My Memoirs

There will be a number of chapters here.  Most will include crossover information.

Mom & Dad

Dan Grant. Born 1925. He was a traveling manager of Sinclair Paint Stores around LA.

He met my mom on a date to The Apple Pan, a well known West LA hamburger eatery that hasn’t changed a bit in 70+ years.

Dad did his best to bring us up.  Dealing with an alcoholic mother can be taught. Tougher when you have 4 boys- that’s already a handful.  Some of our best times was when mom was drunk and he would take us somewhere… I always recall the words “Tell ya what..” And I knew that there was something fun in store.  Once, we had visited mom at UCLA hospital in one of several instances where she was on deaths door from alcoholism, dad took us to the Santa Monica Pier.  It was late winter, and it was like 75 degrees, and was just the PERFECT day.

I can recall his glee, when I entered into a 4 year University and was on my way to a degree. He often would travel out to Redlands to see a show I was doing in various capacities. When graduation day came, he came out, with all my brothers and my grandmother. We sat on the porch of the dorm having breakfast, and a classmate, Kelly Cole (Son of Nat King Cole) came by with HIS family, and after introductions and pleasantries, they moved on. BUT DAD was giddy inside, that he had met Nat King Coles wife. He kept art inside, but spoke of it several times that day and after.  He was a HUGE fan of classic jazz. Nat, Bix Beiderbecke, The Dorsey brothers, Fats Waller were particular favorites. In his retirement, he, and my stepmom went allover the country to go to Jazz Festival's. He even produced the LA Classical Jazz Festival for about 10 years. I took place at the Marriott LAX, and both my brother Mark and I got gigs helping out in the sound dept.

Dad was a man who didn’t offer up many compliments to me directly, but in talking with friends and colleagues of his, they always told me how proud dad was on what I was doing in school, and afterwards.. But he really didn’t ever tell me.

Mom, Virginia Owen Grant.  Born in 1927.  She loved us 4 boys very much. But her alcoholism was like the tide…it came and went. A lot. It would end when the doctor told her “one more drink, and it may be your last.”  But she would go in the hospital, come home many pounds lighter, but within a few moths, the drinking started again..  from beer graduation back to the vodka.

She would let nothing get in her way to do something to advance her kids. In the case of my brother Paul, early on, he indicated he had a big interest in Oceanography.  My mom got him accepted to Annapolis (but Paul really didn’t want to join the Navy) She even got our state Senator to give him a recommendation. 

When I indicated that I wanted to get into acting in 9th grade, she pulled a FAVOR from my grandmother who worked at Paramount Pictures.  She got me an interview with a 20th Century Fox Vice President, who then hooked me up with an agent.  BUT, there was a cost to this. The guy at Fox was furious with my grandmother; putting him in this position. But she meant well. I always knew that. She was always involved with us in the schools. Whether it be the PTA, Cub & Boy Scouts, meal tickets, or tipping back drinks with our elementary school principal.

She really wanted me to get to Johnston College, and two days after I moved away to school, she died. Not from pyrosis of the liver, but from throat cancer. I wasn’t’t aware it was as bad as it was, except the day I left for school, I saw blood in her path from the bedroom to the bathroom.

Shirley

My mom & dad knew Shirley Flynn since she was the cousin of my dads Aunt Evelyn. She was married to the actor Joe Flynn (McHale’s Navy, a bunch of Disney films) until he passed away in 1975. We all went to the funeral.  At my moms funeral, Shirley was there with other family members., and went to dinner with us after the services. Dad said to me that night that hw was goin to be seeing a lot more of her. Dad courted her for about a year, and married her up in Lake Tahoe. I rode a Greyhound bus for 17 hours to get there from school. Dad was very happy with her…she didn’t drink to excess at all. 

They had a great time together, They north worked up until one point, where they were both done. Shirley had a house in Northridge, and lived there with them for a few years in college, and then moved back to our house in the Cahuenga Pass, since dad was still paying the rent (like $400 a month for a hillside, 2 story, 4 bedroom house.). Dad & Shirley traveled to numerous Jazz Festival’s. Dad produced a Jazz Club event at a bowling, and then the LA Classical Jazz Festival, and Shirley was right there by his side. All three of us drove from LA to Clearwater Florida in 1996. I stayed with a friend in Orlando, and went to Disney World, while mom & dad were at the Jazz Festival.

