Latest / Laguna Talks / Developer and Arts Patron Sam Goldstein

Transcript

Developer and Arts Patron Sam Goldstein · Laguna Talks

• 0:39
  Speaker 1: And we are back on the air. Yeah, it's kind
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: of appropriate.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: We're listening to a little jazz Diddy because we have
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: the great Sam Goldstein here with us today at the
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: k x f M Orange Door Studios. Sam has been
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: a longtime resident of Laguna, and without Sam, we would
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: have a much diminished arts and cultural scene here because
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: back and I think the year of two thousand, hang on,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: there we go, let's get your volume up. You in
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: concert with a couple of other people, formed the what
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: is it?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: The well the bed tax, but we call it text yes,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: thank you, hi.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Well. I was trying to think of what I created.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's known as the Business Improvement District now
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: or how did that change names?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: What is it?
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: I wasn't part of that.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I just.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: It was frustrated that we said we're the city for
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: the arts and never gave any money to the arts. Yeah,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: so I had to figure out is there a way
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: to make money for the arts? And I came upon
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: it in ninety eight and it took me two and
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: a half years to get it approved of the city council.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: And this was the idea that ultimately our visitors were
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: paying the tab because it's a pass through. The hotels
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: charge it. That's added on to their bill. You know
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: they have the other everybody knows there's always little add
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: ons to your hotel. And this was voted in as
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: a one percent bed tax on top of everything else.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Is that right now? It was a two percent.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: It was one percent for the hotels to promote the hotels,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: which was the Visitors Bureau, and one percent for the arts.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: And by the arts, it was divided up amongst five organizations.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Three actually of the Playhouse, the museum, the Museum, and
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: the College of Art and Design. Okay, then by the
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: time we got done with it all, it got diluted
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: and we ended up with instead of a third to third,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: we ended up with twenty percent for the three organizations
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: that bring people here all the time. And one of
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: the council ladies commandeered forty percent to the Arts Commission.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Was the Arts Commission in existence at that time where
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: they are already formed.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Yes, but they were anti the bed tax.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: They wanted no part of it. Why that's a good question.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: But the chair person.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Was very vocal and verbal about it. Because I had
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: five members or six members on my committee and the
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Arts Commission removed those two members that were on my
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: committee and.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Removed them were also on the Arts Commission.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: On the Arts Commission, they removed them from the Arts
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Commission because the Arts Commission said, you.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Didn't tell us about those two people. Oh wow.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: So there was very small things crashing going on here.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: But then previously they were relying on funding from the city.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: There was no funding. It wasn't no funding. No.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: So this whole art in public places, which is what
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: I believe the Arts Commission is primarily responsible for, pretty
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: much did not exist prior to this bed tax.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Well, I had wonderful allies with Karen Phillipson who was
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: part of the Hotel group, and he's Jiles Anderson who
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: was the owner operator of a hotel Laguna, and they
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: both believe the change was necessary, and they did their best,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: and they got forty eight out of fifty four hotels
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: to agree with them for creating the tax on the visitors.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: This is pretty phenomenal.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know of any other city that generates this
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: much income and support for their arts and cultural institutions.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: And so to give our listeners some you know, a
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: little bit of context here that one percent, I believe
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: is about It fluctuates from year to year, but an
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: average of around one point five million.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Anywhere from one and a half to two and a
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: half million dollars a year for each one percent amazing.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: So one percent goes to the visitors Bureau. I know
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: they've been under a little bit of fire in the
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: last couple of years. They've been kind of blamed for
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: the over tourism problem we have here.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I think they're an easy scapegoat.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: I think if we turned off all of our marketing,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: and that includes every individual that posts sunset pictures of Laguna,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: it wouldn't make a bit of difference. This is no secret.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: Well it's Laguna is an interesting place. There's always complaints
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: for everything, right, we never find happiness. Happiness is not
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: part of Laguna's mo.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Well, it's funny.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think that people that involve themselves in
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the civic process tend to be full of gripes. You know,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: they tend to think it can be way better. There's
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: those also who think that they're protecting Laguna from a
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: fate of becoming over commercial and overcrowded, which is a
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: tough pill because every resort in the world. Every desirable
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: place is suffering the same fate. People like making love
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: too much, Sam.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Well, the.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: People are never satisfied and they always want either more
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: or less. And in the case of California, I just
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: read in the paper yesterday there's a big movement to
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: get rid of the Coastal Commission because of the choke
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: hold they have on everything that's going on in this
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: day and age.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: So yep.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: And I know they were formed to ensure access to
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: the beach for the public and public enjoyment and to
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: prevent business from restricting access to the beach, which is
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: kind of a noble thing, but they've been given so
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: much control. I believe the entire coastline and then a
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: mile inland is their purview.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Yes, it is, and it's created we have. We had
