Author Archive for Beverley – Page 3

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: Stockholm Syndrome in Tientsin

by Beverley
December 19th, 2012

Chapter Three
Stockholm Syndrome In Tientsin
Part One

Something we all noticed was Comrade Sung was becoming much less distasteful to us as the days passed.  It was rather like the captor/hostage Stockholm syndrome Patty Hearst described after her ordeal with the Symbolize Liberation Army.

One day Comrade Sung surprised us with the news that we would dine out at a restaurant that night.  This was the most exciting thing that had happened since I discovered rice pudding for breakfast three days before.  And we were allowed to go alone, or so we thought.  But as I was to learn later in Peking, we were never alone.  Jerry Fisher knew about a place called “Little Dumpling”.  Jerry was a black belt in karate and through his years of training he had picked up some Chinese and lots of little hints about travel in China.

There is big dumpling competition in China.  And Tientsin is quite famous for theirs.  It really is a big thing nationally, rather like chili recipe rivalry in the USA.  We went off to “Little Dumpling” squeezed into two cabs with drivers who didn’t speak English, however a couple of times when Steve made a particularly amusing remark during the ride to the restaurant a slight sound of suppressed laughter escaped the mouth of our driver.

The streets looked strange at night.  No neon lights.  No street lights.  No headlights except a quick flash when a car passed another car.  Peering into little houses or apartments we passed, only a single very low watt bulb hung from the ceiling.  Bicyclists had a patch of white attached to their backs, not on the bicycles.  But there were so few cars on the roads, night or day, danger was minimal.

The entrance to the restaurant was in an alley.  We were led directly upstairs to a private dining room, allowing only a quick peek at the local patrons who appeared to be workmen enjoying their dumplings and beer.  We were never to be allowed to dine with locals anytime we dined outside the hotels in China.  Our arrival always signaled a frantic rush for a staircase to a large empty room with one table, and sofas with the ever-present white antimacassars protecting the upholstery that had ceased needing or hoping for results from protection a full generation before.

Ushered straight to the round table, we took places on the muslin covered chairs.  Protecting this upholstery had been totally abandoned, and the muslin camouflage installed.  Alongside the chopsticks at each place lay marvelous heavy old Georgian style silver tablespoons and lobster forks at each place.  Checking them out we found Chinese hallmarks.  Obviously there had been a time when “Little Dumpling” had been quite grand.

This night was special, not an orange soda occasion.  So we all tried Mao Tai, the lethal white liquor that was so popular in China in 1975.  However after one disastrous sip of this beverage that tasted like what I would imagine rocket fuel would taste like we settled for Tsingtao beer. The Germans originally brought beer making to Tsingtao, China and the beer was excellent in 1975 and still is today.   Platters of hors d’oeuvres brought us our first taste of so called 100 year old eggs.  We were later to learn that these are plain hard boiled hen’s eggs covered with a paste of salt, ash and lime that turns the egg yolks grayish and the white a translucent brownish black.  As long as the shells are not broken they can last longer than 100 days without refrigeration.

Before the famous Tientsin dumplings made an appearance we were served prawns in their shells cooked in a dark sauce; thinly shredded pork with slivers of fresh ginger root and silvery noodles, cucumber and long dark mushrooms; a very large whole fish baked in meat sauce with cubed vegetables, mushrooms and chestnuts; and slices of crisp duck.

The long-awaited dumplings finally arrived, ten per person.  Although we all protested we barely had room for two they disappeared quite well.  I personally downed seven all the while struggling to keep the very slippery dumplings between my chopsticks.  Steve Allen maneuvered his chopsticks with his right hand, while he kept flipping through his Chinese language flash cards to find the word “dumpling” with his left.  He never did.

A very spicy soup with slices of bright red shrimps floating ended the dumpling feast.  We all did agree that the dumplings at Little Dumpling deserved their international fame.  I have had great dumplings in Hong Kong at the tiny restaurant Mak’s Noodle favored by knowledgeable Chinese gourmands, and in Taipei in the fine dining area of the Grand Hyatt Hotel called Shanghai Court where the chef was one of highest paid chefs in the world. But the dumplings at Little Dumpling in Tientsin could be ranked right there with these two. —to be continued

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (1)

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair (Part 3)

by Beverley
December 9th, 2012

Chapter Two
The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair
Part Three

One day when we arrived back at the hotel for lunch, I spotted two Chinese boys playing badminton in a small paved area near the hotel. Wandering over to watch, one of the boys laughingly held out his racquet to me. Throwing caution to the thick black smoggy wind, I took it. A bit of exercise was much more appealing than lunch. Badminton happens to be one sport where I’ve always been able to more than hold my own. But this was the People’s Republic of China so I gave my cute young challenger enough of a fight to let him see he was playing a worthy opponent. But of course I subtly gave him the last point.

