In a self induced trance the Dean of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle,
shook off his 6 decades of manifest destiny... coming to grips with his
depression born consciousness, honed by cornering the market on sugar free
doctor peppers pepsis cokes root beers creams oranges and sasparellas .
”A ickle a pickle, people peoples”
II
Those WPA recipients cared not a whit about Meyer Lansky of East New York
distributing the bottles to a whisp of a kid...aptopos Huckleberry Finn, but an
“urchin” whose natural rhythm lent itself to shooting Michael Jordan baskets
from “downtown”in the public school 233 schoolyard ...adjacent East 92nd
Street Avenue B WPA brick two story basement homes.
“Mr.Lucky aka Meyer Lansky sold him the sodas for two cents a bottle, and
little Rip Van Winkle got a markup at a “ nickel a pickle”.
Long before “Come back little Sheba”, Shirley Booth on her karma at three in
the morning, declaring. “Mister Lancaster we just viewed the stills from
today’s set .I couldn’t resist waking you dahling....in all my years on stage and
screen. Cross my heart and hope to die
“The stars are in your constellation. It’s inevitable you’ll become a leading man
of star magnitude....so help me God”
III
Little did she kmow “From here to Eternity” was playing out But the Gods
of fortune would work their fate...the bonding stirred up would free the mirror
of their souls with audiences into a collective collaboration that transcends the
reality of their own empathy and themselves.
Jimmy Cagney lent his Freeacres NewJersey abode to the kid and his own
Shirley Booth momma..employed by Cagney’s booker (Black&Erlinger)
So amidst the flying squirrels and squawking blue jays the urchin began his
recovery from a 30 day coma of typhoid fever.... and his Uncle Phil’s blood
transfusion.
A cross country motel route 66 I thru the dust bowl in a ‘33 Plymouth.
The vast Culver City MGM studio on West Washington....
Venice California canals and the Loma apartments off the speedway.
The bathroom in the hall. The Venice Ocean Park fun filled stalls over the
lapping Pacific Ocean waves. ....the merry go round on the distant pier.
Santa Monica Wilshire Boulevard Westwood Village Ucla and Beverly Hills in the “Heaven is North Hamilton Drive on the way to Sleepy Hollow’s trance........
The Big Apple December 10 2010