As the years progressed, they move to a brand new home in Santa Clarita. And sure enough, my brother Mark was moving in & out of their house.. all the time. Jim stayed there a bit as well. Shirley, who was compassionate and giving, was also gullible. Mark took advantage of her hospitality by using a gas credit card to get gas, and in addition he was buying cigarettes and beer as well. This went on for a while. He drove their credit card debt up to about $50,000. With that, dad was compelled to sell the house, and I moved them into SunCity in Arizona. One of the reasons, was that they didn’t allow siblings under 55 to visit for more than 2 week. There was a reason for that.

Dad & Shirley in Arizona

I set them up in a 2 bedroom house on a cut de sac in Sun City West. Rent was $975 a month. Moving them there was a chore.  I drove them there in their van. Jonathan followed me a day later in my Honda. Jim and a dipshit named Pablo drove the truck I rented with the furniture. Jim insisted upon having his 2 kids as part of the process which turned out to be a nightmare. They were left behind in LA. Jim & Pablo were likely doing meth the whole trip out. It was the 4th of July.  We got them moved in and found the A/C was on the fritz. It just never ends..

Casey, Shirleys youngest son, soon showed up in AZ. He kinda moved in, but would develop a Houdini act around the first of the month. (His social security disability would drive) He’d take a taxi to a cheap motel and watch x-rated films and smoke crack for 5-6 days until the money ran out, and then most times would check himself into some rehab or mental facility. Eventually he would call Shirley to let her know where he was.  He did this when they were in Santa Clarita as well.

Meanwhile, dad wanted a golf cart. And got one.  One one Christmas trip to see them, I took dad on a Christmas Day drive, and dad actually got behind the wheel. It was amazing to see how the son, became the driving teacher for dad, as he hadn’t driven anything for years. In all honesty, It scared the crap out of me.

Soon thereafter, Jim showed up, and convinced my dad to buy a house. I didn’t find out until Escrow was nearly closed. I was strongly against them buying a house,. I knew exactly what Jim was up to. He wanted them to buy a house, so when they died, it would pass on to him. Shortly after they moved in, Jim brought in woman named Rayleen, who later on, got into my moms back account and drained her funds. She would do this several times. I had to bail them out.  This would not be the first time.  Jim said he brought Rayleen into the house to do all the things HE was there to do, but was too lazy. She left, and another guy moved in, under the same guise. And Jim took advantage of mom’s hospitality. He conned her into buying him a truck, and again, without talking to me first. A bad idea. I told Jim to take over the payments on his own, and with a month, the truck was repossessed. He totally expected my mom to pay for it (just like he had done just after Dad & Shirley had wed…they bought him a brand new Toyota 4x4, which Jim ran off Mulholland 2 month laster while racing.)

Dad had been moved into a convalescent home, since he could not be cared for at home. He hated it there. Whenever I was there to visit, I bought him a cheeseburger, fries and a shake for a favorite place of his.  Dad died in March 2008. It was a sad affair. I went back to AZ, Mark flew in from New York, and we mourned for a weekend. While I was there, I kicked Jim out of the house for all his indiscretions AND drug use…(which he denied left and right…) Jim returned later, It was the start of an endless stream of Meth heads, and “nar do wells’  After several trips back to AZ to sort out major issues in the house, I threw out several people who were crashing there. Drug use was apparent. Mom was shipped off to a convalescent  home every time they red tagged the house. Eventually, the house was foreclosed, mom moved into an apartment I set her up with, and a roommate who didn’t do crystal meth. It didn’t take long for Casey to find her, and bring along the clowns that had been taking advantage of her at the house. They moved into the apartment, at which point Shirley and I had a huge argument. I told her to get all this idiots out of the house. She insisted they were helping her. I insisted they were helping themselves to her bank account. Within 2 months she was evicted, and back to convalescence she went for the rest of her life. I had told her I was done. Shirley insisted she was in charge, and would make the decisions for herself. I had more or less wiped out my savings trying to save her house, and get rid of all the meth users taking advantage of her. I was done.   Shirley died March 28, 2021, the same day dad died. 

Dracena Drive

We lived in a 2 story duplex, with a landlord next door named Margarita. From what I recall there was 2 bedrooms.  I do recall a floor furnace that had a grate in the middle of the living room/dining room. I fell on it one night, and it gave me permanent scars from the burns on my right hand. The next day, my Uncle Dick, and my dad built a cinderblock wall around it.

YEARS later, I was working on a TV show, and in passing asked the production coordinator where she lived. As I asked a few questions, it became apparent that she lived in the SAME place. She invited me over to take a look. Quite a difference to see a place you lived in when you were like 3-4 years old, and how much smaller it all was.

TV played a part here as well. I vividly recall the funeral of John F Kennedy. My mom & dad both cried. I cried because they cried.  I was bewildered, as I WAS THE one that did the crying, not them. But in retrospect, I later realized the POWER of television. Shadows on a screen that can make you feel all kinds of things.  It was an electronic babysitter, as I recall cartoon, and the evening shows like Bonanza, and Sing along with Mitch.  

