In My Room

In My Room

My mother was afraid to let me have freedom and sheltered me in place.  I yearned to be free and be with my friends.  I remember singing to a Beach Boys song . . .”There’s a place where I can go and tell my troubles to . . . in my room, in my room.”  I related to that song.  It’s so hard to be a teenager really, lots of hormones and all.

I finally moved away from home and got an apartment with a friend I made at the telephone company.  Another friend of mine invited some guys over that she met at her high school prom.  They were in the band that played for it.  We partied and had fun.  The guys set me up with a blind date.  It was with their music producer named Gary.

Gary took me to Tower Records where he was producing Paul Revere and the Raiders.  He was working on re-mixing previously recorded material.  A band called “The Monkeys” was in the next door studio.  We were invited over to one of their houses in the Hollywood Hills afterwards.  When we were in the underground garage I watched as a couple of the guys from the Monkeys sped out of the garage in very fancy sports cars and made huge sparks fly when they hit the driveway.

I really didn’t even know who the Monkeys were at that point and was surprised to find out later how popular they were.

Gary also took me to the studio that the Beach Boys recorded in – Western Studios.  It was a thin and long room with the instrument panels at one end.  We stayed in the instrument room while Gary recorded someone in one of the booths.  He explained that the room's shape made for a better sound.

Then I found out that Gary had been the person who wrote “In My Room.” 

Topanga Beach and the Sunset Strip

Topanga Beach and the Sunset Strip

One of my more interesting jobs was working for the International Famous Agency (IFA) on the Sunset Strip.  All the top stars in film, television and music were handled between either the Ashley Famous Agency or IFA in 1970.

Initially I was a “floater” secretary but later settled down to be Pervis Atkin’s secretary.  He was a famous football player turned Hollywood agent.  It was my job to break down movie synopses by character and character type so that he could find the right actors for the parts.

While working there I had been asked to take Country Joe from Country Joe and the Fish to a concert in downtown Los Angeles in my 55 Chevy.  

The concert was held the day after the US invaded Cambodia and there was a lot of expectation that anti-war activists and young people would react in protest.  

When we arrived at the Los Angeles Coliseum, we noticed that there was a Red Cross station set up outside.  When we went in there was a ring of policemen entirely encircled around the seating area of the large round arena.
 

We were sitting on a blanket on the floor of the stadium and had a large box of doughnuts and coffee with us.  Little Richard began to perform on the stage in the center of the arena.  There were many huge speakers set up on stage as well as other equipment. 

As soon as the music started playing, the cops started rousting the concert attendees.  There was a huge scramble and the doughnuts and coffee went flying through the air.  One of the giant speakers fell on top of Little Richard and injured him.

We were able to get out and I remember being very shaken-up about the whole thing.  I stayed friends with Country Joe for awhile and attended other concerts that he performed in.

It was at that time that I rented a beach house with another secretary in Topanga Beach.  Topanga Beach had a small row of houses on the ocean side of the Coast Highway at the end of Topanga Canyon.

Our house was near the end of the street and had a short white picket fence around the small yard between the house and the surf.  Our “grass” was ice plant filled with dog turds, which I did clean up and put a sign on the gate.  Dogs ran freely on the beach.  There were ghostly looking white afghan dogs that would roam at night.  

The beach was one huge party with music blasting and surfers surfing and sail boats sailing.  The first weekend we moved in all these people came through the back gate into the house to party with us as we moved in.  I thought "Gee, my roommate sure has a lot of friends," and later I found out that she thought "Gee, my roommate sure has a lot of friends."  We realized that we didn't know any of these people and kept the gate nice and locked from then on.

One day someone parachuted out of a small plane and landed on the beach.  It was a rainbow colored parachute and fit right in with the tone and feel of the community.

My roommate, Kathy,  would record hours of music on large reels of tape for our highly popular parties.  We had a couch on the roof that I spent a lot of time on, watching the waves crash (which we also could hear all night long.)  

