French Lick Wall of Fame: Some Stories Behind Their Visits

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Dozens upon dozens of celebrities line our Wall of Fame at French Lick Springs Hotel — 202 (and counting), to be exact.

Ever wonder when and why some of them were here? We have a few answers….along with a couple theories for those celebs who stayed on the down low during their excursions to French Lick Springs Hotel. Special thanks to John Eckberg at the resort’s parent company, Cook Group, for researching these celebrity visits, and we’ll share more in the future. Here’s 6 to start:


Louis Armstrong (1900-1971) was accustomed to playing in front of New York or Paris jazz-loving crowds that could top 20,000, and while his performance at the 1959 French Lick Jazz Festival was large, it was not quite that large. One reviewer did inflate the size of the audience in French Lick at 30,000. He was only off by about 10,000 to 15,000 people.

Newspaper accounts by critics after the event do not have Armstrong on the bill, but he usually performed with his band, the Dukes of Dixieland, and on the Saturday night of the event, the Dukes were playing on a bill with Andre Previn, Chico Hamilton, Roy Eldridge and Coleman Hawkins. 

 

John Barrymore (1882-1942) was nicknamed “The Great Profile” for his dramatic good looks and came from a family of Hollywood stars. Others who followed him with the Barrymore name would become stars, such as his granddaughter Drew Barrymore.

When John visited the resort is something of a mystery. It may have been with Lana Turner, whom he dated, briefly, or Greta Garbo, his co-star in the 1932 movie “The Grand Hotel,” one of the first blockbusters featuring an all-star cast. That was a May-December relationship: she was bright and young and on her way up the Hollywood ladder, while he was an aging star trying to reclaim former glory.

Or perhaps the visit came when Barrymore was cast alongside Carol Lombard in the comedy “Twentieth Century” in 1934, as Lombard was known to have visited French Lick, too. Another possibility is Barrymore came with one of his carousing buddies who also visited the resort in this era. Before Frank Sinatra and his brat pack pals, Barrymore, Errol Flynn and hard-drinking comic W.C. Fields were a goodtime crew of stars called the Bundy Drive Gang, known for their boozing, carousing and epic Beverly Hills and Hollywood Hills parties. Maybe a huge French Lick party happened went down at some point, too.



Speaking of Greta Garbo (1905-1990), little is known about her visit to French Lick — other than that she was here, she most likely visited in the late 1920s or early 1930s at the peak of her fame, and she probably did not come solo because she rarely traveled alone.

One of the greatest female movie stars in the history of the silver screen and silent cinema, Garbo was always shrouded in secrecy, so it makes sense that small-town French Lick was a place she escaped to be let alone.

“The only record I can find of Garbo in Indiana puts her there in October of 1938,” said Hollywood historian Shannon, an expert on 1920s-1950s movie stars. “On her return home from an almost year-long visit to Europe, she stopped in Gary, Indiana to switch trains, her goal being to evade the press. Evading the press was a lifelong hassle for Garbo, and she made a bit of a game out of it. She may have switched trains immediately, but if she didn't, maybe she spent some time at French Lick before catching her next train west.” The Monon Railroad sent five trains a day to French Lick from Chicago. Perhaps Garbo was on one of them.

Greta Garbo (upper left) and John Barrymore (lower right)
are near each other on the wall — and maybe they actually
visited the hotel together back in the day? 

Garbo also had ties to mogul Howard Hughes and co-star John Gilbert, who are known French Lick guests. Another possibility: Garbo was a health nut long before it was cool, and became good friends with nutritionist Gayelord Hauser, the first celebrity dietitian. They traveled a lot together from 1936 to about the mid-1960s, and Garbo would do just about anything if it was good for her health. Maybe getting away from her career at a beautiful resort like French Lick would have been very appealing to her.


Peyton Manning hardly needs an introduction here in the Hoosier State. In case you need a refresher on his 18-year career that included 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts: the five-time NFL MVP holds 20 NFL records, including most touchdown passes in a season (55), most seasons with at least 4,000 passing yards (14) and he’s the only QB with at least 6 touchdown passes in three games. He won two Super Bowls, including in 2006-07 with the Colts.

When Manning came to French Lick Resort, it was usually because he was treating his entire offensive unit to a weekend of golf and fine dining. Manning knew how his bread got buttered on that football field: happy linemen and loyal running backs, who could pick up a blitz. They always played a round of golf or two at the Pete Dye Course. Manning is also a pretty solid golfer with a handicap of 6.4 according to Golf Digest.


Phyllis Diller (1917-2012) was a well-known comic who came to French Lick in June 1987 to inaugurate the resort’s cabaret showroom with a four-night show. 

Diller’s zany schtick included jabs at her husband, as well as her own appearance. She acted like a typical American housewife in her skits, complete with bathrobe and curlers, and joked about suburbia, children and topics common to American suburbia — even her mother-in-law. She joked about face-lifts, and after some jokes cackled loudly or waved her cigarette around. She also appeared on Broadway, published five best-selling comedy books and unbeknownst to most fans, she was an acclaimed concert pianist who performed with more than 100 symphony orchestras.

 

George Ade (1866-1944) was a Hoosier journalist, author and playwright who French Lick in 1926. This we know, as it’s authenticated by an autograph he signed on French Lick Springs Hotel stationery — a rare signature that was worth $90 on an online site in 2020.

Ade found fame with his column "Stories of the Streets and of the Town” in the Chicago Morning News, becoming one of the founders of modern journalism and humor writing. Dubbed the “Aesop of Indiana,” he was also a successful career playwright with 21 of his plays produced on Broadway from 1901 to 1936. Later in life he endowed his alma mater, Purdue University, with some hefty gifts, and today Purdue football’s Ross-Ade Stadium has his name on it.

It all made him fantastically wealthy, and James Vaughn’s book “Dome in the Valley” points out he visited here at least three times. Ade must have loved the casinos, card tables and roulette wheels of French Lick and West Baden that made this a preferred party spot for the rich and famous during the Roaring Twenties.