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.