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Jenny felt that by being favored by Menahem (who seemed to listen to her judgments from time to time with Fatherly remarks like “Now Jenny, do you really think so?”) she was now officially anointed “Producer,” and anyone not recognizing this fact would be sent packing from her circle. Mike brought her around to my place for one of our many parties during his time with me. Jenny and Mike had their differences and fought most of the time over her involvement in HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS, which she apparently ruined by allowing director Pete Walker to remove footage that destroyed the pace of the film, yet she and I connected that year and became a team both out of respect as well as from a mutual need to be part of the industry.

Jenny had been staying off and on with a couple of English friends when she first arrived in LA. One of the most memorable as well as outrageous of her friends proved to be to be the incomparable April Ashley who was living down the lane from Jenny, off Havenhurst Dr. in the West Hollywood area. We first met over cocktails at my friend Isobel Gray’s cottage, which was down the lane from the one shared by April. I was captivated from day one although both warned me that “April was in crisis mode so be prepared for anything”. Regardless, April Ashley is an original and well worth the effort, whatever that might be, and as I came to know her there was no one more loyal and steadfast a friend.

April had been the toast of London café society, even becoming engaged to a peer of the realm, Lord Rowallan, when it was discovered that April was born a MAN. Since transsexuals were not that much in the news in 1961, April became the most notorious Englishman since Oscar Wilde. April lived life to the fullest and, when sober, looked and acted just like Vivian Leigh, with a voice to match. And, to her credit, she remained a lady of regal bearing regardless of circumstance. April had been one of London’s top models when the scandal broke regarding her sexuality, the affects of which even removed her screen credit from THE ROAD TO HONG KONG with Crosby and Hope. April remained a pop culture personality to be reckoned with throughout the next three decades, having opened the infamous supper club AD8 in London, which had a spectacular opening with pop stars and royalty, to her exile from society and her return to Hollywood. April was instantly welcomed into my life and we have remained friends to this day, although I have not seen her in at least five years. She now resides in San Diego, having just celebrated her 70th birthday. Jenny had wanted to make a film of her life. I wish now she had pursued that with Menahem instead of going down that rabbit hole with her rock-and-roll Alice.

And now that Jenny Craven decided to give Hollywood a proper bash she would require a place of her own. The ideal flat would be quiet enough for writing and yet close enough to town to entertain without driving one’s brains out. One of the most difficult as well as unpleasant tasks in Los Angeles has to be looking for a place to live. In Jenny’s case double that…we began a two week search that was turning up zero until one afternoon we happened to be near Venice and felt the need of a cocktail followed by some lunch. Our regular place was the ever-popular ROSE CAFÉ, a landmark in Venice and a great place to hang out anytime. On this particular occasion I happened to be reading the local paper, a little two-page handout for the Venice beach area. There on the two-column rental section was an ad that read “world’s smallest house for rent> only the special need apply.” I immediately knew this was Jenny’s new abode, so this optimism lead us straight over to what can only be described as “the smallest house at least in Venice, if not the state of California.” The tiny cottage was sitting behind a large house on a quiet street. The cottage was charming and yes… very small. The bathroom had an antique tub with lion’s head legs, and the kitchen had a built-in breakfast nook… Jenny loved the place on sight, and within minutes we were in the lavish living room of the owners of the smallest house in the world, who also happened to live three houses down from the cottage. The owners were two very nice twenty-something gay guys who both had worked in films, so the vibes were on target for all concerned. Jenny had great rapport with most gay men, unless she felt they were not “getting” her; then it could be dicey. If this whole episode of house hunting did nothing else, it helped bond the two of us into very close friends, and I am pleased to say we both needed this to happen at that point in time. Jenny Craven was now a part of the passing parade, as Hollywood was about to find out for better or worse…

Jenny was hard at work in those days on a screenplay (who isn’t in Hollywood?), which turned out to be a hard rock version of Alice in Wonderland. She decided early on that the best way to finance the film would be to secure the rights to several tunes that would constitute the soundtrack. Jenny was a marvel to behold when it came to tracking her prey for this project. She secured for a time the services or at least the council of the great Andy Summers, the English guitarist and composer formally of the mega band THE POLICE. Andy had just remarried his wife Kate that year and was currently scoring films like DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS and the less than stellar 2010.
Jenny felt a certain expertise with the music scene, primarily from her last experience as a film producer on ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE. On that production she managed to secure the services singled-handedly (her opinion) of the highly respected jazz musicians THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET. The first choice for scoring this quaint English village mystery was the equally noted composer Pino Donaggio. Jenny as producer rejected Pino in favor of a rather, to say the least, unorthodox jazz score. The film was not a major success upon release and many felt the score, however fine, was just not the right one for an Agatha Christie whodunit.

My time with Jenny would now consist of trekking down to the seedy clubs on the sunset strip (especially the toilet that later became THE VIPER ROOM a decade later) to hear groups with names like “Chuck E. Weiss and the Godamn liars,” that she was considering for the film’s soundtrack. Sometimes with Andy in tow, and most of the time without, this is where I would come into play as a supportive element to this project. The most memorable encounter we would have with a rock star had to be Billy Idol. Jenny had tracked the hard-rocking as well as hard-living musician until he agreed to read her screenplay. Jenny kept calling Billy after about a week, wanting some kind of commitment as his name would certainly help in securing even higher end talent, or so she hoped. After a few more calls we were told Billy Idol was coming to her tiny place in Venice to drop off the script and give her some kind of answer. We were sitting by the front room window watching for his entourage to arrive when all at once the unmistakable sound of motorcycles filled the air as a trio of bikers descended on her street… Billy Idol in full leather gear was the first to park his bike. As he was walking up stone steps to the front door, he suddenly turned away to walk over to where the clothes lines were still hanging, somewhat full of wet clothes, Billy then made his way over by the back fence where he unzipped his fly, taking a beer-sized piss, all the while talking to himself with lines like “Oh, yeah man, that’s it now, baby…etc.”

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