Terry Southern grounded my writing, especially in ‘The Royal Janitor’. I might start a new Bond book, starring Jane Rosemond Bond – that might be a movie script. Susan Hayward would have made a good Jane Bond. I’m going to play my cards closer to the vest.
John Presco
, Ratoff considered the project needed Bond to be female and wished to cast Susan Hayward as ‘Jane’ Bond.[16]
Hi Movie buffs
[photopress:Jane_Bond_HK_Film_Archive.jpg,full,pp_image]
If female secret agents, cat burglars and jewel thieves are your cup of tea, you can’t miss the upcoming program at the Hong Kong Film Archive. Titled “Licensed to Kick (Men): The Jane Bond Films,” the series showcases one of the coolest, most fascinating genres of Hong Kong cinema.
Strangely enough, as I was opening up the Film Archive newsletter yesterday, I wondered to myself if it could be about anything cool, like 60’s secret agent movies… and sure enough it WAS!
Barbara Bouchet (born Bärbel Gutscher; 15 August 1943)[2][3] is a German-Italian actress, dancer, and model, active in the United States and Italy. She is regarded as a sex symbol in genre films of the 1960s and 1970s.[4]
Born in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, Bouchet’s family emigrated to the United States after the Second World War. She began her acting career in the ’60s, appearing in small roles in films such as In Harm’s Way and guest parts on television series such as Star Trek and The Virginian. She had more prominent film roles in Casino Royale (1967), in which she played Miss Moneypenny,[1] and Sweet Charity (1969).
Charles K. Feldman, the producer, had acquired the film rights in 1960 and had attempted to get Casino Royale made as an Eon Productions Bond film; however, Feldman and the producers of the Eon series, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, failed to come to terms. Believing that he could not compete with the Eon series, Feldman resolved to produce the film as a satire. The budget escalated as various directors and writers became involved in the production, and actors expressed dissatisfaction with the project.
Released on 13 April 1967, two months prior to Eon’s fifth Bond film, You Only Live Twice, Casino Royale was a financial success, grossing over $41.7 million worldwide, and Burt Bacharach‘s musical score was praised, earning him an Academy Award nomination for the song “The Look of Love“, performed on the film’s soundtrack by Dusty Springfield. Critical reaction, however, was generally negative, with many reviewers regarding it as a baffling, disorganised affair. Since 1999, rights have been held by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, distributors of the Bond films by Eon Productions.
In London, Mata is kidnapped by SMERSH in a giant flying saucer, and Sir James and Moneypenny travel to Casino Royale to rescue her. They discover that the casino is located atop a giant underground headquarters run by the evil Dr. Noah, who is revealed to be Sir James’s nephew Jimmy Bond, a former MI6 agent who defected to SMERSH. Jimmy reveals his plan to use biological warfare to make all women beautiful and kill all men over 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) tall, leaving him the “big man” who attracts all the women. Jimmy has also captured the Detainer, and he tries to persuade her to be his partner. She reluctantly agrees, but only to dupe him into swallowing one of his atomic time pills, turning him into a walking atomic bomb.
