Four For Friday - A Night With Johnny Grant - Part One
It is Friday, and in the US is a three day weekend if you happen to be a bank employee or government worker of some type. Most of the rest of us have to work. As usual I will be here all weekend and blogging with my bacon soaked fingers. OK, booze and bacon soaked. Tomorrow and Sunday will be parts two and three of this blind item. If you would like to follow me on Twitter, I am @entylawyer
Back in the day when I was just getting started and helping out at film festivals and making connections and going to law school I ran into Johnny Grant. I had no idea who he was when I looked at him, but knew the name when I heard it. For those of you who don't know who Johnny was, he was the honorary Mayor Of Hollywood until his death in 2008. He started out in radio though and when he heard I had worked with some bands and radio stations we tossed some names around and found a few we both knew or worked with. We made plans to meet for lunch one day when we were both back in LA. I didn't know if he was serious, but he was the one who did the calling and we met a couple of days later for our first of many lunches. Generally we only had lunch. There were only a handful of times we even saw each other at night and that is when we would cross paths or one of us would spot the other in the Roosevelt Hotel bar. One day at lunch he asked what I was doing the next night because he had something in mind that he thought I would enjoy.
We met at The Roosevelt. It was easier for him because that is where he lived. He met everyone there. We sat down in the lobby and had a drink while we waited for the guest to arrive. A short time later I heard a loud voice yell out, "Why the f**k are you here in the lobby drinking like you own the place? I told you to meet me out front" Johnny was laughing, but I didn't until I turned around and saw this permanent A list singer/actor. Permanent A list in both (Lets call him OE). I had never seen him anywhere other than from an audience, but here he was in the flesh and it was a reddened/tan jowly kind of flesh. It was hard to describe but it was as if the perception of the man and reality were exactly the same. You could tell he was gruff and impatient just from looking at him and didn't even need the way he greeted Johnny when he walked in to know it.
When Johnny introduced me the handshake was firm but then he said, "Johnny told me you like old Hollywood kind of things. Tonight you are going to feel like Scrooge because you are going to see the f**king past and present of Hollywood." I asked him about the future and he told me, "I'm not going to be alive much f**king longer so I'm only worried about me right now and waking up every day."
He then turned to Johnny and said, "Grab a few of those bottles from behind the bar and lets get out of here." Johnny turned and asked the bar tender for a couple of bottles. You weren't supposed to take them out of the bar, but no one was going to tell Johnny no, and they sure weren't going to turn down the guy who told Johnny to get them.
Before Johnny could even get the bottles OE was walking through the side door by the bar and was seated in a limo before we could make it down the stairs. When Johnny opened the door, there was someone waiting with OE and I knew this was going to be one hell of a night.