Totally engrossed in the change of pace, and etiquette of our game, I hadn’t noticed the crowd gathering to see the strange woman with strawberry blond hair. Westerners were a great novelty in Tientsin, unlike Peking and Shanghai where foreign diplomats and business people were rather commonplace. Word had spread fast and a very large crowd surrounded us by the time the police arrive to clear them out. Comrade Sung arrived with the police and the crowd dispersed fast. Needless to say he had much to say to me at our evening meeting beginning with, “I forbid you to ever play badminton again!” Then he went on about visitors in China must abide by the rules. In all the material I had to prepare me for my trip I couldn’t remember a single reference to playing badminton but I let him rant on.

One evening we decided to have a cocktail party. Helene volunteered her suite — she somehow had landed a bedroom and little sitting room. Everyone was instructed to bring their own glass. Steve brought his own chair. However, he spent most of the party on the floor with his legs over the chair and hands behind his head mentally composing a new song. While known primarily as an actor, TV star and comedian, Steve Allen was a jazz musician, composer of many hundred songs including the very popular “I’ll be Home for Christmas”, author of books of poetry, fiction, mysteries, juvenile books, autobiographies, travel, screen plays, movie scripts, TV plays, a man of seemingly limitless talents. Jerry and Louise Fisher and I brought two bottles of champagne which cost us about $3.00. That’s exactly what it was worth. Herb Cole brought a bottle of Chinese red plum wine no one even tried. The safest drinks in China at that time were tea and orange pop. If you ordered orange juice for breakfast, you got orange pop. In fact, if you ordered anything anytime that wasn’t understood there was a pretty good chance it would be orange pop that was served. Tea was accessible 24 hours a day. A very large thermos of boiling water was left outside our rooms each morning. And tea leaves could be purchased at the “gift shop” downstairs. Those thermos bottles appeared to be quite flimsy but they were possibly one of the greatest Chinese inventions since gunpowder. Water could stay boiling hot in them for up to two days.

Lying in bed the next morning waiting for my 7:00 call my thoughts wandered. A French woman’s comment, “The Tientsin Fair wasn’t ready for your crowd. You all have turned into the best show in town!” The girls guides at the fair describing the years they spent laboring and living in the caves of Yunnan and how much they respected the hardworking peasants there. We hadn’t heard any news for days. We knew nothing beyond our own little group’s activities. What were those gunshots I’d heard late two nights before? It wasn’t a dream. Herb had heard them too.

A visit to a carpet factory broke into the monotony of the fair. The factory employed over 1,000 workers. They were a healthy happy looking crew who worked from eight in the morning until noon. Two hours were allowed for lunch and a nap, then back to work from two until six in the evening.

Four girls worked at each loom. They would pull and knot wool with their left hand, cutting, to the exact size needed with a small cleaver in the right hand. Embossing was done with the newly invented electric scissors. There was great pride in these new electric scissors as the old scissors crippled the hands of those who used them continually. This factory visit, like every visit to any business, ended with a meeting with the heads of the factory. At these meetings we were asked for suggestions on how they could improve and of course included much Communist Party propaganda from our hosts.

George Bush and Steve Allen in Tientsin

Arriving at the carpet factory we ran into George H. W. Bush, chief of the U.S. Legation in Peking, who was just leaving. He appeared very happy to see fellow Americans, especially since he and the Allens were old friends. He was warm and friendly and immediately extended an invitation to visit Barbara and him when we got to Peking. Although it was the Allens who were his friends, he was very good about including all of us in his conversation. Little did we realize this friendly very attractive man we were talking to would soon be president of the United States? Speaking of which I must say the small American flags on the front of his official black limo waving in the Chinese breeze as he drove off looked mighty good to us.

Our lives were fairly well confined to the fair area and Tientsin Hotel Number One for our first five days in China. Jane and Rosa’s negotiations for their carpet purchases were confusing, annoying and generally hopeless. When the two of them could finally agree on something, negotiations would be stalled by the Comrades Chou and Chen who sat across the table from us at all business meetings. Rosa was the big problem. Every time the order appeared set, she found a new rug she wanted, had a new list, or just plain disappeared. We were learning to say “Do you know where Rosa is?” in Chinese, Rumanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian. And we could understand “No” in all these languages.

This ends the second chapter of “A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution.” In a few days we will continue the adventure in Tientsin as we begin chapter three.

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books, My Life
Comments (1)

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair (Part 2)

by Beverley
November 13th, 2012

Chapter Two
The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair
Part Two

The young language students were quite delightful. It was a great novelty for them to be able to practice the English they were studying with real English-speaking Americans. They smiled at us when Comrade Sung couldn’t see, giggled at anything slightly humorous, and eyes lit up whenever we came out with a bit of slang or unusual idiom.

