Palm Springs Nights

Those Palm Springs nights were something to experience.

Living in a motel owned by the Sahara Dunes Card Room along the highway between Pomona and San Diego, CA. in the 1970s, I could experience the pungent air of the upper desert country while tanning myself next to the pool.

The shimmering waters of Lake Elsinore half a mile away contributed to the feeling that I was right where I should be at this stage of my life. I had just gone through a painful divorce, I was a successful freelance writer with no obligations or demands, and I had a 24-hour poker room within walking distance. It doesn't get much better than that.

To make things even more intriguing, Palm Springs, home to Hollywood's celebrity crowd, was less than a 30-minute drive away. There you could drive leisurely past mansions where Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Kim Novak, William Holden and Desi Arnaz lived.

Sometimes after a long night of playing poker, I would take an early morning drive to Palm Springs. With the top down on my blue Impala convertible, I would drive past rows of coconut palm trees and pass magnificent homes where some of the world's best known stars of stage, screen and television might be having breakfast or taking a dip in their swimming pool.

Wearing designer sun glasses, I could lose myself and pretend, just for a moment, that I was William Holden starring in the film classic, 'Sunset Boulevard,' and that Gloria Swanson or beautiful Kim Novak or Elizabeth Taylor was my next door neighbor. It was a grand experience and for a little while I felt like I was king of everything around me and the captain of my fate.

That's the way it is with poker players. You think everything you touch will turn to gold.

The Sahara Dunes was a popular card room that attracted people from all stations of life. I was living there under a special arrangement with owner Nick Notos and his sister who provided me with a free room, food and drinks in return for my action in their poker room.

'Just give us six hours of play per day, and the room and other perks are yours,' said Nick. 'You can live here like a king.'

I had left the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner a couple of years earlier. The smog was just too bad to live there and my then wife and I decided to find a healthier climate to raise our family. Then the divorce came, they moved to Springfield, Mo. and I decided to drop out of life for a while and see what it was like to be a gambler on the road.

One night when I was putting in my six ours at a limit Omaha High-Low game at the Sahara Dunes, Nick came by my table. He had a mischievous smile on his face.

Bending over me so nobody else could hear, Nick whispered, 'Take a look at table three and tell me who you see.'

The table was on the other side of the room. I removed my dark glasses and whistled softly.

'It looks like...Desi Arnaz and Steve McQueen?'

Nick smiled. 'They're friends of mine and they come here often. Desi has a home in Palm Springs and McQueen is his best friend. Since you're a writer, I thought you might like to know.' He walked away whistling.

Later that evening I took a break. I left my chips on the table and walked up to the bar. Arnaz, McQueen and Nick were there sharing a drink. To my pleasant surprise, Nick waved me over to join them.

'I told Desi and Steve about you,' he said, signaling for the waitress to bring us another round of drinks. 'I told them you worked as a reporter for the Herald-Examiner and covered the Charles Manson family murders and the trial. They said they'd like to meet you.'

We shook hands and McQueen interjected, 'Did you meet Manson and talk to him?' I told him that, yes, indeed, I had met Charlie in the courtroom and we had chatted briefly. McQueen nodded, never taking his cobalt eyes off my face. They reminded me of blue ice.

'I was supposed to be at the house where they were murdered that night,' McQueen said. 'Jay Sebring invited me. But my girl friend talked me out of it and we spent the evening at her house. If I had gone, I would have been one of the victims.'

There was a stunned silence at the bar. Desi, a happy-go-lucky Cuban, enlightened the moment.

'To life,' he said, lifting his glass. 'And to Lucy. By the way, that wasn't just a title. I love Lucy. We're divorced, but I still love her.'

Over the new few months I met Arnaz and McQueen on a number of occasions. Desi loved to drink and gamble -- he owned and trained thoroughbred race horses at his stables in nearby Corona and Del Mar, CA. He also enjoyed flirting with the cocktail waitresses and the Beverly Hills and Palm Springs women who would drop in for an evening of poker and drinking.

The former star of 'I Love Lucy' was what journalists refer to as a happy drunk. He admitted it was his drinking and womanizing that caused Lucille Ball to divorce him. She even bought out his interest in DesiLu Productions, a television and film-producing studio in Burbank that produced such top TV shows as 'The Untouchables', 'The Andy Griffith Show,' 'The Dick Van Dyke Show,' and 'The Whirlybirds.'

Desi loved to share stories about his family and his experiences in show business. He was born in Santiago, Cuba on March 3, 1917. His father had served as mayor of the city and later served in the Cuban House of Representatives.

'My grandfather on my mother's side was Alberto de Acha, an executive with Bacardi Rum Company,' he said. 'He was very wealty. He owned three ranches and a vacation home on a private island in Santiago Bay.'

Arnaz said his family lost much of their wealth in the 1933 Cuban Revolution led by Fulgencio Batista. The revolution overthrew President Gerardo Marchado and Desi's father was jailed for six months before his brother managed to free him.

'All our property was confiscated by the government,' said Arnaz. 'We left the island and went to Miami.'

He happily admitted that he and McQueen were the original odd couple. While McQueen would sit there in silence nursing his drink, Desi would talk about their friendship.

Desi had homes in Palm Springs and Del Mar and said McQueen would come over on weekends when he wasn't working on a movie or TV show.

'We get together, drink, gamble and chase women,' he said 'What else is there in life.'

That was when McQueen would smile.

'Desi chases women,' he said, 'but he still loves Lucy.'

Author: Geno Lawrenzi Jr.

(Geno Lawrenzi Jr. is an international journalist, magazine author and ghostwriter. If you have a unique gambling story to share with him, you may qualify for a cash award. Send your story with all the details to glawrenzi@gmail.com ).