Jess Rand, Part Two

Mr. Jess Rand (former agent of Sammy Davis Jr., Sam Cooke, Glen Campbell and many others) came in once again last week, but this time on a Friday. His wife went to go and get her hair done, and our man Jess came into Attaboy to hang out with me for a little while. This time he was wearing tan slacks, tan dress shoes, a tan cashmere v-neck sweater with a blue & white oxford shirt, and as always, his flat cap. He also carried his camera bag.

We got to talking about Elvis which lead to a conversation about Colonel Tom Parker. Jess said to me, "You know, people think that the Colonel stole from Elvis, but that's not true. See, what Colonel Tom was into was PERKS. He was no dummy. RCA Records bought Tom a gorgeous home out in Palm Springs, which they had to keep quiet." He told me that RCA had also provided chauffeured limousine service to and from Palm Springs from Bel Air anytime, day or night. Not too shabby, huh?! According to Mr. Rand, the Colonel was quite the savvy businessman and got plenty of good perks from RCA and I'm sure from many others.

"Once I ran into him in the lobby of the RCA offices on 26th Street in New York. Colonel Tom pulled a brochure out of his pocket and showed it to me. It was all about this new, COLOR television that was coming out. I asked him if he was going to get one. I already got SIX of 'em, he said. Six, I asked? "Yeah--one for Elvis, one for me, and four to give away as gifts!" Colonel Tom told Jess that he should ask for one when he went in to renegotiate Sam Cooke's contract. Sure enough, Jess asked for two color T.V.'s--one for Sam and one for himself. He told me that about two weeks after the meeting in New York, a huge crate arrived at his home in Bel Air. The crate was so massive "I had to pay the guy an extra $20 to help me get the thing into the house!" Apparently the screen was only 11 inches but the T.V. was enclosed in a huge mahogany case.

Mr. Rand also told me another funny story about the Colonel. "Elvis had it in his contract with RCA that he got the highest royalties of anyone else on the label. At that time he was getting 6%. Tom knew I was going in to renegotiate Sam's deal. He asked me what my strategy was. I told him I didn't really have one. Tom said, 'You go in there and tell them that you want 6 1/4 or your client will WALK! You see, he knew if I got it for Sam, Elvis's royalties would go up to 6 1/2 %. He was a very smart man."

I asked Jess if he was still in touch with any former Hollywood or music business friends who had also retired in Montecito. "Rona Barrett is a dear friend, then there's Jack Jones and Ginny Mancini--you know, Hank Mancini's widow." This is a man who refers to Henry Mancini as HANK!!! He told me that a close friend of Rona's wants to use Jess's photos in a book he is writing, but that, "The guy only wants to give me 10%! I don't think so--I been workin' in the percentage business all my life and I KNOW what's fair."

He concluded our conversation by talking about his wife. He told me about how when he first met Sammy Davis Jr. and decided to represent him, he had to drop three clients and that he and his wife would have to move from New York to L.A. "Is he really THAT good?", my wife asked me. So I took her to Philadelphia where he was performing. Never before had she said this about a client, and never again did she, but she turned to me in the audience and said to me, 'I think we're gonna get REALLY LUCKY with this one!'."

"I woulda had nothing if it wasn't for her. She took the risk and stood by me all those years--she's a real pistol! She's my baby. We been married now FIFTY FIVE years." Yep--the Rand Man is amazing, alright. I look forward to his wife's next salon visit and the juicy tidbits we always get from this amazing storyteller.

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.

Really?

Being on the main drag, we meet some "unique" individuals and get quite a few "unusual" requests from customers, but today was a first for me. A white truck pulled up right out front and parked in the 24 minute zone. This is par for the course as there's a vacuum shop right next door and people are constantly pulling in to pick up or drop off their vacuums for repair. Two men got out of the truck and one of them went into the vacuum shop. The other man, dressed very "Ventura" in acid washed jeans and a random t-shirt and the omnipresent FANNY PACK, stood right outside our shop door and lit up a lil' cigarette to pass the time. Then he began the creepy ritual of cupping his hands up to the glass and staring in at me. Obviously people are looking at our shop whenever they do this, but it always freaks me out because it seems like they're either casing the joint or staring directly at me.

