GAIL GERBER HAS LEFT THE ‘HOOD…

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and has headed home to Vancouver where it all began for her. I will miss her dearly. Gail was not just a former 60s starlet to me. We stayed in touch, became friends, then neighbors, and eventually she became part of our family in upstate Manhattan along with Ern, Teddy and Maxie. Friday nights hanging out at the bar listening to live jazz at the New Leaf Restaurant in the middle of Fort Tryon Park will not be the same without Gail. She really is into all kinds of jazz and doesn’t mind “the girl singers” once in awhile. If we had dinner with Gail and ate at a table, we would treat her to dessert, a glass or two of Lemoncello, at the bar where we would chat with David our favorite bartender or another David our favorite barfly.

Gail Gerber was born in Vancouver and left at age 15 when she became the youngest member of Les Grandes Ballets Canadiennes based in Montreal. She stayed with the troupe from 1952 to 1960 when the acting bug grabbed her. She moved first to Toronto where she honed her craft in Summer Stock and on live TV before taking on Hollywood in 1963. She quickly landed 2  Elvis Presley movies; 2 beach movies; and a teenage sci-fi flick. She also landed a beau, writer Terry Southern in 1964, whom she met on the set of The Loved One and whom she would stay with until his death 30 years later. They didn’t let a little thing like their spouses get in the way of their relationship, which was not the norm for that period of time.

Giving up her acting career in 1966, she tagged along as Terry moved from Hollywood to Malibu to New York to London to New York again and then settling in the Berkshires. After Southern passed away in 1995, Gail moved back to Vancouver briefly then moved back to the Berkshires then to New York then to Chicago then back to New York one last time.

I met Gail during her second to last stint in New York when I interviewed her for my book Drive-in Dream Girls in 2002. We met for lunch in the West Village and she was delightful and fun. When the book came out she contacted me and said I captured her real voice and she was impressed. She also said Terry would have been too and that our title was so him.

After Gail moved to Chicago, she would get in touch with me when she came to New York for short visits. We would meet for dinner or go see live music (i.e. Ilene Kristen, Delia from Ryan’s Hope, at the Triad). When Gail came back to New York the last time we became very close as I helped her write her memoir Trippin’ with Terry Southern. We spent practically every Saturday together for over one year. She was living in Upstate Manhattan and Ernie just purchased a co-op nearby due to Gail introducing us to the area. I had never been above 125th Street prior.

My favorite moments with Gail were sitting at our kitchen bar getting tipsy on wine or proseco while Ernie was cooking away with 2 or 3 burners working and the oven heating up the apartment. He and Gail would talk food and share Mark Bickman recipes. Gail and I would chat about her famous friends such as Rip Torn, Angelica Page, David Amram, Matthew Barney and trash people that did her or Terry dirt such as Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Terry’s ex-wife. After a usually splendid meal, Ern and I would walk a stumbling Gail home and make plans for the next dinner at our house or the next time to meet at the New Leaf.

People used to say that Terry Southern was the hippest guy on the planet. I can definitely say that Gail Gerber is the hippest gal I ever knew on the planet. Hell she danced with Elvis Presley; licked Beau Bridges’ face in the mud; pissed off the Beach Boys; hung out with the Rolling Stones; took an ocean cruise with Peter Sellers; sneezed cocaine all over Harry Nillson; did live theatre with Ilene Kristen; was best friends with Geraldine Page; helped Rip Torn win his lawsuit vs. Dennis Hopper; appeared in a Matthew Barney film at age 75; and grows pot in her home! Upstate Manhattan will never be the same without her and I hope she enjoys her new life in Vancouver!

 

New year 12

 

 

 

ACTRESS TURNED CHILDREN’S AUTHOR

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Former sixties starlet Carole Wells has just written a children’s book that is receiving rave reviews. It is titled Amberella: An Action Hero Adventure from AuthorHouse. Below is the publisher’s book description:

“Amberella is An Action Hero Adventure story of a little princess searching to find her mother. She travels through different exotic lands experiencing frightening and funny encounters. The Queens from different enchanting lands teach her wisdom, respect and secret guide lines to prepare her for her future. She learns from different animals how to communicate and respect all living creatures. Many children have responsibilities beyond their years. Amberella is a fantasy to help children cope with adult problems by learning that the Laws of the Universe can make them stronger and more successful. Amberella demonstrates how to believe in one’s self and dare to live one’s dreams. Critics are saying that Amberella is not only for children, but a book for all ages!”
As for Carole Wells starlet days, she was a gorgeous gal with big green eyes and long silky flaxen hair.  She once rightly told a magazine reporter, “When you’re a blonde, people always notice you.”  Talented and charming with just the right movie star look, she should have become a superstar but contractual TV obligations, her interest in opera singing, and her commitment to her family seemed to get in the way of big screen stardom.  Instead, Wells co-starred on television in the family drama series National Velvet and the wild and wooly sitcom Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats.  Drive-in fans remember Wells for playing the blonde tease who vamps college student Doug McClure in the hot rod film, The Lively Set (1964).  She was off the big screen for close to ten years when she surprised her old fans by accepting a part in the cult horror film The House of Seven Corpes (1974).  But in her next feature Wells faced an even more terrifying monster in Barbra Streisand when she accepted a supporting role in Funny Lady (1975). You can read more about Carole, who also wrote the foreword, in my book Drive-in Dream Girls.
Below are rare outtakes of Carole Wells in Funny Lady most of which Streisand had excised from final print due to her having creative control over the sequel.

