Read Online Call Me Lumpy: My Leave It to Beaver Days and Other Wild Hollywood Life by Frank Bank, Gibu Twyman - Free Book Online
Authors: Frank Bank, Gibu Twyman
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when he comes across the plate, he takes about two or three steps and slides down onto one knee like Jolson did in his act.
You know:
"Mammy!"
The guy spreads his hands out at Jolson, like: Take that, wiseguy.
Jolson cracked up.
Everybody did.
Moments like that were the reasons my old man loved to hang around jocks.
He loved rubbing elbows with the fighters. He was kind of a street guy. One of his buds was Benny Leonard. Benny Leonard held three world boxing championships at one time. Of course, my father told me Benny was much better than Joe Louis.
"Better than any Schwartzer," Leonard used to say. Which is to say a black guy.
I mean, Benny was Jewish and there ain't an Irish guy or a black guy alive can lick this Jew, right?
My dad was friends with Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, the fighter. And then there was this one guy my dad said was the greatest fighter you never heard of. His name was King Lavinsky. King Lavinsky was a big-time fighter in the '30s. Dad said he packed a right cross that was just the greatest.
This was my dad. He ran his little meat businesswith Sylvia's help. My dad never drank. He didn't carouse. Because he loved my mother. But he loved to be with the guys.
There are some guys . . . they're . . . out with the guys. That was my dad. Even when I was growing up, my dad had a night out with the boys. He was either playing poker or they were going to Hollywood Park for the ponies.
So that was our family, Leonard and Sylvia and me and Doug and Teddy the dog. He was a Spitz. Teddy was a cool, cool dog.
And Doug was pretty cool in his own way. There were 15 years between us, so we never got close as we might have otherwise. In fact, we never really got along because he had a drinking problem.
It used to burn my butt because I didn't like to see him that way, and I also didn't like the strain that his alcoholism put on Mom and Dad.
But Doug was a very talented, very bright guy. He lived his own fascinating life.
He was named Doug after Douglas Fairbanks, because my mother had the hots for Douglas Fairbanks.
Doug was the valedictorian of his graduating class at the University of
Page 49
Southern California. This was 1950.
My brother was a pipe dreamer. His intentions were good, but he wasn't practical. He dreamt of everything being Utopian. My brother was a terrific writer. He wrote this one show called "The Preacher," which made them revive "Elmer Gantry."
It was voted the best play of 1958 in Beverly Hills.
Doug owned a theater called the Beverly Hills Playhouse, and he had a lot of big stars who actually did small theater in Los Angeles in those days.
Leonard Nimoy was always hanging around, and Marvin Kaplan was one of Doug's best buddies. I mean, these guys had a bunch called "The Group." The Group used to meet over on Sunset at this little hamburger stand named The Hamburger Hamlet.
In those days it was a little hash house on Sunset, near Doheny, one block up from the current Whiskey-a-Go-Go.
The cook was a guy named Harry Lewis. The waitress was a lady named Marilyn Lewis. You might know her now as Cardinale, the designer. Because that's what she wound up doing.
Harry and Marilyn Lewis started up the chain of Hamburger Hamlets that I knew when I was growing up and all through my young adult days. Hamburger Hamlet was probably the best coffee shop in Southern California. McDonald's started in the '50s and the Hamlets started in the '40s, and the Hamlets ruled, with the best burgers anywhere in the world.
Anyhow, my brother's buddies, Nimoy, Peter Leedsone of the best character actors in Hollywooda guy named Stanley Adams and a guy named Nick Adams, who played Johnny Yuma on the TV western series, "The Rebel" . . . these guys all met with my brother, Doug, in The Group.
Leonard Nimoy was probably the least talented of those guys, but "Star Trek" and Spock turned him into the biggest star. Although I think Marvin Kaplan is still one of the greatest character actors I've ever seen. I loved him. He played
You know:
"Mammy!"
The guy spreads his hands out at Jolson, like: Take that, wiseguy.
Jolson cracked up.
Everybody did.
Moments like that were the reasons my old man loved to hang around jocks.
He loved rubbing elbows with the fighters. He was kind of a street guy. One of his buds was Benny Leonard. Benny Leonard held three world boxing championships at one time. Of course, my father told me Benny was much better than Joe Louis.
"Better than any Schwartzer," Leonard used to say. Which is to say a black guy.
I mean, Benny was Jewish and there ain't an Irish guy or a black guy alive can lick this Jew, right?
My dad was friends with Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, the fighter. And then there was this one guy my dad said was the greatest fighter you never heard of. His name was King Lavinsky. King Lavinsky was a big-time fighter in the '30s. Dad said he packed a right cross that was just the greatest.
This was my dad. He ran his little meat businesswith Sylvia's help. My dad never drank. He didn't carouse. Because he loved my mother. But he loved to be with the guys.
There are some guys . . . they're . . . out with the guys. That was my dad. Even when I was growing up, my dad had a night out with the boys. He was either playing poker or they were going to Hollywood Park for the ponies.
So that was our family, Leonard and Sylvia and me and Doug and Teddy the dog. He was a Spitz. Teddy was a cool, cool dog.
And Doug was pretty cool in his own way. There were 15 years between us, so we never got close as we might have otherwise. In fact, we never really got along because he had a drinking problem.
It used to burn my butt because I didn't like to see him that way, and I also didn't like the strain that his alcoholism put on Mom and Dad.
But Doug was a very talented, very bright guy. He lived his own fascinating life.
He was named Doug after Douglas Fairbanks, because my mother had the hots for Douglas Fairbanks.
Doug was the valedictorian of his graduating class at the University of
Page 49
Southern California. This was 1950.
My brother was a pipe dreamer. His intentions were good, but he wasn't practical. He dreamt of everything being Utopian. My brother was a terrific writer. He wrote this one show called "The Preacher," which made them revive "Elmer Gantry."
It was voted the best play of 1958 in Beverly Hills.
Doug owned a theater called the Beverly Hills Playhouse, and he had a lot of big stars who actually did small theater in Los Angeles in those days.
Leonard Nimoy was always hanging around, and Marvin Kaplan was one of Doug's best buddies. I mean, these guys had a bunch called "The Group." The Group used to meet over on Sunset at this little hamburger stand named The Hamburger Hamlet.
In those days it was a little hash house on Sunset, near Doheny, one block up from the current Whiskey-a-Go-Go.
The cook was a guy named Harry Lewis. The waitress was a lady named Marilyn Lewis. You might know her now as Cardinale, the designer. Because that's what she wound up doing.
Harry and Marilyn Lewis started up the chain of Hamburger Hamlets that I knew when I was growing up and all through my young adult days. Hamburger Hamlet was probably the best coffee shop in Southern California. McDonald's started in the '50s and the Hamlets started in the '40s, and the Hamlets ruled, with the best burgers anywhere in the world.
Anyhow, my brother's buddies, Nimoy, Peter Leedsone of the best character actors in Hollywooda guy named Stanley Adams and a guy named Nick Adams, who played Johnny Yuma on the TV western series, "The Rebel" . . . these guys all met with my brother, Doug, in The Group.
Leonard Nimoy was probably the least talented of those guys, but "Star Trek" and Spock turned him into the biggest star. Although I think Marvin Kaplan is still one of the greatest character actors I've ever seen. I loved him. He played
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