ovember 1952, several months before the publication of his first James Bond novel Casino Royale, Ian Fleming purchased the small theatrical agency Glidrose Productions Limited to produce a screen adaptation of the novel. After the publication, Curtis Brown, Associated British Pictures and the Music Corporation of America all expressed interest in purchasing the film rights. Curtis Brown later licensed the rights to produce a one-hour Americanized television adaptation for Climax! on CBS.[11] In March 1955, Fleming sold the film rights of his novel Casino Royale to the producer Gregory Ratoff for $6,000[12] ($70,427 in 2024 dollars)[13] after Ratoff had bought a $600 six-month option from Fleming the previous year.[14][15] Ratoff commissioned Lorenzo Semple Jr. to write a script, but both men thought Bond was “unbelievable” and “stupid”. According to Semple, Ratoff considered the project needed Bond to be female and wished to cast Susan Hayward as ‘Jane’ Bond.[16] In January 1956, The New York Times reported Ratoff had set up a production company with Michael Garrison to produce a film adaptation,[17] but their pitch was rejected by 20th Century Fox and they were unable to find financial backers before his death in December 1960.[15][1] Talent agent Charles K. Feldman had represented Ratoff and bought the film rights from his widow.[18][14] Albert R. Broccoli, who had held an interest in adapting James Bond for some years, offered to purchase the Casino Royale rights from Feldman, but he declined.[19] Feldman and his friend, director Howard Hawks, had an interest in adapting Casino Royale and considered Leigh Brackett as a writer and Cary Grant as James Bond. They eventually decided not to proceed after they saw Dr. No (1962), the first Bond adaptation made by Broccoli and his partner Harry Saltzman through their company Eon Productions.[20]
In addition to the credited writers, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Val Guest, Ben Hecht, Joseph Heller, Terry Southern and Wilder are all believed to have contributed to the screenplay to varying degrees. Feldman called it “a four ring circus”.[24] Sellers had hired Southern to write his dialogue (and not the rest of the script) to “upstage” Orson Welles and Allen.[25]
For the musical score, Feldman decided to bring in Burt Bacharach, who had composed Feldman’s previous production, What’s New Pussycat?. Bacharach worked for over two years writing for Casino Royale, in the meantime composing After the Fox and being forced to decline participation in Luv. Lyricist Hal David contributed with various songs, many of which appear in instrumental versions.[42] Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass performed some of the songs with Mike Redway singing the title song as the end credits roll. The title theme was Alpert’s second number one on the Easy Listening chart where it spent two weeks at the top in June 1967 and peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100.[43] Alpert would later contribute a trumpet solo to the title song of the 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again, which was performed by Alpert’s wife, Lani Hall.
Bacharach would later rework two tracks of the score into songs: “Home James, Don’t Spare the Horses” was re-arranged as “Bond Street”, appearing on Bacharach’s album Reach Out (1967), and “Flying Saucer – First Stop Berlin”, was reworked with vocals as “Let the Love Come Through” by orchestra leader and arranger Roland Shaw. A clarinet melody would later be featured in a Cracker Jack peanut popcorn commercial. As an in-joke, a brief snippet of John Barry‘s song “Born Free” is used early in the film. At the time, Barry was the main composer for the Eon Bond series, and said song had won an Academy Award over Bacharach’s own “Alfie“.[46]
The cover art was done by Robert McGinnis, based on the film poster. The original LP was later issued by Varèse Sarabande in the same track order as shown below. It has been re-released under licence by Kritzerland Records and again by Quartet Records, the latter to mark the film’s 50th anniversary. This latest issue has included almost all of Bacharach’s underscore, representing 35 tracks in total.
LA Bond
Posted on June 27, 2021 by Royal Rosamond Press
LA Bond
Idea for series and or movie.
by
John Presco
Copyright 2021
Inspired by post I made in 2018 a year before ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood was made.
James Bond In La La Land? | Rosamond Press
When Jim Morrison spotted Kaye, he pulled out his wangy-doodle and shouted;
“Hey Kaye! Play some deep base riffs on this?”
Kaye did her best to ignore this obscene jester that had Jim’s audience hooting. Not to be denied, Jim hopped off the stage on to a table, then another as he made his way to where James Bond sat with his first Los Angeles date. He had disobeyed his psychiatrists orders, and gave an infamous wink to Kaye as she got out of the car with Bryan MacLean who took her up to the mansion once owned by Bela Lugosi. As Kaye stood to avoid being trampled by rock and roles latest mad man, James stood, and in one deft motion, body-slammed Morrison down on the table knocking the wind out of him. Feeling a hand tugging on his shoulder, 007 turned to get a blast of lewd poetic rage from Michael McClure.
“You can’t treat my poet that way, you limey bastard!” slurred drunken McClure who went flying across the room after Bond delivered a right cross. The Beatnik Bard…..was out cold, They had met at the castle party a few nights before, and, McClure got pissed when James could recite all the poetry of Keats and Shelly.
Mr. McClure rose slowly wiping the blood that poured from his nose. Pointing his red hand at Bond, he put a curse on this agent – who had a license to kill.
“You don’t know who you are fucking with. I will sick the whole Bohemian Nation upon you. Like a pack of hyaenas. we will bring you down! Mark my words……Mr. Bond!”
