The Desert Sun: Looking back on 90 years of our Coachella Valley history
When the first issue of The Desert Sun was published Aug. 5, 1927, the United States was less than a decade removed from World War I, the Great Depression was on the horizon and Prohibition was the law of the land.
The newspaper debuted the same year Charles Lindbergh completed the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight, the “Jazz Singer” premiered as the first feature film “talkie” – signaling the end of the silent film era – and Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig led the New York Yankees to a World Series title.
Also arriving on the desert scene in 1927 was horseman Frank Bogert, who would become famous as the “Cowboy Mayor” of Palm Springs. His name appeared in the pages of The Desert Sun at least as early as 1936 when he was hosting rodeos and working as publicity manager for the El Mirador Hotel. His promotion of this little village – which grew to become a tourism Mecca – put Palm Springs on the map.
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Frank’s civic work is well-chronicled in The Desert Sun, with hundreds of stories published throughout the decades, all the way until his death, at the age of 99 in 2009.
During the past 90 years, The Desert Sun has covered defining moments on the local and national stages, historically significant and world-changing events including the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Apollo Moon landing. In more recent times, The Desert Sun provided extensive coverage of the funeral of President Gerald Ford, the San Bernardino terrorist attack, the shrinking Salton Sea and water issues that are affecting the Coachella Valley and the world.
It all started on that hot summer day in the desert, when the fledgling, four-page, weekly publication – “the first standard-size, letterpress newspaper dedicated to the best interests of Palm Springs” – was handed out for free to Palm Springs residents and visitors.
In the beginning
The Desert Sun was an offshoot of the Banning Record, produced by Carl Barkow and Harvey Johnson.
Barkow, who had a long career as a reporter working at publications including the Santa Ana Register, big daily papers in Los Angeles and the Union in San Diego, bought an interest in the Johnson-owned Banning Record in 1923.
Within each weekly issue of the Banning Record, one page was devoted to news from Palm Springs. Barkow was tapped to cover the comings and goings of this not-so-sleepy desert village situated in the shadow of Mt. San Jacinto.
Within a few years, it became evident a single page of newsprint was not sufficient to cover the rapidly growing community of Palm Springs. Barkow also had an inkling the area would become a wildly popular tourist destination.
Recognizing the unlimited potential of Palm Springs, Barkow and Johnson invested in its future by founding what would become the hometown newspaper.
“We wanted to do it before anyone else came along,” Barkow said during an earlier Desert Sun interview.
Mabelle Barkow, who, with her husband Carl, would own the Banning Record for 30 years, was a pioneering newspaperwoman. She became editor of the Record in 1938 and was Instrumental in founding The Desert Sun. She helped run the paper from the small Banning office.
Mabelle began her editorial career as a freshman at San Bernardino High School in 1907 and later took a job as vacation reporter with the San Bernardino Index. After graduation, she became society editor of the San Bernardino News. Carl and Mabelle married in 1912. They spent their entire lives together in the newspaper business.
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The new publication was planned during the summer days of 1927 – without benefit of coolers and refrigeration. An appropriate name was chosen for the newspaper – The Desert Sun. Their goal was to have The Desert Sun “cover the desert just like the desert sun.”
The inaugural issue featured a front-page editorial penned by Barkow and Johnson introducing The Desert Sun to Palm Springs residents.
“In presenting the initial issue of The Desert Sun for public approval, the publishers feel that they are but co-operating in the spirit of optimism which is sweeping the country for the future of Palm Springs. That this remarkable winter resort is in line for still greater development and extensive progress is not to be denied. To have a part in making this development possible, and to make the dreams of Palm Springs people come true, will be the mission of The Desert Sun.
“The Desert Sun appears today in its initial form in order that the paper may become well established by the beginning of tourism season. It will appear every Friday and with the height of the tourist business, the site and scope of this newspaper will be greatly enlarged.”
