Page 43 - Been There… Done That!

Been There... Done That!
I was glad for him and that he was bettering himself, but I was shocked to learn they were only paid $750 a week for the work. That was all and it was nothing. I recall stopping by his house in the Hollywood Hills during that show’s run and Mickey had a big damn erector set he was messing with. I teased him that he was a big star and should move to Beverly Hills and he said, “It’s not as good as you think it is.” That’s what I would normally label as “famous but broke,” but Mickey had money left to him by his father, who was also an actor. No doubt Mickey had talent, but his talent would only fit a particular vein. At times he came off like a hyperactive child.
The only real problem we had at this time was that Gary Craig and I started severely clashing about everything. This came to a boil during a tour when our first record started hitting and was in “Billboard.” Gary started acting like a star and bossing everyone around. The single was titled “I Won’t Be Taken,” composed by Gary Craig. It was a Beatles-sounding song and was soon being played on radio stations in California, Texas, Missouri and other states. We noticed it was hard to dial the radio across without hearing the song, but I really don’t know how big it got because the son of one of the partners in the record label took off with the documents. It was such a mess that the partners ended up fighting among themselves and we never found out how many records they sold. Between that and Gary, I just wanted to put another group together and start over. Gary and I got into it a few times physically, which led me to tell Ed this was not the direction we needed to be going. One night we had words over our next-door neighbor, Stephanie. I remember telling Ed, “Either Gary needs to calm down or let’s make a nice peaceful
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