Steve Allen getting checked out

Steve Allen arrived a couple of days after us. He had been committed to perform at a charity benefit two days after we were to leave for China and wasn’t about to disappoint the organization. Comrade Sung and the students really had a challenge when they took on the multi-talented and very funny Steve Allen. His answers to questions could be most unpredictable, to the total confusion of Comrade Sung and delight of the language students who knew more English than the Comrade.

Jayne and Rosa both came down with a flu bug several days after our arrival but tried not to give in to it. One night, after a particularly arduous day at the carpet fair, Jayne went straight to bed. I decided to take a big bowl of chicken vegetable soup up to her room after we finished dinner about 6:00 in the evening.

Room service definitely wasn’t available in Tientsin Hotel Number One during the Cultural Revolution. Maneuvering a large bowl full of hot liquid and vegetables up five floors in a swaying ancient cage elevator proved to be an interesting challenge.
Inside the sick room, after first knocking, I found the invalid entertaining five of the young language students. They were sitting on her bed, the only chair in the room and on the floor. They had snuck in, unknown to the dreaded Comrade Sung, for “slang lessons”. Deep into the night, Jayne resting against several of the lead-filled pillows the hotel supplied, and I on the floor, taught “so long”, “see you around” and other innocent little gems to the enthusiastic young Chinese. A couple of days later, walking near the hotel, a voice called out to me, “Hi Pal!” It was of course one of our students.

On one occasion Steve Allen was speaking very slowly and clearly to a young man who was studying English. “You speak English good,” the young man exclaimed.

We each found our own way to cope with language problems. My worry was leaving a morning wakeup call each night. I’d write very large on a piece of paper “7:00 Room 203” and take it down to the formidable two attendants who sat in a little kiosk near the elevator spying on us and guarding the heavy keys we needed to get into our rooms, unlike the Chinese who entered by magic. Then I’d show them 7:00 on my wrist watch. The charade continued with me resting my head on my hands, closing my eyes pretending to sleep, snoring a bit, then knocking on the wall. It worked very well, except for the night one of the attendants asked after my performance, “You want me to wake you up at 7:00 in the mornings again?”

We were transported each day, for five days, to the First Tientsin Carpet Fair in buses, and bussed back to the hotel for lunch. Then back to the fair for the rest of the day. Jayne and Rosa’s negotiations for carpet purchases went on endlessly. And since I got into China under the guise of a secretary to the newly opened Allen-Wu Carpet Company I had to be there pen and paper in hand. This fair was our first experience with the “no one can make any decision what-so-ever without consulting someone else who is somewhere else” policy in the PRC in February 1975. There were interminable sessions at long tables, drinking tea and inhaling the cigarette smoke of our hosts, who also made frequent use of the ever-present brass spittoons. And through all of this, hour after hour, a pianist at a Steinway played. Every now and then, in our honor, he would play a very loud rendition of Home on the Range. —to be continued

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books, My Life
Comments (2)

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair

by Beverley
October 11th, 2012

Chapter Two
The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair
Part One

The pretentious big shiny red and gold invitation Rosa’s influence had secured for me that had brought me to China during the Cultural Revolution read:  “China National Native Produce and Animal By-Products Branch, Peking Branch and Talien Branch cordially invite Mrs. Beverley Jackson to the Chinese Carpets Fair 1975 in Tientsin.”  Thirty-four years later I still can’t explain why animal by-products groups hosted a carpet fair, other than the fact that the carpets were made of wool or silk.  I suppose if you stretched logic a bit a silkworm might qualify as an animal.  But the timing was right for me to arrange my life and work in Santa Barbara to allow for a few weeks absence for such a rare opportunity so I didn’t question anything.  I accepted the invitation to the Tientsin Carpet Fair immediately.

Tientsin Hotel Number One was old.  It was as clean as any place could be where brooms and dustpans are the substitute for vacuums when cleaning tired worn carpets.  But this was a big exciting adventure and things like dirty carpets didn’t really matter.  Our group quite liked the quaintness of Tientsin Hotel Number One.  I was deeply saddened to hear it totally collapsed in the big earthquake that hit Tientsin the following year, but happy it hadn’t occurred while we were in residence.