The first issue included stories about the construction of a new hotel (El Mirador), the installation of a modern telephone system for Palm Springs and a brief about the Federal government concluding its fiscal year, June 30, “with the greatest surplus and second largest annual reduction of its public debt in the history of the nation.”
Another insightful brief read: “Palm Springs is considered the finest winter resort in the west, but judging from the number of people here this summer, it might almost be called a summer resort, also. The town is filled with workmen and skilled artisans, who are busy in perfecting a great improvement program. Many of these people will become permanent residents, because Palm Springs development will keep them busy.”
In its first year, the paper was published in the Banning Record office. The paper was produced, at first, by a four-person staff – Barkow, Johnson, a linotype operator and a combination “make-up and pressman” working two days a week on The Sun.
“We thought that the Record would not be able to support the Sun, but after a year or two the tail was wagging the dog; the Sun grew rapidly and we opened an office in Palm Springs,” Barkow said.
That first Desert Sun office was a 140-square-foot space at 299 N. Palm Canyon Drive.
The paper – it was free at first – sold for five cents a copy. During the winter season, the paper would expand to eight pages. A year’s subscription cost $1.50. The circulation in the early days was a few hundred copies a week.
According to early Desert Sun accounts, those first few years in business were rough. During the winter months Palm Springs boomed but the summers were extremely quiet. It was, as Carl Barkow said, “hard scratching between May and November.”
But the paper never missed a beat, and was published every week – even through the Depression – disregarding slumps in revenue and windstorms and summer cloudbursts.
In the late 1930s, even during a severe rain which washed out highways, The Desert Sun was on the newsstands and in the mail on time. Although all of the editorial and other office work was done in Palm Springs, the mechanical part of the newspaper, the make-up and printing was still being produced in Banning.
That intense storm found Carl and his son Harold, on the other side of Whitewater Wash, with no roads or bridges, so they drove across the torrents along the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, then left the tracks and “plowed through the muddy desert until they reached the strip of oil which was Highway 111,” and delivered The Desert Sun on time.
On Feb. 1, 1939, Barkow became the sole owner of The Desert Sun, purchasing Johnson’s interest in the paper. Barkow’s son, Harold, became editor.
Desert Sun publisher helped hatch plan for tram
An interesting footnote from the 1930s: The idea for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway was born during a conversation between Barkow and Francis F. Crocker, who was manager of the Palm Springs office of California Electric Power Company.
According to a story in the June 29, 1945, Desert Sun, Crocker said he and Barkow were riding together through the San Gorgonio Pass one hot day and that Barkow remarked, as they passed Snow Creek Canyon, that the Southern Pacific Railroad was considering a tramway in that area that would be built to the summit of Mt. San Jacinto.
“This fired his imagination and when he got back to Palm Springs, Mr. Crocker got out the relief maps, flat maps and contour maps of the range back of town and started a study,” the story said. He discovered that the Snow Creek Canyon route would be too long and too expensive and that the Chino Canyon line was the shortest and quickest.
A plan for this aerial tourist attraction was launched in 1935.
In the early 1940s, with the help of publicity and support from Barkow – who published supportive editorials in The Desert Sun – a committee of local residents working to gather political backing for the project was formed. In 1945, Governor Earl Warren signed legislation enabling the formation of the Mount San Jacinto Winter Park Authority that eventually financed the project with bond revenue. The tram opened Sept. 14, 1963.
1940s and 1950s
Carl’s son, Harold, became publisher of his own newspaper, the Fallbrook Enterprise in Fallbrook, Calif., on Oct. 1, 1946. The younger Barkow had been connected with The Desert Sun for 12 years serving in various capacities including advertising manager, reporter, editor, business manager and co-publisher. When Carl learned his son planned on leaving The Desert Sun to purchase a weekly of his own, Carl sold half interest in the paper to Oliver Jaynes of Palm Springs.
At the time, the firm was known as the Palm Springs Publishing Company.
