Palm Springs Life - March 22 1961 - Cover Poster

Palm Springs Life cover Illustration by Earl Cordrey.

It's our anniversary issue cover, and things haven't changed much in that familiar scene in downtown Palm Springs at The Plaza since art director Cordrey first painted it in 1959. We have continued running it annually, a certain essence that appeals to both established Villagers and visitors alike.

Earl Cordrey (1902-1977) was a founder of Palm Springs Life who designed the original logo and illustrated covers for the magazine until the mid-1960s.

A Southern California native, he trained at the prestigious Chouinard School of Art (which was since absorbed by CalArts) and worked in the studio of the revered early desert landscape painter Sam Hyde Harris before marrying his wife, Catherine, moving to New York, and devoting himself to magazine illustration.

The couple moved to the desert in the early 1940s, and Cordrey quickly became a fixture of the local art scene.