Kathy had been the president of the student body at Beverly Hills High School and her mother was friends with Lucille Ball.  Kathy took me to Lucille's house one day.  It was a square two-story adobe style house and Lucille was playing poker with her hair in rollers and smoking a cigarette.  Her house was not decorated like a museum.  She seemed to be a very down-to-earth person.

One time I went with a music agent named Rick to a John Mayall concert in San Diego.  He had a black briefcase full of decals and promo material that he was passing out to the concert goers from the front of the stage.  At one point he switched identical briefcases with me and told me to go sit back stage where I stayed for the duration of the concert with the musicians friends and significant others.  

I had been given the "cash" that was needed before the musicians would perform. That was back in the day before internet banking.  After the concert we went to a hotel room and dumped all the cash out on a bed and counted it into smaller amounts.  There was a succession of knocks on the door as various musicians would come by and get their payment.  I babysat "thousands" of dollars."

Getting to know Topanga Canyon was also special.  The Rodeo Grounds, the Corral, Will Geer's outside theatre, and various homes of actors and musicians.  Everything was so laid back, cool and artistic.  The air was thick with a free spirit feeling.

It was somehow amazing that I could arrive on time to work on the Sunset Strip in the morning.

We had to move in the Summer when the rent doubled in price.

 

New York City

New York City

Kathy and I went on a trip to New York City.  We traveled across country in her tiny Morris Mini Minor with a Canadian leaf painted on the rooftop.  It was the second time I had traveled across America by car.  This time it was in a car that felt like a giant roller skate that was shaking apart at 40 mph and we were sucking up everyone else’s exhaust.  When we reached our destination I had to sleep for a week  to recover

.

We went to visit a club called Dr. Generosity’s.  It was there that I met Bernard and wound of staying with him in Queens while Kathy traveled up to New England by herself to stay with friends there.

New York was amazing, nothing like I had ever experienced before.  It was crowded, beautiful, ugly, scary, and big.  The people were direct and intimidating.  The subway was like being in a nightmare with the weirdest people I have ever seen.

I stayed up all night and slept during the day to reduce the stimulation of so many people.  We hung out at a club called Doctor Generosity’s almost every night until it closed at 4 am.  Then we took the subway to Queens and slept in a tie-dyed parachute tent in the basement of Bernard’s parents home.

I would make money by embroidering the edges of Pierre Cardin jackets, which were all the rage in New York then.  Then I got a job as a leather crafter and would also make patchwork vests and vests with embroidered patches on them for sale.  It was fun going to the garment district to pick out leather to make the vests.  I sold them  to people at Dr. Generosity’s.

I also made a number of outfits for dancers to wear on New Year’s Eve at Joe Namath’s upper east-side club called the Bachelors III.  It was a little scary when we went to deliver the outfits at the club.  Bernie and I looked like hippies.  He had long blond hair.  I had long hair.  We were both wearing bell bottom jeans with patches and “freak flags” on our belts at the hip. 

Freak flags were strips of leather that would bounce when you walked.  Everyone walked fast in the city and the leather strips would swing back and forth. 

Anyway, the club was filled with gangster types of men and they looked at us with hostility as though we came from Mars.  Eventually, someone came and took the garments and paid us and we were out of there in one piece.

Bernard and I went to see Neil Young at Carnegie Hall.  We were great fans of his music.  After the concert we noticed people going back stage so I did too and wound up sitting next to Neil and sharing a beer with him.  We were dressed exactly alike.  He invited me to Elaine’s afterward.  Bernard and I showed up at Elaines and were seated at his table.  I remember Jack Nicholson being there and the place was filled with other famous people.  We didn’t stay long as we felt a little out of place, not being famous and all.

Winter had arrived and I was given a pair of tall, soft, black French leather boots.  I remodeled a large beaver coat that was hanging in Bernard’s basement, complete with a hood and relished being in a snowstorm, dancing under the streetlights while white snow fell all around me.

California was beckoning me back home so Bernard and I drove a car across country for a car service and rented an apartment in the Magic Castle apartments on Franklin Avenue.  I took Jin Shin Do classes by Ron and Iona Teeguarden at the old  Al Jolson  mansion down the street.  It was called the “East West” house and housed students studying Mishio Kushi’s macrobiotic food system.