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: the hotel Montage created back in two thousand, I guess
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: it was, and it took two lawsuits and three referendums
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: to finally get the approval to build a hotel that's
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: from our just our community, had nothing to do with
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: government agencies.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: And yet today we would be upside down financially without
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the Montage.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but we never said there was broad intelligent thinking
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: for saying no to anything. You know, we think it's
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: it's a badge of honor to be a naysayer, and
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: we happen to love it, and there are a lot
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: of people who feel very vitriolic about doing it. So
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: it's you have my thoughts, which is always what more
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: can we do? Not how little can we do? And
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: we have the others who say we don't want to
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: do anything.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: And we've din't want to do less.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: We've enforced it. By nineteen forty seven seventy four, we
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: had Bob Gentry.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Who is then mayor then the mayor, and.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: He created a city plan. He must have been a
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: genius at city plans and paperwork because it's still in effect.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: We're still dealing with the city plan that we had
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy four, and it's created havoc, impact, no progress, negativity,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: a way of thinking that is second to none. We
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: have groups here like Village Laguna that don't want to
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: see the thing change and they're living the good life.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: They've done really well to say no to everything, and
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: they keep saying it. And it's people like myself and
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Cindy Schopoff and Michael Ray to say enough's enough, and
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: we've done what we've had to do in order to
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: change the general feeling. But it's not easy because we
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: have as many we have a fraction of naysayers. But
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: there it seemed to be ever never out of energy
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: to be relentless in naysaying.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Well, Sam, on this radio station, we honor all voices
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: and we have an hour that's devoted to Village Laguna
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: to express their views.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: But that said, let's talk about something different.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about something positive, and that is Sam Goldstein,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: because we haven't been positive for years. That's right, but
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: you are still at it. And how old are you
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: going to be this Thursday ninety one?
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Come on, man, no way, yeah ninety one. That brain
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: is as sharp as attack. I know you would disagree
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: with that.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: I hear it from you, but you know I want
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: the public to hear about you because.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: You have a fascinating story. You were born in la Your.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Parents your father was a Russian immigrant, didn't speak English,
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: struggled in business right Your mother, though, held the family together.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: She was the bastion of success and she.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Had the foresight to buy scratched together enough money to
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: buy a building in down not a downtown in midtown
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: mid La, La and had enough rooms that after World
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: War Two she turned it into a boarding house.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: Yes, and she went from one to four boarding houses
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: in my lifetime with her.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: And she was Donald Brnn of her time.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, because I had a sister that wanted to
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: be an opera singer and I wanted to be a drummer.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: And she wanted her kids to succeed, and she had
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: focus and relentless and she was a driven woman for
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: her children and her life and she turned it from
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: poverty success and it was a great example for a
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: young man growing.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Ye, I couldn't.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: And she supported your interest in the arts. She totally
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: whatever you wanted to do, she just wanted you to.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Never never thwarted any of it. She was my mother.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: And then some yeah, what about so how did you
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: first then encounter music? Do you have a memory of
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: where you got inspired to play drums?
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: No? I started piano when I was seven, and I
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: had to mow the lawn to the piano teacher, who
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: was awful, so I didn't have to pay her, but
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: it was it was a barter deal.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And then the piano wasn't happening.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: Well, it was it was good for overall knowledge because
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: the arts and the brain are synonymous with good things.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: It brings creative thinking no matter what you do or
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: how you do it. But without the arts, we have
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: brain dead unity.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: And we're going to get to that.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: When your your great love of the arts, and when
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: you hung up your sticks, you continued to sponsor, support, patronize,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: and encourage art wherever you went.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: I absolutely I couldn't live without it. And I got
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: introduced to contemporary art at Newport Harbor Art Museum back
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: in the WHOA nineteen sixties seventies, and there was a
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: young curator by the name of Paul Schimmel who came
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: from Texas. He was fifty four years old with the
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: youngest curator happening, and he was like a wonderful breeze
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: that blew through the museum who had insatiable desires and
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: he wanted all the help he could get to make
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: it happen. And we aligned ourselves together. I became chairman
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: the acquisition committee, changed the dues from one hundred dollars
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: a year to one thousand dollars a year, and I
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: had fifty members and we started buying art for the
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Museum and now the Newport Harbor Art Museum, which is
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: now part of UCI as probably the best contemporary art
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: collection in the United States.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: We'll look at that. But hey, you skipped about thirty years.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Oh is that all now or maybe just I don't know,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: maybe twenty years. But starting in nineteen fifty you became
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: a professional drummer.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: I had already studied, and in nineteen fifty I played
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: the first rock and roll jamboree of the Shrine Auditorium
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: and I was the only o faide person on the stage.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Only what O fay? What's that mean, white guy? Oh,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: old fay?
