When An Actual “Ghost Writer” Takes You Out for A Mock-tail at The Del Rey in Palm Springs #ElevenDaysofSpookySeason

By notoriouslysinglegirl, October 20, 2024

Don’t call me chicken

-Movie Quote

James Dean, Rebel Without A Cause

Michael J. Fox, Back To The Future

It’s not everyday that a “ghost” actually takes me out for a cocktail and pays for it. However, in my world, it’s not a surprising phenomenon. Especially during “spooky season” ie Halloween.

It All Started With Lana & The Alligator Hunter

Perhaps it all started when I was doing research for an article I was writing on the recent nuptials of Lana Del Rey to Alligator Hunter Jeremy Dufrene. That’s when I ended up being thrown into a cosmic rabbit hole, or perhaps it was a “worm hole,” because high strange happenings started to converge with my current reality.

I started to write about how Lana created her destiny in the future and ended up marrying an alligator hunter. And it all really commenced when she based her stage persona on Americana and James Dean, The Rebel Without A Cause. That’s when the rabbit whole started to unravel.

I’m A Visual Writer

When I write, I can see things. Sometimes, I go into a trance like state. A stream of consciousness made famous by writers like Virginia Wolf.

Once I start to follow the stream of consciousness, much like Alice followed the white rabbit down the rabbit hole, I start to see pretty fascinating stuff.

When I was writing Lana Del Rey’s article, I started to research the movie “Rebel Without A Cause,” starring actor James Dean.

Who Was Nicholas Ray

That’s when I found out that Nicholas Ray originally wrote Rebel Without A Cause.

The story and title was adapted from psychologists Robert Lindner’s book from 1944 called “Rebel Without A Cause: The Hypnoanlysis of A Criminal Psychopath. The original book was based on Lindners research from working as head of psychiatry and psychology in a penitentiary. Basically, Linder stated that “a psychopath is someone who is incapable of exertions for the sake of others.”

Nicholas Ray took a book based on the psychopathy of incarcerated youth and created an iconic film, a type of egregoire, where people have created alter personas, fashion statements, and a lifestyle. It was the film that made actor James Dean known as the proverbial “bad boy,” and quite possibly created many psychopaths through hypnotic trance launching the “bad boy” archetype in the minds of so many young men.

Ray was also known as “Hollywood’s last romantic.” He was also considered an “iconoclastic auteur,” who often clashed with Hollywood studio systems. The term auetere is defined as one who has total control of the film. Auterisim is also known as the director of the film infusing one’s true persona into the film narrating the story along the way is what Ray was best known for.

Nicholas Ray, much like James Dean’s character in Rebel Without A Cause, was truly a delinquent, and quite possibly a psychopath for most of his life.

Enter Stage Left Irv Schulman

Irving Schulman is a novelist and screenwriter who wrote the first treatment to Rebel Without A Cause that was later adopted by Nicholas Ray.

One of the fascinating things about Irv is that he served in the army where he also spent time in Washington DC working in the War Department troop education program. Irv also wrote a book called Amboy Dukes published in 1947 that chronicled the grim and sometimes short lived life of teenage street criminals in Brooklyn after World War 2, which sold 5 million copies and led him to being hired by Warner Brothers.

The Del Rey

On the website of the Villa Royal hotel, you’ll see that it was once the place where many Hollywood legends and great writers like Irv Schulman and Nicholas Ray stayed. Technically it was their writers retreat since, in those times, if you were under a Hollywood studio contract, you could only be 2 hours away from Hollywood. So, Palm Springs, California became a mini Hollywood where celebrities could relax and play.

The last time I was at the Del Rey bar was probably before the new renovations which happened in late 2023. And of course I felt the urge to visit the Del Rey as I finished my Lana Del Rey article.

The Villa Royal is super haunted. I could feel the energy of the place as soon as I walked in the main entry. There’s a sort of thickness to the energy. To me it feels as though I’m walking through syrup. Thick and sticky. That’s how you know there’s people from the other side lurking around.

As I walked into the Villa Royal at the other side of the hotel, I entered through an eerie dark curtain that was reminiscent of entering a portal to another realm slatted with ostentatious Gucci wallpaper and a lions head over the main fireplace. The place didn’t look too much different than it did a few years ago before the new remodel except now there were paintings of Andy Warhol on the wall, replacing paintings of Irv and Ray.

Right then and there, I knew Irv and Ray were sitting right beside me at the bar. Both very pissed off as if to say “will you look at this place. It’s a joke! He destroyed it!”

I guess you can say the boys did not approve of the Del Rey’s new remodel. Who can blame them, their pictures got replaced by Warhol.

At the bar, I started chatting up the bartender asking him if he knew why the bar was called “The Del Rey?” He told me it meant “king” in Spanish, but didn’t know why the bar was called that. He also didn’t know the story of Irv and Ray.

The menu had also changed. It’s a Spanish tapas place, but the drinks before were named after the Rebel Without A Cause movie. And if I remember correctly some drinks were actually named after Irv and Ray.

I went ahead and ordered a mock tail the “fools gold” made with mock tequila, and some fried Spanish potatoes. I was having a great time until some rambunctious dude came up to my face and anxiously was repeating “if I pay for your drink will you move?”

I obliged and moved down the bar. “No you need to move to that table.” The rambunctious dude pointed to a little table off to the corner. I moved. And then went back to ask the guy who he was? He said he was the GM.

Perhaps, his name should be “Am I The Asshole.” He made me move to make room for a party of 4 Gen Zers who can’t entertain themselves sitting at a table all by themselves. I guess sitting at a bar is no longer a place for single people. It’s now a place for awkward groups of people who don’t know how to communicate in their group so they need stimulation from the bartender.

To say the least, I didn’t feel comfortable after sipping my “fools gold,” since my whole experience was destroyed by an anxious fool who probably has a bit of a bad habit of putting stuff up his nose.

I paid for my Spanish potatoes, which technically should have been free. As I left the Del Rey I heard in my head “at least we bought you a drink!” And then I knew that Irv and Ray created all that drama at the bar causing the GM rebel to relocate me and buy me a drink. Irv and Ray were using the GM like a puppet entering his body. They guy is so high and clueless that he didn’t even know what was happening.

I thanked Irv and Ray for my “fools gold” mock tail and of course I loved their crazy sense of humor. And now I can honestly say that 2 ghosts from the other side, who are also writers, bought me a mock tail.