Groucho Marx and Hollywood’s elite at Tamarisk Ranchos

For someone who famously stated that he didn’t want to be a member of a club that would have him as a member, Groucho Marx belonged to a lot of clubs. While a member of the Hillcrest Club in Los Angeles in 1952, Groucho became a founder of Tamarisk Country Club in Rancho Mirage. With the growth of Tamarisk and brothers Gummo, Zeppo and Harpo all building homes on the course or nearby, Groucho and fellow Tamarisk founder and Hillcrest member Lou Halper chose not to have homes at Tamarisk itself. Instead, in 1958 Halper and his company, Devon Construction, built Tamarisk Ranchos: 16 homes gathered around a pool and gardens, a short golf cart ride from Tamarisk’s club house. Groucho and Lou Halper were the first homeowners.

Halper was a successful developer. In 1954, he purchased more than 2000 acres of land in a Los Angeles subdivision, now La Mirada. In partnership with Mark Taper of Home Savings & Loan, he developed 7,800 homes in two years, several hundred designed by the firm of Palmer & Krisel.

Halper used Krisel for Tamarisk Ranchos designs. Homes were built with redwood post-and-beam, using three different roof styles: butterfly, long gable and flat or horizontal gable. It became the first of several communities to be built near Tamarisk Country Club for people who wanted a home in a managed community with no responsibility for grounds or pool maintenance.

Racquet Club attracted Hollywood to Palm Springs

Tamarisk Country Club was ‘unrestricted’ so Jewish entertainers and other business scions had a place to socialize unlike other Palm Springs clubs. Many founding members of Tamarisk were also members of L.A.’s unrestricted Hillcrest Country Club and they bought homes at Tamarisk Ranchos too, including Al Hart, founder of City National Bank (and Frank Sinatra’s banker), and Harry Tugend, famous screen-writer who founded the Writer’s Guild of America.

At Tamarisk Ranchos, Groucho surrounded himself with family and friends. Gummo’s home (Val Powelson/Robert Marx 1957) was on the golf course just across the road from Tamarisk Ranchos. Zeppo also had a home on the golf course, while Harpo chose Wallace Neff to build him a modernist style home nearby.

Among his neighbors at Tamarisk Ranchos was Groucho’s TV producer, John Guedel, the most successful TV producer of his day, who created shows like “Ozzy and Harriet” and Groucho’s immensely popular radio and TV show, “You Bet Your Life.” The show was at the height of its popularity in 1958 when Guedel bought his first one, and then another house at Tamarisk Ranchos.

Film producer Lawrence Weingarten owned a home at Tamarisk Ranchos too. Weingarten became the producer for the Marx Brothers comedy, “A Day at the Races” (1936), after his brother-in-law Irving Thalberg died during production. He went on to produce classics of the time including many Spencer Tracy – Katherine Hepburn movies. When he bought his home at Tamarisk Ranchos, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” was in release, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman, for which Weingarten received an Oscar nomination.

Early artists inspired by Palm Springs area landscape

At 68 years old, Groucho had been married to his third wife, Eden Hartford, for only four years when he bought his Tamarisk Ranchos home. Eden was an aspiring actress and 40 years his junior. The couple joined in with the Tamarisk Country Club social scene, riding around the club on their golf cart. Groucho wasn’t particularly good at golf, so in the heat of the day he stayed indoors and played cards, punctuated by forays around the neighborhood on his bicycle, visiting friends. Among nearby friends, his doctor, Dr. Jaffe, had William F. Cody design one of his finest homes (1963) on the third fairway at Tamarisk, a few doors down from Gummo.

Besides his investment in Tamarisk Country Club, Groucho had interests in other properties nearby. He was an investor in Da Vall Estates (1961), built by his nephew Bob Marx and designed by Val Powelson, and owned another home on Da Vall, near Frank Sinatra Drive (then Wonder Palms) that he’d purchased in 1953 as Tamarisk Country Club was getting established.

Descendants of original owners at Tamarisk Ranchos recall Groucho by the community pool and remember Groucho resisting the idea of installing a spa, apparently because he didn’t want to see people bobbing about in the bubbles.

By the late 1960s, Groucho’s visits to the desert were infrequent. His older brother Harpo died in 1964 following heart surgery and the loss of his brother – whose life revolved around his desert home – gave Groucho less reason to go to Tamarisk. In 1970 he and Eden divorced. Eden kept the house at Tamarisk Ranchos for a couple more years, eventually selling to Frank Sinatra who bought the house for Barbara Marx.

Southern Pacific Railroad made path through the wild

Barbara was separated from Zeppo and had started dating Sinatra seriously in 1971. Sinatra lived just down the road at Tamarisk Country Club, almost opposite Zeppo’s house. According to Barbara Sinatra’s autobiography, “Lady Blue Eyes,” Sinatra wanted Barbara to have a place nearby – a useful escape if Frank’s mother was in town (Dolly didn’t approve of Barbara) or if the couple argued. In her book, Barbara Sinatra recounts one incident where she ran back to her Tamarisk Ranchos house to collect her things before leaving for L.A. Frank and his friends turned up later and set off cherry bombs in her back yard – not realizing she wasn’t there, waking the neighbors. When Barbara married Frank, her parents moved into the house and she kept it until Sinatra died.

Tamarisk Ranchos looks much the same today as it did when it was built. Homes are around 2,000 square feet, most have three bedrooms and three bathrooms, rock fireplaces, high ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling windows facing patios and the gardens. Facades incorporate medium grade stucco, board & batten siding; many have decorative screen work, rock or brick accent walls.

Built in one of the valley’s oldest date palm groves, thinned out for development, Tamarisk Ranchos still numbers 74 mature date palm trees, nearly 100 years old. The elegant crowns of palm fronds are as notable a skyline feature as Manhattan high-rises. Nearby Da Vall Road is named after Everett DaVall who founded the Wonder Palms Date Ranch in 1912.

Tamarisk Ranchos recently received ‘historic district’ status from the Historic Preservation Commission for the City of Rancho Mirage.

About the author: Melissa Riche

Melissa Riche is a writer, architecture enthusiast, and preservationist, living in Rancho Mirage. She has written historic nominations for the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation, and articles for Atomic Ranch magazine, The Desert Sun, and the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau. She is currently working on a book about the mid-century modern architecture of Rancho Mirage, entitled, "Mid Century Mirage."