Sal Mineo: A Biography by Michael Gregg Michaud

Author:Michael Gregg Michaud [Michaud, Michael Gregg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Published: 2010-11-02T04:00:00+00:00

WITH THE money he earned from Esquire magazine for the article he had proposed to write about Sal, Peter Bogdanovich moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 1964. He interviewed Sal numerous times and completed the article. The editor of the magazine actually had the article set in type and had pictures taken of Sal for the piece but decided not to run it. “After several postponements,” Bogdanovich said, “he finally admitted to me, ‘I just couldn’t stand the idea of having Sal Mineo in the magazine.’ ” Times had changed and the leather-jacketed rebel, an image Sal found so difficult to shake, was considered passé.

On March 10, Sal presented Tippi Hedren a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds at a ceremony at the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He was accompanied by a nineteen-year-old dancer/actress named Joey Heatherton. During their red-carpet entrance, he coyly dodged questions about Jill’s absence.

Bobby Sherman was staying at the beach house almost full-time. Sal was determined to secure a recording contract for his young protégé, but American popular music had been turned on its ear by the Beatles and other British musical imports. Sal’s distaste for the music business and his own brief time as a teenage recording star made it even more difficult for him to be taken seriously as a record producer.

Sal and Jill’s business manager Louis Harris invested a sizable amount of Sal’s and Jill’s money (unbeknownst to her at the time) in an independent label called Dot Records, which released Bobby’s single “Nobody’s Sweetheart.” Shortly after singing at Sal’s house party the previous summer, Bobby had received a call from an agent who introduced himself as Dick Clayton, Sal’s friend. He told Bobby he had been recommended to him by Sal and offered to book some auditions on his behalf. Bobby began to make the rounds.

Sal had known Clayton for several years. After years of representation, Sal left his childhood agent, Alec Alexander. For a time, he was represented by the William Morris Agency, which had handled his recent “all-star epic” film assignments. Clayton occasionally helped Sal when he was between agents, which became a more frequent and career-threatening circumstance.

In late March 1964, Sal took Bobby to New York, where Bobby recorded a few demos for Cameo Parkway Records. The songs didn’t sell. Sal did not see Jill while he was in Manhattan.

“It took me almost a year to talk to Sal again,” Jill said. “He was in contact with my mother all the time on the phone, asking what I was doing and who I was seeing. Mr. Preminger was finally pleased with me. He said to me, ‘He is not for you. He is into men.’

“Yul Brynner came to New York,” Jill explained. “He called me and said he was passing through town and wanted to come by to see me. I thought that was a bit strange, but he came to my apartment.

“He said, ‘Sal is a homosexual.

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