Hitting the Road to Resort-O-Rama

Around this time in 2023, I caught wind of a brand-new conference event in Northern California, called Resort-O-Rama. 

It was from the organizers of Tiki Oasis—a huge and long-running tiki festival that takes place every year in San Diego, and that I'd been too intimidated to ever attend (maybe because I wouldn't be "tiki" enough!).

But Resort-O-Rama somehow seemed more approachable to me—maybe because it was new, or maybe because it was more generally centered on Mid-Century aesthetics, which I'd earned my place among as a documentarian of many Mid-Century buildings and as a regular attendee of Modernism Week in Palm Springs. 

But three years ago, I was working harder than I'd worked in over 10 years, with no paid time off—and making less money than I'd made in almost 20 years. I had neither the time nor the money to get myself up to Northern California for a long weekend. 

Fast-forward to 2026, and I hear that Resort-O-Rama is happening again. I'm working a little less hard—still with no PTO—and making a little more money. But, I thought, there's still no way I can get myself there on my own. At least, not just for fun. 

Besides, I've still been working on The Los Angeles Breakfast Club history book—and, although a year later than we initially expected, we're in the final stretch. 

  Courtesy Resort-O-Rama

But then the invite came: Would I and my co-author (our Club Historian, Rachel Skytt) be interested in giving a talk about the club at Resort-O-Rama? After all, we'd fit right in alongside other presenters and fellow Breakfast Clubbers, like Chris Nichols (of Los Angeles magazine), Rusty Blazenhoff (of the Willis Wonderland Foundation, who generously recommended us to the conference organizers), and Charles Phoenix.

Courtesy The Los Angeles Breakfast Club

Now, The Los Angeles Breakfast Club isn't really known for its Mid-Century era. Founded just over a 100 years ago, the club has gotten a lot of coverage of its celebrity attendees, members, and past presidents from the 1920s and 1930s—the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Amelia Earhart, Rudolph Valentino, and Carl Laemmle. By the mid-20th century, the focus of the club had shifted somewhat away from the silver screen—but its not-so-famous members lived a pretty fabulous life, including traveling together on amazing trips. 

Courtesy The Los Angeles Breakfast Club

So the weekend after next, Rachel and I are going to introduce some new folks to The Los Angeles Breakfast Club—and share some tales of voyages across the sea to Hawaii and south of the border down Mexico way. And hopefully pique some interest in our forthcoming book (which will be here before the end of the year).

Courtesy The Los Angeles Breakfast Club

And it'll all be held at the iconic and lovingly restored Flamingo Resort and Spa, which originally opened in Santa Rosa, California in 1957 and was designated a national landmark in 2021. (I'll probably write a blog post to explore the Flamingo in more depth, so stay tuned!)

If you're in the North Bay region—or you're up for traveling to Sonoma Wine Country from SoCal—you can catch our seminar on Saturday, October 11 at 1:30 p.m. Single seminar tickets are available, but a conference pass will get you into everything (and the whole thing seems really fun and maybe not terribly overwhelming).

See you there? (If you do come, please say hi. I'll give you a cute sticker.)

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