Also in my garage: mid-century furniture

By Martin Buckley

| 10 Oct 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Also in my garage: mid-century furniture

Courtney Newman, as well as being one of the founder members of the Palm Springs Modern Committee back in 1999, owns a shop selling mid-century furniture and related interior-design objects on the city’s North Palm Canyon Drive.

There are literally dozens of vintage-themed stores in this southern Californian desert conurbation, but Courtney and Joy Newman’s ModernWay is considered to be one of the best.

It has now been running for more than two decades, as an outlet for homeware, appliances and accessories dating from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

Courtney and Joy Newman’s ModernWay sells era-defining design, and the proprietors are classic car enthusiasts

The development of the area is linked to Hollywood’s golden era and the ‘two-hour rule’, which stipulated that actors could not take themselves further than two hours from the studio to which they were contracted in case they were needed back on set for last-minute filming duties.

The dry heat of the Coachella Valley Palm Springs is exactly one hour and 50 minutes east of Los Angeles.

“Most of the glamorous mid-century houses around here have a complementary classic car on the driveway,” says Courtney, “particularly during Modernism Week in February.”

Certainly, 1950s and ’60s cars – from Detroit iron to Euro exotica – are routinely spotted among the city’s modern everyday traffic.

This 1968 Cadillac Eldorado is a – possibly – one-off convertible

Although it is most strongly associated with Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack cohorts, from the 1930s onwards the area became a favoured hideaway for every Hollywood star you could care to name.

Even today it remains a free architectural feast: you can drive down almost any residential street and spot a house where the likes of Elvis Presley or Steve McQueen once lived.

Most are grand ‘Desert Modernism’ style: a large, open-plan footprint, lots of glass (to blur the lines between indoor and outdoor living) and a flat or ‘butterfly’ roof.

The two-door Cadillac has a massive 7.7-litre engine under the bonnet

These stylish buildings demanded the latest in clean-lined interior furnishings, and today that’s where Courtney and Joy can help out, be it with an Eames or Nicoletti lounge chair, some Pierre Paulin Tulip bar stools or perhaps a Raymond Loewy-penned valet set – the French-born industrial designer was one of Palm Springs’ most celebrated inhabitants.

One of the automotive landmarks of the area is Courtney’s 1968 Cadillac Eldorado, which can be found parked outside the couple’s business premises every working day.

This giant, two-door luxury car was the first front-wheel-drive Cadillac and the most exclusive of its day.

Courtney (pictured) and Joy’s shop specialises in mid-century products, from art and lighting to furniture and period hi-fis

Being a ’68, it still has the hidden headlights but also front disc brakes and the bigger, 7.7-litre engine.

Moreover, it is possibly unique in that it is a convertible: there were no official factory Eldorado ragtops until the ’70s.

“I’ve owned it for 23 years,” says Courtney. “We had a shop that did conversions through SEMA do it, but they are gone now.”

The Cadillac Eldorado drop-top’s custom cabin includes a red phone

“It has a reinforced frame, a full electric convertible top – rarely raised in this climate – and a redesigned windshield frame with chrome pillars to match the convertible roof in the correct style,” he adds.

“The interior is also custom, with aluminium inserts on the door panels and dashboard.”

The red phone on the centre console is straight out of a James Bond-spoofing Derek Flint movie.

Courtney and Joy also sell period lighting and vintage hi-fis.

The only thing in this fascinating Modernist emporium they won’t sell you is his ex-Dean Martin ’60s rotary phone. “He’s my hero,” says Courtney. Of course he is.

Images: Pawel Litwinski

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