Taking a Bite Out of The Big Apple! (or maybe just a lick)... Part 1

So just how brave do you have to be to buy a one-way ticket to New York with only $300 in your pocket? Sometimes I overwhelmingly miss the enthustiastic innocence of those days. But there was nothing stopping me. My mom said I'd go off to New York over her dead body! Even though somehow 40 years later she's still with us.

I will never forget that day. January 21st 1974 ~ 11:45 am.

This must have been a really difficult picture for my mom to take...

Wow, that was a really big plane!

I swear there's nothing better than flying at 40,000 feet having absolutely no idea whatsoever what you're flying into...

My initial impressions of New York are pretty vague. Culture shock for sure. But somehow we made it from JFK to the East Side Bus Terminal and from there by cab to Doug's apartment at 542 East 14th St. where we were at once deposited. And so there we were, two young girls (with a whole lot of bags!) standing on a very empty sidewalk in the middle of a very blustery winter night. Thankfully it didn't take long too awfully long to discover this flimsy little note flapping wildly in the wind... taped just inside a darkened doorway.

I can't believe I still have it! Or that it even survived! *sigh*

Looking back... If I had the chance again, would I ever REALLY have dragged my two very heavy suitcases up those four flights of that very narrow, lopsided staircase? Yes probably. Most likely. You betcha!

It was at this point when Douglas most likely concluded that I hadn't brought along a suitable companion for his roommate Timothy... *g*

Fun Times

Popcorn!

Juggling!...

Ice Skating...

Practicing good hygiene...

The Met!

I should probably just dedicate another blog to all the rest of the fun times...

The Apartment Hunt from Hell

Let's see, when I'd left LA the going rate for a really nice 2 bedroom apartment ran for about $150 a month, so that's where we thought we'd start. What a shocker! The first place we looked at for $150 included a single room with unfinished walls, a bathtub in the kitchen with a plank you could drag on top of it to double as a dining table. Plus, I don't think there was any electricity... It didn't get much better at $175 or even $200. We searched for days!... and made the acquaintances of ton of cockroaches in the meantime. At one point, one day, we took a break to see "The Excorcist" which was a much less frightening experience than our apartment search was proving to be.

But then on that very day, from an ad in the New York Times, we got wind of a decent sounding vacancy on West 72nd St. for $225. So we forged a snow storm through Central Park to go take a look at it, stopping only long enough to snap a couple of pics...

And it was perfect! Or at least the entry and lobby seemed respectable. A one bedroom, and with only a random smattering of cockroaches that we could detect.

Here's me on one of our first nights there. Our bedroom consisted of two foam mattresses and a very ecletic collection of random artwork. But it was home!

The (dang) Job

Luckily LeeAnn's aunt (who lived in Queens) worked in the credit department at Bond's Department Store on 5th Avenue and 35th St. So we had a connection! And so then suddenly there we were. Each making about $70 a week (without any benefits.) But who cared? We were living in New York City! I'll never forget trudging up to the subway at 72nd Street (in the snow) every morning, taking the train downtown, changing at Times Square and then on down to 34th. As crazy as it sounds those travels to work then were some of the most thrilling experiences of my life. Especially later, when I was able to ride above ground and actually see the city each morning. But more about that later.

Here's a photo of the main Bond's store in Time Square. The office we worked in was the "operations" center located above a smaller store at 35th and 5th.

As I recall, the clothes were really pretty tacky, though I think I did buy one dress there once. By the way, and this is sort of odd, but we were allowed to wear pants to work. (It seems funny to me now given that 15 years at another job much later we were still required to wear skirts.) And another thing was that we worked the traditional Nine to Five (like the movie)... where we were actually paid for our lunch hours (as little as that probably equated to) but still... I STILL believe that totally makes sense.

I don't even remember exactly what it was that I did but I think it had something to do with matching up price tags with daily receipts and then reconcilling the differences.

Though I think I probably spent most of my time typing letters to Doug... (who seemed to be forever out of town with his dance company tour.)

Backing Out On A Promise or "Haha, I Was Just Kidding"...

So it must have been some time around the end of February when Lee approached me and announced that she was going home. She assured me that it had to do with the fact that I'd left her alone one too many times in that crappy apartment, and I'll admit that I probably did step out for an evening or two with Doug on few nights he was home. Or perhaps it was just her disillusionment... At any rate she blamed me totally for the fail. And so there I was with a $225 a month apartment lease in New York City with no phone (except for maybe the payphone down at the end of the block, but no change) and so, basically, I was pretty much alone.

