WHERE WERE YOU LOS ANGELENOS
WHEN FIRES AND SHOOTING BROKE OUT????
I WAS HERE ---
This is the chapel at Pepperdine University in Malibu. I was all the way at the ocean on the westside of LA, at the farthest point away from where the rioting was. For a day of fun, I was on location for the shooting of the CBS soap, "The Bold and the Beautiful." A wedding was being shot. The brunette on the left, below, Hunter Tylo, was marrying the handsome guy, Ronn Moss.
Just as they were getting ready to walk down the aisle, the producers received a call from CBS telling everyone to stay in Malibu and not return to CBS at Fairfax and Beverly. They said the rioters and looters were coming there on their way to Beverly Hills. An announcement was made to the cast and crew. Many of them wanted shooting to halt immediately and they wanted to get to their families. CBS was adamant about holding them there, and the smart thing to do (financially---which was REALLY what CBS cared about) was to finish the shoot.
The actress on the left of this photo is Joanna Johnson, who, at the time, was the leading ingenue of Bold and Beautiful. She has since gone on to write and produce a number of successful TV series like "Hope and Faith" and "The Fosters," now in its long run on Freeform. We were and are very good friends. She and I did NOT want to leave Malibu. She called another close friend and asked her to drive to the beach as fast as possible. I called another friend who lived in Malibu and asked if I could bring friends and spend the night.
If you weren't in Los Angeles on this night, 20 years, ago, you can't imagine how scary it was. All the news outlets were warning of crazed rioters coming to harm us on the westside.
Our little group spent the night in a Malibu estate, armed with guns. Yes. That's how we slept--with loaded guns by our sides. To be exactly correct, Joanna didn't want the guns near her, so it was my assignment to rush in like the Sundance Kid and protect her if we were attacked. This may sound ridiculous now, or it may not. Then, it was crucial.
It was a terrible time for everyone. It's 25 years later. Has it gotten better? Yes. But not all that much, in my opinion.
It's 25 years later and I still have the same question to the rioters: Why destroy your own neighborhood? You only hurt yourselves.
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