Usually when someone seems weird to me, I do this little silent prayer where I wish for them to keep walking or get back into their car or whatever. "No no no no no no no keeeep walkin' dude, keep walkin'", I think to myself, but it almost NEVER works. So of course he came in. Right away he began looking at a Batman PEZ dispenser on the shelf near the front door. He turned to me and said, "The question is...will my Vicodin fit in here?". I almost burst out laughing but kept it in check so I wouldn't be murdered on the spot. "Uhhhh, I don't think so.", I replied. "The pills would have to have square edges in order to stack like the PEZ candy." "You don't think so, huh?", he asked. "I'm gonna go get my pills and see!"

Against my protestations, he went out and retrieved his pills, and sure enough, no dice. "Aww I woulda bought this thing.", he informed me. All I could think was, yeah I BET you would have...how frickin' amazing would it be all poppin' your narcotics at The Star Lounge with a Batman PEZ? "Love on the rocks, ain't no big surprise...pop me a Vicodin outta your PEZ dispenser and I'll tell ya some lies..." Holy prescription pill junkies, Batman!

Exactly how many Vicodins does one need to carry on their person while bopping around town, ridin' shotgun and dropping off the vacuum? Apparently for this particular gentleman, I'm guessing about 15 or 20. Why the hell can't the fanny pack be enough for him? I suppose for now it will just have to do. Anyway, it was hilarious and I just wish someone other than Caesar had been here with me to witness the exchange.

The Cigarette Machine

Okay, so I'm starting off the blog with a mild rant regarding our Lehigh Kent/Winston/Kool cigarette machine. Chris fell in love with this thing about a year or so ago, so we bought it and put it into our antique mall space last year. I worked at the antique mall part time but never really had too many inquiries about the machine...that is, until we got our own shop and moved it in.

Assuming that say maybe 100 people come into our shop in a week...my guess is that at least 85 of these people will feel compelled to say something to me about this damn thing. "Oooh look at THAT! A CIGARETTE MACHINE! Boy I haven't seen one of those in years." "Hey ya don't see THOSE around anymore, do ya?" "Wow look--a cigarete machine. Gee I can't remember the last time I saw one of these!" This is what I'm hearing on a constant basis and it has begun to drive me insane. Everybody digs it, the price is right but nobody's buyin'.

Prior to the Lehigh, we had an orange Eames chair and ottoman that was the item everybody flipped out over but never seemed to want to purchase. I talked about that chair, photographed it, Craigslisted the crap out of it, measured it, emailed about it, answered emails about it, etc. ad nauseum. I almost broke down and cried tears of joy when the girl who bought it loaded it into her car and drove it out of my sight.

It's fascinating to me how one item can draw the same response from so many people. People of all different ages, sexes, races, etc. This makes me wonder if I am one of these people, although I doubt it. I rarely make conversation with people in stores as I am usually too busy shopping to chit chat. I am not inclined to make comments on merchandise I'm not interested in buying. As a customer I like to be greeted and then sort of left to browse on my own. As a shop owner I am finding that most customers really dig chit chat, which is fine. I like it to a certain extent. My thing that bugs me is when every friggin' Tom, Dick and Harry wants to talk to me about something I've been talking about for months. Literally every day for 4 1/2 months, I have spoken to someone about the Lehigh...and I'm OVER it! It's $425 people, and it's Don Draper's dream friggin' cigarette machine. It lights up and it's amazing and you haven't seen one since forever. Buy it and take it home today! Your friends and neighbors will be talking about it for years to come.

A few weeks ago a really nice (and completely foxy Ethan Hawke lookalike!) customer from Santa Barbara came in and expressed interest in the machine. I offered him an insanely good deal on it and he seemed very interested, but I never heard back from him. No dice. Earlier today a woman walked in and started in with the cigarette machine dialog and I swear I almost jumped over my desk and started choking her! URGH! I'm ready to take this thing up to Big Bear and use it as a toboggan, for Christ's sake!

Hey welcome to my blog, everybody!! Haha! I welcome any tips or information about anti-psychotic medications that may help.