^ Incredible stuff Stephen!

 

Wonderful yet again!

 

These photos and anecdote from my friend Serge Dermanian arrived in response to my post "GTO photos from Chuck Queener". For many years, Serge looked after the cars in the Ralph Lauren collection including, of course, my old GTO. His job was to drive the cars in the collection as often as he liked and to keep them in proper working order. O lucky man!

"Hello Stephen,

I remember, how I meet Chuck Queener! In 1982, I had organized a Ferrari meet, at my Waltham, MA. High Performance Cars Alfa store. I had invited Peter Sachs, who came with a surprise "gift"! Chuck Queener in person, by the road from Connecticut, driving the fabulous, famous, 1956 Paris Show car, a white Superfast. I remember replacing the spark plugs as soon as they arrived.

Look at these 2 pictures! We had a great day that ended in a nearby restaurant & a slide show of ferraris I owned!

Souvenirs..souvenirs..

Regards
Serge Dermanian"

 

Back in the day, I used to get weekly massages from Louise Long who was known as the masseuse to the stars in Hollywood. Visiting her ranch style home situated on a property in the north Valley was like entering a private enclave where the most beautiful women in film at the time could be seen wrapped in towels going into or coming out of their sessions with Louise or one of her capable assistants. I think I may have been her only male client and that was fine with me.

One day I arrived early for an appointment and was sitting outside in my Berlinetta Lusso reading a James Bond novel when this unusual, silver Alfa Romeo pulls up and parks next to me. I'd never seen one like it. After checking out the car, I noticed the driver. It was Angie Dickinson in all her glory. We exchanged smiles and I said, "Great car!" and she replied with a few words about how she loved the Alfa. That was the first time I saw that Alfa but it wasn't the last as it seemed Angie and I often booked the same time slots for our massages.

One day, as I was coming out of my session, I heard someone playing piano in Louise's living room. Whoever was playing was so good that I thought at first that the music was coming from the stereo. When I came around the corner into the living room, I saw that it was Burt Bacharach playing one of his latest hits. He was waiting for Angie who was still in a massage room.

A lifetime later, I received a phone call one afternoon from Tita Cahn the wife--now widow--of the legendary Sammy Cahn. Tita had been watching an episode of one of my (Interview) shows on cable and called to tell me how much she enjoyed watching the series. She said that she and her friend Angie Dickinson would call each other to say that (Interview) was airing and to turn on the television. Those are dedicated fans and it was very gracious of Tita to go out of her way to call and relate this to me. It was also interesting to hear that, so many years later, Angie Dickinson and I were still on the same wavelength.

 

Am I missing something? There's no royal family in Poland.

 

Only the irony. One meets all sorts on these occasions including Polish princes with Italian mothers...

 

Elysée Wednesday tonight--Oh, Uncle Lon. am I excited? Yipe!...

Look for us Wednesday evenings on the patio from 7:45 pm (or shortly thereafter) until about midnight at Caffe Primo, 8590 Sunset Blvd West Hollywood, CA 90069. Underground parking on Alta Loma just east of the Cafe and south of Sunset or on the street.

 

A friend once asked me what was the fastest I'd ever driven a car. My answer was 7500 rpm in fifth gear. Race cars don't have speedometers and the car in question was my Ferrari GTO. I was on the way to Las Vegas and my father was riding next to me in the passenger seat. In those days, there were no posted speed limits on Nevada's highways and we were having the time of our lives.

My father and I shared a lot of great times. We spent a month together in Italy once. As I was growing up, he would take me with him into some of the hottest jazz clubs in Los Angeles years before I was of legal age to enter such places. More often than not, we were the only white faces in the crowd but the band members were all on a first-name basis with him. He showed me where to buy the best hot link sausages & sweet potato pies in Los Angeles. We went to Rams games and later Raiders games. Together, we bought and sold cars--he had his and I had mine, but we aided and abetted each other in the enterprise. Sidney was a cool guy. At a cocktail party, he asked a pre-politics Ronald Reagan what he did for a living. How cool is that?

My GTO had a tall final drive. Entering a favorite freeway on-ramp, I would be passing the fastest traffic by the time I shifted out of first gear and second put me into the flashing red lights and siren zone. I suppose someone could do the math to figure out how fast 7500 rpm in fifth might have been on the occasion, but it never occurred to me to bother. What mattered was that my father and I were enjoying an experience that would never be forgotten and that we were both extremely lucky to do so. Another of our shared experiences was that we survived a head-on collision on the Ventura freeway--a rare occurrence by anyone's standards.

Manuel Taboada of the Ferrari Em Portugal blog asked me to sum up in a few words, the sensations of driving the GTO. My answer was: Every moment in the GTO was like the first lap at Le Mans. Were I asked to sum up my father, I would have to say that no one who met Sidney is ever likely to forget him.

Yesterday was his birthday and we have been without him for too long. Perhaps that is why these thoughts are with me.

[Thank you to Chad Glass for the sketch of GTO 3987 on the road to 'Vegas]

 

You sir, are without question the most interesting person on this forum. You have lived quite a life. I could sit and read your stories over and over for hours. Which is why you need to write a book! I would be the first to buy it.

And your story about spending time with your father just helped me appreciate how lucky I am to be headed to San Diego this weekend with my father for our annual baseball trip. We share a love for baseball much like you and your father shared a love for cars. Thank you for sharing so much on here.

 

Thank you very much--enjoy your weekend together!