Devils & Blue Dresses: My Wild Ride as a Rock and Roll Legend

puppy. I also realized that was pretty much how the industry viewed me as well. I was in shock. I lay down on the bed without another word and refused to go.
    I thought about how I viewed myself balanced against the new reality that lay next to me. The sex moved without passion and there it was. I was a whore for yet another bitter night without a clue to the chemistry, attitude, or drive that defined homosexuality. I thought I was finished with it. It was a mistake. I came up with a thousand reasons as to why I wasn’t gay, and ran to Sarah.
    The single from the album
What Now My Love
miraculously made it to number thirty on the
Billboard
charts. I stared at the album with pictures of Bob Crewe looking adoringly over what seemed to be my entire career, and I snapped. Sarah replaced me on the telephone to radio stations across the country when I became too exhausted from the effort. She explained to program directors that the album was not a good representation of my musical direction or beliefs, and asked if they would be kind enough not to play it. I believe it was that, more than the break-up of the Detroit Wheels, that led to the beginning of my decline, but all of the historical criticisms I have read simply say it was dreadful music.
    Now the situation with Mr. Crewe was strained to the limit. He demanded to know what I wanted and expected from him as my producer. He didn’t know I had secretly recorded almost an entire album’s worth of funky, hard-edged R&B originals over the last few months, every time I went to Detroit. Even if I only had two days at home I booked one of the days in the studio. From the first day he showed me his intentions for
What Now My Love
I began my own covert recordings.

Chapter 15
     
    T HESE WERE HEADY TIMES TO SAY the least as I adjusted my psyche to attempt a movie career. I hoped that whatever it was that convinced Bob Crewe I was a gifted performer would also be a factor in the world of film. I wasn’t a pretty boy, so that ruled out all of the beach party movies. Besides, right before Alan departed I got a glimpse of the direction that was charted for me, and it was exciting. Alan and I had an appointment to meet with noted director Otto Preminger.
    I remember going up the elevator to Otto’s office door and walking through only to find a long, red carpeted hallway running the length of an entire city block. One walked in for the appointment and started the long city block walk toward the small distant figure sitting at a lone desk at the other end of the building. With every step, the figure slowly grew larger until you were finally standing in front of the great Otto himself. It was rumored that by the time you had made the walk he was able to determine, by watching your body language and approach, whether or not he liked you. I have to say, it was an interesting experience.
    Apparently Otto liked me and I was flown to California for my first screen test. It was for Warner Brothers and Gladys Markowitz was now in charge, but strictly for movies. Of course I tried to lay her. My test was for a movie called
The Wild Bunch
and Sam Peckinpah, the esteemed director, personally showed up to direct my test. These were big roles I was being tested for, but my dedication to the art form was vacant, to say the least. I had the opportunity to speak with a few actors who had devoted their entire lives to acting, and beyond their jealousy, they tried to make me understand how fortunate I was. It was lost on me. The night before the screen test, instead of focusing on my possible new career, I had a girl I wanted to screw fly in from Detroit and I stayed up all night doing just that.
    Back in Manhattan I spent a night with a classy, well-to-do socialite at her Upper East Side townhouse that overlooked the East River. There, she cautioned me that, “a gentleman never asks a lady for a blow job.” The next morning, after being let out through the servant’s entrance, I was rushed to a meeting. This was a second meeting with an accountant, lawyer, and the director of a new film called
In Cold Blood
that was written by Truman Capote. It was down to me and one other actor, Robert Blake.
    I was beginning to get discouraged at the near misses until I finally landed a lead role with American International Pictures. They had broken Steve McQueen and were into a lot of sci-fi horror films, but it was still the break I had been looking for. I was truly pleased with myself and felt