Hollywood Shore Leave Party 1985-1994

Like many parties/ benefits throughout the 80’s they created a tradition that lasted through the years. Hollywood Shore Leave is one…

The Hollywood Shore Leave party was the brainchild of a group house at 439 Sail Walk. The house was known as “Sailors House.” This being the fourth it had a 1940’s Big Band music theme and a military motif all for AMFAR ( American Foundation for AIDS Research), and PWAC ( People with AIDS Coalition.) Hosted by Aldyn McKean, David Merrill, Patrik Moreton, Robert Donnelly, Kendall Lynn,and Tom Signorelli as everyone from Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich, Ann Miller, Carmen Miranda, to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

The idea of Shore Leave was based on the USO Shows that were held during the war. Movie stars would donate their time to entertain the troops.

Music was provided by the Hot Lavender Swing Band (Hot Lavender performed in 85-86-87), and Broadway star Larry Kert entertained. Drawing at least one thousand guests at $20 each to attend it was a sea of white sailor caps ,navy blue uniforms, a wash of army fatigue greens, and a battalion of privates, lieutenants, and generals.

The story of the Party by James Roman.

1. IT ALL STARTED WHEN I made a charitable donation to the Gay Marching Band.
In exchange, bandmembers volunteered to play at an event in my Manhattan home. “Please don’t,” I suggested. “But send ‘Hot Lavender,’ the 1940s swing band, to play at my house in The Pines.”
In exchange for free lunch and hours of beach recreation, the 20-piece band agreed to be the stars of a 1940s-themed party at our house on Sail Walk.

2. My four house mates and I sent out these fold-over invitations that set up the premise:
1940s “Sailors” will find rest and recreation at our USO station in Hollywood.
(Easy costume, right? White pants, no shirt, and a white sailor cap!)
The open invitation proposed a bigger idea: “In these dark days of 1943, it is the patriotic duty of all ‘Hollywood Starlets’ to show a sailor a good time.”
That explained it. If you wanna do drag, come as a recognizable Hollywood movie star from the 1940s.
And off we go . . . !

3. Sail Walk is at the far East end of The Pines. We decorated our house on the ocean in red-white-and-blue bunting. Plus . . .

4. Our neighbor from two houses away actually worked for the USO! He loaned us a real honest-to-God USO flag for the occasion. (More about this flag later.)

5. My house mate Aldyn made a glamorous Carmen Miranda.

6. I was a Sailor.

7. House mate Patrik was Marlene Dietrich.

8. Our friends took it seriously!
Yes, Sailors: no shirt and a sailor cap.
And a battalion of 1940s starlets in drag, including . . .

9. The Andrew Sisters.
(Yes, they made these costumes for weeks!)

10. Mae West

11. Billie Holiday and Lupe Velez.

12. Sybil Bruncheon came in drag as Esther Williams .

13. . . . attended by a chorus of Hollywood bathing beauties.

14. Ann Miller wore tap shoes. She peeled away that sequined skirt for her tap routine.

15. Even Eleanor Roosevelt attended with her contingent of Officers. She’s selling cookies for the War Relief Effort.

16. "Hot Lavender," the live band was Absolutely Fabulous! - Once they struck up “In The Mood” and other big band hits, there was no party in The Pines that could top this. That big sound reverberated all the way out to the shoreline.

17. Like we hoped, Hollywood Starlets found Sailors to entertain.

18. Outside, we served champagne, beer, and vodka spritzers.
And the Band played on.

19. Upstairs, we turned Aldyn’s bedroom into a Tattoo Parlor, thinking that Sailors might like to sport some ink on their bare skin. Instead: Lesbians from the band packed the place to get inked in their intimate places!
(For speed, it’s actually rubber stamps with theatrical cosmetic ink that could adhere to sweaty flesh.)

20. A surprise that my house mates and I never expected:
Some of our theatrical friends had prepared performances for the event. When the band took a break, Ethel Merman stepped onto the balcony to belt out “Blow, Gabriel, Blow!”

21. Followed by the Andrews Sisters, who performed a choreographed routine to “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”

22. The crowd was ecstatic! (and more than a little tipsy.) They packed the deck and CHEERED for the live show. Could this party get any bigger?
Then a spontaneous event immortalized us all . . .

23. The house is on the Atlantic Ocean, the legal border of the United States. America’s Coastline is patrolled day and night by the US Coast Guard. When the Coast Guard pilot saw the real USO flag and all those white sailor caps, he mistook it for a legitimate USO event for real-life sailors In Service. He positioned the helicopter to hover over our deck.

24. The pilot performed a serviceman’s Courtesy . . . a Military Dip. Hovering in place over the sand, he maneuvered the helicopter to tip its nose to the sailors on our deck in Respect.

25. Those drunken queens on the deck went crazy!
“HE’S GOING TO JUMP! HE’S GOING TO JUMP!” they squealed as they jumped up and down on the deck. Jumped up and down until . . . . . . they broke the deck.… One corner lacked a wooden support. That corner of the deck broke away from its post, causing that corner of the deck to sink.

26. PANIC ENSUED. Those screaming queens went running for the exit, their high heels clattered down the boardwalk all the way back to the Harbor, just in time for High Tea. In fabulous costumes, they squealed about the party with a real live Big Band, so successful that it actually Broke The Deck! Hollywood Shore Leave was immortalized.

27. The deck was fixed within days. A minor repair with a major reputation.
We kept Hollywood Shore Leave going for two more years. 1986 was even bigger (seen here). Guests rose to the occasion, now that they knew what to expect (though the deck never broke again). The band made many new friends.
Some copycats attempted to throw USO parties, but without a live 20-piece dance band, they were forgotten minor leaguers.
By 1987, it was worn out. Crashers out-of-costume came to gawk and drink our vodka. Patrik had gone all out, convincing his friends Liliane Montevecchi and Larry Kert to perform snippets from their cabaret acts, bringing their own accompanists. No more spontaneity; our Hollywood Shore Leave ended on this high note.
Within a few years, just about everyone was dead, including Aldyn and Patrik. Sybil Bruncheon and I, and a few of the band members, are the survivors who live to tell this tale.
We smile, knowing how highly we set the bar for parties in The Pines. For the rest of the 1980s, whenever somebody threw a party in The Pines, the follow-up query was always:
“Did it break the deck?!”

END By James Roman (below).