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Because you were with I'm reading from this bio that
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: you produce for me idel Brown.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Is that how you say it?
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Idle Brown Barnum. He was from a wonderful California family
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: and he Idled played HB played seven instruments, and he
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: had a mother that was all encompassing like mine, who
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: wanted to see her son do nothing but sixty seed.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: So we had an alliance from day one. I don't
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: know how we met, but we did.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: I'm curious though, because you said it was the rock
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: and roll jamboree and it's hard for me to picture
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: a black man playing rock and roll in nineteen nineteen fifty.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the only white guy on the stage.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: You were, Yes, So this was like what kind of
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: rock like?
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: It was all these you know singers.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that was it. That was it.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, four and five group.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: There was a transition. I'm trying to picture that.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Music started.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you were on that.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: I was, I was in it.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Amazing And and you worked with him for about eight years.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we did. We did everything to I had a
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: cousin who was on radio. It was a disc jockey,
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: Gene Norman. He did a jazz show on KHJ, and
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: he was a cousin, and for some reason I didn't
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: know it, but I found out later on, and I
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: ended up getting the HB. Varnum trio on his five
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: day a week television show with the bass player that
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: we used all the time.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: So this is.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Interesting because this is the very early days of television.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, and so most of these shows, including I
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Love Lucy and shows like that, but also variety shows,
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: how to Live Orchestra.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: They certainly did. And that was the a day of
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Hollywood and show biz and everything else. And it lasted,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: and it lasted. And I started in the industry in
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: nineteen fifty and I left it in nineteen seventy eight.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: And in nineteen seventy and six the Beatles came to town.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: All the studio orchestras got removed and fired and the
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: wrecking Crew. I was part of the Country Western Wrecking
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: Crew and a little bit of the rock and roll
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: with Wrecking Crew. And we were no longer gainfully employed
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: because they were using garage bands.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: So I'm trying to So there was this halcyon days
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: of you know, you're you're busy, You're you're going from
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: studio to studio. It's got to be exciting. You know,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: you're playing in front of live audiences. It's all being filmed.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: It's this new breakthrough industry.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: It was.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: I was in hog Heaven. Yeah, I was living in
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: the Hills is studio city in a gorgeous house designed
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: by Rudolph Schindler.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Well, I bought it two days after we got married,
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Pamela and I got married.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Swiss or Austrian architect Army Well.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: He brought Richard Neutra to this country, and Hegloyd Wright.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: They were originally influenced by Bowhouse. They came here studied
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: the Prairie architecture and came to LA and invented a
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: new way of doing it.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: And he was definitely he's one of the five great
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: California architects. And to live in one of his house
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: was the real privilege. And my mother, believe it or not,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: in the sixties bought a Schindler house a block from
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: La County Museum and I grew up in it, so
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: you already were familiar with you, oh very much. It
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: was the first cubism he did in Los Angeles. It's
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: called the Buck House. It's eighth in Genesee, right on
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: the corner a block from New Lacma and talk about architecture.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: And it's now owned by the director of Architecture for
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: the University of Santa Barbara, which is really wonderful. And
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: I made it a historical monument, which was my gift
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: to the city, so.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: It can never be altered, never can be old.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: That's awesome, because all too often some philistine comes in by.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: That's the end of it.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's the end of it.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: And I drove by it last week when I went
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: to Lackmo to see the new museum and it's there
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: just as we left it.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: It looks good, wonderful. Yeah, well what a memory. Huh, Oh,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: it was wonderful.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: So you're living in the hills of Studio City in
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: a Schindler house.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: You're a single guy playing. Oh I was married. Oh yeah, I.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Met my wife in Europe and made her come out
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: here and she married me in spite of all, and
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: we moved into the Schindler house for forty thousand dollars.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: We paid for it.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: We didn't have the money to put pain on the house,
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: but we moved in. Yeah, and lived there for nineteen years.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: And just so because you have quite a story about
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: how the two of you met, Oh, would you share
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: that with that?
