Can Monty Hall Put Cathedral City on the Map?

Here in the desert’s resort towns, people name-drop even when giving directions:

Take Bob Hope to Frank Sinatra. Cross Dinah Shore. No, Gene Autry won’t take you to the airport. Yes, Gerald Ford will drop you off at the golf course.

But Cathedral City’s plan to allow motorists to say “let’s make a left” on Monty Hall Drive has created a flap over just who should be honored with a thoroughfare.

The street pegged to bear the moniker of the game show host is now named Van Fleet Drive after one of Cathedral City’s four founders.

Van who?

Mayor Gary Amy is anxious for his city to have a road sign more likely to inspire tourists--including the influx of snowbirds from Canada each year--to whip out their cameras.

“Monty Hall is of the stature of Bob Hope or Frank Sinatra in terms of name recognition,” the mayor said of the man who once bid contestants to choose between doors No. 1, 2 or 3.

The mayor cited the “Let’s Make a Deal” star’s local charity work and longtime civic involvement as a part-time resident as reasons for the honor. Plus, he said, “We’re a tourist-based economy, and tourists are fascinated by celebrity, especially Canadians.” Hall is a native of Winnipeg, Canada, which already has a Monty Hall Street.

Bob Hillery, Cathedral City’s first mayor and the town’s unofficial historian, and his supporters have packed city meetings to demand that founder M.V. Van Fleet keep his street.

“They’re trying to erase our heritage,” Hillery said. “I really get upset when City Council members say things like ‘Oh, this was a dirt street town back then and no one even remembers who Van Fleet was. We’re thinking about the future.’

“Well, Shakespeare said ‘History is a prologue to the future,’ and I don’t think we ought to trade a city pioneer for a game show host.”

Cathedral City (population 35,000) is sandwiched between affluent Rancho Mirage--where the streets have known names such as Sinatra, Hope and Ginger Rogers--and Palm Springs, whose movie star heritage is evident in streets named for actors William Powell and Ralph Bellamy.

A working-class town by desert resort standards, Cathedral City is trying to get in on the name game as part of an effort to add glitz to an entertainment-themed downtown redevelopment.

In 1998, the city changed 2nd Street to Buddy Rogers Drive, for the actor who appeared in the Academy Award-winning film “Wings” and was active in local charities.

Cathedral City also named a street after actor George Montgomery--the one-block entrance to City Hall. “I would have given George a longer street,” said Hillery, who is not against celebrity street-naming, just against changing historic names.

Lawrence Kestenbaum, a social researcher in Ann Arbor, Mich., with a specialty in street names, said street names can make a difference in a city’s future.

“Street names and addresses create an image. It becomes part of people’s and businesses’ identities,” he said. “It’s what’s across from your name in the phone book. It’s what’s on top of every check you write.”

“Whenever anyone proposes mucking with a street name, it creates controversy. People will raise issues about changing their stationery or deeds, but it goes deeper than that.”

In nearby Rancho Mirage, the intersection of Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra drives is touted by city leaders as one of the most photographed corners in the world. Even with Walter Annenberg’s flamingo pink wall on this corner, such attention may have been lacking had the streets retained their original names of Rio Del Sol and Wonder Palms.

Elizabeth Kieley, president of the Palm Springs Historical Society, prefers the original names, which reflected one of the original ranches and a geographical feature.

“People in this country have gone celebrity crazy, with everyone clamoring for more about movie stars and sports stars while forgetting the people who founded towns and schools,” she said. “People are forgetting how places developed and what they were when they started. We’re losing our tradition of names having historical value.”

But others would like to give even more streets star turns.

“Right now it’s just one name at a time, now and again. I wish we could do more,” said Marilyn Brockman, Rancho’s Mirage’s public information officer for 20 years. “I wish we could name a Rancho Mirage street George Montgomery. He came to me several times and said, ‘I wish I could have a street that intersects with Dinah Shore.’ He was married to her, you know.”

To broker the Monty Hall dispute, Cathedral City’s Planning Commission has come up with a compromise: Rename Van Fleet’s northern half Monty Hall Drive and leave the southern part unchanged. The City Council is expected to vote on the issue later this month.

The city’s police and fire departments oppose splitting the street into different names, saying it could cause confusion for dispatchers and require costly computer programming.

But Mayor Amy said the public safety departments may “have to get over it and modify their systems.”

“This is what created this valley: celebrity status,” he said. “Monty Hall has brought nothing but good to his name, and it can only enhance our city’s image.”

As for Hall, 78, who splits his time between Beverly Hills and the desert, he’s delighted to lend his name to a street.

“It immortalizes you, and I like that,” Hall said.