Bruce Fessier | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 1971–2024 [1] |
| Spouse | Jane Cannedy Fessier (m. 1984) |
| Children | 2 |
Bruce Fessier is an American arts and entertainment journalist based in Rancho Mirage, California. [1]
Bruce Fessier | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 1971–2024 [1] |
| Spouse | Jane Cannedy Fessier (m. 1984) |
| Children | 2 |
Bruce Fessier is an American arts and entertainment journalist based in Rancho Mirage, California. [1]
Fessier was born in Los Angeles and raised in Whittier, California. He attended Whittier High School, alma mater of the 37th U.S. President, Richard Nixon, and was taught piano by Nixon’s cousin, Margaret Smith. He earned a journalism B.A. from San Francisco State University in 1975, placing second for enterprise reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Western U.S., for a story on Nixon’s “Road to Watergate.” [2]
Fessier covered Southern California entertainment news for 44 years for two separately-owned "Desert" magazines, [3] USA Today , Racquet Club Magazine, The Truth Seeker , Freedonia Gazette and more. He covered the 1978 California Jam II music festival in Ontario, Calif., [4] and U.S. attempts to start a 1981 world expo in Ontario for The Herald-News of Fontana, Calif., 1977-78. He joined a Bloomington, Calif., Crime Prevention Commission after a riot in his neighborhood. His subsequent reporting of state Attorney General Evelle Younger’s pilot crime prevention program in an area identified by author Hunter Thompson as the home of the Hells Angels was called by local police, “an integral part of the successful effort to reduce crime within the greater Fontana area.” The United Way honored him for community service in January 1979.
Fessier wrote a people and entertainment column, plus news and feature stories for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs from 1979- 2019. He left the paper after 40 years to pursue writing and speaking opportunities. [5] His Desert Sun career was celebrated with a State of California Assembly resolution, a CV Music lifetime achievement in journalism award sponsored by the Coachella Valley Weekly newspaper, and an endowment in his name from the College of the Desert Foundation to pay for Desert Sun internships. [6] He continues to raise funds for that cause.
Fessier has covered every Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Stagecoach country music festival and Palm Springs International Film Festival, plus the first US Festival in San Bernardino, Calif. His awards include Best News Reporting, AP, California-Arizona 2005 for his stories on Ronald Reagan’s death; Best Writing, California Newspaper Publisher Association 2018 for his story on the death of Sonny Bono; and Best Video, Gannett 2015 for his history of the Mafia in Palm Springs. He updated that story for a two-part Coachella Valley Weekly series in January 2023 titled “The Flip Side of Utopia,” [7] [8] including new perspectives on the forced removal of minority occupants from Palm Springs’ Section 14 and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians conservatorship program. He also was interviewed by director Tom Donahue that month about Chicago mobsters Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana for a projected Paramount Plus docuseries, “Mafia Spies,” based on the 2019 book by Thomas Maier.
He was roasted by a panel including Bono and jazz artist Georgie Auld in 1987 [9] to raise funds for the Desert Theatre League, which he co-founded with actor Steve Meek. He served on Bono’s founding Palm Springs International Film Festival committee in 1987 and co-founded the Jazz Celebrity Golf & JAMS Session in 1997 with his wife Jane Fessier and singer Frankie Randall. He researched the 2006 touring Global Inheritance exhibition, “Portal Potties,” [10] debuting at the 2006 Coachella, to showcase the pop culture of each decade of the 20th century. He co-wrote the title track to Pat Rizzo's 2011 LP, It’s Not You, It’s We.
Fessier covered Frank Sinatra's home life and the Coachella Valley underground music scene from which Queens of the Stone Age emerged. He appears in Leo Zahn’s 2018 documentary, Sinatra in Palm Springs [11] and Joerg Steineck’s 2015 documentary, Lo Desert Sound. [12] He co-founded a Desert Rock at the IPAC series with Mario Lalli [13] that evolved into Tachevah: A Palm Springs Block Party, produced by The Desert Sun, Goldenvoice, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, P.S. Resorts and Harold Matzner in 2015.
He taught classes on “Elvis Presley in Palm Springs” for UC Riverside Palm Desert in 2007 and “The History & Legends of the Joshua Tree Music Scene” for Desert Institute at Joshua Tree National Park in 2019. He lectured on "Palm Springs: From the Rat Pack to Coachella" for the Palm Springs Historical Society in 2019 and chronicled a longer history of the Palm Springs music scene in a 2022 program for the Oasis Music Festival, published by Palm Springs Life. [14] He reported the 20-year history of Coachella for The Desert Sun [15] and Empire Polo Club magazine. [16]
Fessier hosted and produced the last tribute to Merv Griffin in 2007 [17] to benefit the La Quinta Arts Foundation. In 2022, Fessier produced the benefit “Pet Love and Rock & Roll” September 17 in the Palm Springs Art Museum featuring a concert by former Kyuss lead singer John Garcia and Songwriters Hall of Famer Billy Steinberg to help Amy’s Purpose’s put more veterinary workers in the field in the Coachella Valley. [18] He was honored as an Amy’s Purpose “champion” at a mixer to raise funds for Amy’s Purpose March 1, 2023 at Willie’s Modern Faire Restaurant & Lounge in Rancho Mirage. [19]
He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Coachella Valley Media Hall of Fame by the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation on Feb. 28, 2024 at a luncheon at Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage. [20]
Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second largest population, after Indio, of the nine cities in the Coachella Valley. Its population was 51,493 at the 2020 census, a slight increase from 51,200 at the 2010 census.