Edgemont St.

This was my great grandmothers house. My grandmother moved to an apartment in Atwater, and we moved into the big house, close to LACC in the east part of Hollywood.  It was 22 rooms built in 1921; a 2 story bungalow style. From age 6 to age 12. We had a lot of fun here. Tragically, on my dads birthday on July 31, 1972, the house caught fire and more or less destroyed. We lost pretty much everything. I had been playing with matches earlier that day, and was quite well convinced the I was responsible for the fire. That night, we went to my Uncle Dick’s house, and later that night to my Uncle Mark’s (bother of my mom). At one point I pulled my dad aside to reveal my indiscretion, and dad told me to but be quiet, and never discuss this again. In the long and short of it, we ended up a lot better off after this event.  

After a week, we moved into the Vagabond Motel, on Hollywood Blvd., just east of Western. 2 rooms, 6 people.  Dad went to work. Mom worked on the insurance filing, brothers Jim & Paul worked on finding furniture (thanks Levitz) and Little brother Mark and I made real estate appointments. I ended up finding our new house (Thanks Ramsey-Schilling) in the Cahuenga Pass.  3 bedrooms and a POOL!!  We moved in a week after school started in the fall… and of course with a little drama getting in the door.

The Cahuenga Pass.  Oakshire & Passmore

We bout the house on Oakshire Dr for $40,000. 3 bedrooms, and a pool. Great neighbors too. Kids lived in the area, and the owner of the local store, The Oakcrest Market, lived next door.  Of course we all went through the growing pains of puberty, new schools, new neighborhood etc.  At some point in our time in the pass area, each of my bothers worked at the market. Paul did for many years.

After 2 years, they had to sell the house since they couldn’t afford it. We found a house up the hill, when a gullible French couple were renting it for $345 a month, A story, hillside home, with an awesome view to the east. We could see the Hollywood sign, and Hollywood Freeway and the backlots of Universal Studios.  It was on Passmore Dr, and in the middle of the Hollywood Hills.

Being brought up Catholic.

Interesting how my parents named us all after apostles. I know MY namesake was John Gallagher, my dad best friend since WW2. Mark was named after my moms brother.

We were brought up catholic. Interesting replacements for cussing were “Judas Priest!!” Dad used to say “10 Dollars!! 10 Dollars! I would pay 10 Dollars to see Christ do a skirt dance!” or “My god, I’ve known that guy since Christ was a corporal..”  Very interesting biblical references.

We all had to go through first communion, and later confirmation.  We had gone to Several Catholic Schools, but St. Brendan’s sticks out in my mind.. For me, grades 1 & 2 (partial). This school and church were located in Hancock Park, and rather upscale area a few miles from our house.  ALL of us encountered the other kids making fun of us, that we weren’t rich, and we didn’t live in that area.  One day, I had used a yiddish term with Sister Mary St Joel. The 250 pound surfing nun. I called her mashugana. In a nanosecond I was in the Mother Superior’s office, where she proceeded to call my father and tried to lecture him about telling yiddish jokes at the dinner table. Well I could hear dad screaming at her through her earpiece. “You don’t tell me what I can and cannot say at MY dinner table and you can go F%$# yourself!” Needless to say, the next day we were enrolled in Public school. 

When it came time for “confirmation” dad asked Mark & I to go to special classes at St Charles Church in Toluca Lake. It was one night a week for 2 months, to prepare for Confirmation. Dad told us to get it done, because if we ever married  catholic girl, we would have to do it then, when we were adults. He asked us to do it for him & my mom, and he would never ask us to go to church again, unless we wanted to. So we did it.

Mark & I had told the priest in charge of our confirmation, about the First Hollywood Presbyterian Church youth program. Thursdays after school was TNC (Thursday Night Club), which included bible study, blue ball war, roller skating, and dinner. On a weekend in December, and for a week in June, they took us to a camp in the San Bernardino Mountains. They took us to the beach in the summers and had special spring break outings.  We told the priest of these activities, and he railed at the confirmation mass on how “We have to keep our kids away from the Presbyterians. They’re taking them to camp and to the beach!” I was furious with him. I was telling him how to engage more youths from the public schools, and he turned it against me.  I rarely ever returned to catholic masses after that.

My Brothers

I have 3 brothers.  Oldest is Jim. He was the fuck up of the family. But anytime all the boys got in trouble, Jim got the worst of the punishment. Throughout school, and after that, was a continual stream of fuck up’s and trouble.