(5) Michael McClure reading poetry to lions – YouTube
It is 11:14 P.M. and very hot. It is going to be 114 tomorrow. so I am going to start this post tonight. I wrote the above about four hours ago, and then did some research. I believe the Manson murders were conducted by M15 and the CIA. However, there might be a group in Britain that are extremely cruel and lethal. I got a glimpse of them in a documentary about the Boar War, and the battle for India.
I read an article that says M15 accused John Lennon of funding the IRA. There are unsolved murders in Britain involving people involved with Charlie Manson.
James Bond In La La Land?
Posted on July 13, 2018 by Royal Rosamond Press
The home where Elizabeth Taylor lived in the 1950s with then-husband Michael Wilding has hit the market in Beverly Hills.
Coldwell Banker Global Luxury has confirmed the new listing — the first time in 21 years the property has been up for sale — at 1375 Beverly Estates Dr. for $15.9 million. According to the real estate broker, the couple purchased the 2.01 acre property as their private L.A. retreat in 1954, shortly after it was built in 1953. According to reports, Taylor and Wilding made the decision to buy the property after scaling a fence to check out the grounds. Taylor and Wilding married in 1952 and divorced in 1957.
What if no film company buys my Victoria Bond idea? Well, I got a back up. Just in case folks think I am fixating on Lara Roozemond, even stalking her, I am willing to let her go for The Almighty Dollar. Consider this My Giant Cop-out!
James Bond In La La Land
A Movie Script
by
John (Jon) Gregory Presco
Shortly after the death of his beloved wife, Teresa Bond, James has a total mental breakdown. He is sent to see a crack team of psychiatrist who tell him it is time to retire. They suggest he move to Los Angeles California, where he can blend in. Having won a small fortune playing cards in Monaco, he asks The Team Real Estate Agents, if they know of a house. They tell him a house designed by George McLean has just come on the market. There is another buyer who made an offer, but, it could be made to look like they lost a bidding war.
“Who is getting bumped?”
“Oh, just a has-been Hollywood couple whose latest movie was a big flop. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Burton.”
“What about the neighbors? I don’t want to be disturbed. I’m not in the best of shape.”
“Let’s see. There’s Joe Spine on your right, and a rock band called ‘Love’ on your left. Joe is a right-wing T.V. talk personality, your typical American asshole.”
“What about noise?”
“L.A. is a noisy place. There’s an acid rock band every square mile.”
“Maybe I could jam with them. I play a mean Scottish flute.”
“You got one more neighbor, Mr. Natural, who lives illegally in a treehouse up the canyon. He’s harmless. He’ll actually give you money if you let him graze on your lawn.”
“What about women. Do they got pretty women in L.A.?”
“James. You act like you never heard of Los Angeles a place famous for beautiful women. You will have a pool. There will be pool parties, and, just women who like to hang.”
“O.K. Sounds like my cup of tea! Let’s close the deal. Are you sure the Burtons won’t be upset?”
Phone rings.
“Hello Liz. I was wondering when you would get wind of this. I’ll ask him.”
“What the fook. They know who I am?”
“Calm down James. They just know you aced them out. You see, there is this Hollywood Network thing. They want you over for dinner to let you know there are no had feelings. If you refuse, they will make sure things go badly for you in THEIR town.”
“What the fook? I thought I was ordered to stay out of trouble, and relax! My pappy always said “Sometimes when you aren’t looking for trouble, trouble is looking for you!”
Let me pre-warn my movie goers. I plan to shoot the greatest Acid Trip – ever! If I go before this is done – there goes the sixties! Cary Grant took LSD. He would have made a great James Bond. I don’t want to give it away, but, James has his martini spiked with LSD. Who did it?
Mr. Natural – Joe Spine – Liz – a Getty – Love
After his major freak-out James takes up bowling and joins a team that turns out to be Korean Vets who are suffering from PTSD. They are a bad bunch. A bond is made. They conclude bowling isn’t cutting it. James suggests they go over to the dark side and form a motorcycle club. They chose one bike. Here are your choices…….
Top 10 Classic British Motorcycles – Best Old Brit Motorbikes
I prefer the Norton.
