The Hard Rock Cafe

The one, the only (at the time), the original Hard Rock Cafe.

Before the empire — the chain, the hotels, the casinos, even before the huge collection of rock memorabilia and the now ubiquitous t-shirts, there was this: a joint in London serving up Schlitz beer and real American hamburgers and fries and milk shakes and rock-n-roll.  Opened on June 14, 1971 by Americans Peter Morton and Isaac Tigrett at 150 Old Park Lane in London (in an old Rolls Royce dealership) it quickly became the place to go even for real rock-n-rollers.  Paul McCartney and Wings were the first band to play live there (1973).  Carole King loved the burgers so much she wrote an ode to the place which became a huge hit.  And Eric Clapton started the memorabilia collection in 1979 by giving Peter and Isaac one of his guitars.  Not to be outdone, Pete Townsend quickly left one of his with the note: “Mine’s as good as his! Love, Pete”.

For us Young Americans abroad the Hard Rock represented and America we didn’t know first hand and only really learned about when George Lucas’s American Grafitti hit town.  After that, we HAD to go to the Hard Rock and, thanks to our giant platform shoes, we were even able to score some Schlitz.  

BTW, the concert Wings was warming up for with their impromptu gig at the Hard Rock was the one we saw with Mother’s boyfriend of the moment, comedy writer, Herb Sargent.  Herb used to drive mother crazy by tossing her cigarettes out of the taxi which made Robbie and I laugh a lot.  He’d flown all the way to London to see her and we would have been happy if it had worked out; he was a good guy.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  American Graffiti, Americans Abroad, Hard Rock Cafe, Herb Sargent, Isaac Tigrett, Paul McCartney, Peter Morton, Schlitz, Wings, Young Americans

Platform Shoes!

What was a girl to do in 70s London if she wanted to see a AA rated film and she was only 12 or…
…an X rated film and she was only 14?  Buy the tallest pair of platform shoes she could stand in, of course!

The platform shoe has been around at least as long as the Greeks who used cothurni to raise up important characters on stage.  They were big in Chinese opera and rose again in Europe in the late 16th century.  I first experienced them as a girl when my dad was in the “House of Atreus” at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis   (more on my and Robbie’s House of Atreus dolls from the Guthrie’s set designer in another post).  But it was in the 1970s when the platform shoe made it’s biggest mark.

For me, Elton John and glam rockers made platform shoes a much desired style accessory.  But trying to score Babycham at the pub and bypass the British film raiting system (U – universal, A – five and older, AA- fourteen and older, and X- eighteen and older) made them a necessity.  

In 1972, Robbie and I and our friends absolutely had to see “Endless Night” the new Hayley Mills horror film.  But it was rated AA and we were only twelve and eleven.  SO with a lot of make-up, stylish clothes and some new pairs of giant platforms, we bluffed our way in.  I seem to recall at least one of us tripping down the aisle.  A couple of years later when American Graffiti hit London it was rated X and once again our platforms were called into service.

That movie ushered in a craze for all things American in London which for us included trying to get into the Hard Rock Cafe.  More on that tomorrow!

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  American Graffiti, cothurni, Elton John, Endless Night, glam rock, Hard Rock Cafe, Hayley Mills, House of Atreus, movie ratings, platform shoes, Robin Lawless, Wendy Lawless

Babycham Monday

Like Champagne for Little Girls!

When the IRA was bombing London and a couple of threats were called in to our school (The American School in London) we had to evacuate and so went to the pub nearby and tried, with the biggest platform shoes and the greatest amount of lipstick, to look old enough to order Babycham, Sparkling Perry.

Originally called “Champagne Perry”, Babycham was invented by brewer Francis Edwin Showering in Shepton Mallet, Sommerset, England.After the French complained about the use of the appelation Champagne, the name was changed to “Sparkling”.  Perry is an ancient alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears traditionally popular in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and parts of south Wales as well as in Normandy and Anjou, France. 

Despite its juvenile fawn mascot and name, Babycham made us feel like grown-ups even as the real grown-ups in our world were acting like children. 

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  American School in London, ASL, Babycham, Champagne, Chanel Bonfire, fermented pears, pears, Perry, pubs, The IRA, Wendy Lawless

With Role Models Like These…

A thirteen year old’s reading list.  At the time (the early 1970s) I didn’t see anything unusual in my choice of reading.  With my mother out partying every night with a wild cast of American expats and European jetsetters, the insane drug addicted narcissists of Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of Dolls, the rapacious unhappy housewife of Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying and the incestuous courtesans of Jean Plaidy’s Light on Lucrezia didn’t strike me as abnormal or different from the real world.  In fact, they confirmed to me that life with my mother may not have been all that unusual in the great scheme of things.  

It may be an odd worldview for a thirteen year old but it was all I had. 