Next was Paul. 2 years and a week older than I. HIS birthday was on May 5, Cinco De Mayo. When we were older, we did celebrate that a lot.  Paul was neat, tidy, and very responsible.  We started rooming together on Edgemont. He was the one who taught me cleanliness, and fastidious attention to detail. Every morning, I made my bed, put away my clothes and we made sure our room was cleaned. That trait follows me even today.  

The there was Mark, 15 months younger that I. He was the youngest, and got away with the most. Even tho all of us had white blonde hair, he kept his into his early 20’s. Thing of it is, is that Mark could get away with murder, then bat his baby blues eyes, and never suffered very much. In Jr High, Mark was caught off ditching school, off campus, with an ounce of weed on him.  We all thought he was going to jail.  BUT NO…he got off pretty much Scott free!

Jim went to on marry twice, have 2 kids, and ran away after breaking up with the second wife, who pursued him relentlessly to collect child support.

Paul worked as a photographer, and then a quality control specialist for a areospace manufacturer.  Tragically, he took his own life, 5 days before 9/11. That was awful. I called it Black September.  I had to take over cleaning up everything on the backside. That was no fun. At all.

Mark went on to an endless series of jobs and professions. I hired him 3 times, and fired him 3 times. You just can’t keep showing up to work 2 hours late with beer moon his breath. He eventually mad his way back to the east coast. One night after work, he went home with a boyfriend, a 12 pack, and an 8 bay of cocaine.  Sometime after he went to bed he had a heart attack, and two days later I had to tell the doctors to pull the plug, since he was braindead.  Here too, I had to tidy up things on the backside of his life.  I scattered his ashes at Dockweiler Beach, where I had scattered Pauls ashes as well….  They didn’t talk about this stuff in the handbook…

My Health as a young boy.

I was born with a hernia. At 6 weeks, I had to have it fixed. I had constant run in’s with asthma. It was endless.  MANY MANY trips to nearby Children’s Hospital, until I was a young teen.  My parents figured out, that if they took me for a ride in the Los Feliz hills, in the cool night air, that it would clear up my asthma attacks, and we’d return home and go to bed. Things got dicey when my mom was drunk, and took me out in the car. We had a few really close calls. Once I told her I was fine, just to get back home to safety. Somehow, my mom figured out how to get syringes and would give me adrenaline shots to clear up attacks. Every so often, when she was drunk, she would overdose me… that was no fun. 

I guess I was about 7 when I fell off my bike, and got a concussion and a skull fracture. They thought I was alright and did the wrong thing by putting me to bed. I woke up that evening with a headache to end all headaches. I was admitted to Children’s Hospital for about a month. I fell really far behind in school. It took months to catch up.  

While in Elementary school, mom would take me over to Children’s Hospital weekly for a check up.  We went into a room FULL of kids & moms. They would call your name, and you’d go up. There was a tall pile of patient files on the desk.  The doctor didn’t even listen to you after he asked “How are you”. All the while he is filling a syringe with penicillin. You get the shot, and go on to school.  After while, I wouldn’t be able to go back to school until lunch. Soon it wasn’t until it was the next day, since I had a hard time recovering from the shot. Finally, one fateful day, I stopped breathing on the way home. Mom rushed back to the emergency room, carrying me in her arms turning blue.  I remember one of the doctors exclaiming “Well, he must be allergic to penicillin!”  So much for modern medicine in the 60’s. I called it the dark ages of medicine.

Ramona Elementary School

We were enrolled there after a disastrous run with St Brendan’s Catholic School. For some reason, my mom was already tied into the school and the PTA. Upon arrival, my mom saw Blanche Ringel outside the school, where she said “You’ll meet my boy Steve, he’s your age. You two will be friends!” It was spring, and I was in 2nd grade. The schoolyard was getting a new asphalt surface, so for many more weeks, we had to stay inside during “nutrition” and Lunch. My first friend, turned out to be Steve Ringel, a friend I would go through school with all the way to college. He still remains a friend.

My mom was well connected with all the teachers and staff. I THINK my mom and the principal would be drinking in her office, since they spent SO much time together. But one things for sure; if any of us got in trouble at school, my mom had heard about it by the time we got home. If it were a BIG deal, we would have to contend with dad when he got home, and that sometimes meant a belting across the ass. 

The curriculum was 2-3 months ahead of where we were at in the catholic school, and all my brothers and I had to really step it up, to play catch up. By summer we pretty much had. But I missed out on cursive writing, and pretty much since that point, I only wrote in non-cursive letters; printing.

