Skip E. Lowe has died and Hollywood seems a bit less glamorous because of it. Once upon a time, Mr. Lowe was an actor in a few movies. At some point though, he became one of the movies' greatest fans and his claim to stardom was as the host of a public access cable show in which he interviewed the Great, the Near-Great and the Never-Close-To-Great. He treated them all pretty much the same. Lowe was one of the first people to do that kind of show and he somehow managed to get just about everyone to be on it, from Orson Welles to Bette Davis.
The most engrossing shows I saw though were the ones where he didn't have someone like that on; where his guest was Tab Hunter's makeup man or some bit player whose career peak was three lines on a Petticoat Junction. He fawned over them all, much the same way he fawned over Mr. Welles or Ms. Davis, emphasizing their importance and somehow managing to eke out a decent interview. It is said that Martin Short based his Jiminy Glick character on Skip E. to some extent and I can sure see that.
Lowe wrote books about the early days of Hollywood — emphasis on first-person accounts — and for a time, his main endeavor seemed to be the Skip E. Lowe Talent Showcases that were always popping up at local restaurants. He'd make a deal with some eatery whereby he'd provide live entertainment on one of their slow nights. I suppose he got a cut of sales those evenings, or maybe he made his money off the modest cover charges.
Carolyn and I went once to one at Caffé Roma, a rather nice Italian place in Beverly Hills. It was on a Monday night as I recall, and we were going because Carolyn had a friend who was performing in an act around 9 PM. We got there at 8:30 and when we walked in — I swear this is true — Skip E. Lowe was on stage, telling some meandering Show Biz anecdote from long ago — kind of what I do here and we call it "blogging." He was filling time between acts.
But right in mid-anecdote, he saw two new people (us) walk in and he stopped, jumped down from the stage — actually, just a wide step that led into this room — came up to me and said, "That'll be eight dollars apiece, cover charge." I gave him a twenty dollar bill. He put it into his wallet, took out four ones, handed them to me, pointed us to an empty table and then got back up on the stage/step and finished the anecdote.
Then before he brought on the next act, he paused to introduce a wonderful celebrity in the audience — "Mrs. Howard Hughes herself, Terry Moore." And sure enough, there was Ms. Moore seated at a table not far from us. I couldn't help but wonder how she felt about being introduced that way. She had some pretty good roles as an actress…too good to be remembered only for her alleged (disputed by some historians) marriage to Howard Hughes.
I later found out that Skip E. had introduced her several times that evening before we arrived. He introduced her anew any time anyone joined the audience because she was the person in the room with the most impressive career. When she finally got up to leave, I believe that honor passed to me…and I do not say that to brag; just to give you some idea of what the crowd was like.
I also soon realized that Ms. Moore, Carolyn, the staff of Caffé Roma and I were the only people on the premises who either were not there to get up on the stage at some point and perform…or had not come with someone who was there to get up on stage and perform.
The show was the audience and the audience was the show, and what drove the enterprise was people coming in to perform and bringing their friends, and all of them ordering pasta and drinks and all the non-performers paying the cover charge. I'm guessing Skip E. Lowe might have cleared a hundred bucks (tops) for the evening.
Carolyn and I ate some very good food and we sat through about four pretty awful acts — with Skip E. Lowe telling stories between them — before we got to the one we'd come to see. It was a pretty good comedy magician…a gent who billed himself as The Great Tostada. Carolyn's friend was working as his assistant. They got laughter and applause from us and a grudging, polite response from the other performers and their parties. Soon after, I saw The Great Tostada up at the Magic Castle and he got a much better reaction in front of an audience that wasn't full of people waiting to go on and sing Billy Joel tunes.
After he and Carolyn's friend performed in Mr. Lowe's little show, we got up to go and there was murmuring from the other performers seated around us. The "real" audience was leaving. Instead of introducing the next act or telling another story about Olivia DeHaviland, Skip E. came over to urge us to stay a bit longer. When we told him we couldn't, he thanked us graciously for coming and urged us to come back soon. And a week or two later, the Skip E. Lowe Talent Showcase was no longer at Caffé Romma, not that we would have been back for it. Before long, it popped up at another restaurant and then another. I don't know when he gave it up but at some point, he did.
I got to talk to Skip E. at a few autograph shows. He was a charming, fascinating man and I guess I admire how, when then there was no place for him in Show Business, he invented one for himself.
I asked him about all those Public Access shows he did. His press releases said he did 6,000+ of them and I can't believe that, especially since whenever I tuned in, it was always Mickey Rooney or Mamie Van Doren. But I'm sure he did more than a few hundred and there were some wonderful, important conversations there with Big Stars and also with people who didn't get interviewed much, if at all. I asked him if he had them all and if he was entertaining offers from some cable channel to put them on the air.
He said he had most of them. He also said he'd had some offers but the money was never right, which is Hollywood Talk for "I haven't had any offers." I hope someone preserves those shows and finds a place to broadcast them. You'd hear a lot of Skip E. going on and on about his own life but you'd hear a lot of great Show Biz stories. And his own life may have been the most interesting one of all.