STEVE ALLEN PART SIX
While Steve Allen was not a resident of Laurel Canyon, he had some connections to several of the people who lived there. We saw previously that Aleister Crowley settled here in 1933.
The person who introduced Allen to LSD, Gerald Heard, lived in Laurel Canyon. Heard also had as a platonic life mate, an individual who had great wealth and Plantagenet bloodline. In addition, Heard was friends with the Huxley family. These Power Elite connected people all arrived in the Canyon in 1937.
This report is not intended to be a detailed history of Laurel Canyon, although it is has been tempting to call upon our guys in the Qanteen for the heavy digging equipment to do just that.
Finding the McGowan and Drockton sources relieved me of that necessity. But for whatever reason, this location seemed to be in the center of much of the California explosion of the era of unrest in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
In this Part, we will revisit Steve Allen, and see what some of his encounters may have been with not only the Laurel Canyon people, but also the entire gamut of Hollywood and the Music and Entertainment industry.
One of the residents of Laurel Canyon, Vito Paulekas had a dance studio at which Steve Allen matriculated, but in so far as I have been able to find, not caught up in any scandal by the association:
“According to most accounts, it wasn’t really the Mayan-tomb decor of the studio that many of the matrons found so exciting, but rather Vito’s reportedly insatiable sexual appetite and John Holmesian physique. In any event, Vito’s students also apparently included such Hollywood luminaries as Jonathon Winters, Mickey Rooney and Steve Allen. Nevertheless, though Paulekas claimed to be a serious artist (a painter, poet, dancer and photographer, in addition to a sculptor), there is scant evidence that I have seen that supports such claims (I am not, however, the most objective of art critics, as I am, as best I can determine, apparently not cultured enough to ‘get’ the majority of what passes for art).”
According to this same source, Vito was involved in quite a (to me) distressing scandal regarding the death of his son:
http://centerforaninformedamerica.com/inside-the-lc-the-strange-but-mostly-true-story-of-laurel-canyon-and-the-birth-of-the-hippie-generation-part-v/
Hollywood Movie Factotem/ Airplane Engineer/ Onetime Jack Parsons Boss, Howard Hughes, formed a nuclear disarmament organization. Steve Allen and friend Jack Ryan donated to it.
“Both Meier and Hughes were proponents of nuclear disarmament. Meier became a director of an anti-nuclear activist group “Fund For Survival”. Hughes donated $$ to it. Also members were Steve Allen and actor Robert Ryan. The fund wanted to see a controlled dismantling by the United Nations.”
Ryan and Allen also were “founding co-chairs of The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy’s Hollywood chapter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ryan
As an entertainment mogul, he was beholden to his bosses, and was known for giving many of the young people and bands an introductory and national platform on his television shows. The veterans of show biz also appeared frequently as well.
Frank Zappa seems appeared on his show - and played a bicycle:
http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/videography/Steve_Allen_Show.html
Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees, 1956, as “Circus Boy.” ((LC Res) - he became a Monkee in 1966. )
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004880/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
1956-1960 - [only some!]
Showbiz favorites Orson Welles (Laural Canyon Resident), Bill Dana, Don Knotts, Pat Harrington, Jr., Tony Bennett, Les Brown and His Band of Renown, Don Adams, Lou Costellow, his wife Jayne Meadows, Eydie Gorme, Peter Lawford, Buddy Hackett, Sammy Davis Jr., Jonathan Winters, Audrey Meadw, Jayne’s sister, Johnny Carson, Andy Griffith, Bob Hope, Alan Young, Peter Ustinov, Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra, Ginger Rogers, George Gobel, Rosemary Clooney, Dinah Shore, Brenda Lee, Jimmy Dean, Micky Rooney, Count Basie, Claudette Colbert, Jerry Lee Lewis, Henry Fonda, Lee Marvin, Tony Randall, Tim Conway, Errol Flynn (LC Res), Shirley MacLain, Rise Stevens, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Debbie Reynolds, Lionel Hampton, Frank Sinatra, Wally Cox, Rocky Graziano, Dean Martin, Milton Berle, Kirk Douglas, Shelley Berman, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Charles Laughton, Rock Hudson, Red Skelton, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Fred Astaire, Jayne Mansfield, Lenny Bruce, Tony Curtis, The Three Stooges, Jack Kerouac, Bud Abbot, Imogen Coca, Buster Crabbe, Gene Kelly, Gypsy Rose Lee, David Niven, NORMAN VINCENT PEALE*, Elvis Presley, Rin Tin Tin, Margaret Truman, Peggy Cass, The Coasters, Benny Goddman, William Holden, John Huston, Bert Lahr, Pat Boone, Lloyd Bridges, Dick Cavett, Buddy Ebsen, Fred Gwynne, Art Linkletter, and more….
