My Hollywood Years

As you may have gathered from my previous posts, my long life has been packed with very interesting and varied experiences. For seven years I was employed as a T.V. recording engineer at the NBC Hollywood studios, which were moved to the bigger, new Burbank studios. We had interesting opportunities to observe prominent movie and T.V. stars in their relaxed moments. It was surprising how different some of them were when not in front of the cameras. Some were thoughtful and kind while others were so obnoxious that if their fans saw them that way they would be shocked.

Rose Marie Clooney invited the engineering staff to a party. She was very gracious and made each of us feel welcome. Her husband, José Ferrer, appeared bored at having to associate with us commoners. Tennessee Ernie Ford hosted us at an elaborate dinner in one of the studios, decorated especially for the occasion. One time I turned a corner and almost stumbled over a huge Bengal Tiger lounging on the floor. Just then, he let out a big boring yawn. His mouth was so big it could have swallowed my whole head. He was there alone without any trainer around. I resisted the temptation to pet that beautiful cat. Another frightening encounter occurred when I came face to face with Boris Karloff.  He sent shivers down my back because of the movies I had seen in which he was the wicked monster. Actually, he was a very large man, but a friendly and kindly gentleman. A more pleasant encounter was when two or three of us gathered around the piano where Nat King Cole was privately rehearsing. He was the darkest black man I had ever seen and was extremely thoughtful and kind. He played and sang several of our requests. One time I was walking down a hall and a tall gentleman was ahead of me. Even though he was moving away from me, the way he walked clicked something in my mind and I thought it must be Fred Astaire, the great dancer. I didn’t know until then that he was in the building. He was there to perform a beautiful one hour special show. There were too many other interesting experiences in the studio to relate them all here.