httpv://youtu.be/-3ZooDgQZvM

Per Carole, “Barbra was always very nice to me but I kept my distance.  We had a nice rapport but—she may have evolved since then—she was totally just interested in her own work.” It wasn’t until after Funny Lady was released that Wells’ opinion of La Streisand dropped dramatically. “Barbra had the power in the editing room and had me cut out three
times,” exclaims Wells.  “I had a dance scene with Ben Vereen but it was dropped. I think this was a shame because here you had a Tony winner and a great entertainer in Vereen and she cut him out so much.  There are a lot of things I did in that movie
that people won’t see because Barbra omitted my scenes.  Jimmy Caan jokes how the movie was about the back of his head.  It was Barbra’s face on everything.  The film needed more of a balance because you had a lot of good actors, funny scenes and a lot of people beautifully costumed by Bob Mackie and Ray Aghayan for it to have so much cut out.  Everybody was sick about it.  We saw how long it took to film some of these scenes and they never got shown.”

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ON THE RADIO

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Thursday night I was on the WNYC radio program Soundcheck discussing music in the 1960s beach movies. Click here to access their web site to listen to archived program. We talked Frankie and Annette; Dick Dale; The Beach Boys; Gail Gerber; Jan and Dean; James Brown, etc. Below are YouTube clips featuring music from the show.

httpv://youtu.be/tm_G_DCJMmY

httpv://youtu.be/Nk3ZN3dSeDk

httpv://youtu.be/SDYxVyDbh9c

httpv://youtu.be/7_xBT_xavzM

httpsv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiVrps1ex1o

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MOTHER DOLORES HART

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In 1962 while making the movie Come Fly with Me actress Dolores Hart confided in her co-star and friend Pamela Tiffin about her desires to enter a monastic life. Pamela’s response, “Oh, but you don’t want to Dolores!” That was my feeling as I began reading Mother Dolores Hart’s entertaining, brutally honest, never preachy, and insightful memoir The Ear of the Heart: An Actress’s Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows co-written by Richard DeNeut.

httpv://youtu.be/rxBB-HzW8gI

Rejecting Catholicism in the 7th grade while still in Catholic School, I was rooting for Dolores to stay in Hollywood (even though I obviously knew the outcome). Her years there are vividly remembered as she just loved being an actress. Not only is there back story on some of her movies (not enough for me though) and of course her feelings about Elvis Presley, but she also divulges movie roles she lost or turned down. Her time on Broadway in The Pleasure of His Company gets a lot of space from the moment she auditions through rehearsals to opening night to the Tony Awards ceremony where she was nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play to her encounter with that jackass Debbie Reynolds to her introduction to the Abbey Regina Laudis, which is the turning point in her life.

Her early years on honestly retold as well living with a deadbeat father who had dreams of Hollywood stardom and an alcoholic mother. Wanting to fit in with others in her Catholic School in LA, Dolores converted at age 10. For me the most nerve-racking part of the book is when Dolores returns to Hollywood after completing Come Fly with Me. Though engaged, she decides to make the leap to become a cloistered nun. While waiting to see if she is accepted, Dolores breaks up with her financee; keeps her family in the dark; and tries to keep her agent and producer Hal Wallis, whom she is under contract to, at bay. MGM wants to sign her to a very lucrative picture deal and leading lady roles are waiting for her opposite Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford. All she needs to do is sign on the dotted line. However, Dolores is waiting for one role of a higher calling.

After she takes the leap, Mother Dolores does not hold back describing her early years at the Abbey and how she almost left a number of times. While reading, I was fruitlessly hoping for a to return to Hollywood. However, Mother Dolores finally won me over and I accepted her decision to remain there. I always wondered though that since she was a cloistered nun, why have we seen a lot of her in the past 20 years. All things revolve and so does a cloistered abbey as Mother Dolores details with its internal power struggles. We also learn about her Hollywood friends who remained in touch (Karl Malden, Patricia Neal, Lois Nettleton, Mrs. Bob Hope, etc.); the years when she was out of sight and out of mind; how the chant CDs came about in the nineties; her painful muscle illness that she still is battling; and her life today. I for one am glad she is now in the public eye again.

My biggest concern with the book going in was the religious aspect. I am happy to say Mother Dolores does not try in the least to convert anyone but shares her faith and spirituality that has served her all these years. I only a few qualms with the book. First Mother Dolores’ words are all in italics. This is not too distracting during her time in Hollywood as her co-author provides much of the back story, but once she enters the Abbey it is mostly in Mother Dolores’ voice. There also is a bit too much emphasis on the other nuns in the Abbey. I think we learn about almost every single one who has come and went. But other than those minor distractions, I totally recommend this book to fans of celebrity memoirs and especially sixties starlets.

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