Linda Christian did my Portrait .. 1975 !!!!!!!

So, in 1975 Linda Christian was going to South Africa to visit and date the president. She came into my boutique in Marbella, Spain in the Puerto Banus and said if I would make her a wardrobe, "I will trade you for a portrait".. I liked her art work very much, and Diego Rivera had taught her his technique and did two portraits of her the most famous was with lilies and she was offered two million dollars for it .. she was the first Bond girl !! So, I put together three thousand dollars worth of silk shirts and dresses off the rack, as they say, they were all a French 42 dress size  .. Size eight in American. Then we went over to her house in the hills. She was renting this  Spanish house with a pool. She set up all the art supplies and I posed for three days. After she was done it was time for her to leave for South Africa and I took her to the airport !!!

Kansas and the Flint Hills ..

So, I drove with my mother who had a real estate brokers license to look at some lake property in Manhatten, Kansas on the North end of 'Tuttle Creek Lake' .. I was a teenager and we met some people from Dallas, Texas and she paid them one hundred dollars for a majestic, natural prairie. Prairie means meadow in French and this was a beautiful meadow alright.. I just loved it so peaceful and green, lush what a great place to go to get away from Kansas City about 100 miles from KC -- The lake lot had cedar trees and wild flowers and a view of the longest bridge in Kansas. I

t was Springtime and I loved the grassland .. she said to me someday it will be yours, I loved my mother she was a real 'Southern Bell' from Georgia !!!

C.I.A. in Marbella 1985

So, it was the summer of 1985 in the Puerto Banus, Marbella, Malaga, Spain.  I had lots of house guests that summer..  Like Oliver Tobias the Swiss actor.. Elle Elliott the hairstylist from Hollywood came over..  I met her in Beverly Hills in 1977. Sitting in the boutique with all the jet set going from bar to bar !! This guy was coming on to her. Italian guy, hot sexy, big guy at the Sophia Hapsburg party -  but when she told him she was my houseguest , he went cold and said, I would never let her go out with him .. So, she asked me who is he ?   I said he is the Mafia Boss, and has a 13 bedroom house on the beach .. So, then she said another guy hit on her in the street and all he wanted to talk about was Adnan Khashoggi the Arab arms dealer. Did she know anything, about him, she said, "I am from Hollywood", but, I did meet his wife Soraya Khashoggi in the  boutique buying a dress for her little daughter, she said something about the girls  father was a Winston Churchill family member. No, about her X-husband, Adnan Khashoggi !! He  said, I have not met him Then he walked off !! What was up with that?? Who is he?? I told her that he was C.I.A.!!  I saw her jaw drop ... The other C.I.A. was a women - I called her 'Frankly Mary Ann Tachley' because she used the word 'frankly' so much .. all she wanted to talk to me about was Adnan Khashoggi, !! She bought some dress when she first came in but now it was all backgammon and what about AK what did I know .. I wasn't going to say anything none of his friends who knew the score would talk bad about him we liked him he was our friend 'Frankly' !

The R. Crosby Kemper Jr. Clan !!!

So, Norton Simon used to say he wouldn't trade his life experience and business experience for the academic experience of most people in the museum field .. I couldn't agree with him more !! Norton Simon had little patience with academia, Norton had a great eye and was well known for picking the best brains but making his own decisions. He established the first of several tax-exempt foundations to buy for public display. He didn't have a museum, so he created a museum without walls that loaned works from the foundation's collection, setting a pattern that holds to this day.. So, that is some back story. My Blob story is: The Kempers. I have liked three of there exhibits - one was the Herb Ritts, also the Jamie Wyeth/Nureyev and the other was David Bates Katrina paintings, where I met Mr. R. Crosby Kemper. So, also, I went to see the son R. Crosby Kemper the third He was filming the KCPT show called "Meet the Past" at the Downtown Library. I said to him this is all wrong. They were filming the beautiful library building the width not the length.. I said to sit behind a desk like Johnny Carson and the 'Tonight Show' use the same format and tone.. They should of had a closed set with good looking female/male actor/extras.. with wardrobe and hair/makeup in tight sweaters and reading classes looking up at Mr. Crosby Kemper, for the director to cut to.. He should of been in an Armani double breasted suit with a good hair cut/makeup job himself!! The visual look of that show was appalling... With all his money you would think he would know better, but he didn't, and to be stupid and pretentious is very sad he could of called his niece in LA even for advice.. It would not of cost anymore to do that show right.. But, because his education is sitting in a class room not a movie set on the job as it were he/they had no idea. KCPT can't film anything right .. They don't have a clue.. That is what makes me crazy with the academics of Kansas City ... no class !!

Writers & Artists Agency ...

