Straight Life - Art Pepper [92]
(Millie) Do you think it would have made any difference if he'd married a different type of woman than Patti?
(John) No.
(Millie) Well, was it Grandma and Moses? They didn't handle him right?
(John) No. He didn't have a chance to be handled right.
2
1954-1966
10
The Los Angeles
County jail: Integration
1954 - 1955
I STAYED in Long Beach for a little while and then moved to a hotel in Hollywood, and I ran into a girl named Didi. I ran into her in a jazz club. She was a chubby, Jewish girl, a hairdresser, and she really dug me. I was getting strung out, and she told me if I'd like I could stay at her place. She had a nice apartment about a quarter of a block off Hollywood Boulevard. I figured it would be good to live with her for a while. I'd have the use of her car, and she made good money. Her mother was married to a guy who was part or whole owner of a huge business. I stayed with her, and it enabled me to spend all the money I made recording and playing in clubs on drugs.
After a while it got to be a drag staying with Didi. She was getting demanding; she wanted me to ball her. I balled her a few times at first, but she didn't appeal to me sexually and finally I couldn't do it at all anymore. I just could not do it. Period. She ignored it as long as she could, and finally she asked me what was wrong. I told her she just didn't move me and that I couldn't help it. That put the handwriting on the wall. I couldn't ball her, so I knew I was going to have to move. I got a room on Hudson above Hollywood Boulevard, Didi drove me over, and I moved in.
The very next day I went to a hotel in Hollywood to see some people, to cop from them. They'd just come in from Detroit. There were three of them. There was a broad, a funky broad, real skinny and ugly, a friend of Tony's, and Tony DiCorpo, who plays tenor saxophone, and he was a dog, just a dog, no morals. I've run into a lot of musicians like that, people that don't care about anybody but themselves. They use people, but more than that, they don't have any warmth; they don't have any honor; they're not kind. Even when I've taken advantage of someone, like with Didi, I was always good to her and honest and I tried to do right. And I was clean. This Tony was dirty, physically dirty, and coarse and shallow and weak. I've always hated people like that, but I went over there. It was just one of those days when nobody that was around that I knew had anything. And I used to cop for these three. They had called me and asked what was happening. They said they could score, but the shit wasn't quite as good. I figured, "Well, I'll go over and get a taste." I went to their apartment and gave them the money, and they went, Tony and the other guy. They left the broad behind with me, and I was in their pad so I figured it would be cool.
They were gone for quite a while. I waited and waited and waited. I said, "What's happening with these guys?" The broad said, "Don't worry about it. Everything's cool." This chick was the kind of person not even a mother could love. She was skinny, no looks, no personality, and nobody in his right mind would give her a nickel to let her give him head. I don't know how these people are made or where they come from or where they go. I've met a lot of them and she was about the worst I've ever seen.
While Tony was gone, I happened to look around the house and I noticed some cottons lying around. Then I noticed an outfit. Then I found another outfit and about three or four dirty