Bruce Fessier is an American arts and entertainment journalist based in
Rancho Mirage
Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The city is a low-density desert community with resorts, golf courses, and country clubs within the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert. Nestled along the foothills ...
, California.
Early life
Fessier was born in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
and raised in
Whittier, California
Whittier () is a city in Los Angeles County, California, and is part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 United States census, 2010 census figure. Whittier ...
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
, and was taught piano by Nixon’s cousin, Margaret Smith. He earned a journalism B.A. from
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...
in 1975, placing second for enterprise reporting from the
Society of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, lette ...
, Western U.S., for a story on Nixon’s “Road to Watergate.”
Career
Fessier covered Southern California entertainment news for 44 years for two separately-owned "Desert" magazines, ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'', ''Racquet Club Magazine'', '' The Truth Seeker'', ''Freedonia Gazette'' and more. He covered the 1978 California Jam II music festival in Ontario, Calif., and U.S. attempts to start a 1981 world expo in Ontario for ''The Herald-News'' of
Fontana
Fontana may refer to:
Places
Italy
*Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone
*Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone
* Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino
*Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi
...
, Calif., 1977-78. He joined a Bloomington, Calif., Crime Prevention Commission after a riot in his neighborhood. His subsequent reporting of state Attorney General Evelle Younger’s pilot crime prevention program in an area identified by author
Hunter Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author, regarded as a pioneer of New Journalism along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He rose to prom ...
as the home of the
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in California whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells ...
was called by local police, “an integral part of the successful effort to reduce crime within the greater
Fontana
Fontana may refer to:
Places
Italy
*Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone
*Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone
* Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino
*Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi
...
area.” The United Way honored him for community service in January 1979.
Fessier wrote a people and entertainment column, plus news and feature stories for ''
The Desert Sun
''The Desert Sun'' is a local daily newspaper serving Palm Springs and the surrounding Coachella Valley in Southern California.
History
First issued on August 5, 1927, as a weekly six-page newspaper, ''The Desert Sun'' grew with the desert co ...
'' in Palm Springs from 1979- 2019. He left the paper after 40 years to pursue writing and speaking opportunities. His Desert Sun career was celebrated with a State of California Assembly resolution, a CV Music lifetime achievement in journalism award sponsored by the ''Coachella Valley Weekly'' newspaper, and an endowment in his name from the
College of the Desert
College of the Desert (COD) is a public community college in Palm Desert, California. COD enrolls about 12,500 students, of which around one third attend college full-time. It serves the Coachella Valley of Riverside County. The college is feder ...
Foundation to pay for Desert Sun internships. He continues to raise funds for that cause.
Fessier has covered every
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colora ...
Palm Springs International Film Festival
Palm Springs International Film Festival (sometimes stylized shortly as PSIFF) is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. Originally promoted by Mayor Sonny Bono and then sponsored by Nortel,here for Table of Contents it started in 19 ...
, plus the first
US Festival
The US Festival is the name of two early 1980s music and culture festivals held near San Bernardino, California.
Background
Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple and creator of the Apple I and Apple II personal computers, believed that the 197 ...
in
San Bernardino
San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...
, Calif. His awards include Best News Reporting, AP, California-Arizona 2005 for his stories on
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
Sonny Bono
Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono ( ; February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, and politician. In partnership with his second wife, Cher, he formed the singing duo Sonny & Cher. A member of the Republican Pa ...
; and Best Video,
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation.
It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as several ...
2015 for his history of the Mafia in
Palm Springs
Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...
. He updated that story for a two-part ''Coachella Valley Weekly'' series in January 2023 titled “The Flip Side of Utopia,” including new perspectives on the forced removal of minority occupants from Palm Springs’ Section 14 and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians conservatorship program. He also was interviewed by director Tom Donahue that month about Chicago mobsters Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana for a projected Paramount Plus docuseries, “Mafia Spies,” based on the 2019 book by Thomas Maier.
He was roasted by a panel including Bono and jazz artist
Georgie Auld
Georgie Auld (May 19, 1919 – January 8, 1990) was a jazz tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader.
