Bewitched and Beyond: The Fan Who Came to Dinner (11 page)

Kasey also had a small plant still sitting in its same spot on a dresser in her bedroom that was completely missing its pot. It was days before we came to the conclusion that the plant must’ve leapt into the air, just as the drawer opened, swallowing the pot, and then closing again as the plant came back down right into place!

I had a small picture of Kasey and me at the Christmas ball we attended in ’92 on my chest of drawers, but it was nowhere to be found.

It was
years
later, as I was moving furniture out of the room to paint it, I found that same picture
embedded
in the wall, with only about a half inch of it sticking out!

My favorite line through all of this?

“I promise NEVER to try that spell again!!!”

Grauman’s
Egyptian
Theatre, a national landmark in Hollywood, was heavily damaged during the rumble. It had been the site of the first-ever Hollywood premiere in 1925, complete with dancing slave girls and Roman soldiers standing on parapets with pots that shot flames into the air. The film was Robin Hood starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

Kasey and I got one of our wild hairs about starting a campaign to have it restored, but someone else had already beaten us to the punch. We didn’t care as long as something was being done.

But before we knew that, Kasey and I were looking around the outside of the Egyptian, when she noticed that the back door was ajar. She went in and I panicked! But follow, I must!

It was incredibly dark, except for some brilliant shafts of light entering the room at all angles from the holes in the back wall where the screen had once hung. This is where Myrna Loy once worked as a hat check girl.

We stepped over a sleeping bum and wound our way up to the entrance of the theatre. From our clandestine spot, we noticed a security guard in the forecourt, who had no idea intruders were watching from within! Kasey and I quickly picked up the fragments from the head of a toppled plaster Egyptian sentry and quietly snuck back out. I still have the pieces somewhere in a box buried deep in storage, as one day I want to have them restored and mounted, as if it were some priceless, ancient relic. Because of its history, in many ways to me, it is.

Kasey and I shared an affinity for Hollywood landmarks. In the middle of Hollywood, there once stood an incredible edifice known as The Garden of Allah. It stood on the grounds of the home of silent film star Alla Nazimova! She later turned her palatial home into a hotel by building discreet bungalows all about her property. It sat at the corner of Crescent Heights and the legendary Sunset Boulevard, just across the street from where the famed Schwab’s Drug Store once stood. Today, what sits there? A bank and a McDonald’s… sad.

In August, 1959, when this iconic palace closed its doors for the last time, Kasey and Bud went trudging through the gardens where she snipped a piece of a jade plant.

Kasey always enjoyed the odd habit of
wild-flower picking
! What that actually means is if she saw a flower or plant growing in someone’s yard, she’d pluck it right out, roots and all! She LOVED to root plants in cups and then plant them on the front porch in one of a myriad of pots.

That same jade plant that Kasey plucked from the Garden of Allah all those years ago somehow survived the test of time and grew into a small behemoth on the front porch of our condo.

We always talked about selling clippings of it with a picture of the infamous landmark it came from, but that’s another business venture that only made it into the talking stage.

Believe it or not, I still have it happily growing where I live now.

1994 was also the year that I met my dear friend, SueAne Langdon.

Years before, I had once performed Elvis’ version of Frankie & Johnny at a theme park in Atlanta.There was one girl in the cast who played the character of “Mitzi,” which had been originated by SueAne in the movie with Elvis Presley.

In the song, Mitzi (SueAne) tells Frankie that Johnnie is two-timing her with Nellie Blye. “Frankie! I don’t wanna make you no trouble!
Honey,
I don’t wanna tell you no lies!”

Needless to say, “
Honey
” became our catch phrase around the park. We would constantly yell it at each other! All those years later, here I stood reciting those memories to the original actress who played Mitzi in
Frankie and Johnnie
: SueAne Langdon.

It wasn’t long before we all became fast friends — SueAne, her husband Jack, Kasey, and me. Sometimes Sue would call the house phone and just leave a one word message on the answering machine… “Honey!”

As I said at the beginning of the book, I will always treasure SueAne’s friendship. Here’s to ya, “Honey!”

Me and SueAne Langdon at a Stagecoach Inn Museum Halloween benefit in 2005.

Chapter 16

I Went to the Circus with Gladys Kravitz

always thought THAT would make a great title for my biography. And we did actually go to the circus together. Kasey, Sandy, and I attended an autograph signing show in San Jose`, California on September 7th and 8th of 1996 where we were nicely wined and dined. But after arriving early on our first evening there, we found we had nothing to do. So we decided to take a walk around the hotel.

During our sojourn, we happened to spot a flyer that announced the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus was in town, only blocks away from our hotel.

We spent an enjoyable evening eating peanuts and popcorn while watching the trained horses, elephants, and all of the other amazing animal acts. Of course, no circus would be complete without the clowns, but Barnum and Bailey had nothing on us that night. The biggest attraction at the circus that evening was in the bleachers right beside Kasey and me… Sandra “Gladys” Gould.