My room had two dark metal twin beds and quilts in white muslin duvet covers with big square cut-outs mid-quilt to show the pink quilt inside.  The steam radiator worked, and so did the unglamorous but western style toilet.  The hot water supply was occasional at best.  The bed linens and limited towels were thin with age and wear, but clean.  All meals taken at the hotel were quite good.  The first night Marge urged all of us to get a sealed bottle of water in the dining room to take to our rooms. So we all followed her lead and got bottles of water like Marge’s. Traversing the lobby heading for the elevator holding our Chinese water bottles we drew rather quizzical stares.  In our rooms it only took one sniff, not even a sip, to understand the reason for those quizzical stares.  Somewhere along the way the word water had been translated into strong undrinkable white wine.

There were questionable locks on the doors to our rooms and no Chinese inhibitions about entering without knocking.  Delivery of a thermos of boiling water, clean laundry being returned, the nightly inquisitional visits from Comrade Sung — all entered no matter the state of dress or undress we might be in without hesitation and totally unannounced.  More than once I was caught stark naked but no one blinked.  Well, no one but me!

Comrade Sung appeared to be responsible for us.  Although our original thinking was he was checking us out for what harm we might do to China, I eventually realized he was equally concerned that nothing bad happens to the rare visitors from America.  There were elements that might profit from an unpleasant incident involving Americans in China.  The Bamboo Curtain was just beginning to rise a tiny bit and not everyone in China approved.

Each night after we returned from dinner — about the time we had all our clothes off and were ready to bathe — Comrade Sung would burst into one of our rooms accompanied by two young language students from the foreign language school in Tientsin.  Two different students every night.  “Mrs. Jackson, why Mrs. Pollack wear white gloves all time?”  “Mrs. Jackson, why Jerry Fisher do all talking and wife not talk much?”  And in other rooms he had quite a few questions about Mrs. Jackson. “Why Mrs. Jackson have two coats?  Who was Jacqueline she talks about?  Her daughter is named Tracey.”  (Jacqueline was my beloved German shepherd.) “Why Mrs. Jackson always want yoghurt for breakfast?”  Reason for this was I’d been advised that the Chinese had learned to make delicious yoghurt from the Russians and it was a safe way to get calcium into my Chinese diet.

During one of his interrogations with me, quite amusingly Comrade Sung confirmed our suspicions that all our bags were carefully and cleverly searched while we were at the fair each day.  “Mrs. Jackson,” he began.  “Why Mrs. Allen have so many hairs?”  It took a minute for me to understand.  Some years previously actress Jayne Meadows Allen’s adored long-time hairdresser retired.  After endless attempts to replace him, Jayne simply gave up and started covering her own beautiful natural red hair with red wigs.  And she was traveling with five red wigs in her “locked” suitcases. —to be continued

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books, My Life
Comments (3)

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: And So the Adventure Begins (Part 2)

by Beverley
October 7th, 2012

Chapter One
AND SO THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
Part Two

My flight to China took over 24 hours. We ran into a heavy snow storm that put us down in Anchorage, and kept us there until record snowfall abated in Tokyo. My plane seatmate was a U.S. military man who, during his temporary leave in the States, had been dramatically reunited with his wife on the popular “Truth or Consequences” TV show. The next day she told him she was divorcing him!

Two of our party, Helene Pollack and Herb Cole, had been told by their U.S. doctors that they wouldn’t need smallpox vaccination certificates. Immediately upon arrival in Hong Kong they were rushed into an office at the Airport. Helene came out rubbing her arm, clutching an official white form. Herb came out looking distraught. He didn’t get a shot because he still had a scab from his U. S. vaccination. But the nurse couldn’t give him a form like Helene’s. I suggested we adjust our itinerary to allow an extra half hour at every port of embarkation and debarkation for Herb’s vaccinations. He didn’t find me amusing.

Torrie Levy had her own crisis to cope with. Her hairdryer broke the first morning in Hong Kong and she didn’t want to continue the trip. She’d already lost her glasses on the plane from Los Angeles. Her mother Marge Levy had lived through 30 years of these crises with Torrie and carried on unconcerned.

The two days in Hong Kong involved a lot of trips to China Travel Agency to get the endless documents required. And we all spent a good part of the last night making sure our customs declarations were accurate to the last U. S. penny or dime that might be found in a pocket or bottom of a purse. We’d been forcefully warned that there was no fooling around with money declarations going in or coming out of China. Pennies and dimes mattered to the precise Chinese.

And so, when that big old puffing steam engine pulled us as close to the border as it could go, we were ready for the short walk across the wooden bridge into the People’s Republic of China where the bright red flags were waving and Chairman Mao was smiling at us from a big gaudy painting.

Lugging carry-on bags, camera cases, coats and purse, I walked excitedly across the short bridge into the People’s Republic of China. Well, I didn’t exactly walk in. I fell in. There was a small step as I walked off the bridge that was invisible beneath all the things I was carrying and down I went.

