: : : : : Life Lessons : : : : :
me develop my own Maximum Bob, a
lecher but entertaining. Marvin raised
orchids on his wooded property. So
does Bob, using them as lures, to entice
girls to stop by his home for drinks.
•• I thought my experiences in Hollywood would make a good novel. But
I didn’t want to do it the same old way.
I wanted to show that a total outsider
could make it in Hollywood.
I knew a guy named Chili Palmer who
worked for Bill Marshall, an old col-
lege classmate of mine who was now a
private eye in Miami. Chili was a former
loan shark who did surveillance on
cheating husbands. They made quite
a team. Marshall could not open his
mouth without saying something
funny. Chili could put on a look of cool
menace whenever he wanted.
•• Once I have an idea what the main
character does, I say to Gregg, “See if
you can find a high diver doing his thing
without going all the way to Acapulco.”
A few days later we were in Florida
watching four divers put up their dive
ladder at the Miracle Strip Amusement
Park. They told us what it was like to
dive 80 feet into a 9-foot tank of water.
One diver said, “Put a 50-cent piece on
the floor and look down at it. From up
there, that’s what the tank looks like.”
The diver I came up with is Dennis
Lenahan in Tishomingo Blues. He’s getting too old for this business, but once