I got a job as a bookkeeper for Erewhon Health Foods at their factory in Culver City.  It was the beginning of the health food rage and I had a rolodex of every health food store west of the Mississippi.  Every day we were served a freshly cooked macrobiotic lunch attended by fellow workers who may have been covered in flour because they were processing it.  We sat on pillows on the floor around a huge rectangular wooden table.  It was very yummy food, squash pies, salads, and brown rice with sesame seeds.

 I also taught people to make leather costumes for rock and roll performers at a leather store on Sunset Boulevard.  I worked for awhile at the Hollywood Wax Museum in a ticket booth located on the sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard.

We used to go to "hootenannys" at Own Orr's house in Laurel Canyon.  Everyone was given an instrument of some kind, like a tambourine, and we all sang together various folk songs.

Today I am a little sorry for bringing Bernard out of his city element.  We split up after awhile and he kept our German shepherd dog with him.  I kept the cat.  He made beautiful front doors out of wood but I lost track of him after awhile.

More Hollywood Excursions

More Hollywood Excursions

At one point I dated Burt Sugarman who was the producer for a show called the “Midnight Special.”  I met him when I was working for a game show called “The Wizard of Odds.”  It was Alex Trebek’s first American job as a game show announcer before he became the host for “Jeopardy.”  Burt was one of the producers of the show.  Alex had given me a silver chalice for Christmas that year.

Burt had asked me to go with him to Hugh Heffner’s house with him but I did not want to do that.  I heard Heffner’s house was filled with mirrors and I wasn’t that confident in my appearance.  Burt had given me a beautiful bracelet that had silver and gold chains. 

I later gave the bracelet as a tip to a hotel maid when I was staying at the Hotel Tropicana with John Barrymore, Jr. after he had an altercation with Drew Barrymore’s mother, Ildikó, before Drew was born.  I was taking care of John as he was very distressed, until we had an altercation also.  Then people told me of his history.  I’m glad it wasn’t worse than it was and I did remain friends with John for a few years.

I met David Carradine through John as they were close friends.  John and I had visited David at his camper on the set of “Kung Fu” in the back lot of Universal Studios.  It was the day after an incident involving some Indians that had come to visit David the night before and had committed some crime after they left his house in Laurel Canyon. 

David was always in trouble with the law (John too!).  So we came to offer support in case the police showed up.  There were other close friends there to support him also.  Later, at a party, David introduced me as “the girl who saved him,” which I thought was cool since he was the Kung Fu master.

I met a lady friend of John’s named Ruth who taught me astrology.  I bought all the ephemerides and began doing friend’s charts.  Too bad the computer wasn’t around then because this took up a lot of time.  I also helped calculate the charts for Ruth at the Renaissance Fair.

I applied for work around the corner from Richard Rust’s house where I was crashing temporarily and went to work as a bookkeeper for Elektra Records on La Cienega Boulevard in Hollywood.  In the evenings I came home to a cute Hollywood adobe cottage on North Hillcrest Road.

I briefly dated Jim Levitt, who’s  father, William, built “Levittown” which was the first developed suburb and served as the archetype for the other suburbs that were built from then on. 

Jim had a beautiful house and told me he always knew who was going to be president because it was a manipulated situation.  The elections were just to give people the notion that they had something to do with it.  He knew this because his father was president of the board of IT&T.  Jim said he grew up in a huge mansion but was basically raised by his maid.

One night I was given a ticket to go see Elton John at the Troubadour.  I was twirling my long hair around and around during the show and couldn’t move my head for about a week after that.  Also my boss called me in and said the bookkeepers were not supposed to be out late in the clubs.

We were always given a free new release album from Elektra and Nonesuch Classical.  If we didn’t want them then they went to Michael Ochs.  He had the hugest records collection on the West Coast.  The hallways and all the walls of his house were lined with albums and he knew where each one was and could get it right away.  He liked to program music and I really loved hearing his selections.