Jayne Meadows next to a frozen lake at the Summer Palace

The customs people were smiling and cooperative, not at all what we’d been led to anticipate. Well, they were smiling and cooperative until they got to Rosa and Jayne. Jayne’s passport and visa photos had been taken without her red wig and she wasn’t getting into the People’s Republic of China without removing the wig she was wearing. However, Rosa was the real problem. Since we’d been helping her carry them we were aware that she was entering the People’s Republic of China with 11 suitcases and some extra boxes and bags. What we didn’t realize was she was bringing not only clothes for her family but TV sets, bathroom scales, meat grinders, and more. The customs officials were not happy with Rosa’s baggage and we seemed in for an endless delay. We’ll never know if her persistence wore them down, they just wanted her out of there, or Rosa said some magical name or words, but we were suddenly and most unexpectedly waved on.

An hour and a half later, after much tea served in tall quaintly decorated enamel cups with lids, and a good lunch of assorted dishes of stir fried vegetables, pork, chunks of deep fried fish, and rice we exited the way we’d entered. We had to catch a train to Canton. In Canton we’d catch the plane to Peking where we’d take a train to Tientsin, which is where we were actually going. Nobody had ever suggested that this trip would be easy. Approaching the memorable step of my entrance, we encountered four uniformed men on either side of the step. They were stationed there to direct our attention to the step. Their outstretched arms, all 16 of them, pointed directly towards that one small step. Foreigners didn’t often make the same mistake twice during the Cultural Revolution in China.

The train to Canton was clean and air conditioned. We were now passing through a tropical area, not unfamiliar to my Santa Barbara eye. Lush green foliage and crops, flowers, banana trees, house roofs of red tile. The Canton train station was a marvel of high ceilinged, Leningrad influenced, Art Nouveau. The vast waiting room, filled with eggplant colored imitation leather sofas, had marvelous etched glass windows. Glass curtains of lace with bamboo design stretched the length of the two story tall exterior windows. But we didn’t linger here. We were moved on to the airport and another waiting room and more tea. We drank a lot of tea in dining or waiting rooms before we finally got to Tientsin. The dining rooms all had wash basins near the door. Waiting rooms were decorated with small tangerine trees covered with tiny fruit in pots and lots of big red propaganda banners hanging everywhere.

And so ends the first chapter of “A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution.” In a few days we start Chapter Two. You don’t want to miss it!

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books, My Life
Comments (6)

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: And So the Adventure Begins

by Beverley
October 2nd, 2012

Since Fluffy took off to save his turkey friends from Thanksgiving disaster there haven’t been any health reports and queries come in from all over the world. Thank all of you for caring. I’m proud to report I’m making great progress. Tracey was here again and got me to dine at Lucky’s, Via Vai & even lunch at the Pharmacy. She found a stairless path from the parking lot in.

Yesterday Holly Lord and I lunched at Tydes and last night Bill Cornfield took me to Plow & Angel for dinner beneath the magnolia trees filled with sparking lights. And we even had a full moon!

And now I’m getting back to work. I haven’t felt up the hassle of getting my book “A Front Seat at the Cultural Revolution” published. This story of Jayne Meadows, Steve Allen and I getting into China in 1975 is fascinating and has an ending that is astounding! And great photos of a China were not a single person in the entire country owned a car. Where everyone wore the same shabby Mao suits. Today the roads are filled with Ferraris and Bentleys. Fifteen thousand dollar Birkin handbags can’t be found in New York now. They are all going to China!

Tracey suggested I serialize the book on my blog so here goes. Come with me to a China totally unrelated to China today. Take a front seat at the Cultural Revolution with Jayne, Steve and me……….

Beverly Hills April 2005: Monday’s society columns reported that Merv Griffin’s Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel ballroom was filled to overflowing, the gala benefit chairman wore a floral print chiffon gown from Oscar de la Renta’s spring collection and $250,000 was raised for the charity.

“You live in Santa Barbara I understand,” the elegant older woman, an American of Chinese descent, sitting to my right said in opening conversation. And my affirmative answer was followed with, “Do you know Rosa Wu* by any chance?”

“Indeed I do. It was thanks to Rosa that I was able to visit China during the Cultural Revolution 34 years ago. Just last week I told a friend about a remark I made to my fellow traveler Steve Allen(1) in 1975, that Rosa’s mother must have been the Madame Claude(2) of China to get us into China during the Cultural Revolution, and to get us a one month visa at that…

* Name has been changed
1. Steve Allen was actor, composer, author, comedian and possibly best known for starting the Tonight Show in 1954 on NBC.
2. Madame Claude ran the most famous, most glamorous house of prostitution in Paris the second half of the 20th century. Many of her beautiful, elegant, well trained girls married into the French aristocracy.