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Erica Jong, Fear of Flying, Georgann Rea, Jacqueline Susann, Jean Plaidy, Light on Lucrezia, role models, Valley of the Dolls, Wendy Lawless

Goodreads Giveaway Winners!

Signed copies of CHANEL BONFIRE are off to our two lucky Goodreads Giveaway winners in Aurora, Colorado, and St. Louis, Missouri!  Isn’t it fun to win stuff?!

And whether you live in Missouri or Colorado, Texas or Bermuda, London or Paris, Berlin or Singapore, Indonesia or Indiana, Tokyo or Toledo, you and your Book Group can schedule a Skype or FaceTime Q & A with me.  They’re really fun and a great way to get all your questions about Chanel answered and to share your own experiences with “difficult” mothers and and surviving childhood.  Just email me at chanelbonfire@gmail.com.
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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Book Group Skype, Chanel Bonfire, goodreads giveaway, Wendy Lawless

Wendy Lawless at the West Hollywood Book Fair

The program schedule is out for the 2013 West Hollywood Book Fair on Sunday, September 29th in West Hollywood Park.  

I’ll be appearing on a terrific panel called “MEMOIR: FAMILY TIES” at the Behind the Screens Stage at 1:30PM.

The panel will be moderated by Rachel Resnick great writer and author of, among others, LOVE JUNKIE.  CHANEL BONFIRE and I will be sharing the stage with Scott C. Johnson (THE WOLF AND THE WATCHMAN), Linda Daly (THE LAST PILGRIMAGE) and James Brown (THE LOS ANGELES DIARIES).

I hope to see you there!

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  book signings, Chanel Bonfire, James Brown, Linda Daly, Memoir Panel: Family Ties, memoirs, Rachel Resnick, Scott Johnson, Wendy Lawless, West Hollywood Book Fair

In the Library!

“Nine Lives” by Varjak, Paul

“With the Rich and Mighty” by Connor, Macaulay

While there are almost no card catalogues left in libraries, there is still the virtual thrill of looking up one’s book in the computer or on-line catalogue.  “Chanel Bonfire” by Lawless, Wendy.  It is an unbeatable thrill — different from finding the book in a store or having it become a bestseller.  

I think this may be because, for most of us, going to the library for the first time is a major event.  A library card is probably the first piece of ID a person can have.  It’s also a matter of pride for a child; it declares to the world that the bearer of this card is “a reader”, a person who can read.  It also comes with responsibility.  When you take out a book, your name, your card number, is put down as the person responsible for that book for the next two weeks.  In the old days, your name would be hand written on the book’s card and the date hand stamped.  

My first library card was issued by the New York Public Library.  Since then I’ve had many cards from different libraries.  And I’m so pleased to find my book in The Glendale Public Library where I live, The Pasadena Public Library where I wrote some of the book, The Los Angeles and West Hollywood Public Libraries where we first took our children, the small red brick Carnegie public library in Hancock, New Hampshire, where our family live and, of course The New York Public Library where my sister still lives and where I plan to visit the book next time I’m in town.  Provided it’s not out! 


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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Breakfast at Tiffany's, Chanel Bonfire, Holly Golightly, libraries, Macaulay Connor, Paul Varjak, The New York Public Library, The Philadelphia Story, Tracey Lord, Wendy Lawless

Fashion Week

Fashion meant a lot to my mother.  She saw it as a visa that enabled her to travel from provincial Kansas City and Minneapolis to glamourous New York, London and Paris.  Couture and tailored clothes from designers and stores like Bergdorf Goodman became essential to the creation of her new selves: Mrs. Oliver Rea a chic trophy wife and then the ex-Mrs. Oliver Rea, swinging divorcee and jet setter.  

My stepfather facilitated this with open accounts anywhere she cared to dress.  I still have a couple of the most beautiful black Italian silk cocktail dresses with lead weighted hems made for her at Bergdorf’s.  

Fashion week or as it used to be called Press Week became something she paid attention to and looked forward to like the changing of the leaves in Central Park outside her windows in the Dakota.  Long after the apartment was gone however, the clothes still hung in her closets, reminders of Fall and Spring collections past.

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Posted by Wendy Lawless  Chanel Bonfire, Georgann Rea, Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, Oliver Rea, Wendy Lawless

Sisters Shelf on Goodreads

Me and Robbie
Partners in Crime

The scene of the crime. 
My graduation from Beaver Country Day.  The picture is taken out front near where the ceremony is held and where, a year later, at Robbie’s graduation, mother would be arrested.

Return to the scene of the crime.  
Me and Robbie at BCD Alumni Weekend 2013.  We lived to tell the tale: together.

Goodreads has a new (or at least new to me) “Sisters Shelf” on which you can find many many terrific books fiction and non-fiction touching on the subject of sisters and sisterhood including Chanel Bonfire.  My reading list has just grown by leaps and bounds!



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Posted by Wendy Lawless  goodreads, Goodreads Sisters Shelf, Robin Lawless, Sisters, Wendy Lawless