grabbed hold of my heart.
Her “showbiz” career I believe started in the second grade where because she was one of the smallest in the class, she got to wear the Donald Duck costume at a school event. I believe that her only job was to pass out pamphlets or something, but once that duck costume went on, she was on. She shocked all the teachers and students by doing cartwheels down the aisles and shaking everybody’s hand as she danced around.
Your Mom Nathaniel was so outgoing that even though we didn’t move from Indianapolis to Coronado where she started Highschool until late November, she still won “freshman of the year.” (pictured above with uncle Curtis and your great-grandparents Sandy and Betty Johns) The following year she was the “junior of the year” and the lead in the school’s big musical production of “South Pacific.” (see newspaper picture below)
Even though your grandparents weren’t very excited about, she finished high school in France. (I’d made a deal with her that if she got straight, A’s in her upcoming exams she could go) When she returned home to graduate with her class, (see picture below), Buppa purchased a surprise “welcome home” billboard for a week at the entrance to the Coronado bridge. Unfortunately, it stayed up for several months and turned into somewhat of an embarrassment. because whenever she was introduced to someone, they’d say, “Are you the chick on the billboard?”
Your Mom began her college career at NYU in New York where she studied drama.(your grandparents were not excited about her living in New York) Discovering that she could learn acting anywhere, she switched to academics, made the Deans List, and then transferred to UCLA. Going back to New York for a visit; she popped in to see her old drama professor at NYU, who wanted to see if she still had her chops, so he had her read for him. After doing so, he told her that she was wasting her time going to college because she was as ready as anyone was to audition for Broadway plays. He offered to call me and explain the situation, but your Mom thankfully told him that there was no need for that because I was already her biggest fan. Whew!
While studying at UCLA, she was also writing songs and singing with at places like the Whiskey and the Roxy where Buppa got to see her perform quite often. (singing at the Roxy above) At that time singing was her whole life but she like your grandfather also loved to run, so we decided to run the LA Marathon together. (see picture of us running a 10 k below) Running that Marathon with your Mom was the hardest but greatest thing I’ve ever done. Most of the time we trained apart although we did do an excellent run together along the Mediterranean in the South of France when I took her there for her 21st birthday.
After graduating Magna Cum Laude from UCLA, (I’m thinkin’ Suma for you) she began working as the assistant to a record company president named Charlie Minor which eventually led to her becoming the Licensing Director for WEA. (Warner Bros. Electra and Asylum Records) At the same time, she was also recording an album with her band The Tortured Poets. Unfortunately, by now she was too smart to sign the onesided contract, so the album was never released. However. Buppa still has it, so I get to enjoy it over and over again.
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