Four Long Months...

Nowdays the time between September and December just seems to fly by. Perhaps it's because I hate the approach of winter and well, that's sort of what those months mean to me now. But they didn't always.

In September '73, I went back to school. I'd moved away from home for the first time in my life, into an apartment near campus with my friends Debbie and Jean and it was an empowering experience! But not empowering enough to make me want to regularly attend class. I remember sleeping in on so many mornings, feeling that little tinge of guilt, but really wanting to do nothing more than wait for the afternoon mail. Those were the days of postcards from Doug, before he began writing those tomes of letters. (But I still always loved those post cards!)

Our apartment overlooked the pool. I actually don't remember ever swimming in it, or even laying by it, but it felt awesome just having it there and knowing this was our own place. I felt pretty darn grown up!

And not to infer that I NEVER attended classes or anything, I just don't REMEMBER attending. But I have a boat load of written test essays saved from that time, and they were honestly written more thoughtfully and intelligently than I could have probably written now, so obviously I wasn't slacking off THAT much. I think at the time, I was just doing what I felt I had to do, but honestly didn't care. I was on some other sort of mission.

During this time I DID land a role in the main stage production of "Cabaret". And you have to understand that "Cabaret" was a pretty big thing for me. I'd seen the movie like at least a dozen times! I was a huge fan of Liza's and enamoured with the style of Fosse, though I'm not sure if I was really even quite sure of his style at the time, I just knew I loved it. But it didn't matter, because the styling of our show was more along the lines of Mariam Tate.. who pretty much had the idea that everyone should just choreograph themselves... which wasn't a bad thing entirely. But definitely not Fosse.

I'd give anything to see video. But unfortunately this was back in the day...

How's that for subtle?...

Remember this from the movie? There's a dance number between the Emcee and a gorilla. He's obviously completely smitten with her, much to the shock of the audience. The song? "If You Could See Her Through My Eyes." The punchline? "She wouldn't look Jewish at all!"

So much wisdom there when you think about it...

Anyway. I had to walk down a huge "busby berkely type" staircase wearing this outfit!

The play wasn't exactly like the movie though as I would come to find out. For example, the song "Money, Money" was replaced by "Sitting Pretty." I played the American Buck...

How many different variations of "Cabaret" could there be? I'd end up doing two other completely different versions in my lifetime eventually...

Making Plans

It must have been around November sometime that my best friend LeeAnn and I decided we'd take Doug up on his offer. He'd promised that me and any other fun-seekers from California were more than welcome to "flop" in his apartment at any time. So we figured we'd leave in January and start there...

I'm not sure who decided it was a good idea to move to New York in January. Perhaps only "fun-seekers" from California. But anyway...

Now I had to somehow make enough money, to not only buy a plane ticket but to be able to survive there long enough to experience it. (I think I honestly thought it would all just work out somehow.)

So I got a job at Polly's Pie Palace in Tustin, I think, which served the best pies (not to mention hamburgers) in the world. And it was there on my very first night that I recieved my first tip (very cool) and my very first compliment as a waitress. "You're the best waitress we've ever had!" a woman and her daughter said. I'm still scratching my head over that one. But I'll never forget driving that 40 minutes or so to work a couple times a week with songs like "Dust in the Wind" and "Time In A Bottle" as my soundtrack.

Disneyland also came through for me once again, but this time with a leading role in the Christmas Parade!

Clarabelle Cow...

I was so ready to be gone already that I hardly remember it, except for sitting endlessly in the staging area, smelling all the "Ho Down" smells. (Even though I sometimes wish I could go back there and do it again, if only for a day.) Because in the scheme of things it went really, really quickly even though as I remember, that December seemed to last forever.

And boy did my calves hurt!

But by the middle of January I had a plane ticket in hand, my suitcases were already packed, and I'd saved up nearly $300!...

Gentle (but rude) awakening ahead...

The Happiest Place On Earth...

I grew up only about a half hour away from that Happy Place. Lucky me! But we'd only go about once or twice a year, because it was SO expensive! Something like $5 a person just to get in the gate and receive a little coupon booklet which included a series of tickets ranging from A to E. The A ticket was always just a throw away... You could use it to ride the Main Street trolley if you wanted to, but that was about it. I don't think we ever used those A tickets though because who'd want to ever miss the experience of actually "strolling" up and down Main Street?

The E tickets were of course "golden!"

