Sponsored message
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Photos: Elvis Presley's Futuristic Honeymoon Pad In Palm Springs Up For Sale

With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today.

The late Elvis Presley's Palm Springs estate—the "Burning Love" cave where he stayed during his honeymoon with Priscilla Presley—is on the market for $9.5 million.

Hilton & Hyland, the real estate company selling the groovy, Jetsons-esque midcentury home, claims that Mrs. Presley gave birth to their baby girl, Lisa Marie nine months later after their honeymoon.

The 4-bedroom, 5-bath home is on 1.25 acres out in the San Jacinto Mountains was featured in Look Magazine featured in 1962 and called the "The House of Tomorrow." It was leased to the Presleys in 1966. It even had a tennis court and fruit orchard, according to Hilton & Hyland. The Desert Sun reported that the 5,000-square-foot house had three different levels. (It looks like a spaceship even.)

The pair got married in May 1967 in Las Vegas and celebrated at the home, even having their wedding dinner there, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Sponsored message

The Independent spoke to Anthony Alvarez, who is the morning anchor at NBC's Palm Springs station, about the Presleys' honeymoon home:

The love-struck couple—who met in Germany when Priscilla was 14—pulled a scam on the assembled paparazzi when it came to the wedding day on 1 May 1967. Mainly, they got one over on gossip columnist Rona Barrett, who lived further down Ladera Circle and alerted the rest of the press pack to Elvis's presence in Palm Springs. They left all the lights on, explains Alvarez, and escaped over the back lawn, past Marilyn Monroe's gaff, took a jet, and got married in Vegas. If it wasn't for Barrett's curtain-twitching, says Alvarez, Presley would have seen out his years at this house.

The newlyweds rented the home for a year and paid $21,000 (that would be $152,173 by today's standards).

M.L. Lewis bought the home in 1989 and has since kept the home like an Elvis museum; it's full of art deco furnishings, the lease the couple signed is on the wall, photos of the wedding dinner adorn the walls, and there's just your all-around Elvis memorabilia. Lewis even offered guided tours in the hotspot tourist attraction. Every year, fans gather for a weekend at the home in May in celebrate the couple's anniversary with a full event—Elvis impersonators and concerts galore. We're not sure if the future owners will keep the tradition alive, but we can only imagine the droves of people still stopping by regardless to celebrate.

"It's literally a time capsule of Elvis," Josh Altman of Hilton & Hyland told the Wall Street Journal. "When I walked into the house, I was all shook up."

At LAist, we focus on what matters to our community: clear, fair, and transparent reporting that helps you make decisions with confidence and keeps powerful institutions accountable.

Your support for independent local news is critical. With federal funding for public media gone, LAist faces a $1.7 million yearly shortfall. Speaking frankly, how much reader support we receive now will determine the strength of this reliable source of local information now and for years to come.

This work is only possible with community support. Every investigation, service guide, and story is made possible by people like you who believe that local news is a public good and that everyone deserves access to trustworthy local information.

That’s why we’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.

Thank you for understanding how essential it is to have an informed community and standing up for free press.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Chip in now to fund your local journalism

A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right