In Game Two of the 1966 World Series, 20-year-old pitcher Jim Palmer tossed a complete-game shutout against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Baltimore Orioles won the series and Palmer became an overnight sensation. Palmer’s salary for the season was $7,500. Even with his $11,000 World Series bonus, it wasn’t enough…

Twelve marijuana dispensaries exist within a four-mile radius of my Los Angeles home. The stores are quirky and reek of weed-inspired names like The Coughy Shop, Gram Central Station, The Green Mile, Herbal Outfitters, Higher Path, Hollyweed, Pipe Dreams, The Growcery, The Pottery and Uncle Herb’s. Los Angeles has nearly…

John Wayne dominated movie screens for half a century. He was a tough guy, a man’s man, an all-American hero who lived by his own moral code and let his actions speak louder than his words. …

In 1970, Hunter S. Thompson declared himself a candidate for Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado. Running on the so-called “Freak Power” ticket, he promised to decriminalize drugs for personal use though he vowed not to eat mescaline while on duty. He also advocated the following: He would rip up all…

In 1984, I worked on a low-budget independent film in New Zealand called Shaker Run. As a production assistant, I traveled with the second unit crew to shoot b-roll footage not requiring the primary actors. One day we were filming drive-by shots on the snowy roads of Mount Cargill. After…

My friend Conrad called me with the news. Kevin had followed through on his threat. He woke early on a Sunday, delivered his mastiff Holly to his ex-wife’s house, drove to the Los Angeles VA cemetery, parked his car beside the Civil War monument, placed a gun in his mouth…

Big Sur is my favorite spot on the planet. It has beautiful coastline, stunning views and is far from a world gone mad. Before Covid, my wife and I drove to Big Sur every few years. We hiked through old-growth forests of giant redwood and live oak. …

Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor known for playing sinister foreigners. Born Laszlo Lowenstein in 1904 to Jewish parents in present-day Slovakia, Lorre’s mother died of food poisoning when he was only four. As a teenager, Lorre was a student of Sigmund Freud in Vienna. Lorre began acting at age…

Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was one of America’s first silent film stars dominating the industry from 1914–1920. Despite his obesity, he was graceful and acrobatic and a talented dancer. He was a purveyor of the pie-in-the-face slapstick routine that came to embody early silents. …