The Racquet Club and the Two-Hour Rule
Near Palm Springs, California
This spot on the north end of town was, for decades, the most glamorous address in the desert. The Racquet Club opened on December fifteenth, nineteen thirty-four, founded by two working actors, Charlie Farrell and Ralph Bellamy. The pair loved to play tennis but found the village's only courts locked away for hotel guests, so they bought raw desert land and built their own courts, a bar called the Bamboo Room, bungalows, and a pool.
To fill the membership they got clever. They mailed invitations to their Hollywood friends offering a spot for a modest fee, and, as the story goes, got almost no replies. So they raised the price every couple of weeks, sending fancier invitations each time, until membership cost far more and there was a waiting list.
Snobbery, it turned out, sold. The club became the private playground of the film colony. Part of what made it all possible was the old studio system.
Stars under contract were commonly said to be expected to stay within about two hours of the studio, close enough to be called back for reshoots. Palm Springs, roughly one hundred miles east of Hollywood, sat right at the edge of that leash. It was the farthest a star could run and still play by the rules, which is exactly why so many of them ran here.
Marilyn Monroe was photographed at the Racquet Club in nineteen forty-seven and met her agent Johnny Hyde at its pool.