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048899/fullcredits
*Note: Allen interviewed Norman Vincent Peale at about the time he was influencing a young Donald J. Trump. - Indirect connection between our POTUS and Steve Allen
He also hired some notables to work with him on his own creations:
Roseanna Vitro, scat singer was invited to perform some of Allen’s compositions:
“A popular bop and swing stylist, she is known for her renditions of sultry ballads as well as for her scat singing. Renowned for her versatility, she easily commands audience attention when belting out a rousing roof-raiser of a song. Mentored as an aspiring singer by Arnett Cobb, Vitro toured with Lionel Hampton in the 1980s, and in 1986 she was invited by radio and television personality Steve Allen to record a collection of his songs.”
I was wondering what he did during the WWII years caused me to re-examine what his Wiki page said. He trained for the infantry and served the war domestically at Camp Roberts.
That made knowing a little more about Camp Roberts important to me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/561vrb/what_was_boot_campmilitary_training_like_during/Training and Shipping Out:
Training and Shipping Out:
“…After a wait due to the finalization of classification, the men, divided into groups and led by an officer, received their camp assignments. For travel, an allotment of money was given, and the men set out all across the country to their assignments; one of the infantry replacement training centers (IRTCs) like Camp Wolters or Camp Wheeler; the infantry and field artillery replacement training center at Camp Roberts; the tank destroyer training and replacement center at Camp Hood; the armored force training and replacement center at Fort Knox. Once the men arrived at their new camp, they were quarantined for 72 hours and received another “short arm” inspection.”
It was mobilization and training camp.
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/camp-ww2.htm
It was abandoned after the war, and has now a refurbishment and even a museum there now. Here is a comment from a visitor:
3/27/2013
“Never even heard of Camp Roberts until I came here for WAREX. It’s got some WWII barracks-no exaggeration. Back in WWII they kept German and Italian POWs.
So the camp itself isn’t in the greatest shape. There are some condemned buildings and the post doesn’t get enough money to destroy those buildings. But the scenery is pretty nice. There are some really nice run routes here. Some hills, not too bad. The DFAC is run by contractors and the head cook is pretty serious about the food. I actually had mash potatoes with rosemary in it! It was pretty good for Army mash potatoes.
So what is really cool here. The museum. It’s only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays but you should really try to check it out. I was amazed at the history of Camp Roberts. There’s a lot of history here. And I mean a lot. This is how I knew about the German and Italian soldiers. Oh and all the vineyards in the area? It’s because enough of those Italian POWs loved it enough to stay here in the States.”
It is interesting to speculate what Allen’s service might have been. Was he a typist? Trainer of some kind? Was he a prison guard? Or did he have assignments at Lookout Mountain? I do not expect to ever know if he worked there, unless perhaps one day the whole thing really is laid bare.
As this goes to press, I do not have permission to give public credit to the FReeQ who shared with us this wonderful gem. It was a bunny hole in itself finding them. Our FRiend recalled the “Happy Jack fishery” phrase in connection with them and found this link:
It is a series of letters which appears in Esquire magazine in which Steve Allen seeks to refute the political positions of a fellow named Dalton Trumbo.
I THANK YOU, MY FRIEND FOR THROWING THAT OVER THE TRANSOM!
The consensus from many FReeQs who have commented on this series about Steve Allen, seems to be that he was basically a decent, though perhaps in some areas, a deluded man. He was very human, and was indeed a self-described “humanist.” I hold that vision of him as being basically decent, and marvel at the pressures that had to be on him being in the Hollywood Entertainment Machinery… and yet still having a very graceful way of reaching us heart to heart with his immense sense of humor and independent perspective.
All right, girl. I’m posting blind to you. Still in the early Laurel Canyon digs of yours.
My advice? Stay focused FReeQ! Remember, you’re not supposed to keep pouring four-fingered drinks of knowledge to the Qanteen. Not after the first four or five rounds. At least. :)
Seriously, you are writing a book (very interesting one), but slow down a bit for us otherwise many will scroll past due to lack of time.
Myself? I’ve been digging the past couple days on Fiona Barnett, who shares very similar stories to Cathy O’Brian, which is reflected in Twitter star Sarah Ruth Ashcraft, and has now been echoed by an actor named Isaak Kappy (who I never heard of until he went public with serious accusations). [run on sentence award? anyone?]
((You)) sent me down several side passages on my spelunQing. (the parens are a Chan-thing). Now, suitably distracted, I need to push away my loved ones in the Qanteen to give me a quiet corner to peruse the new tunnels. Lantern in hand, rugged shoes, denim pants, and a casually slung sidearm on the hip. And rope.
Hugs. And ChillaQs. I’ll be with you all soon.
Kit