Turns out they were prisoners of war. They choose a name……..
THE MANCHURIAN CADIDATES
They all know Jiu Jitsu – Marine style. No one fucks with them, but the Burtons. They just can’t let it go. It’s like a bad dream, worse than acid! On a run, they stumble upon the hidden vortex, that spawned Charlie Manson. The Candidates wear tall boots and a red loin clothes like they wore when they were prisoners. I think Trump thinks he’s Bond. He has turned the world into his reality show. He lets go of Theresa’s hand, and she almost falls. He does not want a shot of them holding hands. How did my sister’s fake death get in Fonda’s movie. Who are those babes on black horses? Imagine what I could come up with if I got paid money? How much will they pay me just to keep my script off the Bond market? I think it is bullshit I need the permission of the Fleming family. Sue me! That will result in millions flocking to see James Bond In La La Land the second worst movie ever made. I can produce twenty hilarious scenes of the Burton’s at the home they begrudgingly settled for, coming up with another dirty trick to pull on that Limey Bastard S.O.B 007
Welcome to America! Wake me when it’s over.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2018
“British politicians expressed outrage Friday at US President Donald Trump’s attack on the government’s Brexit strategy, although one leading eurosceptic said it was “perfectly reasonable”.
“Where are your manners, Mr President?” tweeted universities minister Sam Gyimah.
Other MPs in May’s Conservative party rounded on the president for being “determined to insult” Prime Minister Theresa May as she hosted him on a trip to Britain.
The opposition Labor party called him “extraordinarily rude”.
Downing Street stayed silent but junior foreign minister Alan Duncan brushed off the row, saying Trump was a “controversialist, that’s his style”.
Bryan and George McLean
Posted on May 2, 2018by Royal Rosamond Press
Alas I found Bryan Maclean’s father, George. He was a premiere architect for Hollywood Stars. He built the home my kindred, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, lived in, and was Godfather at the Christening of her son, Christopher Wilding. George MacClean was a good friend of Robert Stack, who dated Liz. Bryan said he learned to swim in Liz’s pool. Was this pool located at 1375 Beverly Hills Estate Drive?
George was the quintessential Hollywood-Los Angeles architect. He was Howard Roarke to the rich and famous. His house he built for the Trousdale Estates, is the Acme of Southern California success, that is enjoying a new Renaissance. Add to this the murals Garth Benton did for movie stars, and Christine Rosamond’s artwork, and the fact Bryan and Christine were lovers for two months when we were teenagers, then here is the lifestyle many can only dream of.
Bryan had seen the model I made for the house I designed when I was seventeen. He informed me his father was a famous architect. Bryan’s mother was an artist, as was one of her parents. I wish I knew her maiden name. Elizabeth, George, and Bryan were saved and became evangelicals. George and Bryan removed themselves from the Success Gauntlet.
Christine was married to actor, Rick Partlow, and lived in one of Micky Rooney’s houses. Garth did some acting, and was married to actress Harlee McBride. Tim O’Connor was like a member of our family. His father was a famous actor of the same name.
Michael Wilding was an artist, and thus was the reason Liz married him, in my opinion. Her family were art collectors. She encouraged Michael Jackson to become an artist. Michael Jr. may come out with a Mommy Dearest-like book that inspired the Rosamond Fib that she hid in the closet to paint. Bryan drew Beach Bunnies in our art class. Christine did not show her forbidden artwork to her lover, because this work did not exist.
Liz Taylor championed Gays stricken with AIDS. Her daughter-in-law, Aileen Getty, came down with this fatal disease. The Getty family owns the largest art collection in the world. We are talking about an Artistic Dynasty.
Sometimes I ask what the purpose of this blog is. The more I dig, the more I find. Wait till you see what I found out about Eric Nord.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2016
A memorial celebration of the life of architect George MacLean is scheduled at noon Wednesday at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in West Los Angeles.
MacLean, who designed shopping centers for the public and mansions for film stars, was 68 when he died of cancer Dec. 1 at his ranch near Hemet. He most recently had pulled away from the Los Angeles social scene, said his longtime friend John Green, the composer and conductor.