We did a lot of things., Little League Baseball at Lemon Grove Park, Ice Cream sales, Talent shows, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, PTA, and my parents were involved in everything.  Once again, if you messed up, the news was already at home waiting for you. But I will say.. We did have a great time. I loved the teachers… My mom seemed to hang out with them as well. It was very strange to have a teacher from school show up at our house.

LeConte Junior High

I started LeConte a week before we moved up to the Cahuenga Pass, after the fire.  I had taken 2 summer school courses during the summer; PE and Typing. I met Coach Hills, who was like a Marine Jack Webb, no nonsense coach flat top haircut and all! There was the thing called THE SWAT, which was applied when you acted out, or broke the rules. I NEVER got a swat, and people I knew never did act out, to avoid which was a painful smack in the ass with a wooden paddle.

My mom knew the principal and the staff, since I had 2 older brothers who had gone thru there. One screw up, and one good student. Both here and at Hollywood High did I deal with the constant first day line “OH, another Grant in my class… are you a screw up like your brother Jim?”  And again, I couldn’t get away with anything without my mom hearing about it.

I wasn’t the best of students. Average to low grades, a lot of absences, and no direction. UNTIL, I discovered DRAMA CLASS. We had gotten a new Drama teacher, and it lit a fire under dozens of students. Mr Robert Crumb. I had seen his first show while in 8th grade, and I wanted IN.  Over the summer, before 9th grade, I did the Summer Theater Workshop, and by the end of the term, I was in like flynn. 9th grade we did a few shows; ‘The Murder Go Round’ was a show Mr Crumb wrote..specifically so that as many kids as he could, would get on stage. I kinda stole a leading role from a guy who really wasn’t trying very hard. After a rehearsal, showed Mr Crumb my interpretation of the role.The next day, I had the role. OOPS! The Young World Follies was a collection of pop songs and show tunes. We made our out costumes, and Mr Crumb allowed a number of students to choreograph musical numbers. I got to do the opening number which was Neil Diamonds “Crunchy Granola.” I had NO idea what I was doing but I did pull it off.  Next was OUR TOWN. A classic by Thornton Wilder. I got a major role, and we put on A GREAT show.  At the end of the year, I was the winner of The Directors Award, chosen by Mr Crumb for the best all around student. I loved doing the tech stuff as well. 

It was here that I figured out, that for every 1 person on stage, there were 5-10 more backstage supporting them.  If there were 10 people trying out for one role.. only ONE person would get the role. SO that’s the I turned my sights on the technical side. Being IN shows was because A) it was fun, B) Not a lot of guys wanted in the show and C) that not a lot of guys could sing, act and dance. I could.

One thing about Jr. High, after I found drama class, I found myself. My grades went way up, I was always at school, and I really blossomed… I cared about school. Wanted to do well, and Drama Class, was something I was getting good at.

Hollywood High

All the way thru Junior High, I had heard about the Hollywood High School Performing Arts Dept.  I want to be a part of it badly..  They had a summer theatre workshop every summer, as part of the summer school curriculum.    We got applications at LeConte, and many of us filled them out.  I volunteered to hand deliver them to Mr Jerry Melton, at the Hollywood High Auditorium.  So I ventured out after school, applications in hand. I knocked on the front door of the auditorium, and was met by a stage crew member, who would later became a friend, Mark Vance.  He led me thru a dark auditorium where up ON the stage a rehearsal was underway, on a set built ON the stage.  I was introduced to Mr Melton, who could not have been more welcoming, and even asked me if I was applying for the program. With a huge smile, I said YES!.

After a trip to Dallas with my aunt and uncle, I came back to start the summer program at Hollywood High.  We were doing THE WIZARD OF OZ that summer.  We built a “thrust” platform ON stage, with a large circular platform on a rake, or tilted higher in the rear, lower down front. It had a lip on it a step below the platform, a step more to the floor. 8 foot high letters crossed the back wall reading THE WIZARD OF, and then, on the raked platform floor, OZ was painted on that. The yellow brick road was pieces of masonite, nailed to the floor, and of course painted yellow, and sponges were used to create the bricks…. It was magical. We also had a number of younger kids (Jr High age) who were another part of the program, but in this instance, they comprised the Munchkins.  Truly.  Now, I didn’t audition of the show, but did all kinds of tech stuff, which I throughly enjoyed. At one point, Mr (& Mrs..) Melton saw me in my overalls, with a broom, sweeping the stage. Mr Melton thought that might add a bit to the opening scenes on the farm, so I was in the show. And as Mr Melton always pointed out, “there are no small parts… just small actors…”  We did 6 performances. 3 of them were matinee’s for the school. During one of the brief intermissions of the matinee’s, I went out to do a quick sweep of the stage. With EVERY one of the 300 eyes trained on me, seated on stage on 3 sides of the set, I went about my task. And then I told a joke. “You know, they want to make a film that combines The Towering Inferno, Jaws, and Earthquake. They want to call it Shake and Bake for Fish” And I left the stage. AS I got into the wings, the actress playing Dorothy ( A very talented actress named April Ortiz) was telling people in the wings that I was out on stage telling jokes! I came upon right behind her and asked “how were the jokes”. We laughed a lot, but the second act was about to begin..

