Manic Rescue

Cigarette smoke filled the house.  People were everywhere sipping drinks, laughing, dancing, talking loud and acting very weird.  There was food everywhere as well.  My eyes were set on the brownies but there was funny green stuff in them.  I didn’t care.  I went to indulge, as any child would, and suddenly my mom came from behind and swooped the goodie out of my hand and said “I’m sorry honey, those treats are for adults only.”

Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, the parties were constant around my house in the hills of San Fernando Valley, California.  I grew up in the midst of the Hollywood lifestyle.  My mom was a stunt woman.  Her stage name was Pepper Curtis. She doubled for Angie Dickinson in Police Woman, for Stella Stevens in Poseidon Adventure and was in lots of t.v.  shows and movies falling from cliffs, jumping out of airplanes, doing car crashes and all the other crazy, yet, brave things that stunt people do.  Me, well, I don’t even like elevators.  My mom’s career as a stunt woman came to an abrupt end when she fell from a great height as the cable broke while shooting the film Logan’s Run.  She had severely injured her back.  After the operation, she never really recovered and never returned to stunts. 

My earliest brake in showbiz almost came when I auditioned for  the film Up the Sandbox, starring Barbara Streisand, but my mom told me that the director said I was too tall to get the part of Steisand’s daughter in the movie.   My mom had big dreams of me becoming a great entertainer.  She put me through acting, dancing and singing classes.  The American National Theatre Academy (A.N.T.A.) in Hollywood was where I got most of my training.  She also enrolled me in a school to teach about  good manners and how to be a little “lady.”  She enrolled me in modeling classes (which I hated).  And, oh yeh, I also took piano lessons.  All I ever really wanted to do was play with my friends.

Through her connections and all of my schooling, I ended up performing at the Hollywood Bowl with my other A.N.T.A. classmates along with musical performances several times a year at other locations in Los Angeles.  I walked runways, played recitals and not to mention, because of the little “lady” I learned how to be, I sure knew how to set the dinner table beautifully.   I even sang on the soundtrack for One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, starring Jack Nicholson.  Who knew I’d end up in those same, horrible, psychiatric wards  when I grew up?