Vintage Postcard – Ambassador Hotel

640 No. Indian Ave., Palm Springs, Calif.

Phone: 32-5-2285
Luxurious hotel rooms, suites and apartments – all with telephones. Switchboard. Heated Pool. Poolside Coffee Shop. Four blocks to down-town shopping district.
“Your Winter Home in the Sun”

Plastichorome by Colourpicture, Boston 15, Mass.
P18147

This postcard is unmailed, but it does seem to have a list of books and titles handwritten on the back of it. Maybe a winter reading list? Honestly, I’d type it out but the writing hurts my eyes and gives me a headache trying to decipher it. I can see Faulkner and Steinbeck.

This is one of those cards you pick up on ebay that falls short when you get it. I love – LOVE – writing on the back of the cards. But only if it’s helpful to date or is an actual note so someone. A grocery list of books just doesn’t cut it. I’d rather have had it blank.

In this posting, I chatted a bit about why I became a deltiologist. I get most of my postcards on ebay, and I don’t spend a lot of money of them. For one, I like chrome cards, not real photo cards. But as more people get into collecting chrome cards, you really have to watch what you get. There are some nefarious people out there who are hawking what are either photos of postcards (really?) or some reproduction cards that have historic scenes on them but were printed 1990s or later. Also, buying a bulk group of cards is likely to get you a stack with several (many) duplicates – which were strangely not in the photos of the bulk of cards or in the card descriptions. Gone are the days when you could see a card and know exactly what you were getting.

There are some fantastic card sellers out there though, folks I wind up buying from again and again. If you’re interested in postcards, check out these sellers:

Chateaumomme

Gamblerjoyce

Anyhow, back to the Ambassador. It was built in 1939. This article, written in 1987, talks a bit about the history (at that time, the Ambassador was known as Alan Ladd’s Spanish Inn). It was up on the market again around a year ago (check out the details at loopnet). Fantastic news, though. The project is under development by Britanny West. The project consists of the renovation, restoration and addition to the 80 year old Palm Springs Landmark hotel.The project consists of the renovation, restoration and addition to the 80 year old Palm Springs Landmark hotel. Check out the details and images here.