I was hung up in Spain because of a head-on car wreck just north of Barcelona between my new 3.8 Jaguar and a Mercedes. Fortunately no one was hurt but the left front wheel of my Jag had been ripped off and it took 2 months for the parts to arrive from England and repairs made.

Penny Jackson, my first wife and I arrived during the filming of the second picture.When the crew went back to England we stayed in Dinia and I worked on "Son of Captain Blood" with Sean Flynn son of Errol Flynn and directed by Yak Canute, Hollywood's most famous stunt director. That was when I met Donna Brownjohn who asked us to come to England and meet her celebrated art director husband Robert Brownjohn (BJ).

It was late fall when we picked up the Jag and headed for England. Penny was pregnant and started hemorrhaging and we thought she was having a miscarriage.
I suggested we go to a doctor, but she urged me to drive on  because  after things she saw in Spain she didn't trust Spanish doctors. It was a hectic all night high speed drive through France and after we got off the ferry boat in Dover the fog was so thick that I couldn't see the front of the Jag. We were traveling at a snails pace when I stooped at a road sign and smack, a motorcycle ran into our rear end sending the rider over our roof and onto the hood or as the English say the bonnet. He was un hurt and there was no damage but Penny was emotionally a wreck when we arrived at the Brownjohns London flat in Nottinghill Gate.

The Brownjohns doctor Madame Franco examined Penny and determined that she has still pregnant. So we moved into a flat next to the Brownjohns where Penny was instructed to stay in bed with her legs elevated for a couple of weeks. That was when I started to drift away from her.

Mim and I together with John Sommers would meet at the Kenya Coffee bar on the Earls Court end of Kings Road. There we watched beautiful women and talked about movies as I posed in my Saville Row suits tailored by Henry Pool. But I could never pose as well as John Sommers who at a party would take a lordly stance by the fire place and not move until someone came to him.

After Penny was up and around we would go out for dinner and theatre or film 2 or three nights a week. It was London in the swinging 60s we wanted to make movies. Mim, Johnny and I used to go to almost daily to The British Film Institute and watch the classics. At night We would go to the "Esmeraldas Barn" in Kensington with Mim. It was a gambling club run by the notorious and dangerous Kray brothers. Mim introduced me to "Chamin de Fer" a fast moving big stakes card game. Staking both of us I thought it fortunate we never lost more than 100 british pounds on any given night. Mim had a few lucky runs. Since I already had money gambling didn't attract me but I did enjoy the drama. One night Mim went without me and ran up a big debt. After he ducked the Krays for a time, I settled up for him and gained a little respect from the east enders.

Meanwhile Donna had introduced me to her old boy friend movie actor Steve Mcqueen who would have me score pot for him since I had the Jamaican connection in Nottinghill. At Steve's Birthday party I met Natlie Wood and Robert Wagner two of my favorites and producer/director Norman Thaddeus Vane. Donna and BJ new a lot of flashy and talented people. Through them I met Photographer David Baily and supper model Jean Shrimpton, Buckminister Fuller, Zoot Simes and  Georga Brown.

Penny and I moved from Nottinghill Gate to a Mews flat on Harley Place where Mim and I began Cinimantics Ltd in 1961 with a trip to Kodak House where we bought a few reels of raw black and white film for our World War II, 35 mm Arriflex camera.
Our, ment Mim, Johnny Sommers and myself. It was Mim who introduced me to Johnny and Johnny who found the camera I could buy from Mr Lloyd on Wardor Street. Together we were going to Ireland to visit with Terrance Stamp and practice making real moody movies.
As it turned out, only Mim and I made the trip from Heathrow to Dublin airport. There we rented a new American Ford large enough to carry the camera equipment and headed for our suite in the Shelborne Hotel. After stashing our luggage we drove out to Bray Studios where Terry was staring in a picture being produced there.
The next day we scouted out the Wicklow Mountains where we found an old deserted cottage and began improvisational filming with me as the camera operator and Mim as the subject.
When we got back to London Mim showed our work to  Ronan O'Rahilly.
Ronan saw in us an an opportunity to film the actors workshop being directed by his roommate Michael Joseph and had Mim bring him to my Mews flat in Harley Place. He was a smooth talker as only the Irish can be with their creamy brogue. Ronan also wanted to use my Studio for his workshops.

I had formed a Company with BJ called UN LTD and rented a quaint studio at the "Italian Village" near Stamford bridge on Fulhelm road for us to meet and work. But BJ had a drug problem and even though he was the highest paid art director in England with legal drugs he still could not afford his habit or keep appointments. I got tired of waiting for him and became co-producer of Boss Woman a musical play staring Marpessa Dawn of "Black Orphius" fame. I hired Mim as stage manager and we toured England with the play for 8 weeks.We were unable to bring the play into London because there was a color barrier and Marpessa was a black American. No theatre in the west end would lease to us. One good thing came out of it Stanley Dubbins a london talent agent came to see the show where he met and hired Mim as an agent and Mim was a natural. Thats also when he met Mary Ann Faithfull  (Check this page)

Ronan used my studio for the acting workshops and through him I met talented young photographer Hamish Grimes brother of BBC Director Steven Grimes. I mean while had gone into partnership with Guy Charles and his London Repertory Company with theaters in Bogner and Minehead. Hamish started spending a lot of time with me and I arranged for us to do a photo session with actress Julie Christie who was working on her second flim "Fast Lady".

Guy was a wonderful old trooper who was born into a circus family of trapeze artists. His wife Mary Lee was a theatrical agent who represented and introduced me to Richard Harris.

BJ wasn't happy with me making connections outside of his circle but for me it was necessary for sanity. BJ wanted to do film titles so through Richard Harris I met  film director Lindsay Anderson who was going to direct Richard in a film called "Sporting life. But after I went on location to Leeds where the film was being made BJ decided he didn't want to do it.
He later did do  awsome main title sequences for "From Russia With Love" and "Goldfinger" that established the form for the title sequences for all later James Bond movies (done by Maurice Binder and others).

Mary Lee got me a few acting jobs one of which was "In The Cool of the Day" with Jane Fonda and Peter Finch. She had me set for a lead part in a film called "The Haunting but the part went to American actor Russ Tamblyn who happened to be in London at the time." I didn't mind because I was a Russ Tamblyn fan, but I  had to get used to being almost but not quite. Everybody has a destiny and mine has been slow developing.

One of the special people Mim and I spent a lot of time with was the princely Tara Brown son of Lord Oramore Brown and Oona Guiness.  Mime and I flew to Paris in our blue jeans and sheepskin jackets for a visit with Tara and we stayed in a suite in the very expensive George V Hotel. The Suite was truly grand but we were most impressed by our three room marble bath area. Tara took us to an  elegant club called "Freddie Carols" with red velvet walls, crystal chandeliers and the most beautiful men and woman I had ever seen. After a while  Tara informed us that they were all lesbians and we were the only males in the place. Mim and I both had a hard time believing it but we were cool and I was inspired to write some poetry.

Excerpt from "Thunderbird Boogie" to be continued

Links

Mim and Fred

Beat Hotel

Loving Awareness

Hamish Grimes

Horrible Cafe

Gorda

Voice of One

Radio Caroline

The Still Moving Picture Company