"Frankie Goes To Hollywood" Part 1
This is another exciting chapter in my life as a trained naval hitch-hiker. This adventure stars the famous co-pilot of my last story, Glen Shippam and our late friend, Gary Durham.
This adventure was delayed one day, for I was finishing, 14 days #5 punishment & 30 days stoppage of leave. We’ll discuss the reason later. The RCN granted 16 days Christmas leave from December 15, 1959 till New Years. We decided to head south to sunny California and Hollywood. I remember I had $85 in my pocket and we were raring to go.
Flight to Seattle, $9.00, that leaves $76.00 for the rest of the journey there and back. Try that today and you wouldn’t make it to Seattle, far less California.
Glen and I were loaded down with our Pusser attaché cases with our unmentionables, shaving gear, etc. Gary had this huge flight bag, change of uniforms and an iron. I remember this rubbed Glen the wrong way. We’ll come to that later, also.
Now we are on Pacific Coast Highway 99 heading to LA LA Land. We drove through Portland, Or. "round midnight" thank you Miles Davis. We were picked up by two fellows, with a station wagon, so there was enough room for Gary’s STEAMER TRUNK. We awoke in Weed, Ca. at a breakfast diner. Couldn’t believe there was frost on the ground, it was warmer in Esquimalt. It took us 3 or more rides to reach warmer temperatures. I saw my first palm tree in Chico, Ca. and the sun was warm for December. This is why we came, thank you Lord!
The next 400 miles are uneventful until we near Bakersfield, where a chicken farmer, in a panel truck, filled to the brim with boxes of baby chicks . I don’t know how the 3 of us managed to find room, along with Gary’s STEAMER TRUNK. I’ll never forget this moment, where the 3 AMIGOS are crammed into this wee panel truck, surrounded by boxes of baby chicks. This fellow was so accommodating, nothing bothered this man. That is why he stopped for 3 desperate sailors, alone at night in the California wilderness. I sat in front with Glen, and Gary was aft, involved with boxes of chicks and his STEAMER TRUNK. Now we were approaching "The Grapevine" which is a famous pass before you descend into Greater Los Angeles, and San Fernando Valley. Halfway up the pass our driver tells us he is going to starboard at the peak of the famous "Grapevine" and we had to abandon ship. We thanked him and brushed the yellow chick feathers from our navy blue serge for a few minutes. Here we are in the middle of nowhere, but wait boys & girls there is hope on the horizon. We see civilization a few hundred yards ahead. A beam of light was showing across the highway up ahead, we felt like the 3 "MAGI" following the star. Wow! Gorman, a truck stop, motel and most important a BUS STOP. No Marilyn Monroe wasn’t there, Damn! We tried hitch- hiking for a while till we saw a BUS pull into the truck stop. After all this free travel by the generous Yanks, we decided to splurge and take a bus the rest of the way to LA. I think the bus fare was under $2.00 but it took us to downtown LA, past the Hollywood Bowl, which didn’t interest Glen& Gary they were sound asleep. The nearest DIGS downtown was the YMCA, for only a $1.50/day. Now we are really cutting into our spending money. Next ‘morn after brekie, we found ourselves at Pershing Square, centre of LA. Standing on the sidewalk, wondering how to get to Hollywood, our Mecca. Whilst standing there a native heard our patter and said, "You guys want to go to Hollywood, I’m heading that way" WOW!! Thank you!! Off to "Tinseltown" and eternal happiness. We pulled off Sunset Boulevard and parked, thanked the chap and proceeded towards Sunset. Guess what? Across from our car, sitting in a white Mecedes was a very famous actor, Lee J. Cobb. I waved and said hello, he waved back and looked bored. I wanted to discuss "On the Waterfront" and "12 Angry Men" but he didn’t look that interested. Now we are in the heart of Hollywood, at the entrance to Beverly Hills, and I’m going to take a station break and return later with a story beyond belief. Stay tuned boys and girls for the next exciting adventure of "Frankie Goes to Hollywood"