Chapter One
AND SO THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
Part One

They were an incongruous pair, the flame-tressed American woman and the stylish American of Chinese descent belting out chorus after chorus of Hello Dolly in Mandarin Chinese. Big red-painted wheels rolling noisily over rusted train tracks played backup for the twosome as we made our way towards the crossing point into the People’s Republic of China.

White mist from the steam engine up ahead cast a protective shield over a cluster of baby water buffalo grazing beyond our train windows. Big-footed Hakka women, who unlike most Han Chinese women never bound their feet, labored in the fields, shielded from the 20th century by black ruffled curtains cascading from their crownless straw sun shade hats. Viewing the serene ancient pastoral scene outside our train windows one could lose prospective of the ideological fanaticism of the Cultural Revolution that gnawed away at the remarkable ancient Chinese civilization.

And we were singing our way right into the eye of that frightening storm.

It was February 24, 1975 and ten of us from southern California were going into China. During that dark period of Chinese history people didn’t go to China, or leave China, visit China, take a trip to China. One was either going into China or coming out of China. It was rather like gaining admission to a high security prison.

The trip had come upon us quite unexpectedly. Rosa Wu had gone from Santa Barbara to visit her mother in Peking, a rather surprising event in 1974 when American citizens were not welcome in China unless their name was Nixon or Kissinger. While there she learned from her beautiful mother that the Chinese government was hoping to somehow get 10 Americans for the upcoming First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair to be held in February 1975. The had ten Rumanians and ten Czechoslovakians, ten Russians and ten Bulgarians. But suddenly they wanted ten Americans.

Jumping into action Rosa flew out of China to Hong Kong and from there contacted her friend actress Jayne Meadows Allen in Los Angeles and on the telephone she, Jayne’s’ husband Steve Allen and Jayne formed a carpet company. That was three out of required ten Americans. Then Rosa remembered that she had seen me taking notes for my society column in the Santa Barbara News-Press in shorthand and remembered me once saying I longed to some day walk on the Great Wall of China. “Call Beverley Jackson in Santa Barbara and ask her if she wants to come as the secretary of our carpet company.” Without a thought of how I would swing it of course I said yes!

That was four out of ten. Rosa and Jayne filled out the remaining six with a couple who owned a carpet company, one of Hollywood’s leading interior designers and her daughter, a woman who had an important antique carpet company and a male interior designer. I was the least interested in carpets but I worked the hardest once we got to the Tientsin Carpet Fair as I had to keep writing the whole time — notes on all the endless meetings and transactions. I earned my trip by filling notebook after notebook of shorthand notes that were really of no interest to us but impressed the Chinese with how dedicated I was to my job. Jayne and Rosa bought lots of carpets for their company. Steve spent his time talking into his two small handheld recorders taking notes for the book he would write Explaining China.

Getting visas wasn’t easy. The United States and China had no formal diplomatic relations. George H. W. Bush was our representative in China but he was not an Ambassador. He was Chief of American Legation in Peking. There was no proper embassy in Washington DC and our visas had to come from a small office somewhere in our capital. Mine arrived special delivery air mail in the evening the night before I was to leave. Being optimistic I was packed and ready to go. I knew that I was going to China even though I had no visa for entry in my hand until hours before my departure from Santa Barbara.

This is what led up to our going into China on that old steam powered train with Hollywood actress and TV comedienne Jayne Meadows and Rosa Wu singing their way into China. Other than our own group, the passengers in our railroad car were returning Chinese carrying big bundles back from a day’s journey to the New Territories or Hong Kong who chose to ignore the strange singing and foreign words.

There was a bit of déjà vu for the two singers in the words “It’s nice to have you back where you belong”. Rosa had lived her early childhood in China, as did Jayne whose parents were American missionaries there. Jayne remembered her family’s hasty departure from China when conditions turned very bad for foreigners. She was seven years old and her sister, the late actress Audrey Meadows was five.

Hello Dolly in Mandarin wasn’t usual, nor was anything else about our journey into China in February 1975. Americans weren’t exactly running in and out of China in over-packed tour buses at that time. President Richard Nixon had been there. And Henry Kissinger. David and Evangeline Bruce had opened the U.S. Legation, but they weren’t swamped by an overflow of visitors from home. Barbara and George H. W. Bush were now holding down the Legation fort with no improvement in the situation. —to be continued

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books
Comments (3)

But I Didn’t Know Gable

by Beverley
September 3rd, 2012

Hello to all! Fluffy here saying goodbye for now. Mom’s doing so much better. That leg she couldn’t move up at all after a fall she can now raise six inches and going up steadily. Eric Smith, who does her physical therapy, is quite proud of her. So now I’m ready to turn the blog back to mom. I’m flying off to get some of my turkey friends hidden before Thanksgiving. They are the ones who need help now, so here’s the mike back to Mom…

Beaux Arts Ball, 1964. I’m chairman and having a ball with the late Duke Sedgwick (Edie’s father) and the late artist Don Freeman (in the high hat).

