BETWEEN THE COVERS : JOAN WAS NEWLEY WED AFTER SHE MET LESLIE!

This weeks exerpt featuring Joan, is from the 2006 auto-biography 'The Music Man' by legendary songwriter Leslie Bricusse, who along with his glamorous wife Evie (aka- Hammer star Yvonne Romain) are two of Joan's closest friends. Joan first met Leslie after she became introduced to Anthony Newley as you will find out in the exerpt from the book. Leslie is updating the book at present and a revised edition should be out soon! This exerpt is edited..



JOAN WITH ANTHONY, LESLIE, EVIE AND SAMMY DAVIS..

'On Monday evening in late September, Evie and I were sitting in Newberg's (Anthony Newley), dressing room after the show,(Stop the World, I want To Get Off.).. We were waiting to go and have supper with Sammy at The White Elephant, when the theatre manager ushered in a couple of celebrities from the audience the handsome American actor Robert Wagner and the extremely dishy Joan Collins. It was an instant classic Hollywood scenario. We had met Joan at the last Royal Command Performance a few months before, with her then fiance Warren Beatty. Since then they had broken up and he was now with Natalie Wood, which had contributed to Natalie's divorce from Robert Wagner! So now here was Joan and RJ, as he was known. They both adored the show, Joan in particular. Just how much became evident two days later when out of a clear blue sky she called Evie, having got our number from God knows where and announced that she had found out that this coming Saturday was Tony Newley's birthday, she would like to give him a birthday supper at The White Elephant for about a dozen people after the show and would Evie please assemble Tony's closest friends for the occasion?

PRIVATE PHOTO OF JOAN AND LESLIE

Evie did so, we all enjoyed a jolly evening together, Joan moved in with Newley that night and that was that. I don't think poor old Newberg ever knew what hit him! A truck could not have done a better job, but then very few trucks look as good or move as fast as Joan Collins, when she has her foot on the pedal. And Newley as I say was run over in spectacular fashion! Joan then as now was an irrestible force. Together they made a spectacular couple and the four of us promptly embarked upon the best four way friendship I have ever known any four people to enjoy. We were all the right age, in the right place, at the right time. The four of us were as inseparable as our busy lives allowed. Joanie was filming, Evie was filming, Newley was doing everything under the sun and Bernie Delfont invited me to collaborate with Wolf Mankowitz and Cyril Ornadel on a new musical to star Harry Secombe as Pickwick. In January, Joanie returned to California and when Newley's two week vacation from 'Stop The World', rolled around in February, she invited him to spend it with her out there. Evie and I saw him off at Heathrow Airport, Newley grumbled that we should be going with him and ten minutes after our emotional farewell, the expression on Tony's face when we walked on to the plane to join him was worth the price of the air fare. It was our first ever Boeing 707 polar flight, London to Los Angeles non-stop. It was Evie's 24th birthday and what Joannie organised for us in the ensuing two weeks showed us more of the Beverly Hills and Hollywood lifestyle than we have witnessed in the 40 years since. Joannie loves and epitomises glamour and she ladled it out to us in huge helpings. The four of us shared a gorgeous little Hollywood Hills house just off the Sunset Strip and the three newly arrived jet-lagged travellers sat open-mouthed listening to Joan rattling off our itinerary for the next 12 days. She then put us through the Hollywood equivalent of a Marine assault course, with herself as the drill sergeant. In those 12 days we had a welcoming dinner party at a beach house in Malibu... A day at Disneyland .. Four days in Palm Springs, where Joanie and Evie fell in love with the innocent looking pineapple rum drinks at Don the Beachcomber's restaurant, got completely legless and had to be carried home!  Three days in Las Vegas at Sammy Davis's guests at The Sands Hotel, where each night he sang the songs from 'Stop The World' and introduced us to the audience. Then after his midnight show around 2.30am he was joined on stage in the Copa Room by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford and we witnessed the now famous Rat Pack Summit Meetings..

JOAN WITH EVIE AND LESLIE RECENTLY IN PALM SPRINGS

 We also dined at Joan's favourite hot-shot Beverly Hills restaurants, Chasens and La Scala, as well as her cheap dives on Sunset Strip and three parties at her house for her longstanding circle of Hollywood chums which included Tony and Judy Franciosa and Paul and Joanne Newman. When Joanie finally poured us back on to the London bound plane 12 days later, we were considerably more exhausted than when we arrived. But the glow from that glorious long ago Hollywood initiation of fire is still visible.


(c) 2006 LESLIE BRICUSSE ...