I was lucky enough to snag a job there in the Christmas Parade of 1972, as a Snow Woman. A fun little experience, but certainly nothing to write home about...

Then in the spring of '73 I landed a summer job in the Main Street Electrical Parade as a Cinderella Dancer. I had no idea what would lie ahead that summer or how it would eventually alter my course. All I knew was that I'd be making money for a whole summer doing something I absolutely loved doing. Dancing.

But the summer turned out to be much more about dancing OR making money. In retrospect, I would have done it for free. It was one of the absolute best summers of my life.

What's funny though, is that I swear I'd been put in charge of caring for my little neice Chelsea during the days all that summer, but my journal clearly has me staying out until 2 or 3 every morning. So I guess that just goes to show you that the energy of youth is truly wasted on the young.

Anyway to start... Doug.

He was my dance partner. Well he and JoAnn... We were quite the awesome threesome!

The OTHER threesome was me, Doug and Linda (though we didn't spend much time together...) Linda was a butterfly from the Alice unit... who spent the whole summer fluttering her wings against my guy. haha Though in actuality he wasn't really my guy at the time, I had no doubts that he eventually WOULD be... This was of course back in the day when we had no real understanding of homosexuality, and every woman in the world was still totally convinced that if she fell in love with someone like that she could just somehow *snap* and change him. But to be fair, this was still mostly confusing territory, even to those who thought they might actually BE gay. I'm almost embarrassed writing that right now, but it's the truth. These were definitely the years of major discovery for many of us!

At any rate...

There was nothing like having the complete run of the Disney backlot staging area though we didn't spend a ton of time back there but it was nice to be able to just flash your badge and pass through the employees only gate leading back to the employee cafeteria, the Inn Between (where the food was really cheap) and the DRC (Disney Rest Center?). Mostly we spent our parade in between time either Ho-Downing in Bear Country or Swinging to the big bands at Carnation Plaza or New Orleans Square, or we were more than able to just enjoy the park and the rides. And sometimes I just spent those few hours pining away in the parade forming area during the times that "my boyfriend" was somewhere out in the park with Linda... *sigh*

Can you even imagine now being able to get two guests into the park any night of the week... FOR FREE EVEN (except on a holiday)! So I did that alot too, and in the meantime found out I had a lot more friends than I thought I had.

In the meantime, I just loved these boys!

Here's a funny story... I had this friend David, (who I talked about in my last blog and who was friends with Paul, who is the guy in the middle in that last picture up there). So anyway, sometime during the summer he ran into Paul and Doug on the beach together and the conversation started. "Hey! So what have you been doing? blah blah blah..." And Paul said that he was currently working in Disneyland's Electrical Parade. So David said "Wow! Do you know my friend Jannet? I hear she is completely in love with her dance partner, but she's pretty sure that he's in love with Prince Charming.." At which point Paul replied, "Um, I'm Prince Charming." Ugh.

Anyway...

And there were parties galore!

At The Disneyland Hotel for one...

It cost us a whole $37 just for one night!!!

Michael...

Me and Paul...

Most of the group... (that's Linda on the left.)

Our parties were WAY after hours... including the one at our house that mom never knew about... (this one wasn't THAT one.)

Doug and I head over heels!...

But back to the parade and the job at hand...

What a magical summer it was!

Just LOOK at him in those cute pink knickers!

I swear I will miss these people for as long as I shall live!

Tent City...

It doesn't exist anymore. There is now this huge parking structure standing in the place where it use to stand.

Here's a pic of the cast that was taking one evening late in the summer on that very spot. I'm pretty much front and center sitting on Paul's lap. Michael, Garry and Joann are one row up and a little bit to the right. Linda is two rows straight up from me. It was Doug's night off...

Taken from my journal... "Tommorrow is our last parade and I'm going to have to say goodbye to a wonderful summer and to some of the best friends I've ever know. I remember at the beginning of the parade saying "It's going to be a really long summer!" Well that's not true. It's been the fastest summer I've ever known... Doug is moving to New York in two days to join Gus Solomon's dance company... and I'm going to cry in about 5 minutes."

*sigh*

But funny how things turn out, because one of the very last things he said to me on that very last, very sad (for me) night of our summer was this... "I'm really going to miss you. Come to New York?"

And so well, Gee. I wonder how all THAT turned out...

Theatre 101.. or How Best To Procrastinate The Inevitable...