Later, Barkow retired, selling his interests in The Desert Sun to Jaynes and his Banning newspaper to Ward J. Risvold. Jaynes remained the sole owner until July, 1952, when Risvold sold the Banning Record and joined him at the Desert Sun.
Under Jaynes, The Desert Sun had become a semi-weekly newspaper and continued as such under the new partnership.
In May, 1955, George E. Cameron Jr. came into the company and it was incorporated as The Desert Sun Publishing Company with Cameron as president, Risvold as publisher and Jaynes as editor.
Expansion of The Desert Sun continued rapidly and in 1955, the decision was made to publish a daily newspaper to keep pace with the great growth of the desert empire. In October 1955, the first issue of the daily Desert Sun rolled off the presses. The paper would appear at homes and in newsstands from Monday through Friday.
In the Aug. 4, 1955, edition of The Desert Sun – on the eve of its 28th anniversary – a story, marking the occasion, read in part:
“Within the pages of a newspaper, historians and students will, for all time, be able to read the record of the rise or fall of a nation, the growth of a state or the betterment of a community. A newspaper chronicles the birth of a child or the death of a leader; stands with and protects the freedoms of the nation; and above all, acts as a tribune of the people, to inform, protect and guarantee them, “the right to know.”
Newspapering in the 1960s and into the future
Throughout the years, accolades would come to The Desert Sun on its publication anniversaries. Among the notable letter writers was George Randolph Hearst Sr., the eldest son of publisher William Randolph Hearst. George Hearst, who died in 1972, served as the president of the Los Angeles Examiner from 1932 to 1953 and was a vice president of the Hearst Corporation and Hearst Foundation, as well as other Hearst family foundations. At the time of The Desert Sun’s anniversary in 1961, he and his seventh wife were living in Palm Springs.
“Congratulations on your 34th year of publication of The Desert Sun,” he wrote.
“As you know, I am a newcomer to Palm Springs, but I feel that The Desert Sun is not only a good newspaper, well written and interesting, but it is also a great asset to the community, by helping to build and guide the public opinion for the best interests of the people in this area. May you continue to have many more years of successful publication.”
On the occasion of The Desert Sun’s 34th birthday on Aug. 5, 1961 – in the earlier years, the newspaper celebrated not only the 10-year incremental anniversaries, but seemingly random ones, like the 34th – then-publisher R.F. (Phat) Graettinger reminisced about the days when The Desert Sun office was located next to Palm Springs City Hall:
"The office at 363 North Palm Canyon Drive was one of the most convenient for the reporters – we had only two by then – as it was right next to the old city hall and only two doors from the fire station and police department with the Chamber of Commerce across the street.
"All a reporter, with his typewriter by a window, had to do, if unsure of his facts on a city hall story, was to yell out of that window to the city clerk’s office a few feet away, and ask his questions.
"And if he wanted information from the city manager’s office which was across the hall, some accommodating girl in the clerk’s office would go and ask Louise McCarn who was then chief aide to the city manager.
"This was reporting deluxe. Get the facts without taking a step or fooling with the phone. One of the reporters – the other one – had such a bull voice he could even stand on the front porch of the office and get a wanted fact from the firemen sitting out in front of their station."
The Desert Sun added a Saturday edition in 1960, and then in 1967, the paper was sold to Leonard Firestone of Firestone Tire and Rubber. By 1972, Firestone transformed the printing facility from moveable type press to offset printing, a change that was revolutionizing the newspaper industry at the time.
After being purchased by the Evening News Association of Detroit in 1974, The Desert Sun was sold to its current owner, Gannett Co., Inc., in 1986.The next five years saw the Desert Sun transition from afternoon to morning distribution, move to its current location at 750 N. Gene Autry Trail, and, in 1991, launch a Sunday edition. Sixty-four years after its founding, the paper was now published, for the first time, seven days a week.
Merger of the Desert Sun and the Indio Daily News united the Coachella Valley
Talk to people who lived in the east end of the Coachella Valley before 1990, and even today they will smile when you mention the Indio Daily News. After all, it was their hometown newspaper.
