Jess Rand, Part One

One Saturday an impeccably dressed older gentleman wearing a newsboy cap and carrying a camera bag came into the shop. He explained that he and his wife live up in Montecito, but every month he drives her down to Ventura to get her hair done. Lucky for us, it just so happens that this salon is two doors down from Attaboy Vintage.

The man looked around and made small talk with Chris and I for a few minutes. Then he dropped the bomb on us…”Looking around your shop I see many images of Sinatra and Dean and the guys. I gotta tell ya, I represented Sammy Davis Jr. for many years.” We both looked at him in disbelief and tried to act normal. Then he says, “I also represented a fella by the name of Sam Cooke. I must have about 600 candid shots of him from over the years. I probably have about 750 of Sammy Davis. I was an agent but I was always taking pictures.”

He introduced himself to us as Jess Rand and gave us his business card. We talked for quite awhile until finally his wife had finished up at the salon. That evening when we got home, I Googled Jess Rand and sure enough, he was an agent at William-Morris back in the day and was responsible for Sam Cooke‘s crossover into the mainstream. I marveled at what this man must have seen, let alone what he must have photographed over the years in Hollywood!

About a month later Mr. Rand returned. Same story--waiting for his wife to get her hair done. This time we shamelessly pumped him for information about celebrities we loved. He told us a great story about visiting Elvis at his home in Bel Air in the 60’s: “Dirty magazines lyin’ all over the place--Elvis loved porn.” He said that the King was sitting on the sofa stoned out of his mind and was wearing a muumuu!

He then related a story about Janis Joplin. He started out by telling us, “She didn’t know if she was in love with a guy or his WIFE--that was ONE of her problems.” Anyway, Janis idolized Sam Cooke and desperately wanted to meet him. Jess set it up so that she could attend one of Sam’s recording sessions. Jess said that she sat down and stared at Sam Cooke in awe the entire time he was recording “Like a baby she watched him”. Afterwards when Sam came up to meet her she stood up and said to him, “N*gger--you can sing your black ass off!” You could hear a pin drop in the studio. Shocked, Sam asked her where she was from. Apparently as soon as she told him she was from Texas he was okay with her and everything was cool and they were the best of friends. Can you imagine saying that to freakin’ Sam Cooke in front of Hollywood‘s elite?!! Only Janis Joplin could have gotten away with that one.

We are so fortunate to have our shop and to be doing something we love. You just never know who may walk in the door. Meeting people like Mr. Rand makes it just that much sweeter! We look forward to our next visit with this fascinating man.

On his last visit he stated that he wants to start selling off some of his candid photo collection and will send us some Xeroxes and pricing info soon. Don’t mind if I do have an original Sammy Davis 8x10 thank you very much! My real goal is to either get adopted by this guy or at the very least be invited to visit him at his posh estate in Montecito and conduct a 4-hour interview while looking over his incredible photographic archives.