Steve McQueen - Marc Eliot [63]
Steve, although not nominated for any of his four pictures, was among those who did show up. He was asked to be a presenter despite having recently injured his hand in a motorcycle mishap. Looking resplendent in black tie and bandages, he handed the Oscar for Best Sound Recording to Franklin E. Milton for How the West Was Won. Afterward at the exclusive Governor’s Ball, Hedda Hopper made a point of telling him how wonderful he looked in tails, but Steve remained steadfast in his decision to retire and had already turned down dozens of offers that had come his way since his announcement. For the remainder of that year, Neile later recalled, “we devoted ourselves exclusively to traveling, racing, furnishing our house, and other worldly pleasures.” These were good times for Steve. He was grateful for all the success that had come his way, and the money that came with it.
And then, suddenly and without warning, his mother, Jullian, showed up unannounced on Steve and Neile’s Brentwood doorstep.
Although Steve had always kept her at arm’s length, he’d allowed Neile to communicate with her and for his mother to occasionally talk to the children, either by letter or telephone call. Jullian had since inherited a little bit of money and wanted to relocate to Los Angeles to be closer to her “family.” Steve would have none of it. Instead, he helped her buy a house in the North Beach section of San Francisco and open a little boutique. That would keep her near, but not too near, and far but not too far.
As soon as he had Jullian settled in San Francisco, he and Neile planned an extended trip to Europe. Before they left, they threw a huge belated housewarming and bon voyage party that also had some of the feel of a farewell to film acting for Steve, and invited all their friends. Steve arranged to have live entertainment provided by Johnny Rivers, one of the house performers at the Whiskey a Go-Go on the Sunset Strip, one of his favorite hangouts, where rock and roll was just beginning its West Coast surge.
Behind the rise of rock on the Strip was Lou Adler, a former songwriting partner with pop trumpeter Herb Alpert in the late fifties before leaving to become a West Coast agent for Columbia Screen Gems. In 1963 Adler left Screen Gems and formed Dunhill Production Company, whose first big client was Rivers. At twenty-two years old, Rivers was a native New Yorker who’d grown up in Louisiana, moved to L.A. at the onset of Beatlemania, and put himself under Adler’s shrewd guidance. His 1963 album, Johnny Rivers: Live at the Whiskey a Go-Go, rose to number twelve on the charts, and “Memphis” went to number seven on the singles charts. Rivers then signed a one-year exclusive deal to be the star attraction at the Whiskey, and returned regularly to play there for the rest of the decade. He was a crucial part of the growing L.A. music scene that came out of the Whiskey.2
Steve easily fit in with the Whiskey club crowd, which was mostly celebrities (in many ways it anticipated the star hangout that Studio 54 became in New York City in the seventies). Rivers and Steve quickly became friends, and whenever Steve went down to the Whiskey, always without Neile, he and Rivers would hang out between sets until closing. Rivers was more than happy to be Steve’s house band for the big party at the house.
Also at the bash were Tuesday Weld, whom Steve knew and liked from working with her on Soldier in the Rain; George Hamilton; the Kirk Douglases; and an as-yet-unknown pretty blond starlet by the name of Sharon Tate, on the arm of her frequent companion, Jay Sebring, an up-and-coming hairstylist who was making a name for himself among Hollywood’s performing set. Douglas was especially fond of Sebring, perhaps seeing a younger version of himself in the good-looking ladies’ man. While making Stanley Kubrick’s 1960 Spartacus, Douglas had called Sebring “a genius with hair,” adding, “Jay was a charismatic little fellow.