The next Fall, Mr Melton and his wife traveled to London, since he had taken a sabbatical. We had a stand in teacher, Mr McCalister, who was clearly no where NEAR as good a s Mr Melton, and we did OMCE IN A LIFETIME in the round, on a platform in the middle of the stage.  It was a mediocre show. Then Mr Melton came back, and we did the most amazing production of HELLO DOLLY. One of the seniors was an outstanding actress and even better singer. Like an opera star at age 17. April Milo. She played Dolly Levi. One of funniest people I’ve ever met, Michael Sloane played Horace Vandergelder. My student mentor Kevin Rock, who was also the light master played Barnaby, Bruce Wexler, and very talented Junior played Cornelius, April Ortiz played Irene Malloy, and Tina D’amico played Minnie Fay.  A superb cast. There was a part in act 2 with a court clerk who had one line.  They guy who was cast opted out of the show a few weeks before we opened the show.  I asked Mr Melton if I could have the part, and so I did.  I had ONE LINE!  But I ended up on the main cast list, and had my line on the record we made of the show, immediately after we closed. DOLLY was a HUGE hit. The set was outstanding.  The main wagon was a HIGE 2 sided set. One, the Hay & Feed shop of Horace Vandergelder, and the other side, the Harmonia Gardens set with 2 private booths, and the HUGE staircase that Dolly would descend in Act 2.  This wagon set was a monster.  It seemed every performance, a wheel would break under the set somewhere. We were constantly fixing it between shows. A group called the MACY committee bestowed us with about every award they had. We were the toast of the town. April Milo and a few others had even discussed changing the H in the Hollywood sign to a D, to promote the show.  But the BEST promotion we got was from Regis Philbin, who’s daughter was a dancer in the show.  It seems his daughter was caught with pot in her locker, and our principal had to discuss this with Regis, who was the entertainment reporter on KABC TV Channel 7. The principal more or less blackmailed Regis to review the show on his news broadcast.  Regis was stuck… bad publicity about his daughter getting caught at school with dope in her locker, vs… running a review of the show. His review ran at 6:15 on the Friday evening news, and by 7:00 we had a line running a block up the street waiting to buy tickets,.  Saturday night, we sold out nearly 2500 seats.  IT WAS HUGE.

The following summer, we had all the kids again, and Mr Melton decided to do ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT, SMELL OF THE CROWD, which was slightly well known show from Leslie Bricuse and Anthony Newley. The song “Who can I turn to” was its well known song. I did lights on that show. Again, we built a thrust set against the back wall of the stage, and sat 300 on the stage on 3 sides. The kids made up the Urchins in the show. Bruce Wexler and Michael Sloane played the leads.  During college, I can to realize the show was a lot like WAITING FOR GODOT in many ways.

That fall, after a few false starts we did THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST, this time in the round, on the stage. I did the lights again, and had been promoted to Light Master by that time.  Then that spring, we did CABARET.  Once again, Jerry melton was on his game. A stellar cast led my Bruce Wexler, and another outstanding set, where we built 3 arches, descending in size for the Kit Kat Club. I was in the chorus of the show, and ha da blast doing so.  Again I did the lights as well. The MACY Award people were back and we took most of the awards again.  

This year I also turned my attention to Student Government. I ran, and won as Commissioner of Assemblies, and was on Student Council the following year.

The summer of ’77 we did STORY THEATRE, a collection of fairy tales on a stage over the orchestra pit. I played several roles in the show, and had a really funny bit at he end of Act 2. I could hear my father laughing in the auditorium. 

Fall of Senior year, we did THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, and the lead role went to a new kid from New York, named Jonathan Southard. It was the beginning of a friendship that still stands today. This show, we did up on the stage on the thrust set against the back wall. It was a funny show too.  

That Spring we did a production of GODSPELL. Mr Melton had a concept of the show, that didn’t work too well. (The only time this ever happened..) There were 2 guys who drifted in from Marshall High, and there were people who didn’t trust Mr (or Mrs) Melton very much, and that al carried over on stage.  My best friend Steve, even lobbied hard that we NOT have a curtain call. (That pissed me off..) It was an OK show, but had it’s problems..