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: Yes? I picked her up on this the steps of.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: South of Naples, the volcano that destroyed and froze a
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: city in time.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: Right, And she was really angry with all the individuals,
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: the guides that were backing all these women against the wall,
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: trying to show them all.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: The highlights of pervy Italian dude, pervy guys.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: So when I came over, I said, you look lost,
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: and she said, who the hell are you? And that's
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: how you don't speak Italian.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: You don't sound Italian, that's right. Yeah.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: So eight weeks later she was working for Auto Premeger
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: and he said, you have to come back to work.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: So we had eight weeks together and it was the
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: best eight weeks I've ever had in my life. And
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: we ended up in Tel Aviv and she got the
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: call from Auto and she had to fly back.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: She was in New York at the time.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she was in New York. She loved New York.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: She was British. And I stayed on in Europe for
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: six more months because I a year off from my life,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: from music and everything else. And I said I wanted
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: to try.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Rode around on a motorcycle.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, everything I could find. I loved Europe. I put
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: it almost one hundred thousand miles on a little VW.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: I saw every country that rock rollers shook or shaped.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: And I had a magnificent time. But you missed your
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: I missed everything. It was time after a year ye
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: come back. And I knocked on Pamela's door when I
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: came home in New York and she said, what do
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: you want? And I said, I want to bring you
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: out to California. She said, well, you don't have a job,
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: you have no money, you have no place.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: To rugby musicians.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're a scumbag. I know composers, but I don't
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: know musicians.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I know composers. What an elitist?
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, she was a terrible elitist. Yeah, but she
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: was so direct and she used to do all the
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: publishing rights for authors at the Music Corporation of America
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: in England. And when she came to New York, they
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: offered her the job worldwide and she said, well, it
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: sounds good, but what do I have to do And
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: they said, well, you have to move back to England.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: She said, no, that's not for me.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Was Lou Wasserman in charts in those days.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: Oh yes, he was.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, strong guy.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: Very strong, and they it was a wonderful company to
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: work for. But she you know, everybody really appreciated English.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Ladies at that time. They still do.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, if they had English secretaries, you were special.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so sophisticated by your sophistication, I know.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: So it's like a network of people that recommend you
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: to jobs and things like that. They kept recommending you, Pamela,
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: to different jobs, and finally Auto Premature was looking for
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: somebody had three hundred people apply for his thing, and
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: Pamela was the last soul in the door. Nobody was
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: in there, and he said, come into the office, and
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: two minutes later he said, can you start to type?
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: He didn't even ask, he just said, can you start
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: tomorrow morning.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: One of the great things about Auto prematur for those
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: film buffs, is he allegedly discovered.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Gene Seabring, Yes he did, who was an anonymous Midwestern
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: girl and he wanted her for was it Exodus or
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: one of.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Those No, it was advising consent, I think.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Some of some film, and then Jean Luke Godaar, the
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: French director, saw her with her short bob hair and
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: cast her in that great noir film Breathless. Had an
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: interesting life that was cut too short. She ended up
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: living with the Black Panthers And anyway.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well he found a lot of people and made
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: stars out of them. Yeah, it was great and he was.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: He was wonderful for Pamela, our daughter who was born
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: at the time, and myself. He couldn't have been a
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: nicer man. And everybody said what a badass he was,
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: and he was anything but.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was just a lovely, lovely you gotta be
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: tough to run a film production, to be a director.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: You're creating your own city, your own community for several months,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: and you know, and every every minute is money spent. Oh, absolutely,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: you know that you gotta be somewhat of a oh yeah,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: it's yeah.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: And I love the music business because I got to
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: play everywhere in the world basically.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And going back to that, you know, your career
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: took a lot of turns, and you got recruited, you
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: always got called.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Obviously you could tell you could keep.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Time and fortunately, yeah, and you had guys like uh, Eddie.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Eddie Fisher, Eddie, Yeah, I worked for him for six years,
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Carol Channing hal Channy for six years.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: You're in Vegas doing shows.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: You're in La Broadway show and.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Then you're simultaneously delving in the country Western and you're
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: playing with Merle Haggard.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Well, it was kind of interesting because Eddie Fisher got
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: me into country western music because he was bored and
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: he wanted to do a country Western album and I start.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: He brought players in, especially a guitar player who took
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: the time in Trouble to tutor me and how to
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: play country music on drums. Because it's it's it's a
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: different way of playing and you have to be open
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: to it. And he was patient and we did a
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: lot of dates together. I mean we did everything Cliffy
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: Stone did and k you know on Channel five. He
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: was a big producer of country western music.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Was he married to Elizabeth Taylor when you were no.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: He had left Elizabeth when I joined Fisher, And that
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: was I had just gotten back from Europe and the
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: day I got back, I still had a phone in
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: my apartment where I in la and it rang and
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: it was his conductor and he said, hey, you want
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: to go on the road with Eddie Fisher. He just
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: left Elizabeth Taylor and he wants he wants to get
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: out of you again. Yeah. So and that ended up
