Posts Tagged ‘fredde duke’
Monday, August 20th, 2012
I saw a beautiful fruit tart today, but I didn’t buy it. Though one brief glimpse of its light crust, glistening white cream & assorted seasonal berries and our whole intense love affair came rushing back.
It’s the mid 1970’s. The place: Patrick Terrail’s West Hollywood restaurant Ma Maison. An old house on Melrose converted into the most innovative, modern French restaurant of its day. It was so very French and so very Hollywood, and when those two worlds collided on that patio of Astroturf and umbrellas, it was magic.
Big Hollywood deals were made, infamous fights broke out, and occasionally I was lucky enough – if someone with more money was paying—to be there, enjoying the food. That’s where it began – an infatuation that would turn into a stalker’s obsession. They had me at crème anglaise.
I was there a lot with Jackie Mason, which sounds so random, sort of like my celebrity dreams, but he was a friend of my dad’s and we went as his guest, or vice versa. Often, when we were at a meal with Jackie, he would do his bit:
Gentiles never finish drinking, Jews never finish eating. What do you think Jews talk about for breakfast? Where to eat lunch. At lunch: “Where should we have dinner?” (more…)
Tags: Bistro Gardens Restaurant, Charmers Market Restaurant in early 80's, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Freddy Duke, Kiwi Tart recipe, Ma Maison in the 70's, Spago, The Ivy Restaurant, Wolfgang Puck, Wolfgang Puck's kiwi tart recipe
Posted in Recipes | 2 Comments »
Friday, August 10th, 2012
me looking out at the lights of Las Vegas, age 16
Today I had lunch with my childhood BFF Susie. Her birthday was last week, a day ingrained in my mind for life. We often check in with each other at birthday times. October will be the next time we might see each other, my birthday.
Her parents have both now died and just last week on the actual day of her birthday, like a gift, escrow closed on her parents’ house. Susie told me she had a box of memories saved for me. She brought them to lunch. There were pictures and letters and other souvenirs. She claims she has no use for any of this memorabilia. No kids to hand it down to. I’m family, it now belongs to me. With these photos I can create all new blogs. With other photos, I can fill in for blogs I didn’t have just the right photo for. But, it is this one small eighth grade class photo of me, I had given to her– that was just stunning. I wrote these words on the back (look below)
And here we are all these years later, doing just that, talking about our memories. Not to mention, that is the whole purpose of my blog — now celebrating it’s third anniversary — memories.
the 8th grade pic with my note written to Susie you read above
Here is a story about Susie and me at age 16, at least I was 16, and she had turned 17. It was the same time of year as our recent lunch. We were tripping. Kidding. We took a trip. First to Vegas. My brother was working that summer for a man named Morrie Stevens at his TV station in Henderson, Nevada — KHBV. (more…)
Tags: Beverly Hills High School in the early 70s, early Maxfield store memory, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Freddy Duke, Greek Restaurants, hippies in the summer of love, Jack Melcher (Yonkle), Lesvos Greek Restaurant in Montreal and St-Sauveur, Papa Cristo's catering and Greek Taverna, Sunset Strip in late 60s, Susie Lohn, Susie Lohn Dilamarter, Taverna Tony Malibu, the musical "Hair", trips to Las Vegas, trips to San Francisco
Posted in Reviews | 27 Comments »
Monday, July 30th, 2012
I remembered her face immediately. Lisa walked into our high school and our lives after having disappeared many years before. She had made a brief appearance in grammar school. Just a few years at Beverly Vista, then vanished.
We looked at each other as our nearly grown-up selves, knowing instantly we had once been close. And we started up again.
I introduced her around. She was now a beautiful flower child and stepped into life at our school so easily. Lisa Saunders wore white peasant shirts and the oh so ubiquitous bell-bottoms of our time. Chris Head, a wild musician type, became her boyfriend. And now Lisa adopted a new name and we were all on board to call her by her new moniker, Gypsy. In fact, coming and going as she had, in and out of our lives, she was a gypsy. I usually hate when people change their names, but this one suited her. (more…)
Tags: Bearnaise Sauce, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Freddy Duke, grandma raising teen girl, Gypsy, Lisa Saunders, old hippie friends, Pandora's Box, Scandia Restaurant Pyttipanna dish with bernaise sauce, Sunset Strip for teen runaways, the strip in the 60's
Posted in Recipes | 14 Comments »
Friday, July 20th, 2012
My least favorite subject is toxic mold. But somehow, mold lead me to a summer in Malibu. My house was under reconstruction for nearly two years to get rid of the stachybotrys. My health had been compromised, my spirit was low and my husband and I rented a little house on the water to change it up. Start fresh.
Anyone who knows me can tell you my favorite place to live is on Old Malibu Road. It feels like home, even though I was only a renter for a few years a lifetime ago. I long for it, I dream of it. And for this one particular summer, eight summers ago, I lived the dream.