At Work Developing Land
“George had been living as an evangelical Christian the past 10 years but he was developing estates on his Hemet property,” Green said.
MacLean was the chief architect for Westlake Village in Los Angeles, the Acapulco Princess Hotel and Estates in Mexico and the International Shopping Bazaar in Freeport,
http://www.marmol-radziner.com/restoration/meisel-residence
http://aflippenlife.blogspot.com/2013/10/trousdale-estates-life-above-it-all.html
Elizabeth quickly fell in love. What she didn’t know was that the home, which was made of glass and adobe, was designed by architect George MacLean with her in mind. In her book, An Informal Memoir, Elizabeth describes the unique interior: “One whole wall was built of bark with fern and orchids growing up the bark, and the bar was made of stone. And the fireplace had no chimney. There was a device making the smoke go down under the building and out through the barbecue pit.” Elizabeth also recalled that “You really couldn’t distinguish between the outside and inside. And all the colors I loved—off white, white, natural woods, stone, beigy marble. The pool was so beautiful. There were palm trees and rock formations—it looked like a natural pool, with trees growing out of it. It was the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen.” The state of the art home also featured an intercom, automated doors, light dimmers, automated curtains, and a movie screen. The architect later became godfather to Elizabeth’s son, Christopher.
After Elizabeth put the home on the market, Ingrid Berman toured the home as a potential buyer.
Ms. Taylor’s connection to the fight against AIDS grew deeper still when her daughter-in-law Aileen Getty revealed to the woman she called “Mom” that she had contracted HIV in 1984. Far from turning her back on Getty, Taylor grew even more committed to the cause and saving the life of the daughter-in-law she loved and the mother of two of her grandchildren.
“Without the love of Elizabeth Taylor in my life, I would probably be dead — if not physically, most certainly emotionally,” Getty told The Advocate in 2011. “Mom loved me through my shame and held me tight. This can be very difficult: If you do something wrong, sometimes you feel that you want to be scolded or punished for your actions, as opposed to being loved and supported. Mom just loved me.”
The Private Reasons for Elizabeth Taylor’s Public Fight Against HIV/AIDS
http://elizabethtaylor.com/elizabeth-taylor-hiv-aids-fight/embed/
Born in Los Angeles in 1947, MacLean drifted towards the music scene and became a roadie for the Byrds. In the mid-Sixties, the tall blond musician would hang out at Ben Frank’s, a 24-hour diner on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. As he recalled on television, “Bobby Jameson, a friend of mine, told me about the audition for the Monkees. He said: `You ought to go down there, you’re what they’re looking for. You’ll make $750 a week.’ That was an enormous amount. But he didn’t tell me that it was comedy,” explained MacLean. “So I went down there being the hip, street- wise guy, gravelling my voice, and it was wrong. Thank God it was the wrong approach. They got the impression I was a seriously drugged- out guy. ”
http://www.johncodyonline.com/home/articles/2008-09-BryanMacLean.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPZjVD_7kI4 mckee
Bryan MacLean’s mother was an artist and a dancer, and his father was an architect for Hollywood celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor and Dean Martin.[1] Neighbor Frederick Loewe, of the songwriting team Lerner & Loewe, recognized him as a “melodic genius” at the age of three as he doodled on the piano. His early influences were Billie Holiday and George Gershwin, although he confessed to an obsession with Elvis Presley. During his childhood, he wore out show music records from Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma, South Pacific and West Side Story. His first girlfriend was Liza Minnelli and they would sit at the piano together singing songs from The Wizard of Oz. He learned to swim in Elizabeth Taylor‘s pool, and his father’s good friend was actor Robert Stack. Bryan appears in the 1957 Cary Grant film An Affair to Remember singing in the Deborah Kerr character’s music class. Maria McKee is his half sister.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-bryan-maclean-1044305.html
http://www.curbed.com/2011/3/23/10476208/the-many-homes-of-silver-screen-star-elizabeth-tayor
He created homes for such stars as Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Stack and Dean Martin, and he was affiliated for several years with Daniel K. Ludwig, the builder, shipping magnate and financier for whom he designed office buildings and hotels.
