Jelly Roll Morton is buried ... in East LA? ... Two new books explore the Chinese-American nightclub scene ... Where wannabe WWE pro-wrestlers go to get noticed ... Orson Bean and the woman who bit his father's knee
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's WWE hopefuls battle monthly in Reseda
Off-Ramp contributor CJ Greenspon takes us to the minor leagues of pro wrestling, an event at an American Legion hall in Reseda put on every month by Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.
You know how baseball has farm clubs, where you can see the stars of tomorrow? Well, the Triple-A Cactus League for wrestling is Reseda's Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. PWG features the most skilled wrestlers on the indie circuit, working their way up to WWE.
At least 400 people came last week for PWG's "Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n Roll," packing the legion hall. Among them, Herbert Amaya, who's been attending PWG's shows for five years. "The wrestlers are very personable after the shows," he said, "and you can just go up and talk to them. They're normal people outside of the ring."
But inside they're 100 percent pro wrestler, since the personalities of PWG's talent are what make them so beloved by their fans.
PWG highlight reel with some crazy wrestling moves — and a few swear words:
Austin, Texas's ACH isn't afraid to show his nerdy side, quoting Super Smash Bros. and Dragon Ball Z in the ring.
ACH standing on the announce table:
ACH standing on an announce table
But the action at Pro Wrestling Guerrilla is the real draw, like the bout between Roderick Strong and Brian Cage. PWG photographer Devin Chen gave me the play-by-play: "I love that story that they told. You got a big, huge man, like Brian Cage, and you got the little guy, Roderick Strong, trying to take him down, and in the end, Roderick Strong got the lucky kick in the head, and took Brian Cage down for the 1, 2, 3."
Brian Cage poses in a PWG ring:
Brian Cage poses in a PWG ring
PWG's roster comes from all over the country. They get on planes two or three times a week, hitting another town or country to work on their craft and make a living. But every contender that night told me there are few places they'd rather wrestle than at the American Legion Post#308 in Reseda, California.
The Kentucky Gentleman, Chuck Taylor, put it best: "This is the best place to wrestle on earth. I've wrestled in eight countries and 30 states, and this is my favorite place to wrestle. This crappy little building in Reseda, California ... there's something magical about it."
Adam Cole wrestles Kyle O'Reilly in the main event:
Lisa See's 'China Dolls' & Arthur Dong's 'Forbidden City' explore long-gone nightclub scene
Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with Los Angeles author Lisa See about "China Dolls," her new novel about the Chinese-American experience, which comes out June 3. He also previews Arthur Dong's "Forbidden City, USA," the new book based on his acclaimed documentary of the same name.
“The guy who was just dancing,” Ruby picked up as though no time had passed. “Isn’t Eddie amazing? He’s a regular Fred Astaire.”
“But he’s Chinese,” Grace pointed out in a low voice.
“That’s why they call him the Chinese Fred Astaire!” Ruby covered her mouth to hide her giggles.
“Are you two trying out to be chorus girls? I don’t remember either of you from the auditions at Li Po or the Sky Room, though. But you know how it is. New girls are coming every day. Everyone wants a chance—if not here, then at one of the other clubs that are opening.”
— Excerpt from Lisa See's "China Dolls"
"China Dolls" is the latest novel from Lisa See, the L.A. author who has made a career of exploring the world of the Chinese-American in California in novels like "Dreams of Joy," "Shanghai Girls" and "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," along with the memoir "On Gold Mountain." In "China Dolls," we meet Helen, Ruby and Grace, three Asian-American performers from different backgrounds who meet in San Francisco's brand new Chinese-American nightclub scene — clubs run by Chinese-Americans specifically for an Anglo audience.
VIDEO: Dorothy Toy Fong on her career
In typical See style, the women's lives soon intertwine in ways that reveal the era's social fault lines: race hatred, war, homosexuality and — since it's one of Lisa's books and she comes from one of L.A.'s most famous Chinese-American families — often tortuous family relations, all of which we talk about in our extended interview.
RELATED: Lisa See's 'Shanghai Girls' sequel, 'Dreams of Joy'… or 'Joy Has 2 Mommies'
The confluence of events that happen to our heroines in "China Dolls" is improbable (news flash: it's a novel), but the backdrop is solid history, much of which is told in another new book I want to highlight here. It was summarized by the New York Times' Robert Ito as "East meets west, over cocktails.”