Michael’s brother, musician Phil Ochs, had recently died and Michael was reclusive with Phil’s paperwork spread all over the house.  So, I stacked all the paper up in one place and took Michael out (to the Troubador) to help get him back functioning after his devastating blow.

I was present when “My Eyes Adored You” and “Lady Marmalade” was being written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan.  I threw out suggestions for lyrics here and there but the one they used (including the tune of the line) was:

“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?  Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?”

I had been a French major in high school and this was a little joke we said back when days were more innocent.

Well, they used the line and it is the all important “hook” for the song.  The line was originally written by Tennessee Williams for Blanche Debois in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” but I was the one who contributed the line to the song “Lady Marmalade.”

I still hear it today on television and in stores when I’m shopping.  It can be kind of spooky, really.

I stayed in the guest house of a house off of the Sunset Strip rented by Gary Legon and his wife who were producers for a Gene Clark album called “Two Sides to Every Story.”  I traded work f or my rent and worked at a desk in the front house living room and attended all of the recording sessions and took around the finished master to various record company A&R persons to sell the album. 

While I was working there I also was typing the life story of John Paul Getty II who sat in a nearby chair and dictated his story to me while I typed. 

I met Don Williams from Shelter Records while working on Gene’s album.  Don was helping a young band named the Heartbreakers.  They had just moved from the South and Don had them staying in a furniture-less apartment in Hollywood. 

Don wanted them to have practice playing in front of large audiences and crowds and also in the recording room before they were introduced to the record company.  My yellow station wagon would get packed with all the band gear and off we’d go to a nearby park or to a recording studio.  I’ve been happy to see the success of Tom Petty and wonder if he remembers my yellow station wagon .

Taos, New Mexico

Taos, New Mexico

The next exploration for my yellow station wagon was to take Pat Quinn and her two sons to Taos, New Mexico.  Pat was an actress that played the part of Alice Brock in Arlo Gutherie’s movie “Alice’s Restaurant.”

Pat was good friends with Marlon Brando and he wanted her to go to Taos and find him a house to buy.  Marlon thought that the west coast would fall off into the ocean at some future date but that Taos would be safe because it was so sacred.  He financed our trip.

We spent the first couple of weeks staying at Marlon’s house on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.  Marlon was in the hospital at the time losing weight for his next acting roll during our stay.  There were numerous telephone calls between his secretary at the house and his hospital room.  I drew a nice picture of a desert scene and had it sent to him which he said was peaceful and that he liked it.

Marlon had a large den that overlooked the San Fernando Valley.  It was filled with Indian memorabilia.  When we were there an animal control agent came by and said that there were too many wolves living on the property.  

Russell Means came by with a group of Indians and wanted to come in.  Marlon said to tell him to go back to the reservation and start getting ready for winter.  Marlon had let Russell and his friends in before and they made a mess of the house, leaving banana peels under the couch cushions, etc. 

Harry Dean Stanton came to visit us there.  Harry Dean liked to play the guitar and was very good although he is known for being an actor.

We eventually took off for Taos and stayed at the Sagebrush Inn.  It is such an incredible hotel.  We had fire places in our rooms and we were treated very well as Marlon was paying for our stay.  We stayed for about a month and then rented a house on the outskirts of town.  Marlon bought a house from the owner of the hotel.

I stayed in Taos for about four months, learning ceramics from a local artist named Fred and going on a large circuit of craft fairs to surrounding states with him as an assistant.  I sold my wind chimes, which were glazed with Fred’s special turquoise glaze that his pieces were known for.   I even got to condition the clay that was used to make a chalice for the San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church. 

I met many artists there and also viewed some exquisite ceramics collections but winter was coming and my money was getting low so I returned safely to Hollywood in my yellow station wagon. 

Back To Acting

Back to Acting

When I returned to Hollywood I began living in my station wagon with all the props from a play that I was now acting in called “The House of Bernarda Alba.”  It was directed by my friend, Michelle Van Hessen.  I played the part of Amelia and it was sort of like being in “Little Women,” as the play was about a family of women.

