Biography
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As unfortunate as today’s, narcissistic preoccupation among humans is, this site, after all, must necessarily be about the one and only: MOI, Ani, Je, Yo, Ich, or, in whatever language you wish to understand, ME. This is indeed a convenient, jumping-off point for my philosophy of multi-culturalism. I appreciate your ethnic background, and your struggles are really poignant, but if you want to have a happier life, at the end of the day, you’re going to have to appreciate and appropriate MY ethnicity, insofar as the use of ENGLISH.
That being said, I was born in the 1950’s, in Philadelphia, at a time where people appreciated the value of an education, especially since it kept them out of an atrocious Vietnam War. Despite my drifting off and being lackadaisical, to the point where I hardly opened a book, a remarkable thing happened: I was in the top 15% of my classes, and even better, when I specialized in psychology, achieving a Masters in that discipline, in 1979.
In the 1960’s, growing up was full of true, racial harmony between Blacks and Whites, like myself. Whites provided the Blacks with many vocational opportunites, including in management, as well as support for their civil rights concerns. On a campaign stop, in December, 1960, I saw John F. Kennedy, the greatest President of my lifetime; Kennedy revolutionized the civil rights movement, and pulled the country out of the all-too-typical economic stagnation of the prior, Republican administration of Dwight David Eisenhower. He also contained the Vietnam War, and increased benefits for many underclassed people- seniors, employees, college students and people needing low-cost, medical treatment.
Another thing transpired in the 1960’s, from the ripe, old age of ten, and it was the discovery that I could WRITE, after having discovered that I could ACT. The first foreshadowed my abilities and involvement in ADVERTISING COPY WRITING and EDITING. I first tried my hand at a children’s book, about a Catholic orphanage, a strange preoccupation for a Jewish child, but perhaps not for one who was always fascinated by comparative religion. The small novel got favorable review from Simon and Schuster, who, despite the fact that they had no market for a book, like that, encouraged me to keep writing. I took that to heart.
Music of the day was comprised of a lot of Black R&B, from James Brown’s early stuff, to Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, Little Richard, the Platters, The Penguins, the Flamingos, The Earls, etc. Then came the Beatles and Classic Rock, in the late 60’s, with Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Joplin, Hendrix, and a cast of thousands. My movie heroes, throughout, were people like Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Katherine Hepburn, and they continued with Robert DeNiro, AL Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many, many others. Then, I envision the timeless entertainers. Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, the moving, black-comedic mastery of Jack Lemmon, and within the realm of comedy, Jerry Lewis, Jackie Gleason and the world’s most gifted comic, Lucille Ball, rank as my favorites, along with Charley Chaplin and Peter Sellers. Then came Paul Lynde, Jonathan Winters, Carol Burnett, John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Zero Mostel, and many more. I think the funniest comic today, other than Conan O’Brien, is Jack Black.
I left Philadelphia in 1982, to live for a year in Atlanta, and then, for the last time, in 1995, for a five-year stint in Charlotte, NC, before taking up my residence, or should I say, defending it, in the rigorous area of Los Angeles. This is not a place that will win any awards for selflessness, and in an lot of human cases, not one that could rightfully bestow a Nobel Peace Prize for any undertaking which involved intelligence, but it does have its unparalleled opportunity. I mean, for something other than sheer, oppressive, insufferable frustration. Not that I wasn’t forced to leave Philly, out of disgust with the egomaniacal stupidity of its medical doctors; their brutal, psychiatric-fanatical misinterpretation of a series of conditions I had, would make leprosy seem desirable.
But, the protocol in L.A., as senseless as it usually is , can wear on one- sort of like driving through the human-driven, vehicular obstacle course which we call: Korea Town. As a matter of fact, this is what I looked like BEFORE coming to L.A.:
No, as incredible as this seems, that wasn’t what I looked like. However, to conclude this little journey into the realms of the past, I did have a very supportive group of acquaintances in Philadelphia, in the form of The Playwright’s Workshop, at least before the founder of it, Albert Benzwei, died. Albert was a great, loyal source of counsel for me, and he was a magnetic and unsurpassed, performing arts innovator and dedicated director, actor and dramaturg. He inspired me to enter the performing arts, to learn and develop playwriting, and he helped hone my acting skills, through the weekly, cold readings and his personal teaching. He instilled a respect for judging plays according to their technical merits, without lapsing into the cheap tendency to evaluate them on their political leanings. I wrote several pieces, in the 1990’s, in Philly, and two more in Charlotte, where I appeared in several, additional, stage plays, in lead roles. In Charlotte, I enrolled in an acting course, with my wonderfully generous, fun-loving and humanistic teacher, Ed Gilweit. I took this class to loosen myself up, emotionally and with regard to the kind of sexuality that today’s film actors are required, sometimes, to embody. I must say, along those lines, it didn’t hurt to have a “Character Exercise” where a few of the girls in the class acted out the process of losing a game of strip poker, which they thought their characters would become involved in, or so they said. There were also dressing exercises, although tragically, Ed died of the same, horrible disease that Albert Benzwie did, before I got a chance to perform mine. I still have great friends in Charlotte, and they are all owed many calls. I moved here, because Charlotte just hadn’t the opportunity for me, as a film actor and screenwriter.
Throughout my life, I have written many poems and short stories, but since the mid-1990’s, freelance writing, especially ad copy writing for small businesses, has been one of my chief occupations.
