After that, we were joined by Popeye’s wife, my Aunt Sybil, and went to dinner at the Brown Derby. We had a wonderful meal that was almost marred by one event. Mum and Aunt Sybil were returning from the restroom when they were accosted by a couple of drunks from the bar. I say almost marred because Dad and Popeye stood up ready to do battle.
I didn’t think Mr. Cobb could move so fast. He whispered something to the two guys, they turned and saw Dad and Popeye and decided they had somewhere else they needed to be.
Mr. Cobb was apologetic about the incident but the ladies shrugged it off. On our way out I asked him what he whispered to those guys.
“I just told them if they took on the Jackson clan I wasn’t going to pay for their funerals.”
“Oh, they know how Popeye is on the docks?”
“No, they saw you in the movie, it has half of Hollywood quaking in their boots every time they see you. They now think you are a psychopathic killer.
What can you say to that? We headed on home and I went to sleep thinking about getting out of town, what the heck, out of the country!
Chapter 16
If I had my way I would have been on an airliner early Thursday morning. Unfortunately, the airlines have a thing called a schedule and a fixed number of seats they can sell. All seats to England were booked up on Thursday. It would be Friday evening before I could get a flight.
I complained to the family at breakfast but they weren’t too sympathetic. Instead, I went to the studio and brushed up on my various skills. I was there most of the day. At lunch, I ran into Sharon Wallace.
When I saw her I was overcome with guilt about yesterday. I asked for a few minutes. I came clean with her. You could tell she wasn’t happy at first but she came around. She had to laugh.
“Rick, if you were in court and were asked if you were doing something you would answer I’m not doing that, meaning that you weren’t doing that at that exact moment.”
“Exactly.”
“Words are dangerous, and you give a new meaning to what is, is.”
“I’m glad you see the humor in it. I just couldn’t go another month like last month. It is totally exhausting. At least here in the US, we know how things work, how would you arrange an opening event in Berlin or Paris?”
“That’s a good point, but that is why the studio has representatives all over the world. They could and do make things like that happen. Now, are you sure you don’t want to do a couple this month?”
Thank goodness I was on a studio lot, it only looked half weird when I turned and ran screaming down the street. I’m pretty sure she got the message.
After half a block I slowed down, shut up, and walked along laughing. You read about running away screaming; I just did it. One guy walking towards me asked me what movie I was doing that in. I told him that it was a Sharon Wallace production.
He replied that he hadn’t heard of them, but would check it out. I encouraged him to do so. After that, I returned home. I related my day, including running down the street to the family. Mary thought the scene would have gone better if I had been pulling on my hair. It would give it a more dramatic flair.
Who is this kid and what did she do with my baby sister?
Friday morning was spent with an investment house recommended by Jim Williamson. They were more than eager to get their hands on two hundred million dollars.
I went into detail of my expectations and controls that would be in place to ensure that there would be no churning of my account. They didn’t take that too well at first but I didn’t care. I wasn’t there to make them money; they were there to make me money.
They backed down quickly. My first requirement was that they put together a model portfolio based in the air transportation sector. They were to provide it to Jim for his and then my review. The session was over by noon. We shook hands on the deal.
Jim and I discussed the meeting on the way back to the office. He agreed that we needed to keep a close eye on them but it would probably be okay.
After dropping him off I returned home and packed for my flight to London. This required me to put a change of clothes in a carryall along with several books to read. Believe it or not, one of the books was on geology, especially of Africa. I sensed that serious money could be made there if politics and corruption didn’t get in the way.
One of our limos took me to LAX to catch a flight to London. The only flight available was TWA from Los Angeles (LAX) to Dayton, Ohio (DAY) then to New York City (IDL), IDL to London (LHR).
One saving grace was that the trip would be on the same plane all the way. At each stop I could get off and wander for a bit, just remembering to take my boarding pass with me. I had also purchased two first-class seats so there would be no one next to me.
I didn’t know you could do this until I saw a seat occupied by a cello. I asked a stewardess about it and learned that you could buy as many seats as you wanted. Heck, if the seats weren’t sold I could have bought out the whole first-class section, though that would have been a bit much.
The flight from