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: lasting six years.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: And for those of you don't know, he was the
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: father of Carrie Fisher and married to Debbie Reynolds.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: That's right, which I never met. He was fancy free
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: when we were with him.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: If he could score, you know, Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds,
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: he must have been quite the ladies man.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Well, there was somebody new every day. It was hard
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: to keep up with him.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for those of you wondering you're listening to KXFM
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Radio here at one O four point seven Laguna Talks,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: and we're talking with the great Sam Goldstein here on
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: his life in Hollywood, and then you transitioned a little bit.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: I find this to be.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Quite interesting because you saw the future was turning the
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: rock and roll. You mentioned the Beatles, and so you
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: took a gig with the Flying Burrito Brothers.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah. We worked together for a couple of years and
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: did a lot of dates with him, and I spent
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: a lot of time with one or two of the
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: members separately, and we would do weeks at a time
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: just in a studio, just two people.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, Graham Parsons is a legendary figure. Now.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: He was, you know, I don't think he ever achieved
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: great commercial success, but amongst musicians and songwriters, he's a
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: bit of a god.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Was.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: He was a lovely, lovely man. He was an entitled
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: soul who couldn't quite get his act together, but he
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: was a lovely dude.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Was. He had a drug problem too, that kind of
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: held him back.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: He was famous, but spending He was good friends with
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Keith Richards and they spent time in France when they
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: were recording Exile on Main Street, and he allegedly was
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: the one that influenced the Stones moving into country western,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: which is a lot of their music people and then
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: their canon as country influence.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: It was the whole thing. Me going into country music
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: with Cliffey Stone started it all. And there was a
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: cadre of five to six players and we do everything
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: rhythm section.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: It was just wonderful.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: Earl Ball who played for the guy who became the
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: conductor and musical director for Who's the Guy Foldsome City Blues,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: Johnny Cash, and he was great, I mean really great,
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: Ralph Sutton, and a lot.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Of people don't know I think is that California has
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: a deep, deep history of country western, particularly in Bakersfield.
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, between Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, that's Bakersfield
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: and that was that was part of the city. And
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: then the Pallamino on Monday nights or the talent shows.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Amazing.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, my life was totally different from what I
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: and I loved the change.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: But you also saw the writing on the wall. You
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: were a bit older than these guys, You had young kids.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: There was life on the road, a lot of drugs
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: and rock and roll.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: And I had a choice. I said, what am I
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: going to do? Either moved to Ashville, which I didn't
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: want to do.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: That's worse than moving to England.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Probably, but they don't like little Jewish drummers somewhere anyway,
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: that it doesn't matter. So it was they were going
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: to bust my kids an hour and a half to Pacoima,
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: and they didn't speak a foreign language. And it was
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: there were drugs that were rampant in La. This is
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: when we moved out here, and my kids were seven
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: and nine.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: So what was the catalyzing event that brought you to Laguna.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: We had neighbors.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Across the street in Studio City.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: The Earl and Jane Hamner, he wrote The Waltons and
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Falk and Crest and everything, and they were our dearest
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: friends for forty years. And they had a house out here,
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: maybe two and they would invite us to come and
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: spend five days or a week out here in the summer,
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: in which we did. And we when they wouldn't take
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: my son in private school in La they take my daughter,
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: but they wouldn't take my son, we said, well, we
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: got one choice. To do because we can't go to
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: the west side of La because it's better than Tijuana
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: for drugs. So let's try Laguna. So we moved out
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: here to Lago. Your neighbors, yeah, they did, but we
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: rented a house from someone who we knew in Studio
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: City who was a producer at NBC. So it was
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: very show busy, you know, Studio City was very show busy,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: and so we moved out here and.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: You were just trying ever read there or so let's
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: give it a try, and Pamelan.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: That was it.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: You just tried it and we stayed. And when September
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: came on around with the kids in school and that
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: it was Aliso Elementary before it closed. Jeffrey my son
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: was in the graduating last graduating class of Elisa Amazing.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: So this was late seventies, you said.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was nineteen seventy eight.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And what were you doing with your time at
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: that point because you had retired from drumming, right.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, when when the music business, the recording business
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: for Sam disappeared my account and said, don't worry, Sam,
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: You'll be okay. And I said, well, I don't know
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: anything except music. He said, not to worry. He said,
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: you can add and subtract.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I said, what the.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: Hell does that have to do with making a living.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: He said, it's real estate, which is so pressy.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: And for him to say something like that, because people
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: forget music education is real education. It teaches people to
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: count and to you really have to understand.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Mass, and you have to think, and you have to think.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: And you have to listen, and you have to pay attention,
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: and you have to be aware. It makes all your
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: It's like it took me nineteen years to bring orchestra
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: to Laguna Beach. I went through nine superintendents and nobody,
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: nobody wanted to bring music into this school system. Nine
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: superintendents later, finally made it happen. And the first check
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: that rolled in the door was school Power. They wrote