What was interesting, is that THE MORNING AFTER Godspell closed, we had to tear down the complicated set. It was a series of uprights, and pipes, all connected, with lightning equipment on top as well.  You see, Wolf & Russmiller Concerts came to me in Student Council saying that ELVIS COSTELLO (whom we had seen twice on Saturday Night Live) wanted to play Hollywood High.  So we signed an agreement that included 200 tickets for Hollywood High Students.  As a side note, we sold about 75 of the tickets, and on the Friday before the concert, the Student Body President and Treasurer, concocted a plan to sell the leftover tickets to a ticket broker on Sunset Blvd, and a HEFTY profit for the three of us.  So not only was I being paid to RUN the concert on stage crew, I made a bit of cash on the side from the tickets sales.  The concert came off well, sold out, and they even made a 4 track 45rpm that was included in the “Armed Forces” album.  

It was the end of High School.  My grandmother sent me $600 to buy a car.  And I did. A ’72 Ford LTD. Little did I know it needed a ring job. There was a school dance, and then after, a bunch of us went to see GREASE (the film) on opening night. After that we went to Denny’s. It was an all nighter. None of us drank or smoked. On my way home I decided to go get gas.  On my way home, I fell asleep at the wheel, waking only a nanosecond before I plowed my car into a parked pick up truck..I had a nanosecond to throw the wheel to the left, avoiding likely death. I went home, and woke my dad up in tears. It was already light. Dad drove down to the place where I hit the pick up, and decided that we were just going to walk away from this one.. A point of guilt that would follow me for a long time! And I didn’t get hurt.

Shortly thereafter was graduation at the Hollywood Bowl. Due to my student government involvement, I was chosen to sit in the front row on stage at the bowl. I was also getting a silver tassel because of my grades (Most of which came from Mr Melton). Not many get to graduate on stage at the Hollywood Bowl, and I cherish that memory.

I wasn’t quite done with Hollywood High… in the late spring for several years, Mr Melton would hire me to build sets, do lighting, and stage manage a number of his spring musicals.  WONDERFUL TOWN, 42nd STREET, MAN OF LA MANCHA, and  A CHORUS LINE.  My oh My, did I have fun!  A few times some of the girls took notice, and I had a very fragile line to tow, to make sure I didn’t do anything I shouldn’t be doing. I was a good boy…  

Throughout my time at Hollywood High, we had “rental shows” that would come in, use the auditorium, and needed stage crew to run it.  Mr Melton always hired me, and 2-4 others to run the lights, sound, curtains etc..  It was great cash, as Mr Melton always paid us after the show was done, before we went home.  One guy came in to do a ‘showcase’ of new talent. His name was Peter Yarrow. I just knew him as Peter. He took a lot of time planning this, and I assisted in numerous meetings on staging the show. It wasn’t until the week the show, that I realized that Peter, was Peter, from Peter, Paul & Mary.  I shared that with him, and asked if he was doing “Puff The magic Dragon” in his set that night. He did, and he dedicated it to ME, since I had been so helpful in staging his show.  That was really cool!

Theatrical Lighting Design

When we were doing HELLO DOLLY, shortly after, the choreographer Corrine Carrol, asked Mr Melton if he thought I could light a show a friend of hers was doing.  I jumped at the chance. The show was MY SWEET CHARLIE, about a pair of squatters in a winter house in Florida.  It was being done in a storefront space on Fair Oaks in Pasadena. I was barely even driving yet.  That space is now Lucky Baldwin’s Bar. I showed up one the appointed morning, and the producer and director were there working on the set. I showed up, all of 16 years old, looking like the kid I was, and they had concerns that I knew what I was doing.  The space hadn’t been used in several years, and after an hour or two of figuring out the dimmers, and the cable & circuiting system, the director & company left for lunch. Over the next 90 minutes I had it all figured out, and had all the lights up and running. When they arrived back from lunch,they felt more at ease that a kid was lighting their show.  So I completed my task, and ran the show for several weeks. We had a few reviews, but the ones that they all counted on, was Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.  Both of those reviews were brutal.. They ripped the show apart.. but ME… I got the only FAVORABLE thing said in the variety review that read: “The lighting and sound by John J Grant were fair.”   That was it… I was the only one still standing.

What followed was a career that never paid very much, but was what I called my “artistic outlet” So much of what I did in films & TV was practical application. Here, I could be creative.  MOST of what I did was in Equity waiver houses, 99 seats or less. But I t always gave me the chance to be very intimate with lighting. The dark rides at Disney were always an inspiration to me.  