You’re a hard act to follow Fluffy and your many friends around the world will miss you. I’m glad you mentioned Eric as he is doing wonders for me. But he worked me so hard yesterday I collapsed on the bed and watched a series of old Ava Gardner films on TCM. What amazed me was how many of her leading men I knew! Fifty Five Days at Peking of course was of great interest to me. I was impressed with how accurate the costuming and sets were. My old friend the late John Ireland (he and wife Daphne lived in Santa Barbara for years and she still does) had a big role in the film. And while the star of the film, Charleton Heston, was very good I cannot bring myself to say so because although he played Moses and headed the NRA, which impressed the gun lovers of the world, and looked upon himself as God I know a secret of his that few people in the world have had a clue. Even the National Enquirer missed it. And TMZ you too! But since it involved a fine actress and dear friend whom I deeply admired and her son I’ve kept it totally to myself for I guess 40 years. But since now both she and her grown son are now gone, I’m sharing this much.

Seven Days in May co-starred my close friend and wonderful actor Kirk Douglas. Kirk and his great wife Anne, my friends of many years, have had a Santa Barbara home for such a long time. Fredric March played the president of the USA in this film. His widow Florence Eldridge, who had been a big star on Broadway, lived her last years in Montecito next door to me in the most elegant condo this side of Park Avenue New York. She had superb taste — and a lovely collection of Impressionist paintings. Florence had few friends in town so she would spend her holidays with my daughter Tracey and me.

An Ava Gardner film I’d never before seen was The Bribe. Her co-star in this was gorgeous Robert Taylor. Since it took place in a steamy hot Caribbean Island, opening scenes looked like Cartagena, a town I adore. Taylor wore perfectly fitted white linen suits throughout, and real Panama hats which of course come from Ecuador. He looked heavenly!!! My memories of him go back to days when Tracey was about two and we were regulars for lunch at the Brentwood Country Mart in Los Angeles area. There was an unofficial table for us regulars and Robert Taylor was one of us. I’d leave Tracey with him while I went off to get my iced coffee and carrot juice for her, she still hates the stuff, and the divine movie star got sprayed more than once when she spit the carrot juice out. He only laughed and agreed with her. But imagine having Robert Taylor baby sit all the time. Vincent Price was the bad guy in the film and I was reminded of the time in 1964 when he and George Hamilton kindly accepted my invitation to judge the costumes at a Beaux Arts Ball I chaired as a fundraiser for the Art Affiliates of UCSB. Liddy Paulding, the ancient society columnist at the Santa Barbara News-Press for over 40 years, said it was the best party she’d seen in those years. It was held at the old Bliss mansion, now the popular retirement home Casa Dorinda. Ms. Bliss who built the great house, was the daughter of man who invented the very popular patent medicine Castoria. The house was known for having a long bridge on the second floor that Mr. Bliss had to cross to get to Mrs. Bliss’ bedroom. And I’ve been told that door on her side was seldom unlocked.

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (1)

To Hell & Back

by Beverley
August 20th, 2012

Well dear friends Fluffy is finally back. Thanks to all of you for the notes and cards and visits and flowers. I’ve had no time to write. And right now I’ve got to head off to Victoria for a feather Blow Dry. I’m a fright! Then I’m going to open a bottle of Mommy’s favorite Pol Roger champagne and since she’s still on pain pills I’ll drink it all myself so cheers to all!!

Once we got out of Cottage Hospital then their marvelous Rehab hospital, Mom was doing so well she tried to show off by climbing a step and fell and really messed up her leg. She had so much pain already from her back surgery then this. She cried all the time between the pain and missing Rennie and her medications being messed up.

I asked her for a quote she said if anyone ever tells her “go to hell!! ” she can truthfully answer “I have been to hell and back”!!!

I’m so happy to be home I’m even glad to see Rennie.

This was the bed we had at one of the four hospitals that we’ve been in the last few months. Not exactly like the one we finally have now that we are home. We do have the neck-roll Ayars Mitchell made for us. Ayars is a cool friend of ours. She’s Aunt Susie’s daughter. What’s really cool is that she has a pet scarlet tarantula named Buttons. Ugh!! I’ll keep Rennie over a bright red tarantula!!!