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: a check for seventy thousand dollars done to write the program.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Wow, talk about a miracle. A miracle.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: So this is an interesting story because you ventured into
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: real estate. You bought your first building, I think you
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: told me in Burbank with a loan from a friend.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Did so well, you paid him back in a year.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: It was a good time. That was nineteen seventy eight.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: Seventy eight. The getting was good. It was so wonderful.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: He went back to England. Lovely guy. He had five children.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: He said he wanted to live the life of an
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: English gentleman. And he gave me a check for twenty
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: five thousand dollars and I matched it, and that's how
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: I started. And I gave him a lot of money
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: back in a year and a half.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: And you didn't need partners anymore.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: I didn't need anything anymore except myself to be able
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: to think clearly. Yeah, and it was built up. Yes,
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: it was a miracle. All in commercial real estate, nothing residential.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: It was a different time, different rules, different regulations, and
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: it was like an act of God that made me successful.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Well, I think your mom gets some credit to Oh. Absolutely,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: everybody talks you something about numbers.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: Yes, everybody did. Music did.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: And I find that.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: It's like telling the school district you don't have to
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: be a professional to enjoy what music brings you. It
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: brings you imagination and creativity, and it gets you to
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: think beyond your own capabilities, which is in this day
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: and age.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: I can't think of anything else that man has created
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: that surpasses music.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: I agree with you it's it just it makes you
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: think outside the box.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: And the feeling that you get from it, the piece
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: that you get from it, and of course when you
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: play it, when you're locked into a groove, it's meditative.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: It's the high of highs.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: It's the high of highs. But you were able to
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: walk away from it because you reluctantly. But that's the
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: only thing I could do.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then so you come down the laguna and
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: most of your portfolios in.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: LA and in La and I took my showbiz with me.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: I bought property across the street from CBS and Studio City,
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: eleven properties, and they were residential and I turned them
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: all into office buildings two story and I got rid
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: of the apartment feel of it and I rented it
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: to the motion picture industry for short term production office space.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Talk about a need.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: Thirty eight years I did that, and in two thousand
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: and five I sold the eleven properties.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: That was probably a good timing too. Now that AI's
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: come along, it's going to shrink the industry.
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: Well, it was a good time and a bad time.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: Two thousand and five was economic chaos.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: M was that dot com bubble?
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: Well, I don't know what bubble, but money was gone
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: bye bye. Yeah, and you couldn't borrow it, beg it
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: or steal it. So it was good and bad. But
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: somebody wrote me a check and I said, well, better
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: out than ever. Yeah, yeah, so that's what I did.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Then I came out here and.
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: Bought the Heisler Building.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Well, I was going to say, you were very, very
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: savvy real estate guy until you decided to come to Laguna.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: So well, I already lived here, but I was it
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: was a catch twenty two. Yeah, and in two thousand
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: and five there wasn't a lot to buy and I
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: had a very short window for an exchange. So it
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: it was well.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: I said that jokingly, because you know, we all know famously.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: I'm sure the City of Burbank and Studio City were
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: far easier cities to get entitlements and permits on than Laguna.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure, but all I know is it was
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: a good year and it was a bad year.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but the so people know.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: The Heisler Building, of course, is a historic building on
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: the corner of Coast Highway and Lee Laguna Avenue, and
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: it's one of our really, it's one of our iconic holdings,
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: right across from the hotel Laguna. It was interesting, but
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: it was in need of a lot of improvements, and
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: I had is that something you had historically done or
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: you just usually buy them and rent them.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: I would fix them up, clean them up. But I
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: didn't have to go to the city and get on
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: my hands and knees to make change.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Laguna was a different thing.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: I had to appear before the Historic Committee thirty six
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: times leading a case.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: And you did a magnificent job with it. What could
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: they possibly think was.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Any any changes?
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: But you didn't do anything to change the original character
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: of the We did.
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: We made it more French than what it was. It
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: was kind of a bastardized, dilapidated, leaking, it was a
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: it was a mess.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: Well, if you had to call it a certain style,
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: what architectural teardown? But in the spirit of was it French?
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: French? Normandy? Okay? And what was it used for originally? Well,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: that's an interesting question. There must have been a guy
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: named Heisler who built.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: It, well something like that, but it was it got we.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: Have to ask Anne Christoph. Of course it was Heisler Park.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: I mean he's probably well.
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: It had it had an interesting history.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: What year was it built? Roughly twenties probably huh.
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: And it was an abused building.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: And when you say abused.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: By tenants and owners.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Has had some residential units at one time, could have.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: But you know, there was a brewery in the back
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: on top of the off the alley, and the young
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: man that owned it removed all the the brewing equipment,
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: put them on trucks and went down to Tijuana or
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: Mexico to create a brewery down there. And it was
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: a lovely guy. And the Mexican government just destroyed him.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: I mean it was really there. He's said, is he
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: the guy who bought it from?