Arthur Dong's "Forbidden City, USA" is the new book based on his documentary of the same name.
One of my favorite childhood adventures was walking through the Stockton Street Tunnel. It began in San Francisco’s Chinatown and led to (Market Street). Just outside the end of the tunnel, in the upscale area of Union Square, was where I first stumbled upon Forbidden City in the 1960s.
What struck me then were the photos of nightclub acts from the 1940s that were still on display. I don’t recall exactly who was in those black-and-white stills, but I do remember that this was the first time I saw Chinese American performers dressed in glamorous taffeta gowns, swing-style suits with wide lapels, and skin-baring showgirl costumes. I had seen those kinds of outfits before in old Hollywood musicals, but they were almost never worn by entertainers who looked like me.
— From the author's preface to "Forbidden City, USA"
I was born too late to experience the clubs first-hand, so I’ve been trying to do all I can to be a part of the scene. The memories, postcards, menus, snapshots, programs, and meticulously crafted studio photos I’ve collected are a way to immerse myself into an era before my time ... Also, the personal stories are inspirational and such a revelation: I’m the son of traditional working-class immigrants and the performers led lives so unlike the elders that I grew up around. — Arthur Dong in AsAm News
Dong has a "Forbidden City" book talk and signing at 7 p.m. on June 4 at Castelar Elementary School in Chinatown (840 Yale St., Los Angeles 90012), hosted by the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California.
SoCal Lisa See events (all include a talk and signing unless noted):
- June 3: Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena
- June 4: Barnes & Noble (Irvine, CA),
- June 5: Diesel Bookstore (Malibu), Luncheon
- June 5: Barnes & Noble (Thousand Oaks)
- June 6: Gift of Literacy Luncheon (Newport Beach)
- June 6: Barnes & Noble (Huntington Beach),
- June 7: The Neptunian Women’s Club (Manhattan Beach), Luncheon
- June 7: Pages Bookstore (Manhattan Beach), Talk, Q&A, Signing
- June 8: Diesel Bookstore (Brentwood),
- June 9: Warwick’s (La Jolla),
- June 10: Warwick’s (San Diego)
LeVar Burton's Kickstarter campaign for Reading Rainbow is a runaway best-seller
UPDATE 5/29/2014: Reading Rainbow's Kickstarter campaign to get the long-running show on the web and into classrooms was an immediate success. As I write this, LeVar Burton's request for $1m in funding has been almost doubled.
First, not all families have access to tablets. Our goal is to cultivate a love of reading in all children, not just those that have tablets. To reach kids everywhere, we need to be everywhere: we need to be on the web.
Second, a resounding number of teachers have told me that they want Reading Rainbow in their classrooms, where they know it can make a difference. We will provide it, along with the tools that teachers need, including teacher guides, leveling, and dashboards. And in disadvantaged classrooms, we'll provide it for free.
-- Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign
I spoke with LeVar Burton in 2012, soon after he and business partner Mark Wolfe launched the Reading Rainbow app, and you can hear the passion in his voice as we talk about using books to connect kids with ideas and the world around them. We also spoke about "Roots," "Star Trek," and his childhood in Germany.
(Full disclosure: Off-Ramp believes reading is, as they used to say, fundamental.)
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"It must have been an incredible burden for you as an actor," I said, "to be the son of Richard Burton." Without batting an eye, LeVar Burton responds, "Well, he is what we referred to as the white sheep of the family, and so we don't talk about him."
But then, LeVar Burton goes immediately into a story about how, growing up without a father, he'd pretend his father was Peter O'Toole, one of those actors who at that time (the 1960s), embodied civilization.
Burton has added a lot to civilization. He played Kunta Kinte in Roots, the epic miniseries. He brought depth and humor to the role of Geordi LaForge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. But the thing he's most proud of is hosting Reading Rainbow for some 25 years, a show that's become a cultural touchstone for generations. It explored books and connected lit to the real world.
The show went off the air a few years ago, the victim, Burton says, of No Child Left Behind, which favored teaching the fundamentals over engaging them further in literature.
