Palm Springs resident Barry Manilow was named favorite valley celebrity in the 2009 Desert Magazine Best of the Valley voting. / Michael Snyder, The Desert Sun
Barry Manilow: A Desert Icon
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Palm Springs resident Barry Manilow was named favorite valley celebrity in the 2009 Desert Magazine Best of the Valley voting.
This Grammy and Emmy Award-winning member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame has been a desert favorite since the mid-1990s. He was a part-time resident long before that, but, in the mid-1990s he stepped up his philanthropic activities to support College of the Desert's music program. Then he supported the McCallum Theatre, the Palm Springs Art Museum, Desert Regional Medical Center, the AIDS Assistance Program and the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center at Eisenhower Medical Center.
But this year, he really stepped up his philanthropy. This year, he elevated to Frank-Sinatra-heir-apparent status among performers using their celebrity for the philanthropic good of the valley. Manilow became the first celebrity to be honored with a Steve Chase Humanitarian Award for Community Service at the Desert AIDS Project's 25th anniversary gala in February. Before that, he started this help-out trend by distributing $500,000 worth of musical instruments for valley schools.
Manilow's real message was that anybody could help their local school by donating a musical instrument or some sheet music they weren't using. That message was disseminated internationally by his devoted fans; a woman from a theater in Reading, Penn., picked up the baton, so to speak, and helped a music teacher in her neighborhood.
Manilow is sending an international message that he's from Palm Springs, and Palm Springs is a place where famous people help their neighbors. We are honored that by selecting him as your favorite Valley Celebrity, we can all join in saluting Barry Manilow as the personification of The Best of the Valley.
2. Goldie Hawn, Palm Desert
3. Betty Ford, Rancho Mirage
Best of the Rest: William Devane, Thermal; Suzanne Somers, Palm Springs; Aubrey O'Day, Indio; Bella da Ball, Palm Springs; Keely Smith, Palm Springs; Gordon Howie, Palm Springs; Jesse Hughes, Palm Desert
