One of my friends is Barbara L….a famous interior designer. And I mean famous. She came to have a salad with one of her clients Totie Fields . A very funny comedian…that was a bit naughty. Totie had surgery and unfortunately lost her right leg. When we were talking …she said “I want you to hold something.” She took off her artificial leg and handed it to me. I thought I was going to faint. Then she put it back on and enjoyed her lunch.
I was teaching a motivational class at the studio and a lady walked in. It was ….Shelly Winters. She could not sit on the floor so I got a chair for her. After class I asked her how she got to my studio. She said she walked. I said to myself “well you are not walking home.” I put her in my car and took her to her apt. She invited me in. The first thing I noticed were her two Academy Awards. One for A Patch of Blue the other for Diary of Anne Frank. I told Ms Winters that she could come back to the studio anytime she wanted .I heard her voice before she came into my studio.. It was Carol Channing. This lady was bigger than life. I did a few TV appearances with her. I loved being around her. She invited me to have dinner with her and her husband. She walked into the restaurant with a shopping bag. Out from the bag she removed her plates, silverware, and serving platters. While eating on the restaurant’s regular plates I heard someone calling my name. I turned and there was Tony Curtis in a wheelchair. I knelt down and hugged him and he gave me a pat on my back. This lady with a beautiful body always came and worked out with me. Her name was Marilyn G. She told me she was the photo editor for Playboy magazine. One day she said, “Would you like to go to the Playboy mansion?” A man came down the stairs and it was Hugh Hefner. He was dressed in a maroon robe and his pajamas. Later Marilyn took me outside. There were two live peacocks walking on the lawn. Marilyn introduced me to a lot of the Playmates in bikinis. I felt so overdressed. lol. There were people swimming in the grotto. One day Marilyn brought in Dorothy Stratton. She was an actress and a playmate centerfold. She had very little make up on and her blonde hair hair was pulled back into a pony tail. There was a photographer from Playboy that snapped pictures. When the magazine came out before you got to the centerfold there was a picture of me and Dorothy. She had a very sad ending to her life. Marilyn is still going strong and teaching a workout where she lives.On Santa Monica Blvd. there is a restaurant called Dan Tana’s It looked more like a house than a restaurant. You walked up a few stairs under a green canopy and entered the intimate restaurant. The tables were very close together. I was bumping elbows with …Dean Martin. He was smoking a cigarette with a drink in his hand. He said to me they forgot to put pepper on my table can I borrow yours. I said of course. I also many years ago met Jerry Lewis when I helped him with the Muscular Dystrophy telethons. He raised millions and millions of dollars. He invited me into his trailer and we talked a while.Every morning a place called the Beverly Hills juice company brought me a crate of juice. Freshly squeezed coconut, watermelon, pippin apple, and carrot juice. They had no competition in town they were the best. That juice place is still open to this day. A very pregnant Diana Ross came in …I mean who didn’t love her music?.. Carol Burnett came in one day. Who is funnier than Ms. B.? Edie Gorme came in a kaftan with a turban with iridescent round discs all over it. She was a famous international singer.One day I was cleaning the tables at Ruffage and who walked in? Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. He had the bluest eyes I have ever seen. What I didn’t know is that his office was around the corner. He built an empire of salad dressing, popcorn, and sauces. All the money went to charity. When I went to the supermarket I bought the vinaigrette salad dressing and it was delicious.For about a year, I had a publicist named Stacey W. She was cute as a button and was always dressed like she was going to a fancy lunch. We became so close she invited me to have Seder dinner with her family. I also got to participate in the Seder. Her other clients were Van Cleef and Arpel Jewelry, and a clothing store in Beverly Hills called Jerry Magnin. After a meeting at the clothing store, she came to have a meeting with me. “I just met a very nice man I dont know too much about.” I asked “What is his name?”…she told me it was Henry Winkler and he asked her out for a date. I told her, “You are going.” And I thought to myself …”You are going to marry this man”… and they got married. Many years later she called and asked me to her house for lunch. What a beautiful home. There were white orchid plants everywhere. Her chef made grilled chicken and salad. She told me she was very proud of my career and how many people I helped. When I see award shows she is right there with Henry looking as cute as ever.