The Daily News was the main news source for the eastern half of the Coachella Valley starting on Sept. 14, 1959, when it transitioned from the three-time-a-week Indio News to a daily afternoon format.
Just as The Desert Sun, based in Palm Springs, covered the western half of the desert, the Indio Daily News served the same function for the growing areas of Indio, Coachella and La Quinta. That was true even after both daily papers had been acquired by the Detroit-based Evening News Association.
But even after the Daily News name disappeared in 1990, many of the same people continued the same service to the eastern valley, just under the Desert Sun name.
In 1985, Virginia-based Gannett had entered into an agreement to purchase the Evening News Association, including the Desert Sun and the Daily News. It was the beginning of a five-year period of tremendous growth in the desert as well as a time of change for the two newspapers.
In the east end of the desert, golf resorts and homes at developments like PGA West in La Quinta were changing the demographics of the desert, with more people pouring into the desert. Plenty of younger people and families were among those new residents, helping to erase the image of the desert as strictly a retirement community.
The population centers of the desert were moving east as well. More business were opening along Highway 111 in Indio and La Quinta, and more west-end businesses were expanding to the east valley.
The Desert Sun was transitioning as well, shifting from an afternoon paper to a morning paper, adding a Sunday edition and moving into a new headquarters on Gene Autry Trail in Palm Springs, all in the span of three years.
At corporate headquarters in Virginia, Gannett management decided the final step of the changes to the Desert Sun would be a merger with it sister paper, the Daily News. Couldn’t a merged staff provide more wide-reaching coverage of the burgeoning Coachella Valley as a whole, rather than duplicating efforts in certain areas as separate papers? Why, for instance, should two reporters, one from the Desert Sun and the other from the Daily News, provide separate coverage of an Indio High School football game or a show at the McCallum Theater in Palm Desert?
The merger began in 1989, with sports and other parts of the Daily News editorial staff shifting to the Desert Sun offices. By 1990, with The Desert Sun in its new building, the merger was completed, with many Daily News employees, from the editorial department to advertising to management, continuing their duties under the new, larger Desert Sun umbrella.
From a corporate standpoint, the merger of the two papers made financial and editorial sense. But to say there was skepticism in the eastern end of the valley would be an understatement. Many readers in Indio and other parts of the eastern Coachella Valley saw The Desert Sun as “that Palm Springs paper.” In many cases the skepticism was replaced by anger.
Would news from Indio and Coachella simply disappear in the newly merged single paper, or be banished to the inside of the paper and away from an A1 cover dominated by Palm Springs news? How can a reporter based in Palm Springs truly understand the issues of agriculture, growth and the more heavily Hispanic demographic of the east valley?
In the following years the readers in the eastern half of the valley continued to long for the Daily News, but they began to see the same people from the Daily News covering the same issues in the Desert Sun. The transition to a valley-wide paper may have stumbled at times in the early years, but eventually the two papers meshed into a single editorial and advertising machine designed to cover the entire Coachella Valley.
The Indio Daily News hasn't existed since 1990, but what the Desert Sun is today as a valley-wide news organization includes the legacy of Indio's hometown paper.
--Larry Bohannan
Sun-inspired columns
Throughout the years, the newspaper has featured columns with plays on the word, "sun" including, This Side of the Sun, by Carl Barkow, Sun Spots by R.F. (Phat) Graettinger, After Sun-Set by George Laine, Sun Strokes by "The Desert Commentator" and Desert Sun Beams.
The Desert Sun turns 90: Open House
Help us celebrate The Desert Sun’s 90 years of award-winning journalism at an open house with special behind-the-scenes tours of the media company’s operations and holiday treats.
When: Wednesday, Dec. 6
Time: 5-6:30 p.m.
Cost: Free with RSVP at tickets.desertsun.com
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: The Desert Sun celebrates its 90th anniversary
