A Night at the Roxy

It was the spring of 1977. I was out of college and working. My cousin Cliff De Young was appearing in Hollywood at the Roxy. He had starred briefly on Broadway in the musical Hair, and he and his castmates had been working on film projects. None of them were doing theater on the West Coast. They decided to put a live show together on the Sunset Strip, a production called "Keepin' 'Em Off the Streets," at the Roxy.

I had not seen Cliff perform live since he had sung at my brother Larry's wedding many years earlier, so I went with Larry and my sister Diana. We sat down at a little table. Before the show started, another couple joined us. I recognized the guy, but not his date, who was seated across from me.

I wrote on a napkin and slid it across the table to Larry: "Diana is sitting next to Jack Nicholson." Nicholson had won the Oscar for Best Actor for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" the year before.

Larry nodded. "I know."

He pushed the napkin toward Diana. She had been chatting nonstop for the past five minutes. She just froze.

We were all too shy and star-struck to say anything. Jack Nicholson's date looked at me with the biggest grin on her face. She knew exactly what was going on, and she did not say a word.

After the show

When the show ended, my brother and I climbed the stairs to meet Cliff backstage. He was laughing it up with a friend in the stairway, with a full cocktail glass in his hand.

"Hey Cliff," I said. "Jack Nicholson was sitting at our table."

Cliff immediately did a literal spit take, shoved the drink into Larry's hand, said, "GOTTA SEE JACK!" and ran down the stairs.

Jack had apparently left by then, but a good time was had by all.

And the tall brunette with the big grin sitting across the table from me? Anjelica Huston.