It’s still going strong, but the Parker Palm Springs has changed hands and names so often that many people don’t know that this storied place has a fascinating history—and has been owned by two different showbiz icons.
The Holiday Inn/Melody Ranch/Gene Autry Hotel/Givenchy Spa/Merv Griffin’s Resort Hotel and Givenchy Spa/Le Parker Meridien, at 4200 E. Palm Canyon Drive, was California’s first Holiday Inn, initially a small cinderblock and concrete building built in 1959 on what was then the far edge of Palm Springs. Local builder Milt Hicks and partners were the contractors of the hotel that reportedly initially cost $1.5 million.
After the Holiday Inn decided to move its Palm Springs presence to a larger hotel uptown, singing cowboy Gene Autry bought the hotel in 1961. Autry owned the brand-new California Angels baseball team, and wanted the hotel, in part, to house the new Major League Baseball team for spring training. The team was training in Palm Springs at the newly named Angel Stadium, originally called the Polo Grounds (today’s Palm Springs Stadium) when built in 1949.
Autry changed the name of the Holiday Inn to Melody Ranch and increased the number of rooms, while adding tennis courts, a second swimming pool, first-class suites, bars and restaurants. The name that stuck over the next 30 years, however, was the Gene Autry Hotel.
In 1994, Autry sold the hotel to Rose Narva, his hotel general manager. Narva then worked out an arrangement with French designer Hubert de Givenchy, who lent the resort its name.
Before Autry died in 1998, he and his wife, Jackie, owned a home in Old Las Palmas that was eventually sold by his widow in 2023. The Autrys have given much to the community. In 1983, they donated $5 million for an expansion, now called the Autry Tower, at Eisenhower Medical Center.
In 1998, television personality and businessman Merv Griffin bought the Givenchy and renamed it Merv Griffin’s Resort Hotel and Givenchy Spa. By this time, the hotel included 14 beautifully manicured gardens and orchards, boasted 107 rooms and villas, and had become a favorite respite for Hollywood celebrities. The Versailles-inspired white colonnaded resort featured a top restaurant called GiGi’s, a full-service spa, six tennis courts, 10,500 square feet of indoor meeting space, and outdoor event space as well. The world-class spa was ranked No. 4 by readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine.
Fans of the singing cowboy, and/or those wanting the utmost in hedonistic luxury, can rent Autry’s two-bedroom, two-bath residence, a mid-century jewel set behind a private gate.
Griffin sold it in late 2002 to Epix Hotels and Resorts, who only owned it for a short time. It closed for a while and was purchased in 2003 by the parent company of Le Parker Meridien. The Parker group made significant renovations, and it reopened in 2004, immediately becoming the desert’s first five-star resort.
Today, there are 144 luxurious rooms, suites and villas. The upscale spa is now called the Palm Springs Yacht Club, and the Parker is home to three restaurants, recreational amenities such as a health club, and both indoor and outdoor pools.
Fans of the singing cowboy, and/or those wanting the utmost in hedonistic luxury, can rent Autry’s two-bedroom, two-bath residence at the Parker, a mid-century jewel set behind a private gate, with a fully equipped kitchen, a sauna and a private saline pool. Then there is Mrs. Parker’s, “the world’s smallest restaurant” according to the hotel. It is for that “very special occasion” like a marriage proposal or romantic anniversary. It is a poolside private table for two by the Gene Autry pool that includes a personal chef.
The Parker Palm Springs may be the place in the valley where you’re most likely to run into celebrities. When it was known as Merv Griffin’s Resort Hotel and Givenchy Spa, it was frequented by Barbra Streisand, Heather Locklear and Kelsey Grammer. A visit to the resort by Robert Downey Jr. made international news. In November 2000, the Academy Award-nominated Chaplin star was arrested at the hotel, and the police confiscated cocaine and valium from his room. (Fortunately, Downey has maintained his sobriety since 2003.)
More recently, numerous celebrities have visited the Parker, including Adrien Brody, Drew Barrymore, Lindsay Lohan, Eva Mendes, Charlize Theron, Kevin Spacey, Liam Neeson, Teri Hatcher and Ozzy Osbourne.
In 2024, travel writer Lucy Broadbent summed up the Parker experience by penning in The Carousel: “Finicky Hollywood stars have been demanding luxury in Palm Springs since the first movie was ever made. But there’s luxury, and then there’s a world beyond luxury. … In all my years of travel (and I was lucky enough to once be a travel editor for Hello! magazine), I have never stayed anywhere quite like Parker Palm Springs. It is like walking into a Salvador Dali painting, except more inviting and altogether prettier. Jonathan Adler, the famous designer responsible, calls the style ‘hippie chic.’ I’d call it inspired.”
Sources for this article include “Parker Palm Springs. The Unique Celebrity Hideaway In California’s Desert” by Lucy Broadbent, The Carousel, Sept. 4, 2024; Palm Springs Legends by Greg Niemann (Sunbelt Publications, 2006); Palm Springs Confidential by Howard Johns (Barricade Books, 2004); and The Desert Sun, several articles by Tracy Conrad.
Greg Niemann’s new book, Beyond Baja Legends, is out now. Learn more at sunbeltpublications.com.