Be careful what you wish for. I wished for crashing waves to lull me into slumber. Well, this house was SO close to the water – in it, during high tide — that it sounded more like a tsunami, not that I really know what one sounds like. My husband could barely stand it. So, he kind of gave up and only visited on weekends. When those waves struck the pilings the house shook. It almost felt like the next one might carry the house out to sea. I invited the world and no one came. Seriously. The Mogull girls came that first weekend and promised they would be visiting all summer. Never again. All my other friends, same story. Usually when I’ve lived on the water, you have to keep it on the down low because too many people just show up. Not this time. So, it was just me and my kids. (more…)
Tags: cream cheese pesto pumpkin seed dip recipe, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, making friends at the gym, Old Malibu Road, recipe courtesy of Leslie Simmons Potts
Posted in Recipes | 15 Comments »
Sunday, July 8th, 2012
I wish I could tell you exactly how many yards it was for me to get to Roxbury Park to give you the visual. A hop. Not even a skip and a jump. I walked two houses up, crossed Olympic and I was there.
That is where I spent my summers. Basically, doing absolutely nothing. Kind of like a Seinfeld episode. No sunblock. No checking in with my mother. I didn’t excel at anything in Roxbury Park. Not at caroms. Not the monkey bars. And certainly not the rings.
At the rings, I watched other kids adept at swinging quickly back and forth from one to the next. I stood high up one day, grabbed ahold and leapt off, but unable to catch the next ring, which seemed to move further and further away, I landed back where I started. I spent long days trying to push myself further until I did finally grab onto that second one, which was such a victory. Then I kept swinging back and forth, trying to gain the momentum I would need to get to the next, but failed and dropped to the ground. Again I tried, over and over, all summer until I was finally able to go back and forth, leaving the other kids waiting in line, drumming their fingers. And like a monkey, I would copy what the other ring junkies would do just before taking over the set for their performance. They would dig their hands into the sand and rub some of it between their palms for better friction. Or use chalk. It never seemed to work for me, but I did it to look cool, like them. Inevitably all us monkeys ended up with blisters. (more…)
Tags: best tuna sandwiches in the world, Beverly Hills Hotel tuna sandwiches, coffe shop at Beverly Hills hotel, Erik Gibson, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Freddy Duke, rings to swing on, Roxbury Park, Roxbury Park in the 60's, talent shows
Posted in Reviews | 21 Comments »
Friday, June 29th, 2012
You probably don’t know this about me. I’m in a cult. I never mention it. I try to keep it on the down low. It’s been almost 10 years now since we formed. We do call ourselves The Cult. My son Oliver is the one who coined the name. He saw this photo of a woman in our group and she was in an eerie graveyard with drapey, Indian-type clothes. A mist hung in the air. Each day, as he saw us passing hundreds of emails back and forth he said, “So, that’s your cult leader?” It just stuck. We all thought it was hilarious.
Here is how we found our way to each other. Sometime around our 30-year reunion from high school there was an AOL online group of 50 or more peeps from our school chatting away about our upcoming fiftieth birthdays. Some were just observers and some were the ones doing all the talking. I was in the latter group. I know, surprise. The bigger group was getting annoyed at how much we liked to communicate. They might express it directly or they might say something like “take me off the list.” Yet, there were still the lookie loos. One day, the cult leader grabbed our core group of 10 or so and formed a smaller group. You had to be tech savvy to move over, and I wasn’t, so she did the work for me. Now it was official, we were a cult. Trendsetters that we didn’t know we were, we may have been the original social network. (more…)
Tags: banana boat bikes, Beverly High class of 71, class of 71, cults, D.Boos's recipe for salsa, Diana Boos, fredde duke, recipe for salsa, reunions
Posted in Recipes | 12 Comments »
Friday, June 22nd, 2012
Let me start by saying that when my dad liked something you did, he would say, “I give you an A!!!” So, I never got real A’s, I got verbal ones.
One year, when Oliver was in school at SMC, I decided to join him and audit a cinema course. Stupidly, I walked up to the teacher after the first class to make sure it was okay that I would be auditing. This woman looked back into my eyes, real serious, sort of stern, and said no, she could not let anyone audit. I was a little thrown. I was sorry I walked up to her. I should have just quietly done it. Then she said, “Just sign up and take the class.” Panic set in. I looked back at her and said, “No, I don’t want to have to take tests or study.” She said her one test isn’t very difficult and that there would be only one essay. She acted like it would be easy-breezy. Still panicking, I said in hushed tones, “I have brain damage.” I said that to her. I couldn’t think of anything else. But, to be perfectly honest, I was suffering from terrible brain fog from toxic mold in my bloodstream. That’s another story. Trust me, I was not my normal, sort of sharp, but not-sharp-enough-to-take-a-test self. The teacher assured me this class would be no pressure. (more…)
Tags: best Mexican restaurant in L.A., film class at SMC, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Freddy Duke, Gardens of Taxco Mexican Restaurant, getting an A for no apparent reason, homemade tortilla's, old now closed Mexican restaurants like Tia Juana, serenading in spanish
Posted in Reviews | 11 Comments »
Friday, June 15th, 2012
Finally a story about another man in my life other than my dad. Are you relieved?
