The Apple Valley Inn opened on Thanksgiving Day 1948. This establishment was a hotel and restaurant built to attract wealthy land buyers to the southern California desert town of Apple Valley CA. The Inn, located on US Highway 18, originally allowed only white Christians as patrons, prompting legendary singer Pearl Bailey to purchase a ranch property a few miles north near Bell Mountain, establishing a small colony of black artists.
In 1965, white Christian movie star Roy Rogers and his white Christian wife Dale Evans leased the Inn and restaurant, which was then renamed Roy Rogers' Apple Valley Inn.
Bob Hope visited frequently, in fact Cabin #153 is dubbed "The Bob Hope Cabin". Other famous visitors (mostly white and Christian) included June Allison, James Arness, Gene Autry, MacDonald Carey, Bob Cummings, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Phyllis Diller, Errol Flynn, Joan Fontaine, Billy Graham, Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons, Jerry Lewis, Fred MacMurry, Dean Martin, Donald O'Connor, Gregory Peck, George Reeves, Dale Roberson, Caesar Romero, Jane Russell, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood, John Wayne, Johnny Weissmuller, Lawrence Welk and Jonathan Winters. Wonder how Atheist Diller and gay Latino Romero somehow snuck in.
The Inn closed in 1987, reopening in November 2003 as a business center, with the main building converted into a brain injury rehabilition center.
1 comment:
In 1964 -1965, I worked as a janitor and bus boy at "the Inn". What a wonderful place it was during those times. I remember it fondly. Thanks for the memories.
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