Early years
Auld was born John Altwerger in Toronto, Canada, and moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1929. Before the family left Canada, Auld ...
in 1987 to raise funds for the Desert Theatre League, which he co-founded with actor Steve Meek. He served on Bono’s founding
Palm Springs International Film Festival
Palm Springs International Film Festival (sometimes stylized shortly as PSIFF) is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. Originally promoted by Mayor Sonny Bono and then sponsored by Nortel,here for Table of Contents it started in 19 ...
committee in 1987 and co-founded the Jazz Celebrity Golf & JAMS Session in 1997 with his wife Jane Fessier and singer
Frankie Randall
Frankie Billy Randall (September 25, 1961 – December 23, 2020) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1983 to 2005. He was a three-time light welterweight world champion, having held the WBA and WBC titles between 1994 and 199 ...
. He researched the 2006 touring Global Inheritance exhibition, “Portal Potties,” debuting at the 2006 Coachella, to showcase the pop culture of each decade of the 20th century. He co-wrote the title track to
Pat Rizzo
Pat Rizzo (November 30, 1941 – April 15, 2021) was an American saxophonist and flautist, best known for his work with funk band Sly and the Family Stone.
Career
Rizzo started performing in the sixties with The Cuff Links. He is best known f ...
's 2011 LP, ''It’s Not You, It’s We''.
Fessier covered
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
's home life and the
Coachella Valley
The Coachella Valley ( ) is an arid rift valley in the Colorado Desert of Southern California in Riverside County. The valley has been referred to as Greater Palm Springs and occasionally the Palm Springs Area due to the historic promine ...
underground music scene from which
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated as QOTSA or QotSA) is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1996. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme shortly before he returned to his native Palm Desert, California. ...
emerged. He appears in Leo Zahn’s 2018 documentary, ''Sinatra in Palm Springs'' and Joerg Steineck’s 2015 documentary, ''Lo Desert Sound''. He co-founded a Desert Rock at the IPAC series with
Mario Lalli
Yawning Man is an American experimental rock band from La Quinta, California. The band originally formed in 1986, although they released no studio recordings until 2005. They have been noted to be one of the first influential bands in the deser ...
that evolved into Tachevah: A Palm Springs Block Party, produced by ''The Desert Sun'', Goldenvoice, the
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation is a federally recognized tribe of the Cahuilla, located in Riverside County, California, United States.UC Riverside Palm Desert in 2007 and “The History & Legends of the Joshua Tree Music Scene” for Desert Institute at
Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, US National Park located in southeastern California, straddling north-central Riverside County, California, Riverside County and part of southern San Bernardino County, ...
in 2019. He lectured on "Palm Springs: From the Rat Pack to Coachella" for the Palm Springs Historical Society in 2019 and chronicled a longer history of the Palm Springs music scene in a 2022 program for the Oasis Music Festival, published by ''Palm Springs Life''. He reported the 20-year history of Coachella for ''The Desert Sun'' and ''Empire Polo Club magazine''.
Fessier hosted and produced the last tribute to
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. From 1962 to 1986, G ...
in 2007 to benefit the La Quinta Arts Foundation. In 2022, Fessier produced the benefit “Pet Love and Rock & Roll” September 17 in the
Palm Springs Art Museum
The Palm Springs Art Museum (formerly the Palm Springs Desert Museum) is a visual and performing arts institution with several locations in the Coachella Valley, in Riverside County, California, United States, founded in 1938. PSAM has been focu ...
featuring a concert by former
Kyuss
Kyuss ( ) was an American stoner rock band formed in Palm Desert, California, in 1987, and considered one of the pioneers of the genre. After disbanding in 1995, a number of band members have gone on to form or play in several notable bands in ...
lead singer John Garcia and Songwriters Hall of Famer
Billy Steinberg
William Endfield Steinberg (born February 26, 1950) is an American songwriter. He achieved his greatest success in the 1980s with songwriting partner Tom Kelly (musician), Tom Kelly; together they wrote or co-wrote the No. 1 hits "Like a Virgin ...
to help Amy’s Purpose’s put more veterinary workers in the field in the Coachella Valley. He was honored as an Amy’s Purpose “champion” at a mixer to raise funds for Amy’s Purpose March 1, 2023 at Willie’s Modern Faire Restaurant & Lounge in Rancho Mirage.
He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Coachella Valley Media Hall of Fame by the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation on Feb. 28, 2024 at a luncheon at
Thunderbird Country Club
The Thunderbird Country Club is a country club in Rancho Mirage in California's Coachella Valley. Its signature 18-hole golf course has hosted the Ryder Cup and the Palm Springs Golf Classic (now known as the American Express). Opened in 1951, th ...