Things Were Finally Looking Up...

In the spring of '76 I finally got my first big break. (Or at least it felt like it at the time.) Long Beach Civic Light Opera was kind of a big thing in LA at the time and I was cast in a production of "Sweet Charity" along with my friend Jimmy Maxwell and sister Jeanne Alison (yes, not too many people know that she's always been a very talented dancer!)

I'm not really sure what I was doing at the time to be able to afford a full-time non-paying theatre job. Maybe working another jaunt at Polly's Pies.. or still doing America On Parade? I really should have kept better records. But Long Beach was about an hour drive from Hacienda Heights down the 605 freeway and we rehearsed every night for many weeks, which makes me kind of laugh now that I only feel comfortable taking side streets...

But back to the show.

It was a star-studded cast! Or at least the most star-studded I'd ever worked with. Toni Kaye, Brenda Thompson (Charity) and Lise Mills were the three female leads and I was so in awe of them! Toni had been one of the original Ernie Flatt dancers on the Carol Burnett Show and had also had a leading dance role in the movie "Funny Lady." I'm not sure what Brenda had done but she was dating Ken Berry (also from the Carol Burnett Show and Mayberry RFD) and so we saw him all the time. Lisa was one of the prima dancers at Disneyland and had done alot of other stuff too.

Toni, Brenda and Lise

Dom Salinero (what a mean ole geez!) was the choreographer, but he was really good! He made us work! And somehow during the audition must have impressed him enough to have been blessed with the lead dance role in "The Rich Man's Frug" which I'm not sure was a blessing or a curse.. But since this took place nearly 40 years ago I can now probably say it was a blessing, although it was a killer for sure! The six minute dance number, which stuck very closely to Fosse's original, consisted of three sections "The Aloof", "The HeavyWeight" and "The Big Finish." And by the end of that thing the only thing that wasn't drenched in sweat was my... well, ok, pretty much every inch of me was drenched in sweat! But grateful sweat...

Again, due to my unfortunate luck of having had a theatre career prior to the big video boom, I guess this rendition will have to do...

The Frug "Fosse" - 1986

(And if you're a serious Fosse fan like me... please take a moment (or six) to take in the incredible underworldly movie version! Just wow.

Anyway, I have to say that it was the closest I'd come to professional theatre at that point... and to this day I still hold it in pretty high regard.

Rehearsal shot

Photo Shoot for Program

In front of the marquee...

Dress Rehearsing "Big Spender"

I remember one night, a night or two nights before dress rehearsal... (because we'd been given the assignment of finding our own costumes for "The Rhythm of Life" number)... Jimmy came back to our house late after rehearsal, where we poured through all the "dress up clothes" my mom had hanging in a closet. So much fun!

In the end, I went as a hippy of sorts, Jimmy as a one-eyed Submissive (lol) and my little sister Alison outdid us both with her rendition of a pregnant Girl Scout...

It was a great show with so many great memories of all those quick changes!.. and attaching hair pieces securely enough that they wouldn't go flying out into the audiance when you twirled them around **see above Frug**

But I think the most fortuitous part of this experience (which actually happened sometime during the rehearsal process) was being given a heads up from Toni Kaye about an audition coming up for the movie "New York, New York" starring Liza Minelli and Robert DiNero. Yes, really.

But that's another story entirely...

Posing outside the theatre with attitude...

But First, D R N...

I'm not even really sure how to define this relationship (friendship?) that spanned those seven years from 1973 to 1980 and in some ways even beyond.

I remember talking to him on the phone one day, shortly after splitting from Brad and asking how he thought it was that WE were still able to remain such good friends, even after all that had transpired. And he answered me in a way that didn't really make sense, but it sort of does now. He said that it was because we had never totally crossed that fine line of no return. And I guess that's the truth. There'd never been any major committments or promises made and how could you ever fault someone for simply being a co-conspiritor to your fantasies? But still, at the time I think that his saying that must have hurt a little bit.

In 1977 I was living in his apartment in New York City with my friend Todd (D was again on the road)... when Todd told me that he thought it would make a really great story if I could publish all the letters that Doug and I had written back and forth to each other over the years... sort of in the vein of "Your Isadora."

You laugh..

And still, to this day, I think they would make for a really great story! But I have only so much blog space... so if you're interested in ever reading them, they're in this transparent file folder in the third drawer down in the antique file cabinet. And I don't think there's anything in there that I wouldn't want my children or grandchildren to read, which in a way sort of makes me feel really happy yet sort of sad at the same time. But still, amazing and poetic!... and if I were to slip any one of those postcards or letters out from that perfectly preserved shroud right now in order to read them, I'd probably most assuredly shed at least a tear or two.

Here's just a sample:

Front of card

Back of card

And ok, I lied. I just read a couple more of them and they are not all entirely G-rated. But this one is probably still ok...

Card

Insert

Always perfect...

Mercifully, I don't have the time to read the rest of them because there are literally thousands! So instead, I'll just enjoy this little pictorial journey and for a moment try to remember the way things actually were as opposed to the way I probably only imagined them being at the time...

Please exuse this little mini (moon)-trip...

Anyway, I think I can honestly say that he probably ranks at least #2 on the list of men I've been smitten with in my lifetime. :) Or maybe even #1, if only because of his love of letter writing... And also, he cried like a baby and mine and Brad's wedding, so I'll give him a couple of points for that as well.

Always Love... Forever... I Love You... Your Douglas...

Loved that. And if it's written down, well, it has to be true, right?

Ok, searching frantically now for that one letter he wrote that said something to the effect of "With enough trust, a relationship can last a lifetime." But like I said, there would be at least a thousand to sort through in order to find the exact one and I can't really remember if he wrote it towards the beginning or more towards the end.

But anyway, on THIS your 64th Birthday, A Very Happy Birthday to You D!

(Even though, I can't make sense of how that could even be possible.)

Still, this picture makes me smile bigger than you can even imagine...

Miss you.

And guess I'll just wait to hear plans for our next "rendevouz" via USPS then.

Because this Facebook thing just doesn't seem to be working out for us very well...

:)