OK now I don’t want to offend anyone so all sight impaired people please put this book down right now…….OK I think they are gone now.  If you are sight impaired and listening to this on audio books, first I apologize for the story you are about to hear, and by the way there are much better books you should be listening to than this one.  Ok I think they are really gone now.  Just in case they are not, my attorney is Carlson, Stradling, Yucca, and Roth, Newport Beach, California.

In 1973, I was a junior in High School.  It was about my second year working at South Seas Topical Fish.  By the time of this event, I had sung at a couple of Butch and Debbie’s parties at their house. You see I was a very early Elvis impersonator.  I don’t like being grouped in with Elvis impersonators as it implies I had jumpsuits, jumped around doing quasi-karate moves, handed out scarves to “chicks” as they were called back then.  Well I never did that stuff.  Well, I did have a pair of white pants that I split the legs on and sewed red velvet lining on and put two links of gold chains over the red velvet, but that was as far as I went.  Except I also had a macramé belt with wood beads painted red to match the red velvet, but that was about as far as I went.  Oh yeah, I did have silky high collared shirts, more like blouses that I would open up to my navel exposing my hairy sweaty chest, but that was about all I did to look like Elvis.  Well I did have some shoes that were blue patent leather with white cloth tops that went real well with the white slacks, but that was about the extent of how I looked like Elvis.  Actually I did have a bunch of scarves that matched my pants, shirts, shoes and velvet inlay in my pants, but that was about as much as I would consider looking like Elvis.  Of course I did have some oversized gold rim sunglasses but that was really as much as you could say I was trying to look like Elvis, and I never really acted like him when I was singing.  Well I would play 2001 a Space Odyssey while holding a guitar that I have yet to figure out how to play, but that was about it.  Well, I would curl my lip and say “Welllllllll, welllll wellll wellll welllllllll welllawellllllll.!”, but that was about all.  Yeah I would get down on my knee occasionally but that was about the only thing I did to actually act like Elvis when I sang.  Well, occasionally I would hold my hand out in front of me like I was holding and squeezing a invisible tennis ball while I sang but that was not really copying Elvis.  And there was the occasional Karate kick during certain songs like Polk Salad Annie or Suspicious Minds, but that was about all I did to act like Elvis when I sang.  Well every once in a while at the end of a song I would let my arms fly out and do a pirouette just as the music ended, but that was just what I was feeling it really wasn’t copying Elvis, besides it was easy for him because the band had to stop when he did his pirouette, I had to time mine exactly to when the music ended, but I digress.

Since I was singing Elvis, and I was working for Butch, I had been gaining an education on Rock and Roll music.  Now I am not talking about the crap that came out after 1964, but the heart and the roots of Beale Street, New Orleans, Phildelphia, I mean good old rock and roll.  I was just learning names like Bo Diddley and Richard Penniman and Danny and the Juniors.  Butch was and still is a huge fan of Antoine aka Fats Domino.  Well to my good fortune in the summer of 1973, a movie hit the market called “Let the Good Times Roll.” 

If my memory serves me right Butch, Deb and I went to see this great documentary at the original Edwards Theater on Adams in Costa Mesa.  If it is the place, it has some cool cinema history.  James Edwards II retired to Newport Beach in the 60s after making a not so small fortune in the theater business in Los Angeles.  He started in the 30’s.  He put a lot on the line convincing film distributors that he could get Orange County on the map for first release films outside of LA.  His early big gamble was a personal guarantee to MGM for 75,000 dollars for the first run of “Dr. Zhivago” in 1965.  That success and other lead to the empire of Edwards Cinema that came to end in 2000 when it reached it peak of 850 screens in 90 cities.  Over expansion lead Edwards into bankruptcy.  Ironically enough, Jack Coffee, an acquaintance of mine was put in charge of Edwards post bankruptcy and was very involved in the sale of Edwards to the Regal Cinema group.

Well, in 1973, Edwards One as it was called was a classic old lady of the cinema, but it was an old lady.  We watched the movie and it was great.  I got to see live performance of many of the artist Butch had told me about and I had read about.  It was clear to see from some of the off stage clips that many of these people were simple and beat up from years on the road and all the trials and tribulations of being a rock and roller for twenty years.  Some of the high lights were watching Bo Didley stuffing his face with Fried Chicken and actually watching Chuck Berry do the “duck walk” for my first time observing.  Way Cool, and a life experience.

When the film was finished, everyone was making they’re way out the back of Edwards One like salmon spawning out into the back parking lot.  As one who even at the young age of 17, I tried to avoid crowds and lines and don’t like them to this day, I was anxiously looking forward to getting out of the theater.  It was a matinee and I know this as the door was allowing brilliant southern California sunshine into the musty old theater.  As we got closer and closer to the exit, I could see the bright sunlight, causing me and everyone to squint.  Once we hit the platform out side the back of the theater with dozens of movie goers all around, I remember the great part of the movie with Ray Charles and his unforgettable “What I’d Say”.  Well I grabbed Butch’s arm and began to swing my head back forth and yell at the top of my lungs, “Who’d a tought to take a bline man to da movies?  Tank you Mr. Stubinger Thank you and God Bless.  That’s right everybody dis man be takin a blin man to da movies and I can’t say enough thank you Lordy Lordy?”  The whole while Butch and Debbie were trying to escape from me but I was latched onto Butch’s arm.  There was no way he was going to abandon this sightless man’s side.  All through the parking lot on the way to car.  “Who da tough to take a bline man to da theater, thankya thankya.”