Learning How to Fly

Max Baer and Hollywood

As it turned out, when I arrived in Studio City at Max’s beautiful home in the hills of Coldwater Canyon, I didn’t stay in the guest house. Max warmly welcomed me with open arms and told me the roadie of the band he managed and his wife were living in the guesthouse so I would bunk down in the maid’s quarters in the main house seeing as he had no live-in maid. That was fine with me. I unpacked and made myself at home and sat out by the pool with Max’s dogs. He had three or four, one being a German Shepherd and the others were small dogs that he called “the babies.” Needless to say, my first best friends in town were those dogs.

I called all the people on my list who I hoped would give me some help and direction in getting started finding acting work. Some ignored me while others promised to get back to me later. I looked forward to starting classes at UCLA and began the actor’s life of waiting and hoping while being as proactive as the acting profession allows. Unlike being a doctor or lawyer or many other professions, an actor can’t go out and set up shop and work on a television show or in a movie. We have to audition and are dependent on the powers-that-be to hire us. Having family and friends in the business gives an actor a huge leg up, and I didn’t have that, except for Max who wasn’t working at the time and Andy Sackheim, who it seemed had forgotten me, but I was determined and focused. An underlying feeling of depression was always with me and something I constantly had to  fight against, but I believed with every fiber of my being that getting acting work would bring me the joy and peace of mind I longed for.