Yuichi Sugiyama & Richard Bloch .. 1983 ..

So, I remember it was back in 1983 when I met Yuichi it was on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood where he is a popular fellow has many friends like George Chakiris the legend of West Hollywood so, I walk into the best gay bar and there he was sitting on a stool 'holding court' .. all the other guys around him!! So, we hit it off and the next thing you know .. I tell him. I'm originally from Kansas City and was going back to visit my mother. He said he had a friend in KC that he knew from his Alice Cooper days and there famous tour, he was in the show!! So, I call Gary Stevens, when I get into Kansas City in 1983. We become friends and the next thing I know. Yuichi Sugiyama calls us to say he is going to be in Kansas City to help Richard Bloch learn some dance moves and take care of his health!! Richard had been diagnosed with Cancer in 1978, had sold his interest in 'H&R Bloch the tax company' in 1982. He flew him out to Kansas City, Missouri after they had met at the Golden Door Health Spa in Southern California, where Yuichi was the dance instructor, and Richard went for some treatment. So, Gary and I picked him up in Gary's new black BMW from the airport and then we hit the Plaza for lunch and crawled all over the pub's and bar's, then we take him out to Overland Park to meet up with Richard .. He helped with Richards quality of life and his personal battle with cancer. Yuichi is a great performer and choreographer and teaches dance routines that are a real morale booster, he is always elated and smiling, that is what Richard Bloch needed the most !! Richard died in 2004, he put up a hell of a fight !!