Someone gave mommy a book about Diana Vreeland: “The Eye Has to Travel” I didn’t understand the concept really. And I couldn’t care less if she pronounced her name Diiana or Deeana which some of our friends argued about! What excited me was seeing a picture of mommy’s and my bed. Well actually it wasn’t ours. It was Baroness Pauline de Rothschild‘s bed. Mommy loved it so Baron Philippe had Waldo Fernandez copy it for mommy and me.

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (0)

Fluffy Here: An Overdue Report

by Beverley
May 18th, 2012

Sitting here I can really keep an eye on Mom

Fluffy here with overdue report,….

Things have been pretty hectic the past ten days. So much confusion with all the nurses coming and going. I follow Mommy all around our house and take care of her. But she was downstairs walking few days ago and she decided to try to do steps out front. Susie and Julie were with her. But suddenly her bad leg buckled under her and she fell!

Rennie isn't much help

We sure didn’t need that after what we’ve been thru! Susie and Julie couldn’t get her up into the wheelchair. But luckily a really nice young man working in Bldg 5 came. He put his arms around under Mom’s arms and clasped them in front of her and he told her to clasp hers on top of his and in one swift movement he had her straight up and into her wheel chair. They decided he must have had paramedic training. He really rescued Mom. Then last night Mommy went to find something In her closet and she left her walker at the door. Next thing she was calling for Susie. She fell again. We are really watching her now. And the doctor is getting strict. She’s been thru so much we are forbidden to upset her. So Rennie and I have to be friends for her sake. She was however very upset her friend Nonie De Limur died.

Jiko and Martin Blakeway were home from Japan for 3 days before they left for Geneva. They came to see us and brought Mommy the poached pears Jiko makes that Mommy loves. I'm checking it out.

Ladys who spends nights with us really makes her laugh. She has a heavy accent from Ecuador and talks very fast. I don’t understand her sometimes but Mommy and aunt Susie do.

Today we got a coffee maker and we had a Coffee Party. Mommy said Ecuadorian way of making coffee is like she gets in Paris. And we had whole wheat English muffins and scrambled eggs. Bob and Carol Jackson bring us fresh eggs every week from their fancy chickens. I can’t wait to tell Babji Mom ate a whole big breakfast. All her doctors have been worried because she wouldn’t eat. But Ladys makes it fun.

Mommy says this blue coral looks like mountains she saw in Yunnan. Doesn't look like mountains to me!

Well guess that’s our news for now.

Most important thing is doctors have found pills that control Mom’s horrendous pain. And she is laughing again.

Love,
Fluffy

Guess I won't sample the apples after all. I don't like the look in his eyes.

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (3)

Fluffy Here: Recovery Progress Report!

by Beverley
May 4th, 2012

Mommy has strange things in this house. Rennie says this is something called a dragon I'm checking out.

Sorry I’ve been out of touch but I’ve had my hands full. We came home a week and half ago and the house has been really crazy. Different nurses three times a day & Rennie barking madly at all of them especially the 11:pm shift. Aunt Susie manages to stay calm & get everything organized. She’s the greatest.

Aunt Susie was holding me up to make friends with Rennie Nurse Juliette was holding Rennie

Uncle Johnny came to visit us & I flew on to is head. He was a good sport. Aunt Susie & Mommy couldn't stop laughing.

We had one really bad night last week. At 4:30 in morning all these big firemen came & took Mommy back to Cottage Hospital. I rode in the ambulance. Rennie had to stay home. She was really jealous I got to go. We came home the next morning.

Mommy has really hurt a lot. She hasn’t been any fun. Thank goodness Aunt Susie is here all the time. Then today my pal Babji came to see us. That’s Dr. Babji Mesipam. He really scolded Mommy. He told her she could keep lying in bed hurting letting the nurses do everything for her or she could get up & force herself to walk & do things for herself no matter how much she hurts & get strong & well.

Well he really knew how to get to Mom. After he left she dressed herself. She uses something like a fishing pole with a giant tweezers on the end to reach her slacks & put them on. What a production. Rennie & I laughed ourselves silly watching her.

Rennie is no help at all! And she's so long she takes up most of Mommy's bed.

Then Aunt Susie, nurse Julia & I took her out in the sunshine for a walk. Julia pushed her in the wheelchair & I rode on Mommy’s shoulder. When we got to the level Mommy used her walker & walked a long way looking at all the flowers. Then we rode home. And we all had dinner in the living room instead of in bed. The sun was shining in on us. Mommy’s wheelchair was in a corner where she could look at our pretty Japanese terrace that our friend Mike Flaherty is taking care of for us and all the flowers people have sent in the living room And she was laughing instead of crying from the pain. So it was a really good day finally I’m happy to report.

Well, Pip pip as Uncle Richard Mineards would say. I don’t know what it means but it sounds funny.

Fluffy

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories My Life
Comments (3)
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