We performed the play in an upstairs Hollywood apartment.  The audience was set up at one end of the living room facing an open dining room and the performance took place in the other end of the living room and the dining room.  The off-stage areas were the balcony, the hallway, and we changed in a bedroom.

Every performance was well attended by about thirty people at a time.  Allen Garfield attended a play with John Barrymore, Jr..  Allen rushed backstage while I was dressing into my normal clothes saying how much he liked my performance.  He said he had seen the play by other actors and I played my part so well.  Considering who was complimenting me, I was happy to get his feed-back.

After performing I would go to Dan Tana’s  Italian Restaurant next to the Troubadour and hope that someone would feed me.  I was always invited to sit and enjoy a meal ordered just for me as it was a gracious thing for successful actors to help “starving actors,” especially after they just performed.

I was working for Sandra Peluce for her home-based catering business called Mother Moon.  She was married to actor, Virgil Frye and they just had a daughter, Soleil Moon Frye.  Sandy catered on movie sets to provide meals for the cast and crew.  She currently was working for a movie  called “Missouri Breaks” with Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson.

My job was to help prepare the food for the truck.  I chopped fruit and added yogurt, a brought out huge cooked animal bodies out of the oven to cool and ready to be served.   And I babysat Soleil.  She was a small and active child with a sweet nature who crawled around everywhere.  Later she was in a successful television show called “Punky Brewster.” 

I also had contracts with three different record companies to send them talent.  I was being paid an automatic monthly retainer to send to the first company who paid the most, then the next, who paid less and so on.

I would go to song workshop performances instead of the A&R personnel and I would just let them know that a particular musician is scheduled to see them.

I was socializing with Tommy Smothers and after he left town to be in “Play It Again Sam, I hung out with Ed Begley, Jr.  for awhile.

That’s when I got the call about the Doctor.  Eric Doc Hord.  Band leader and lead guitarist for the Mama’s and Papa’s.  The Mama’s and Papa’s had been broken up for almost ten years and Eric had been out of town, most recently from Oregon, and needed to get reintroduced to business contacts and could I help?

And so began my life with a frustrated and fun artist and music historian.   

Blithe Spirit in Hollywood

Blithe Spirit in Hollywood

I stayed in Hollywood for about seven more years and have many memories that stand out.  I do wish I had kept a journal as I’m sure that much of what I experience has been forgotten and important details were never captured.  I had begun my interest in gardening and alternative healing.  I proceeded to work in many jobs and carried on with my image of being a blithe spirit with long hair and a soft and gentle manner.

I met so many new people and could never remember all their names.  Had I not been so shy I would have taken photographs along the way.

I remember making Mumu dresses for Barbie dolls to be sold as souvenirs in Hawaii for awhile and then I got a job as the welcoming hostess and cashier at a new nightclub on Sunset Strip called the Rainbow Bar and Grill.

It had just opened and was the “hot” club to go to.  Many celebrities were there.  The top level was called “Over the Rainbow” and that’s where most of the exclusive patronage hung out.  I remember having a drink with Warren Beatty.  He made me very nervous because he had such a reputation as being a womanizer.  At least I caught his eye and he showed some interest in this “woman.”

One day Gary and Louis came into the club and were very friendly.  I wound up staying with Louis in a charming cottage above the Sunset Strip on Ozetta Terrace.  I had entered a new world of acting and actors.  Louis was an actor from New York and had made friends with other actors in the films and plays he had been in.

 Louis liked to go “on the rounds” and visit various people and go to several clubs and restaurants to see other actors and get any news on auditions.  We frequented Barney’s Beanery and Dan Tana’s next to the Troubador.  We knew the owner of the Troubador, Doug Weston, and were there when the Smothers Brothers performed a “Comeback” appearance after many years of not performing. 