So, In 1996 I was living in West Hollywood full time. My boutique in Marbella, Spain in the Puerto Banus had gone bankrupt in 1993 due to a Spanish recession. I had a car crash March 5, of 1995 that left me with a lot of legal bills and some injury and my main source of income was a deal with Joan Scott at 'Writers and Artists Agency' in Westwood, California at that time it was the sixth largest literary/talent agency and had an office in Rome. So, I get a phone call from the president of the agency, Mr. John Barkworth who had been my agent for a long time. He was from Canada and his clients were Bo Derek, Patrick Duffy, as actors and novelist John Grisham as writer to name a few.. also he was the agent for Nanette Fabray the MGM Star and a "Tony" winner from 1939 ... and Brenda Fricker who had made 30 films and won the Oscar in 1990 as supporting actress for "My Left Foot" again to name a few !! This was a good deal for me it was to write 'Movie Treatments' for Showtime about old Hollywood in a Film Noir type fashion. They were about my friends like Jennifer Jones, Linda Christian, Jean Negulesco, Josephine Baker, Madeline Carrol, stories about them and other stories that they had told me about Hollywood and people that they had known in there time. On cold winter nights in the south of Spain a little bit drunk they would talk if you know what I mean, like a story about Errol Flynn/Ty Power, homosexual stuff, you get the picture !! I needed the money !! It paid well too !! So, when John called me up in June of 1996 and said that Nanette Fabray had three tickets to the Tony Awards and that she was a presenter and did I want to go with them and stay at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue .. I thought it was best, I say yes. They flew out and then I took the Red Eye later that night.. I check in to the Hotel the next morning and that night we go to the Tony Awards at the Majestic Theatre and I see and talk to John Lithgow who I had lunch with on the set of "Out Cold" with him and Teri Garr.. Also I talked with Ben Vereen, who I knew from Spain and Beatrice the Duchess of Sevilla. Ben was a presenter as well.. and Nathan Lane was the host, it was the 50th show and a blast... all was well or so I thought !! The next thing I know, Joan Scott sent her lawyer to fire John Barkworth, not sure of all the water that was under there bridge but I guess it was the last straw between them.. John loses his mind!!!! I mean he lost all reality!!! If you have ever experienced someone who has gone mad/crazy it is a horrible thing, scary and sad.. Part of his problem was sleep deprivation, effects from no sleep. His clients all want a piece of him and he gave it to them at all hours day or night, always picked up the check.. So, he started to have hallucinations!! Nanette bailed on him and left it up to me to get him back to California.. I put sunglasses on him and acted like nothing was wrong and got him back to his apartment on Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood off of Sunset. But, I had things to do and had to leave him there alone.. Then later the next day I get a call from Brenda Fricker who as it turned out was the only other client that would return his phone calls and cared at all, the rest took the side of Joan Scott.. John had been picked up by the police on Santa Monica Blvd. 'naked' and they took him downtown to the county mental hospital.. I go down but there is nothing I can do for him so I get the key to his apartment so Brenda and I can feed his dog etc.. to be continued .............

Raul Julia .... "The Addams Family" ........

So, It was 1990 and I'm at the bar. It was the Academy Awards Show at the Shriners Auditorium in Hollywood the year that Kevin Costner won for "Dances with Wolves" .. when long time friend Edward James Olmos came over to say hello .. we had a couple of drinks and listen to Bob Hope and Madonna telling some wild story next to us when who should show up to say hello to Edward but Raul Julia and I was introduced to him by Mr. Olmos and we hit it off and we stayed and talked a little while Edward and the others went back to there seats .. So, in 1991 he invited me to have lunch on the set of the 'Addams Family'. He knew I wanted to meet Anjelica Huston who I had told him, that I was a big fan of her father and her, that night at the show. I tell this story because of the Awards show last night and the people that have died.. Raul Julia was from San Juan , Puerto Rico and had a stroke in 1994 .. he was discovered by no other than Orson Bean .. I saw him in the 1982 stage show of 'Nine' when he played the Fellini-esque film director .. I loved his character in "Addams Family" .. Puerto Rico gave him a state funeral, as well they should. He was a lovely man and was very concerned about the children and hunger. He gave me a picture , again a lovely man .. gone to soon !!!!

Jean Negulesco ...

So, I first met Jean in Marbella, Spain in 1972. He was retired from the movie business and lived in the Marbella Club Hotel in a house with his wife Dusty. Off season in Marbella was the time you could get to know your friends and we would have dinner at his house and my apartment .. We talked about women and art and movies.. He knew all the legendary stars the one I was most interested in was Greta Garbo. He told me she bought and sold a dozen houses and he bought the last one in Beverly Hills when she quit the business. One night on a rainy cold for Spain winter night he did a drawing of me. It was a sketch. So, Greta Garbo came to Marbella and stayed at the home of her art dealer Herbert Kende and he gave her a party and I went and she was nice. The next day Jean gave her a lunch party at his house.. He had a argentine gaucho grill and was the chef, with lots of help, and they made a variety of tempting dishes.. I picked her up at Herbert's house in the hills and then drove her to the Marbella Club.. she had a big floppy hat and sunglasses.. With all the rumors, the publicity and the legend about her, I did what Jean said, and kept my mouth shut, and just drove her to his lunch party.. I sat next to her at one of the tables and after two iced Polish vodkas she was in a happy mood and Jean had gathered a delightful circle of friends in his house not far from the beach. I was ready to be confronted with some sort of a bizarre performance. Instead she was simple, direct, comfortable, lovely sense of humor. Great ambience. That gave me the security to ask her some questions. She was completely relaxed. She laughed and listened carefully to the other people, but, when a stranger suddenly came late, unexpectedly, after we had eaten and the party was winding down she hurried me out to my car to take her away, and was shy and insecure. He made a fuss over her and she protected her privacy... to be continued ...