I'm not sorry that I went to college. I'm not even that sorry that I failed to complete my degree back in the day. Because it was a time of growing up, a time of preparing for what would lie ahead. Even though I don't think I actually grew up at all much during those years. I was still writing in my diary on a daily basis (which has ended up being useful over the years for getting all the times and dates straight)... but I was still addressing my entries to "Barbra" for pete's sake... Anyway, I think I felt a lot more grown up and sophisticated at the time than I think I probably was (which I discovered after spending a few hours reading those old journals today.)

And to be honest, even though I sometimes wish I had just moved to New York fresh out of High School (and sometimes I even tell people I did) at the time I was no where NEAR ready to move to New York! As you will see, it would take me several years to be able to do that with any real committed purpose in mind, and then, only after a few false starts. But anyway, I DID have a wonderful time in college and with everything that would go along with my staying home in LA for another few years... but I seriously don't remember a single thing about my first day of College, except for feeling very lost.

My first memory, seriously, was sitting in French class. Which is kind of funny, because when I went back to college for real 28 years later my first memory was sitting in French class...

But other than that, here's my first memory of the Cal State Fullerton Theatre Department.

I read an announcement on the Theatre Bulletin Board that there would be auditions held for the One-Act Play of "The Birdbath" an Arena Theatre student direction production. And since I had just recently seen that TV movie staring my most ex-favorite person Patty Duke... I got a little excited, to say the least! It was this play about a waitress and a bartender who end up all alone in a restaurant one night while closing up after hours. Velma Sparrow is a rather psychotic sort of girl and Frankie Basta has more than a few problems of his own. And the plot thickens! Anyway, I was told by several people (my BFF Lorna included) not to get my hopes up too high because underclassmen rarely get cast in productions. But I went to the audition anyway. And in fact, to 3 callbacks.

I SO wish I could do that play again. I think I would be SO much better at portraying the psychotic part now!

Here's a really blurry picture of Steve Patterson and me backstage.

btw... Steve was a Senior.

During this time, Lorna and I were still hanging out quite a bit. Ok, inseperably. With weekly weekend jaunts into Hollywood, Century City and Westwood, and the traditional stops at 301 Carolwood Drive... During this time I also joined a sorority. Alpha Delta Pi. I still have no idea why I did that but it was an interesting experience.

And then the annual Disneyland Christmas Parade auditions came up and I couldn't resist trying once again. I'd been passed over the year before but was much more confident in my abilities now (even though I hadn't really danced too much in years!) So there I was amoung 500 - 600 young dancers, on this very slippery floor in a recreation hall of a park in Anaheim California just trying to do my best. And I was cast as a SnowWoman! I left that audition with beautiful visions of sugarplums and grand jete-ing balletic snowflakes dancing in my head!

This is a photo of me taken a few weeks later..

Humility Rocks!

Coincidentally though at the very same time, I landed a dancing chorus role in the MainStage production of "Die Fledermaus" though I really don't remember the show too much because I would only arrive halfway through the performance each night after dangerously racing my way the 10 miles from Disneyland.

I was told it was good though. And even multiple times that I was the best dancer in the ensemble. (It's the little things that make life great.)

Upstage West was an improvisation group organized by the director of the Cal High theatre department than Lorna was still attending. And I joined. It was the scariest thing ever! We'd go in and sit on these old sofas in the back area of some community center and just IMPROVISE for hours. If you've never done that, be glad. It was terrifying and I was not very good. But then, they put on a production of "Tom Jones," which is now where I think it's probably time to mention my lifelong crush on George Thatcher... who played Tom. He was the "catch" of the Whittier drama scene in those days and no girl was left unscathed by his charms.

Anyway... here's another somewhat blurry photo of me as Lady Belaston in that production.

And George and Lorna as Tom Jones and Lady Waters..(in the famous "Eating Scene.")

Even so, I was victorious in my pursuit. Even if our little "affair" only lasted a few days. I remember how Lorna was SO upset with me about that! She probably wouldn't be as upset now to know that he became my kind of go-to boyfriend for the next several years. I know that he toured with Harry James for a while and he even wrote me a couple of times years later when he was playing trombone in South Africa with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra asking me to come visit, but I was dating Brad by then so I didn't go. I still often wonder what he's doing now. There are too many George Thatchers on Facebook.

David Dotson was my first introduction to gay. I'll never forget sitting in his dorm room when he told me and then he just kept sitting there waiting for my reaction to his big reveal and I was like... "Ok..." Then I went home and wrote in my journal to Barbra and said "Wow, I'm probably going to be questioning everyone now! But David says you love fags." Yes, I really wrote that.