Palm Desert is a city in the Coachella Valley region of eastern Riverside County, California. The city is located in the Colorado Desert arm of the Sonoran Desert, about 14 miles (23 km) east of Palm Springs, 121 miles (195 km) northeast of San Diego and 122 miles (196 km) east of Los Angeles. The population was 51,163 at the 2020 census, and the city has been one of the state's fastest-growing since 1980, when its population was 11,801.
Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The city is a low-density desert community with resorts, golf courses, and country clubs within the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert. Nestled along the foothills of the Santa Rosa Mountains in the south, it is located several minutes east of Palm Springs. The city is adjacent to Cathedral City, Palm Desert, and unincorporated Thousand Palms. The population was 16,999 at the 2020 census, down from 17,218 at the 2010 census, though the seasonal population can exceed 20,000. Incorporated in 1973, Rancho Mirage is one of the nine cities of the Coachella Valley.
Coachella is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. It was co-founded by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen in 1999, and is organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents. The event features musical artists from many genres of music, including rock, pop, indie, hip hop and electronic dance music, as well as art installations and sculptures. Across the grounds, several stages continuously host live music.
The Low Desert is a common name for any desert in California that is under 2,000 feet in altitude. These areas include, but are not exclusive to, the Colorado Desert and Yuha Desert branches of the Sonoran Desert, in the far southeasternmost portion of Southern California. The Low Desert is distinguished in biogeography from the adjacent northern High Desert or Mojave Desert by latitude, elevation, animal life, climate, and native plant communities.
The Coachella Valley is an arid rift valley in the Colorado Desert of Southern California in Riverside County. The valley has been referred to as Greater Palm Springs and occasionally the Palm Springs Area due to the historic prominence of the city of Palm Springs. The valley extends approximately 45 mi (72 km) southeast from the San Gorgonio Pass to the northern shore of the Salton Sea and the neighboring Imperial Valley, and is approximately 15 mi (24 km) wide along most of its length. It is bounded on the northeast by the San Bernardino and Little San Bernardino Mountains, and on the southwest by the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains.
Barbara Ann Sinatra was an American model, showgirl, and socialite and the fourth and last wife of Frank Sinatra.
Raul Ruiz is a physician and politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 25th congressional district. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Palm Springs International Film Festival is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. Originally promoted by Mayor Sonny Bono and then sponsored by Nortel, it started in 1989 and is held annually in January. It is run by the Palm Springs International Film Society, which also runs the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films (ShortFest), a festival of short films and film market in June.
KUNA-FM is a commercial regional Mexican music radio station in La Quinta, California, broadcasting to the Palm Springs, California, area on 96.7 FM. It is owned by News-Press & Gazette Company, through its Gulf-California Broadcast Company subsidiary.
Palm Springs is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately 94 square miles (240 km2), making it the largest city in Riverside County by land area. With multiple plots in checkerboard pattern, more than 10% of the city is part of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians reservation land and is the administrative capital of the most populated reservation in California.
The Stagecoach Festival is an annual country music festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. Organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents, it is a sister event to the Coachella festival, and held on the weekend immediately following the conclusion of Coachella.
KPSC is a radio station licensed to serve Palm Springs, California. The station is owned by the University of Southern California, and is a repeater of KUSC and their classical music format.
Desert Memorial Park is a cemetery in Cathedral City, California, United States, near Palm Springs. Opening in 1956 and receiving its first interment in 1957, it is maintained by the Palm Springs Cemetery District. The District also maintains the Welwood Murray Cemetery in Palm Springs.
The Empire Polo Club is a 1000-acre polo club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley of Riverside County, approximately 22 miles southeast of Palm Springs. Founded in 1987, it has hosted international polo tournaments. It leases out its polo grounds for Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Festival annually for the last three weekends in April.
Indio is a former and future train station in Indio, California.
Storyliving by Disney is a business venture and brand of The Walt Disney Company announced on February 16, 2022, to collaboratively develop master-planned communities that utilize Disney Imagineering and are staffed by Disney cast members. It operates under the company's Disney Living Development, Inc. subsidiary. Cotino, in Rancho Mirage, California, was the first Storyliving by Disney community chosen for development, where ground breaking took place in April 2022. In December 2023, plans were announced for a second such community, named Asteria, in Pittsboro, North Carolina.
Rancho Mirage Library and Observatory is a public library and science education complex in Rancho Mirage, California. It has been called a "cultural oasis" in the Coachella Valley.