MacLean, who studied art and architecture at USC, is survived by his wife, Gene, sons Bryan and Joel, his mother, Lillie, and a brother, Charles.
http://www.trousdale-overthetop.com/1950s/
The boldest-faced celebrities, industrialists and society names in town angled to get the best lots, and competed with each other to hire the most talented architects and in-demand ‘interior decorators’ money could buy. The design review board – headed by society architect Allen Siple – and original covenants dictating 3,000 square foot minimums ensured large, well-designed homes; single-story restrictions ensured they’d spread out forever, while protecting views.
Your neighbors were on TV last night; another one’s on the stereo now.
The Architects:
- Wallace Neff
- Paul R. Williams
- William Sutherland Beckett
- James Dolena
- George MacLean
- Cliff May
- Lloyd Wright
- Lundberg, Armet & Davis
- Allen Siple
Notable Residents:
- Groucho Marx
- Dinah Shore
- Frank Sinatra
- Barbara Stanwyck
- Sheldon Leonard (Producer/Actor)
- Ralph Edwards (Game Show Producer)
- Charles Skouras
- Max Hoffman (Famed Automotive Importer)
- Isadore Familian (Building Supply Mogul)
Trousdale, who sold gum and advertising before going into real estate, conceived of Trousdale Estates as an exclusive enclave offering residents “a life above it all.” He oversaw a monumental grading project that transformed the scrub-covered hills into 539 lots, precisely stepped to maximize their canyon, city and ocean views.
From the beginning, Trousdale courted the rich and famous. Dinah Shore and Richard Nixon were among the early buyers, both of them commissioning modern ranch houses from Allen Siple. “I’d rather have Nixon in that house than the other House,” Groucho Marx quipped of his Trousdale neighbor. Marx, who hired the society architect Wallace Neff to design a low, curvilinear home with an open carport to showcase his three DeSotos, was a common sight in the neighborhood, walking his black and white Scottish terriers, Scotch and Soda. Danny Thomas built a sprawling Levantine mansion he called Villa Rosa. Like Paul Trousdale, Dean Martin and Elvis Presley both chose houses in the theatrical Hollywood Regency style.
Originally built by architect George MacLean in 1963, the Meisel Residence is located in the Trousdale Estates area of Beverly Hills. The Hawaiian-style ranch house is staggered along the site in rectangular forms, with expansive views overlooking the city from the living areas of the home.
http://www.marmol-radziner.com/restoration/meisel-residence
Mister Meisel’s house was featured in the October 2012 issue of Architectural Digest with lush photographs by Roger Davies and text by the always snappy Mayer Rus. The article reveals that the house was originally designed and built in 1963 by little lauded architect George MacLean for an unnamed race car driver and his model wife. Mister MacLean, in case any of y’all might care, also designed a low-slung home above Benedict Canyon on Beverly Estate Drive (in Bev Hills Post Office) that was owned for a brief spell in the mid-1950s by a young Elizabeth Taylor and her second husband, English actor Michael Wilding.
At the time Mister Meisel bought his spectacularly sited house in Trousdale Estates it was blessedly untouched but much in need of a re-fresh. He engaged the pricey and revered services of the Ron Radziner of the firm Marmol & Radziner who completely rebuilt and sensitively added 2,300 square feet to the existing city view mid-century modern residence then selected celebrated and much published decorator Brad Dunning to chic up the day-core but “maintain the integrity” and “ambiance” of the residence’s original 1960s swagginess.
http://variety.com/2013/dirt/real-estalker/your-mama-hears-28-1201235377/
http://aflippenlife.blogspot.com/2013/10/trousdale-estates-life-above-it-all.html
http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/the-role-of-godparents.html
ELIZABETH TAYLOR’s son is considering pals’ suggestions that he write a “Mommie Dearest” tell-all that promises to rip the lid off of the movie legend’s worst performance – as a mother!
A book penned by Liz’s 59-year-old son Michael Wilding Jr. would be in the tradition of the scathing Joan Crawford biography and explain why Taylor, a beloved Hollywood icon, was no saint to her kids, say pals.
While Liz was known to be very generous with her time and money to charities, “she was never interested in her children,” a family insider told The ENQUIRER.