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: No, he was just a tenant. And the two people
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: I bought it from a lawyer who was one of
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: the owners, and one other guy. I can't think of
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: who the hell it was, but it was the manager
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: was a bad guy. He was taking the tax money
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: from his employees and sticking it in his pocket. He
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: ended up at Stockton Federal Prison.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Sounds like the lenders to me. The mom group, we
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: get our share of shysters around. Well, that's nature of
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: the game.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: Well, when you put out big dollars, you get big crooks.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Big Crook. Yeah.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: So okay, So aside from the hives of building, you
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: got all these real estate holdings. They're kind of passive income.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: I shouldn't say passive A note. You got always you know,
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: there's always money and time to invest. But you had
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: time on your hands and you decided to bring more
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: art and culture to Laguna Beach.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: Well, I just got tired of we can't say we're
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: the city of the arts and do nothing about it.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Well, that's interesting.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: The show before mine was George Duban with Art Matters,
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: and he was saying the same thing today.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: It was I went to the museum.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: They wanted me to join the board. Were you collecting art?
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: At this point, I.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: Was involved with the Newport Harbor.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you had a nice house.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: We were grabblers.
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: We were art educators and art buyers and holders. And
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: what they offered me at the museum here was not
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: something for my brain or my soul. And so we
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: gravitated at Newport Beach and we spent many, many many
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: years there, met wonderful people, got totally engaged with it,
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: and the curator, Paul Schimmel, became my best friend because
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: we created a partnership at the museum, I took control
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: of the acquisition committee and he was chief curator and
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: he needed money to buy art for the permanent collection,
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: and I was his supply source because I created an
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: annual vent card they called the Art of Dining, and
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: I did it with Jokim Splechelle Oh famous, a very
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: famous chef and a partner of his. Michelle Rochard was
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: another great chef, and two two of us created this
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: event for eight years at the Four Seasons near the
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: Newport Harbor Art Museum, and we'd have a sit down
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: dinner for three to four hundred people every year, with
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: all these chefs coming in to cook the dinner eight
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: courses and Mondhabi giving the wine. And out of that event,
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: I would take half the proceeds and give it to
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: Paul Schimmel for the collection, and the other half would
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: go to the operating committee of the museum. Which went
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: on for eight years that I did it, and it
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: raised a lot of money for everybody, and it was
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: really good until the end when I wanted to take
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: the half of the money that the art part of
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: it received and buy a piece of art which was
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars and I had
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: some kickback from the board of trustees. Pushback. They said,
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: we need the money so we can pay for the
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: lights and insurance. I said, that's not my job. The
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: board was forty five strong. I said, all you have
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: to do is say, hey, ladies and gentlemen, it's time
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: to write a check. And that's what happened. But it didn't.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: It didn't happen nicely and smoothly because people that sit
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: on board sometimes don't realize their responsibility. That you know,
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: their institutions and they need to be nurtured, just like
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: everything else. It's called hard learning education, the hard way.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: It's you know, it was kind of sad more than
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: anything else. But the people that were on the board
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: and the people we met there were just spectacular.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's been saidden and you you would have a.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: View on this, a viewpoint that you know, we're a
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: very affluent community, but with a museum that many would
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: say the endowment does not match the demographics of this town,
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: that they don't have enough money to be world class.
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: Well, and that's why I was so busy with the
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: bed tax here is that they needed every Yeah, the
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: Playhouse of College and the museum needed annual money just
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: have And after we did it back in two thousand,
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: I got so much kickback from the community at large
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: saying why did anything go to the College of Art
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: and Design. And I couldn't understand or fathom that kind
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: of thinking that they, you know, and I was on
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: the Chamber of Commerce and members city on the Common
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: Chamber of Comment every month would come to me and say,
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: you young, yeah, and you shouldn't do that. You know,
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: you're the bad guy. And I said, oh Jesus Christ,
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: it's hard to keep the Indians happy.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: And then apart from this effort, you also were involved
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: with Laguna Live.
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: Laguna Live. Yes, I ciddy brew it. She came to
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: me in two thousand and said, you and I have
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: to start Laguna Lagunalive. I said, are you out of
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: your mind? I said, you know how much effort it
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: takes to do something like it? He said, I don't care.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: I said. And the original idea was what to bring bring.
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: Live music to town?
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah. What were the venues at that point, probably.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: On the street. There was the place in the Canyon
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: which was seven seven degrees.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, that was about it.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: And and you got was was the Billy Childs show
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: part of Laguna line.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: No, that was part of my stint to being on
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: the board of PBS. Okay, I was on their board
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: for eight years.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: So you brought the great jazz pianist Billy Childs to Laguna.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: He played a concert at Laguna High School Artist Theater.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: And it was filmed.
