel.It is said that star Bette Davis told newspaperreporters, “I’m off to La Quinta,” betweenscenes on the set of “Jezebel,” and that moviedirector Frank Capra stated, “It was the kind ofplace everyone was looking for; it is a wonderfulgreen oasis in the middle of the desert,and it is absolutely private.” Legend hasit that Capra first came to the desert inthe late 1920s to turn the short story“Night Bus,” (which he had read in aPalm Springs barber shop) into the scriptfor “It Happened One Night.” When thefilm swept the Academy Awards thatyear, Capra became superstitious aboutthe desert and returned year after yearto La Quinta Hotel, his “Shangri-La forscript writing,” to create film classics including“Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” “LostHorizon,” “You Can’t Take It With You,”“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” and“Meet John Doe.” For most stars, however,the hotel was more a place of isolationthan a source of inspiration. This wasespecially true for Greta Garbo. Garbo’s visits brought international fame to LaQuinta Hotel.It is said that Garbo’s first visit to La Quinta Hotel was at the suggestion of heragent, Harry Edington. With the help of his chauffeur, Edington rescued the world’smost admired actress from a phone booth that was surrounded by a mob of adoringfans. He suggested that the perfect getaway was La Quinta Hotel, which afterher first visit became Garbo’s favorite place when she “wanted to be alone.”Con’t on page 6La Quinta Hotel, inspirational,private, and to all-a beautiful oasisthat is heaven on earth.