“Michael was overheard saying he would rather have grown up broke with a loving mother rather ‘than the way I was raised!’”
Wilding, a former soap opera actor, has been urged to write the explosive book with his wife Brooke Palance, daughter of the late movie star Jack Palance.
“It would portray Liz as an absentee mom, always away on movie sets, flying around the globe or in the arms of a man,” revealed a family friend.
Elizabeth’s four children were trotted out for photo opportunities to give the appearance of a loving, close-knit family, but the friend says: “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Michael, Liz’s son with second husband Michael Wilding Sr., spent much of his life “in a desperate bid for her attention,” according to the insider. “The book would talk about how Michael rebelled against his mother, running away to join a rock band, hanging around the drug scene and bedding a lot of women.”
During the mid-’70s, Michael lived on a farm commune in Wales, playing sax with a five-member rock group. He was married at 17 and had a daughter, but the union blew apart after just two years. He had another daughter with a girlfriend at the commune in 1975 but didn’t settle down until tying the knot with Brooke in 1982, and they had a son seven years later.
Despite Michael’s differences with his mother, he was the one who oversaw her care leading up to her death last year at age 79.
But now, said the friend: “Michael could spill all the family secrets as a way of coming to terms with a mother who was never there.”
http://www.wildingsculpture.com/available-work/
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/monster-mom-liz-taylor-0/
In retrospect, MacLean didn’t dwell too much on his failure to edge out Peter Tork or Mike Nesmith and take part in American television’s manufactured answer to the Fab Four. Disparagingly, he claimed: “The Monkees were extremely square. They just jumped on the bandwagon. It had nothing to do with what was really going on. It was the Keystone Cops of rock. I didn’t belong in the Monkees or, if I did, I’m still in denial about it.” He joked somewhat nervously: “If I ever find out that I belonged in the Monkees, then I will probably have a legitimate nervous breakdown,” and went on, “I think that I really belonged in something that involved pioneering music, something that wasn’t popular yet. My goal for my music was always timelessness.”
MacLean more than succeeded in this aim with Love, a band who rank alongside the Velvet Underground and the Ramones when it comes to influencing successive generations of musicians (REM, House of Love, the Stone Roses).
Again, MacLean met Arthur Lee at Ben Frank’s. The Memphis-born musician had already cut a single with the LAGs before moving on to the American Four with the guitarist Johnny Echols. The three joined forces and, adding the rhythm section of Johnny Fleckenstein and Don Conka (soon replaced by the bassist Ken Forssi and drummer Alban “Snoopy” Pfisterer), became the Grass Roots.
Having made their live debut at Brave New World in LA in April 1965, the group changed its name to avoid confusion with another Grass Roots (of “Let’s Live For Today” fame). Given the flower-power movement emerging on the West Coast, the five musicians opted for Love and attracted the attention of Jac Holzman in early 1966. The entrepreneur had already established Elektra Records on the East Coast as the natural home of the folk scene with artists like Judy Collins but he wanted to move the label towards the rock underground. Love’s unique brand of folk and demented psychedelia more than fitted the bill. “Thirty seconds into their version of `Hey Joe’, I knew this was the group I was looking for,” claimed Holzman, who would later sign the Doors at Lee’s instigation.
Love became the first rock band on Elektra and released a stunning version of Burt Bacharah and Hal David’s “My Little Red Book” (from What’s New Pussycat?) in April 1966. Following their appearance on American Bandstand, the single and ensuing debut album (simply entitled Love) both made the US Top 60 and the following 45, the frantic “Seven and Seven Is”, did even better, reaching No 33 in September. “Love was what is lovingly referred to as an underground, a garage band. We had a following but it was underground. It wasn’t meant to appeal to as many people as the Monkees’ music was,” reflected MacLean, who wrote the lovely “Softly To Me” on the first album.
Wearing ribbons in his hair, the more introspective MacLean was the ideal foil to Arthur Lee’s frenzied genius and Love became darlings of the hippie scene. Living in their communal Los Angeles “Castle” (actually a decaying mansion previously used as a horror movie set), they recruited Tjay Cantrelli on flute and Michael Stuart on drums while “Snoopy” Pfisterer moved to keyboards to flesh out the group’s richer sound on Da Capo, their second album (February 1967). MacLean’s jazzy “Orange Skies” was the B-side of “She Comes in Colours” but neither this nor “Que Vida” could match their previous success, especially as the group hardly ever toured away from their California base.