But Burton isn't wallowing in the past. Just as there probably won't be another Roots, a nation-uniting media event, he's embraced the idea that maybe Reading Rainbow can thrive best in the new media atmosphere. To that end, this year, Burton and business partner Mark Wolfe revived Reading Rainbow as an app, where it quickly became the fastest growing educational application.
In our wide ranging conversation, Burton and I talk about early influences, his respect for St Augustine, what he learned from comic books, and much more, including "Magical Negroes."
Dylan Brody on the literary manager who, apparently, can't read
My former literary manager told me he didn’t really like reading. There are reasons he’s no longer my literary manager.
When I finished my novel, "Laughs Last," I handed the manuscript to the man who was then representing me. I said, “I know you don’t read a lot of prose. Imagine it’s a movie. Imagine Carl Reiner plays the grandfather.”
In the novel, I have made Poppa, the lead character’s grandfather, the repository of all the knowledge of comedy that I wish someone had shared with me when I was coming up through the clubs. He’s a lovely character, funny, grumpy and wise.
A couple of weeks later I asked my manager if he’d read the piece. He said, “Oh! That screenplay you gave me? No. But I sent it to Carl Reiner like you asked.” There are SO many reasons he is no longer my literary manager.
RELATED: Speaking of books, Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign is a runaway best-seller
I told him that this was not what I had said. I told him it was not a screenplay and that he should read the novel. He asked me to get him a new copy. I said I could e-mail it. He said he’d prefer a hard copy if it wasn’t too much trouble. There are just so many reasons.
A few weeks later I got a lovely note from Carl Reiner that said he had liked the book and that it had a wonderful punchline. He was right about that, but I went into a spiral of panic.
Here's why:
A few years ago, I performed at the New York Public Library at a tribute to George Carlin hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. When I came off stage, she said to me, “That was brilliant. Fantastic.”
A week later, back in L.A. I phoned her office to ask if I could use that as a blurb and her lawyer told me I could not. So I don’t. Though I do direct people to the video of me performing at the event on YouTube. She was miked when she said it. You can hear her say it.
Yes, you can hear Whoopi Goldberg compliment Dylan Brody near the end of this video
But I don’t use it as a blurb. ‘cause her lawyer told me not to.
I wanted to know if Carl minded me using what he’d said in the note as a blurb. I also wanted to meet Mr. Reiner because he’s one of my heroes and also, he’s sort of my imaginary grandfather. So I called his office and said I had an appointment in Beverly Hills next Wednesday and would love, while I was there, to take Mr. Reiner out to lunch. His assistant said she’d have to call me back.
Twenty minutes later, she called back. She said she had Carl Reiner on the line, if I was available. I was.
Carl got on the line and said, “Whattaya want now?” I told him that I would be in Beverly Hills on Wednesday and would love to take him out to lunch. He said, “Nah. I don’t want to go to lunch. Just come by the house.”
(KPCC's Patt Morrison with Carl Reiner in his breakfast nook. Image: Dave Coelho)
He was gracious and grandfatherly in a cardigan over a T-shirt. He told me I could use the blurb, that he didn’t put anything in writing unless he was okay with it being used. I told him about my love of his work and that he and George Carlin were the two heroes I’d met who hadn’t disappointed me. He asked me who had disappointed me.
I told him about working for Steve Allen when he was old and angry and crazy. Carl told me about how kind Mr. Allen had been to him and Mel Brooks when they were young and then, four years ago, in his living room, Carl Reiner ran his knob-knuckled fingers over his bald head and said, “Yeah. I hope when I get old I don’t get angry and crazy.”
Then an absolutely extraordinary thing happened. He said, “Oooh! Let me show you this!”
He had just received the illustrations for a new children’s book he had written. He pulled the big, color-copied pages out of a manila envelope and moved next to me on the couch. He read me his children’s book. He pointed things out in the pictures.
If there were a virtual reality ride for humorists, I would want to experience it on the setting where it seems as though Carl Reiner is reading me a children’s book. But now that’s happened. So I’d need to have Groucho Marx teach me to tie my shoes.
