BY DAVE HOEKSTRA
SPRING TRAINING, 2006
(Archived from the Chicago Sun-Times)
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- In 1956, parents of both teen idol Natalie Wood and actor Robert Wagner stayed at the Hotel Valley Ho in downtown Scottsdale. When Wood and Wagner got hitched on Dec. 28, 1957, the elder Wagners suggested they have their reception at the Arizona hotel to escape Hollywood paparazzi.
"They had a private train car to go to Colorado for their honeymoon," recalled former Hotel Valley Ho general manager Mike Doherty during a recent conversation in the hotel lobby. "They stayed a little long at their reception. Of course, trains don't wait. The train took off -- and Wood and Wagner got in a car and started chasing the train through Phoenix."
The kids were after dreams in the sun.
October 2006 Archives
Continue reading Hotel Valley Ho, Scottsdale, Az..
Updated,
6 p.m. Oct. 17
The soul of America could be heard in the searching tenor of Freddy Fender. The popular country balladeer died Saturday of complications from lung cancer. He was 69.
Continue reading Adios Freddy Fender.
Dave Hoekstra
Dave Hoekstra has been a Chicago Sun-Times staff
writer since 1985. His collection of Sun-Times travel
columns, "Ticket To Everywhere," was published in 2000
by Lake Claremont Press. He was lead writer for "Farm
Aid: Song for America" (Rodale Press, 2005) which
commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Willie Nelson
inspired effort. He won a 1987 Chicago Newspaper Guild Stick O-Type Award for Column Writing. Hoekstra wrote and co-proudced the WTTW-Channel 11 PBS special: "The Staple Singers and the Civil Rights Movement," nominated for a 2001-02 Chicago Emmy for a documentary program/cultural significance.
He lives in Chicago.
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