Shortly after I graduated from Hollywood High, Jonathan Southard’s mother Tiara St. John, was creating a theatre group with all of her buddies recently transplanted from New York. They were a tight knit clan who many of them had good roots into LA, and were seen frequently on TV.  They got a space in a huge old church at Highland & Franklin in Hollywood, and were called The Theater of Light.  Their first show was THE APPLE TREE, and several other shows ensued while I was in college, and doing their bidding in the summers.  The last summer, I as school, we did a production of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Gosh, that show was good. A very well cast and talented group put on that show on several sets in a very small space. I had like 20 lights and 6 dimmers, but I made it all work. The Drama Logue review read “with a minimum of instruments for a maximum of effect and style.”  A few months later, I won a Drama Logue Award for Lighting Design on that show.

I had done lighting on most of the shows at Hollywood High, and 13 out of 15 shows at The U of Redlands in 3½ years there. The remarkable shows were NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, the ’82 Dance Concert (which was my Senior Project) and after I graduated, SWEENEY TODD. On IGUANA, most of the set was covered in thatched roofs, so ALL the frontal lighting upstage had to be done from a floor to ceiling pipe inside the proscenium, so the lights could work UNDER the thatched roofs.  And it was a remarkable set by Prof Ron Stewart (which got applause when the curtain opened). I created a massive thunderstorm by strobe lights and a huge tin sheet that created the thunder.  SWEENEY was a show I asked to be able to light, 5 years after I graduated. I was crazy about Sondheim shows, and THIS ONE in particular.  I consulted Ken Billington who won the Tony for lighting the show on Broadway. I  asked him if I could emulate his design, and he whole heartedly gave me the green light.  One of me Mentors, Ron Stewart directed the show. And it was indeed a triumph. It was an outstanding show, and I did a bang up job lighting it.  A few months later, I won an Inland Empire Theater League Awards for outstanding Lighting Design, my second, having won a few years earlier for Night of the Iguana.

From there I was let loose in LA where there were almost 500 Equity Waiver theatre existed.  I was then introduced to Actor’s Forum. It was run by the mother of a high school classmate and her acting partner.  Our first show as BROOKLYN USA, and it was a show with multiple sets, and a large cast, in a Quonset Hutt structure across from Hanna Barbera in the Cahuenga Pass.  One particular effect, was at then end of the show, projected on to a black scrim from the rear, I had 4 “gobos” that were prison doors. And as the 4 incarcerated characters said the last lines of the show, in silhouetted lighting.. It was stunning, and I won another Drama Logue Award for that show. Actor’s Forum moved to the NoHo Arts District in 1994, and I followed them there. I pretty much lit every show they did for about 20 years and was considered the resident lighting designer. As the creative director started getting along in years, the productions lost structure, and I lost interest.

Someone who was an underclassmen at Hollywood High, Joe Camereno, asked me to look into a show at The Eclectic Company in North Hollywood.  I fit in easily there, and did a number of shows, including one that was being done on set and under lights for another production (that I had lit) and I got an LA Ovation Award nomination for THAT show.  Soon thereafter, many of them moved on to a theater in Moorpark, call The HighStreet Playhouse. This is an old theater that hadn’t been used in 5 years, and when I walked in, 5 lights were working, and were being used as worklight.  YIKES. The show was Barnum, and it took 2 weeks to hang and rig the show. By opening I had 40 lights burning. It was a triumph. Later we did a production of PRISONER OF 2nd AVENUE, in which I rigged black lights, and prison bar stripes were painted on the set, that only appeared under the backlight in a dramatic end to act one. Stunning end of act. I won a Four Star Theatre Award in Simi Valley for a production of DRIVING MISS DAISY, which it too, was a fantastic show…. I was asked to do a prlcution of AVENUE Q out in Simi Valley, and it went very well, but was the last show I ever did as a lighting designer.

I had a great run. By my calculations, I did about 400 productions as a lighting designer. I never learned how to program a computerized board, and rarely “ran” the shows from the booth. MANY of the theaters had a two or three dozen lights, and you had to make the best of what you had, and sometimes had to repair equipment so that I had more lighting instruments to use.  I was blessed FEW times with inventory over 100 lights. But of course that took a little bit long to hang and rig.  

I had the rare opportunity to re stage my senior project which was a 12 minute cutting of Alan Parsons and Pink Floyd music. I made them into multi media extravaganzas. A lighting designers orgasm really.  I pulled every trick in the book, including flying the lighting battens in and out of fog on the floor. Smoke, flash pots, lasers…. I had a great time!

I wasn’t able to cover ALL the shows I did, but boy did I have a blast doing it all. It meant for a number of short nights of sleep, as I had to go back to the Film work in the daytime, and Theater by night.