When it was time to go, I told him I still felt like I owed him lunch. He asked if I like sushi. I told him that I do and that I would be honored to buy him sushi. He shrugged and said, “Someone will buy sushi. Someone will eat sushi.”
When he said that, he sounded very much like my grandfather. Apparently, though, in the scenario he described, neither of those someones was me, ‘cause we never did have the sushi. I did run into him a few months later, but that’s a whole other* story.
RELATED: Listen to the "whole other story" Dylan is referring to
When I got into my car, shaking with the emotional resonance of the visit, I called my manager. I said, “I just sat with Carl Reiner in his living room. He read me a children’s book.”
My manager said, “I don’t know what that means, but did you get permission to use the blurb.”
There are so many reasons he’s no longer my manager.
*Editor's Note: Note that Dylan uses "other," not "nother," which is not a word.
Jelly Roll Morton, 'inventor' of jazz music, is buried in Los Angeles
Of all the places in the United States to look for the headstone of the jazz’s first big innovator, East L.A. is probably the last place on the list. But buried under an unassuming stone in Cavalry Cemetery are the bones of Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe — better known as Jelly Roll Morton — the self-proclaimed, and not entirely wrong, “originator of jazz.”
Can any one person be credited with inventing jazz? Probably not, but Jelly Roll Morton had the audacity and experience to at least be a top contender for the position.
Morton was born in New Orleans in 1890 and honed his chops as a teenager, playing piano for deep-pocketed lowlifes in Storyvilile, New Orleans' famed red light district and the birthplace of jazz.
There he developed an unmistakable sound, blending the ragtime feel of the previous century with his own complicated rhythms and innovative arrangements. He was a larger-than-life personality with a giant diamond in his teeth and furs on his shoulders.
When Storyville was shut down in 1918, he sought out his childhood crush, a woman named Anita Gonzales, who was running a tavern in Las Vegas. He wasn’t too keen on the weather there and suggested a move further west.
“Anyway, Anita decided to stay in Los Angeles so she went into a small hotel business," said Morton in a 1938 interview with musicologist Alan Lomax. "She bought a hotel on the corner of Central near 12th in Los Angeles and named it The Anita. By that time, I had several little businesses branching out myself again.”
Most of Morton’s "business" skills had been picked up in Storyville: pool shark and pimp proved to be the most profitable. After an unsatisfactory musical career in Los Angeles, Morton packed his bags and left Anita behind.
He found success in Chicago scoring the more riotous Jazz Age parties with his Red Hot Peppers but when the Great Depression hit, Morton’s career stalled. He sold most of his diamonds and moved to New York.
In 1938, Morton was stabbed twice at a gig — in the head and in the chest. He survived, but the injuries led to chronic respiratory problems.
Two years later, at the age of 50, with failing health and a limited cash flow, he drove himself from New York to Los Angeles to reunite with Anita after almost 20 years.
Once in L.A., he ignored doctor's orders and tried to mount a comeback, going so far as to book rehearsal time at Central Avenue’s Elks Hall with his old New Orleans friends Kid Ory and “Papa Mutt” Carey, but it never happened. On July 10, 1941, after an 11 day stay in Los Angeles’ General Hospital, he died of heart failure.
Jelly Roll Morton was buried without a headstone. Nine years later, the Southern California Hot Jazz Society held a fundraiser to finally put a marker over the jazzman’s casket. Only then did Anita step up to fund the stone herself, likely with the royalties he'd bequeathed to her on his deathbed.
In just a few short decades, Morton was lost to the evolving trends of jazz and had sabotaged his musical legacy with his own ego.
On the night he died, a savvier young bandleader named Duke Ellington premiered “Jump For Joy,” his impassioned bid for equality and artistic nobility at the Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles. The history books were far kinder to him.
Sean J. O’Connell's book, Los Angeles’s Central Avenue Jazz is out now on Arcadia Publishing. In it, you'll find more on Jelly Roll and other Los Angeles Jazz musicians.
Orson Bean, self-confessed "geezer," onstage at Geffen Playhouse
Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with Bean about "Death of the Author," now playing at the Geffen Playhouse; his father getting bitten during a panty raid, and being Calvin Coolidge's cousin.
"Ask me anything you want," Orson Bean said. So I did.