Anyone who knew her would tell you that Sandra loved to be the center of attention by making sure that everyone knew she was there. More than once, Kasey had been mortified by Sandra’s announcement to unknown women in a ladies room: “We’re from
Bewitched
!” And that’s how it was that evening at the circus; Sandra making sure that everyone knew she was there, and happily signed autographs all evening. Sandra Gould commanded the center ring at all times.

A lot of people ask me what “Mrs. Kravitz” was really like. To be honest, she was sometimes a hard lady and definitely a force to be reckoned with, because what you
saw
was what you
got
with Sandra.

She was loud, shrill, and boisterous. She entered the room as “Gladys Kravitz” and would yell “Abner!!” at the drop of a hat for anyone that would listen. I don’t know if that was something she always did, or just developed that persona over the years because it was expected of her, but when I met her, it WAS her.

With that being said, she was also lots and lots of FUN! She had a heart of gold and would do anything for you and often did! She was always laughing and had more fun living life than anyone I’ve ever known.

In 1997, my birthday fell on Easter Sunday and Sandy gave a huge party in my honor. Kasey, Bernard and Jacque Fox, Marla Gibbs, and many others were guests along with my Mom and Dad who were visiting from Georgia.

Also at the party was one of Sandy’s closest friends, Teddy Getty who was quite a character herself.

Teddy Getty at one time had been married to the famous J. Paul, and once as an American opera star in Germany during World War II, she had been accused of being a spy. J. Paul somehow managed to step in and save her from being executed.

Unfortunately, they would later divorce after the death of their son, because J. Paul wouldn’t fly home from a business trip to be with them as the boy’s death became inevitable. If that seems a little heartless, consider that in 1973, his grandson, J. Paul Getty the 3rd, was kidnapped in Italy and his kidnappers sent them one of his ears and demanded a $16 million-dollar ransom. It’s reported that J. Paul initially balked about paying up and reportedly said, “I have fourteen other grandchildren. If I pay one penny now, then I’ll have fourteen kidnapped grandchildren.” Eventually over $2 million was paid by the Getty family and the grandson was released, though no one is quite sure just how much money J. Paul the 1st contributed.

Later in life, Teddy began a business venture bottling water from a little town in Texas called “The Town without a Toothache” because the water was so high in fluoride.

After that, she began making candy in her garage that sold for many years in the upper end stores of Los Angeles.

As you can tell, Teddy Getty’s adventures could fill a book all her own.

FUN NOTE:
Teddy Getty was the owner of “Norma Desmond’s” mansion used in the movie
Sunset Boulevard.
It originally stood on the corner of Wilshire and Crenshaw Boulevards in Los Angeles, and had been passed on to her in the divorce settlement from J. Paul. She in turn, rented it out to Paramount to be used in the film on the condition that Paramount build her a swimming pool, which they did, and can be seen in the final production.

Sadly, the mansion was torn down in 1957 to make way for Getty Headquarters. Today it is known as the Harbor Building.

Sandra loved to cook and Kasey and I were invited over to her house for many parties through the years. She considered herself quite the gourmet and I was the ONLY one she ever allowed in her kitchen. She always talked about writing a cookbook called “
Sex, Pots, and Pans: How to Cook for Every Kind of Man!
” She wanted to include recipes from all the glamour girls in Hollywood. (Some bio’s written about Sandra state that this book was actually written, but to my knowledge it never was.)

Long before
Bewitched,
she
did
write a book called “
Always Say Maybe
” which can sometimes be found on eBay. She also made a record called “Melvin, This is Mother.” It was the flip side to the old hit, “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah.” These are fun collectibles and I urge any fan to try their luck at finding these forgotten treasures.

At the time of her death, Sandy had been working on another book called “
Confessions of a Hollywood Voyeur.
” It was to be a collection of semi-dirty stories about the many celebrities she had known throughout the years. For some reason, she loved to relate stories that were literally “below-the-belt.” One in particular I remember was the time that Sandra’s husband invited actor Forrest Tucker (
F-Troop, Auntie Mame
) over for dinner. Apparently, it was pretty common knowledge around Tinsel Town that Forrest was significantly endowed, but according to Sandra, it was her husband who informed her of Forrest and his “friend.” (I’ve always wondered how her husband knew…) When Forrest arrived for dinner, Sandra greeted him at the door and said, “How are you, Forrest?” And then, looking directly at his fly said, “And how are
you
?!” I’m not sure how far she had gotten on the project or what became of the work she had finished, but can you imagine what a read that would have been?!

Sandy had a great house and lived right off Laurel Canyon Blvd, which is a main thoroughfare from the Valley to Hollywood. You’d enter her home through a double front door into a little foyer with a huge black lacquer Oriental cabinet. Straight ahead, two steps up, was the dining room table. The entire room was the color of a ripe watermelon.

Off to the right of the dining room was the kitchen. The living room, off to the right of the foyer, was separated by a free standing fireplace. Then up a couple more steps was a den that led out to the pool.

One of Sandra’s guest rooms doubled as an office and had a sign on it that said “Caution, Baby Lion Sleeping!” Also in her office was a word processor that she had never taken out of the box, as she preferred the old fashioned world of her electric typewriter. She hated computers and would always say: “I don’t want anything
on
when
I’m
not!”