Doug asked me to be a hostess to them backstage, getting drinks, fending off fans, and I gave Tommy a neck-rub as he was tense and nervous.  I was still up in the balcony looking down to the stage below when they began performing.  There were many notable people in the audience including Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Helen Reddy, Cliff Robertson, Lily Tomlin, Peter Lawford and John Lennon and Harry Nilsson.  John and Harry were very drunk and John kept heckling at the start of the performance and of course Tommy Smothers would answer back.  They’d start over and again John would begin heckling again.  This occurred several times.

All of the sudden there was a huge brawl.  It was an instantaneous combustion with John Lennon in the center.  Louis ran downstairs and told John to collapse onto him and he would lead him out.  

John, Harry and May Pang went back to our house with Louis.  Doug found me in the club and said I’d better call Louis right away.  I did and he said to get home.  I casually went up to a friend eating at Dan Tana’s next door and said “If you’d like to meet John Lennon, can you give me a ride home?”  I never saw someone whip out their credit card and pay for their meal so fast before. 

We spent the rest of the evening playing piano together and eating homemade hamburgers.  Later on Phil Spector arrived in a beautiful silver Rolls Royce to pick the group up.  A few days later we were visited by attorneys asking Louis to sign that John did not hit anyone so that he would not be asked to leave the country.  The criminal charges were dropped but John paid money to the supposed victims to avoid civil charges for his behavior.

We were close friends with Gary Rethmeir and Richard Rust.  They lived near each other and both had an entourage of various actor friends.  We were friends with artist  Brice Wood and his wife Carol and Genie Riley.  Genie’s mom Roberta was a seamstress and I helped her sew expensive custom clothes for people to wear on cruises.  I would bead paisley fabric by the hour. 

 I went to acting classes and helped put on plays at the Actor’s Studio.  Louis’s brother-in-law was Richard Donner who directed the Omen and the first Superman Movie.  We would visit his house high in the Hollywood Hills often.  I would give Richard my massage treatment and he would fall asleep.  Then I would be a hostess for the various people that would also be there.

I gave Jin Shin Do massages to several clients including Fay Dunaway who was a good friend of Hedy Sontag.  I knew Hedy from the Actor’s Studio.  Fay would be exhausted from being in so many films back to back and she had a bad cold from being in a lingerie shot for too long, surrounded by all the cast and crew.  She would also fall asleep and get much needed rest, until the phone rang again.

Louis’s ex-girlfriend was Anitra Ford who was one of the original models on the Price is Right.  She was the Bee lady in “Invasion of the Bee Girls.”  We became friends and she taught me how to know which contestant would be the winner of a game show judging by their attitude.

Owen Orr would come over and collect us to go visit Michael Green down at the Rodeo Grounds in Malibu where there would be a group of musicians and various actors enjoying each other’s company.

The writer of “No Place to Be Somebody,” Charles Gordon was a frequent visitor.  I helped train his crew regarding stage lighting at a current production of the play and got higher credits than Richard Roundtree.  Tyne Daley was one of the actors.   I had learned about lighting at the Strasburg Studio.

Wavy Gravy (Hugh Romney) would stay with us when he was in town.  He always arrived with an entourage of ladies as well as his wife, Bonnie Beecher.  One of them gave me an Emilio Pucci designer dress that I loved to wear.  It looked a lot like this dress:

We went to visit Wavy and Bonnie at the Hog Farm and got to see inside Ken Kesey's famous bus that carried “The Merry Pranksters” which was painted with stars in the interior.

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One thing that Louis did for me that I will always be grateful for is that he built me a huge garden on the side of the hill we lived on.  The garden grew beautifully and I had followed the instructions from an organic gardening book, not even knowing that it was a new concept.  It was just normal for me to use companion planting and use natural compost and bug sprays.  That began a life-long love of gardening for me.

We both helped Roberta Higgins son Michael remodel a new restaurant called Lost on Larrabee.  Louis did a lot of the carpentry work and I watered the many potted plants that were brought to for the décor.  I swept a lot of sawdust up also.  The restaurant was a big hit being frequented by many actors and musicians.

Life with Louis was exciting but also a little bit crazy for me so I eventually moved along.