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: They were filmed. I got it filmed with the help
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: of the Montage. They were gracious and lovely, and I
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: used the college here in Orange County, Chapman, and I
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: used their film crew at Chapman Perfect to film it.
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: And it was my first endeavor into television and I
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: produced it, made it happen. Got the Calder Quartet with
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: Billy Childs, who was an incredible pianist. And you can
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: still bring it up if you want to look BBS.
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: So it's uh, it will go down in his It's
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: the only television show that's ever been produced in this town.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: Except for that MTV BS. You know MTV Oh Yeah,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: that was yeah, that was that's not me.
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: That's that was something else.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Well, Sam, what a what a story? And I'm just curious.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Now in terms of your view looking forward, because you're
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: not a backwards looking guy.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: You're not looking in the rear view. You're looking ahead.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: And what what do we need.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: In this town to retain or even sustain us as
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: a true arts and culture community.
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm sitting in a radio station that's alive and
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: well and hey, yes, yeah, and it's got imagination and creativity.
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: And I haven't been involved with any I haven't volunteered
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: for an organization for quite a while. I've resigned from
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: quite a few, but I haven't signed on for it.
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: And I'm ninety one years old, and I don't do
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: it lightly. But I said I would be more than
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: happy to be a board member here and endorse it
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: because it's the most creative thing that I've encountered in alone.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: Long long, Well, you're very much a mention, and I
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: appreciate you, and you know what, I hope that we
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: can live up to your expectations joining us.
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: You've already done it. You don't have an All you're
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: building on is imagination and creativity, and it's something that
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: doesn't stop if it's there to begin with.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: It's not a role we feel like sky's the limits.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: The radio is our is our sort of trojan horse
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: and gives us currency. We're doing something unique that is
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: not very common anymore, and radio has struggled to survive.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: And we see our mission as unifying this town with
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: all of our disparate voices, bring people together as a hub,
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: and then expanding from there because there's a lot of
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: talent in this town and we want.
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: To perfect it's. Podcasts are the new way to promote thoughts, wishes, dreams,
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: all that stuff. I own two television stations in Hawaii,
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: ABC and Fox, and they're just facilities and they're just
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: broadcasting whatever.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: They're broad it.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: But podcasts are the new communication in the world. It's
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: twenty it's twenty first century, not twentieth century.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: And it's crowdsourced. Anybody can produce it. You know, you
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: don't have to go through.
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: Everybody's got an idea, and everybody's got negativity, and everybody's
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: got positivity, and everybody's got something to say. And it's
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: a great vehicle. And the more you got to say,
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: it's fun. And so for this station to get great
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: podcasters lined up to bring their friends and talent to
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: the airways is to me is a miracle.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: It's a miracle. And you know you've got something special
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: when people don't do it for money.
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: There's not a nickel in it. It's like, tell me
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: about you, Tell me what the hell you're doing, Show
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: me what you got.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, the most interesting thing in the world
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: to me is two people talking and just yep. And
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: the human condition is never ending source of material. And
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: you know, I think within a five mile radius of
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: right here, we've got enough stories to tell for a lifetime.
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: Oh, this town is full of nostalgia, hypocrisy, yeah, good, bad, history, arrogance, everything.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Everything's a microcosm of the world.
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's of a wealthy world. Yeah it was.
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: This is a fall.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: Small yeah town town.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, but I was up in La twice in
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: the last week, and boy oh boy, I mean, I
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: love the stimulation up there, but I couldn't see where
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: I live in there anymore. It's just a mess. And
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: here we still have this beautiful ocean breeze. Or you know,
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: we complain about our traffic. It doesn't compare to anywhere
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: else we you know, it's it's.
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: How good do you want it?
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: How good do you want it, and well, Sam, you're
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: one of those people that makes it better.
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: Well, I try because I don't accept what I'm given.
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: I've never have in my life and I never will.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: There you go, Sam Goldstein, will happy happy birthday this Thursday.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: Another trip around the sun and I and I hope
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: next year you'll be back here on the station, sharper
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: than ever. And the only miracle and you, the only
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: thing you'll say is my God, I can't believe. I
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: remember when this radio station was little.
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: You've never been little. And since you took it over,
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: that's a miracle. That's a real change of everything. As
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: far as I'm concerned, I've been so excited about getting
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: involved with anything in a long time, and I've been
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: on a lot of boards and a lot of nonprofit stuff,
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: and this, to me is the most exciting thing I
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: could even imagine in my nineties.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: Wow, Thank you so much, Sam.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: You heard it here first everybody at KXFM Radio. The
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: great Sam Goldstein, our newest board member who's going to
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: drive us into the twenty first century. Amen, beyond amen.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: Thank you Sam. Great to see you and come back soon.
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: I will