Just Another L.A. Story...

With the strikes not settled, there’s not much going on, so that leaves lots of time to reflect. Today, I’m remembering a story from my early years as an actor in Los Angeles.

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DAN LAURIA (known for his work as the Dad on the original The Wonder Years) and I became friends after I was accepted as a member of The American Theatre of Actors on W. 54th Street (right down the street from the infamous Studio 54) in New York City. ATA was a theatrical membership company helmed by Jim Jennings, and Dan was a founding member. Dan was always supportive of my work, believing in me more than I did. Eventually, Dan moved to L.A. and found success doing guest spots on lots of nighttime TV shows before finding fame as “Jack Arnold.” Being a gregarious man, he also had a lot of friends - some wildly successful, some struggling to find work.

One of those young, struggling actors was CHAZZ PALMINTERI. Back then, Chazz was a member of L.A.’s iconic Theatre West, the theatrical home to numerous TV stars whose love for the theatre brought them together to form a company of actors, writers, and directors. They would collaborate on all kinds of projects that fulfilled their creative needs, and occasionally, some of those projects would be developed and move on to bigger stages. Spoon River Anthology was one of the plays born at Theatre West that found success on Broadway and around the world.

Anyone in the company could write and develop their own play and Chazz did just that. He started creating what would become A BRONX TALE, a story based on some of his own experiences as a boy in New York City. Over the course of (I believe) two years, Chazz wrote and performed monologues that were critiqued in the Writers and Actors Workshops. Eventually, he had enough material for a one-man show. The only thing he didn’t have was a script.

During those years, to earn money I often typed up scripts for people on my CRT Word Processor. Home computers weren’t a thing back then, and a Word Processor was a big step up from an electric typewriter. One day I got a call from Chazz, who introduced himself and said Dan Lauria told him he should hire me to type his script. He asked if we could get together to figure out how to get all of his notes assembled into a script. I said, sure. We agreed to meet and got started the next day.

But when Chazz arrived at my apartment in Van Nuys, he didn’t have notes. The entire play was in his head. We talked about how we would distinguish between his main character, the young Calogero, and the “older” Calogero who functioned as the Narrator. Once that was settled, we were off and running.

In my bedroom (calm down, it was where my desk and computer was), over the course of a week, Chazz acted out A BRONX TALE as I typed. There were times I was so moved and/or amazed by his acting, that I stopped typing and just watched him perform. After he would leave, I would clean up typos and formatting, and eventually presented him with a finished, printed script. And I kept one for myself.

Well, as everyone knows, A BRONX TALE went on to become a movie that starred, and was produced by, ROBERT DENIRO (who flirted with me on a subway once, but another story for another day), and then went on to become a successful Broadway musical.

Fast-forward to 25 or so years later, after I had quit acting, had my career at Warner Bros., and returned to acting once again. One of the first things I did was audition for, and was accepted by, Theatre West as an acting member. A year or so later, Chazz returned to the theatre for a visit and to conduct a workshop on the process of creating a one-man show. Afterwards, we got to talk a bit about the early years, ABT, Dan, etc. Did he remember me? No. But it didn’t matter. I remembered him, and that was good enough for me. What I don’t remember… is what I did with that script.

Somehow, Chazz wound up sitting next to me for the group shot. (I swear I was seated first!) And yes, that is the crazy talented JIM BEAVER on the right.