My Hollywood Star, Me, Page 3

My Hollywood Star My Show Business Career, Page 1

The next few pages are biographical info about some of the events in my life that caused me to get into show business. I will try to cover some of the fun times I have had as I pursued a career as an entertainer. I have had some success and I have failed many times.

This scary old building is where I went to grade school. It was a fabulous place to be in the 1940s and early 1950s. It was at this school that I first was bitten by the acting bug or whatever you call it when you want to perform in front of people... show off. This picture was taken in 1971.

I did a play when I was in the third grade. I enjoyed the applause but nothing special happened. In the sixth grade I did a talent show at school as a ventriloquist. The laughs came at the right time. I wrote my own stuff. I stole some of it and adapted it for my age range and for the audience. It struck a chord deep inside me and something started to fester. By the time I was fourteen I was the person I am now. I needed applause and laughter. I wanted to perform somehow.

I left home at age 17. I had never spent a night away from home before I struck out for Hollywood (Los Angeles) all alone on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bus. I didn't know anyone in L.A. I was armed with $400 which I had saved from working at a service station (That's what gas stations were called then). I made eighty-five cents an hour in 1956 and I was giving my mom $15 a week to help a little with the expenses. I saved almost all the rest of my take home pay. I did allow myself a double feature movie with popcorn and a coke each week. Leaving home and taking charge of my own life was the single wisest decision I ever made. I have a very loving family but that is not what drives me at my core. I seek applause.

In L.A. I did not find fame overnight. I started working in a warehouse and became very stable and self supporting. I knew I had to have an address and food if I intended to survive and maybe make it someday. I also had no talent. That was no big deal. I did do one show at KABC TV in 1956 on a program called "Make Believe Ballroom." Al Jarvis was the host. It was basically an amateur show. I did a comedy routine. I was adequate. I also began to tinker with pianos at the furniture warehouse where I worked. I always sang while I worked with or without a piano. I loved the 50s music. I also liked the older songs. I eventually taught myself some chords and I could function as a singer/pianist. I did not know what chords were but I played them. I even got a business license and started Freeway Records in the late 1950s. I didn't release any records until 1962. I joined the Army in 1958 and moved to New York in 1960.

I did not do any shows in New York but I still practiced piano without ever taking a lesson. I still sang out loud while I worked. I was not bashful about singing. In 1961 I moved to Las Vegas. I got a job at a warehouse and one day something happened which led to my show business career. If I had not been in the office area one morning things might have been different.

There are people who have had great success by being phony. I believe you should just be who you are and maybe with a little luck...

I was in the office one day checking some paperwork when Bill Hess came in. Bill worked in the paper stock section of the warehouse. He told the secretary in the office he wanted to be in the "check pool." There was a weekly pooling of money which would be paid to the person whose check number was the best poker hand. There were about 50 people who entered the pool each week. They each put in a dollar hoping to win about $50. The secretary told Bill Hess to give her a dollar. Bill Hess did not have a dollar. It was payday. Bill said he would cash his check then pay the dollar. The secretary said, "no." Bill was about to leave the office without entering the check pool.

It was at that moment my show business career began. (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)