Following Pfisterer and Cantrelli’s departure, Love set to work on the ambitious Forever Changes, their third album issued in November 1967, just as their cult status was reaching British shores. Hailed a masterpiece and still namechecked as one of the best-ever albums, Forever Changes reached the Top 30 album chart in the UK while “Alone Again Or”, the eerie, evanescent MacLean composition, entered the US Hot 100. Covered by the Damned in 1986, “Alone Again Or” proved the swansong of the original Love as the idiosyncratic Lee kept playing mind games with MacLean.
During a very strange interview in 1992, Lee told me: “We were competing a bit like Lennon and McCartney to see who would come up with the better song. It was part of our charm. Everybody had different behaviour patterns. Eventually, the others couldn’t cut it.” Lee sacked the rest of the band and assumed the Love mantle from mid-1968. He briefly worked with Jimi Hendrix and nearly died of a drug overdose in 1970.
MacLean also fell from grace. “I don’t think I could cope with even the minimal amount of fame that I experienced. It was difficult to stay balanced. To be honest, it almost killed me just to have the notoriety that I had. To have my face more well-known would have been pathogenic. I don’t know if I could have lived through it,” he later admitted.
“I’ve had a lot of experiences that would have killed most people: drug overdoses, felony arrests. I was invited to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski’s house the night that the Mansons showed up. I had a penchant for putting myself 100 per cent in whatever I was doing, wrong or right. And there are consequences. If you have the greatest drug and what you feel is the most euphoric experience and it ends, then you’re in trouble. You think you’re getting on to the train and you’re gonna get off at the next stop. But before you realise it, you’re strapped to the front of a runaway train until it crashes. And when it crashes, you don’t even know if you’re gonna come out. I just simply didn’t have another runaway train experience left in me.”
A proposed solo deal fell through when Jac Holzman pronounced the MacLean demos “too fragmented”. MacLean bounced back for a while but, before completing an album for Capitol Records, he quit the business in 1970. Seven years later, his old nemesis Arthur Lee tempted him out of retirement for a Love tour with the future Knack drummer Bruce Gary. MacLean enlisted for a further Southern California reunion outing (immortalised on Rhino’s Love Live album) and got religion.
“I wasn’t doing well. My mother had been converted watching Bill Graham on television, she was praying for me. One night, in a hotel room in New York, I just prayed, cried out to the Lord and said: if you’re real, I’m gonna give my life to you because I’m afraid I’m gonna destroy myself. I ended up walking away from the business at that point,” confessed MacLean, who became a sepulchral presence, not unlike the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.
By the Nineties, the erratic Arthur Lee was displaying paranoid tendencies and symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. In 1996, following several arrests and convictions, he was jailed for 12 years for threatening behaviour with a firearm.
Bryan MacLean crawled back from the wreckage. His half-sister, Maria McKee, made several records with Lone Justice, including a song by MacLean, “Don’t Toss Us Away”, in 1985, which three years later became a Top 10 country music hit for Patty Loveless. In 1997, the Sundazed label released IfYouBelieveIn, a collection of solo acoustic MacLean demos culled from the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. His odd quavering vocals remained as compelling as ever and also came to the fore in his born-again incarnation.
“I started making music again when I felt comfortable to move back into writing without violating my stand for Christ,” Bryan MacLean told Ian MacMillan. “Love grows in me when I proclaim all that my Lord has done. I’m now writing worship music that’s presented in an ethereal genre. Celtic, spacy, no guitars. I call it spooky Christian music, spooky worship music.
“If a person is a Satanist or a Buddhist or a Hindu, they will be able to listen to this music and not be put off by it because it’s the universal longing to be in the spirit realm that’s being expressed.”
Bryan MacLean, guitarist, singer and songwriter: born Los Angeles 25 September 1946; died Los Angeles 25 December 1998.
Rosamond Press 
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