I’d like you meet my husband. Here he is.
And these are just some of the reasons that I love the man. I also like him because he is smart and funny. And handsome. But, it’s his generous spirit that has always blown me away.
Quickly, some back-story you might need to know.
Michael is only a few years older than me, yet seems like he’s from another generation. When we drive in his car, he listens exclusively to jazz. He just loves that whole Sinatra era, rat pack thing.
Some years ago when I knew my friend Ricci Martin had written a book about his dad Dean, (yes, that Dean) I called him up for a signed copy as a gift for my husband. I didn’t know if my Michael would even read it. He did. Then he got to work on a secret gift. Secret to me at least. Let me clarify something. I’m not all that close with Ricci. We have a lot of the same friends, so sure, I can make that call to get the signed book, but we don’t really stay in touch. I knew nothing of my husband’s plan. But, he had read that Dean’s favorite scent was Woodhue, a cologne made by Fabrege. Ricci’s father had been gone quite awhile and Michael thought it would make a great gift if he could find a bottle of the now discontinued scent. First he made a call to a few relatives. My husband’s uncle George had been the CEO of Faberge. No luck. It hadn’t been made in years. Then he started a search on the internet and it led him to eBay and he found a never used bottle. He purchased it and then asked me for Ricci’s address. I asked why. And, he told me this story. That after reading the book, he went on a hunt to find Dean’s son Ricci a bottle of Woodhue. I think Michael doing that touched me even more than it did Ricci. (more…)
Tags: Emmy nominated writer Michael Barrie, fredde duke, Freddy Duke, great coats as gifts, great scripts, michael barrie, sardine and pasta recipe, song plenty of money and you, writer
Posted in Recipes | 24 Comments »
Thursday, June 14th, 2012
Duke's grandkids, Erica Duke( left), Augie Duke( right)
When I think of my dad — and if you know me, you know I always do think of him – it’s often Saturday morning and Duke is surrounded by his “crew” in his regular booth at Nate n’ Al’s. But next Sunday, Father’s Day, I’ll think of Duke as he was most Sundays – in his other regular booth at Matteo’s. What can I say, he liked to eat and he loved to schmooze.
I realize I write WAY too much about my dad. But, here is a story you haven’t heard. One night at Matty’s, as we called this trapped-in-a-time-warp, Rat Pack era, Italian bistro on Westwood Boulevard, my dad was eating in his regular red leather booth; first to the right as you walked into the “correct” (celebrity-filled) room. I should mention that Sunday nights at Matteo’s was tradition among a certain show business crowd. It wasn’t unusual to see Sinatra dining with Steve & Eydie, or the Reagans, Lucille Ball or even Clint Eastwood… but to me, Sunday at Matteo’s was mostly about the comedians. On this night, Red Buttons walked in. My dad was always the first person anyone greeted. He was hard to miss. Short of stature, but big of mouth, and loudly holding court at a spot you had to pass to enter. Except for Shecky, my father called all comics he knew by their last name. It was just Dangerfield. Or Youngman. You get it. So, Buttons walks in and turns to our table, kibitzes with my dad a moment, then in a big, showy gesture, hands him a long, fat cigar. He proudly points out it’s an expensive Cuban then moves on to his own table. My dad stuck it where he put all his cigars — including his own cheap ones — in the top jacket pocket he sometimes called a “pockcoat.” Don’t ask. (more…)
Tags: Chicken Beckerman, cigars, Clint Eastwood, Cuban cigars, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Lucille Ball, Matteo's restaurant, Maurice Duke, Milton Berle, Old Hollywood haunts, Red Buttons, Steve and Edie
Posted in Reviews | 4 Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2012
Disclaimer: As a society, we put way too much emphasis on the size of a woman’s breasts when it’s the size of her brain and heart that matters. End of disclaimer. You’re now going to read a tale of Big Tits.
I grew up in a near circus environment of comics, entertainers, bohemians and one stunning Playboy Playmate. She was also an alluring actress on the big screen — she had co-starred with Louis Prima in my father’s 1961 movie “Twist All Night” –- and she was gorgeous beyond belief — and to add insult to injury—NICE. I loved everything about her, especially the big breasts and British accent. I’m kidding, the accent was fine, but it was those tits that I looked up to! Literally. I looked up to them. My dad talked about them so frequently and openly that I started to think of them as not an appendage but as another whole personality. “Her tits have got tits,” he would say. My own mother didn’t have tits that had tits. She barely had them at all. And, unfortunately, I would never end up that endowed myself, but dream on as a child I would. (Again, not important. See disclaimer above.) People would ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up, Fredde?” And I would answer proudly (as if this were a normal, Leave-it-to-Beaver fantasy): “I want to be a Playboy bunny, just like June (not Cleaver)!!!”
My idol, June lying by my father’s pool, 60’s
(more…)
Tags: breast cancer site, breasts, fredde duke, Freddy Duke, Hugh Hefner, idol's, June Wilkenson, June Wilkinson, large breasts, Maurice Duke, Smoky Martini recipe
Posted in Recipes | 19 Comments »