The year ended with several other arena productions, "The Crucible", "Thurber Carnival" and lots of other acting class scene work. It was like I was totally into this whole acting/performing thing, ya know? Getting my craft together and not letting anything stop me!

But then I auditioned for the Main Street Electrical Parade...

Baby Steps to B'way...

And I mean that in a really big way!

A while back I was telling you about my big break in High School Drama Class. So this sort of continues from there.

Well anyway, shortly after that I found that Whittier Light Opera would be doing a production of "Funny Girl!" Well guess what, yes you're right, I auditioned. I have to idea what I was thinking since I was only 15, and really the only female roles in that musical are Fanny Brice herself, her elder Jewish mother, friends and neighbors...and a bunch of sexy showgirls. But I was still a little bit devasted when I received this postcard.

I don't think I ever told anyone about this.

But back to High School...

At that point my drama teacher already pretty much considered me a star. Amazing what one silly little lip-synch can do for your career. And so I was pretty much a shoe-in for one of the two females in our Spring production of "The Odd Couple." The other girl was Carolee Shoemaker...

I should probably interject here for a second and explain that I had the great misfortune during, say from 1970-1972, to live in a time when "technology" thought they could make improvements to the film processing methods for photos taken with instamatic cameras.. So sadly I am a product of the yellowed and faded photos from that time period. Senior picture included. But thankfully for nowday's PhotoShop I am at least able to remove some of the yellow tinge. The blur I can't do much about.

But back to the theatre, and where it all began, which I should probably mention here. I made my theatrical debut as a Munchkin in my church's stake production of "The Wizard of Oz" in 1965. (I would actually end up including that fact into my future Broadway Playbill bio's, where at 5'10" never failed to elicit alot of smiles.) Which now reminds me of those days when our church would regularly put on plays, musicals and roadshows all of which I was a part of. I loved being a part of all that and should probably give some credit to any of my future success to those experiences given me at church. I really don't know when or why they stopped all doing that. Perhaps they ended up considering it too prideful and not in the best interest of the church's youth. Probably because of me. lol!

Here's a shot from one of our Ward plays "A Ready Made Family." I played a 70 year old woman, can you tell?

I remember being told so many times that evening how I'd given an Oscar winning performance. I seriously doubt that but still, it kept me going.

Next up "The Crucible" where I was cast in the role of Abigail Williams (the town's most unprincipled girl), which sort of worked out to my advantage amongst all the really cute, unprincipled guys in the show... :)

And then, life changed dramatically (ha), when I took a chance to branch out over the hill in Whittier in the summer of '71. Definitely, a lot more theatrical opportunities over there.

And so my summer community theatre production of "West Side Story" was my year of branching out and growing up for sure. And as silly and amateurish as this picture may seem, there was some serious talent in that cast, along with many friends that would become a huge part of the next few years of my life. I'll never forget driving my old Rambler over the hill to that very first rehearsal. My mother was less than thrilled.

And as well she should have been (not thrilled) because it was a pretty growing up summer for me. Honestly, I never really did anything all THAT bad, except to learn how to kiss and alter my driver's license... But what a blast it was! It was also the summer that Lorna and I would meet and subsequently become unseparable for years to come.

And then it was Back To School in the Fall with "The Man Who Came To Dinner."

Again sorry about the blurry. It really WAS a pretty good play!

But Over The Hill beckoned me once again the next spring with Whittier Civic Light Opera's "Hello Dolly." It would be the most professional show I'd done to date. (I didn't audition for the lead this time!) Catherine Jacoby who played Dolly became my new idol.

And a great cast too!

The only downside to that experience is that it sort of threw me into the muck in terms of my high school drama teacher, Mrs. Bradbury, because it prevented me from being able to be a part of the senior play, "10 Little Indians." I still can't believe now how I had the nerve to show up for the auditions that night even after telling her I wouldn't be able to do it. That was a fun evening. I had never seen her so angry and betrayed! Talk about my burning bridges...

But I still got the Bank of America Award for Drama and a trophy for Best Actress at the end of the year... :)

And shared the "most creative senior" award with Jeff Balsmeyer who would later end up being nominated for some major film festival award plus doing well, a whole bunch of other stuff.

Anyway, I finished out my High School drama career on the other side of hill once again in "Mame" as Sally Cato/Ensemble...

Again, sorry for the blurry. This one's a little better.

Anyway, it really WAS quite stressful being the Los Altos High School drama department diva... lol! But onward and upward!

Cal State University Fullerton Theatre Department, here I come.