Orson Bean, who turns 86 in July, is one of the old school Hollywood raconteurs. He may never have made it into the A-List of actors, but he knew them all and seems satisfied with his long career. His IMDB credits date back to 1952, with few years where he wasn't working in film or TV.
Working backward through the decades, Bean's roles take us from "Hot in Cleveland" and "Desperate Housewives," to "Being John Malkovich" and "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," to "The Facts of Life" to "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and the animated "Lord of the Rings," to "The Twilight Zone" and "Playhouse 90" ... not to mention a small but pivotal role in 1959's "Anatomy of a Murder," which we'll get into at a later date, and his many appearances on the classic game shows "What's My Line?," "I've Got a Secret," and "To Tell the Truth."
Orson Bean gives advice on telling jokes
So how did he wind up onstage at the Geffen Playhouse in "Death of the Author," written by Steven Drukman and directed by Bart DeLorenzo? Bean says "the director said he read tons and tons of geezers, and decided I was the one. I think I was one of the last people read, but I always feel that at two in the morning, the dame on the next barstool starts looking pretty good."
But he demurs. With his perfect diction, strong features and white hair, he embodies the old Ivy League professor he's playing. "I grew up on Harvard Square and I watched 50-year old men walking around with green book bags slung over their shoulders going for their fourth PhD, never having left the world of academia to alleged reality. And that's the kind of a part I play."
(Orson Bean in 1965. Wikipedia Commons)
Then there's Bean's family tree. "My father was an odd stick," Bean says. "He was a member of MENSA and he was a uniformed yard cop for the Harvard police. And my father made the front page of the Boston Globe during a panty raid, when he was bitten on the leg by a Radcliffe girl. And I told him, be glad it wasn't a taller girl."
(Orson Bean's cousin, the future President Calvin Coolidge)
Bean's also a distant cousin of President Calvin Coolidge. "My grandfather's mother and Cal's mother were sisters, the Moore girls, a randy pair from Plymouth, Vermont." When Coolidge's mother died, when he was 12, her sister took him in to live with their family, including Bean's 12-year old grandfather. "My grandfather had to share his bike with him and his bedroom and everything else and never liked him," not even when Cal became President.
Death of the Author is at the Geffen Playhouse through June 29. It's Written by Steven Drukman, directed by Bart DeLorenzo, and stars Orson Bean, Austin Butler, David Clayton Rogers, and Lyndon Smith.
We want our D TV! Fans to rally June 1 to tell Dodgers and TWC to cut it out
John Rabe talks with LA Times columnist Chris Erskine about the rally planned Sunday, June 1, to urge the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable to solve the TV snafu.
"More and more, this Dodgers TV fiasco is reading like a plot line that even Joseph Heller would have rejected as far too absurd — greed, smothered in shamelessness, dipped in irony." -- Chris Arskine, writing in the LA Times.
The vast majority of Dodger fans cannot watch their beloved team on TV because the team and TWC can't or won't come to an agreement with DirecTV to allow the satellite TV provider to air the games. It irks LA Times columnist Chris Erskine so much that his trim mustache bristles when he talks about the letters he gets from readers.
"First it was disbelief, then there was frustration, a sense of betrayal, now there's just anger. And people feel powerless," he said.
Silver Lining: Dodgers RADIO ratings are way up
So Erskine is helping organize a rally that will start at the old cop bar The Short Stop, near Dodger Stadium.
"I said, well let's get together and make some noise and let them know that we haven't given up!" he said. He'd like people to bring cowbells and big signs, and he even jokes that there's a sale on pitchforks at Home Depot.
(Turns out it's technically a "manure spreader," which actually fits the bill when it comes to this situation.)
RELATED: Angels pitcher CJ Wilson says racing cars is harder than baseball
In his column, Erskine has tweaked baseball commissioner Bud Selig whose plan is to, "Aggressively stay on top of it and hope they get it settled."
"And what's really weird," Erskine said, "is that no civic leader has stood up and said what about the fans? What about the viewers? What about this land that the city of Los Angeles basically gave to the Dodgers to come out here in the first place? It's a civic treasure."
Rally Details: Sunday, June 1, 3pm. Meet at The Short Stop, 1455 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026.