OK…this is a very big find and I just had it confirmed. You have to stretch your mind for this one and realize that if Pope Benedict can be Robert Blake of all people and Pope John Paul can be Tom Landry then anything is possible. If I hadn’t been working on Stan Laurel for the last few months I would never have figured this out. Realize Stan Laurel was also Humphrey Bogart, Art Carney and Fred Astaire. I also sat next to him at a local theater and watched “Bullet Train” which he liked and said it was “very dark”. It was a pleasure meeting him. I’ve worked on this a while and am convinced this is him. Supposedly Stan was born in 1890 which I’m not sure about. It would make him over 130 years old. It’s possible. I’ve met people who were 115 and are now 120. Stan was in amazing shape as he was Fred Astaire. When I saw him except for a small limp which looked arthritic he looked great. So here it is: Stan Laurel aka Pope Francis…Boruch Hashem!
Cheryl Howard spent a good deal of time in Brooklyn NY. She hung with a friend of Ed’s and miserated over how she hated high school and was going to be an actress so didnt need to go. Ed’s friend counseled her about the error of her ways that she would never be an actress and she needed to stay in school so she could get a job as a secretary or something else productive. (You see she was going to be an actress, she was going to be a star…she was going to shake her ass on the hood of Whitesnake’s car!)
Bryce, Ron and Cheryl Howard
In Brooklyn Cheryl tooled around under the name…Donna Pescow…or as she said she was often called in Brooklyn…Donna Cowpes…that’s how we played it in Brooklyn!
The lovely Donna Pescow
Despite being counseled that she would never amount to anything in acting she tried out for the film Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta who turns out to be Ron Howard (see above) and got a starring role which she knocked out of the park! I didnt know her back then but caught an act of hers at a nightclub a few years later in NYC. She was nice when I met her though admitted she was speeding her brains out!
I was working at UPS at the time loading trucks and told a friend I was going to meet her. He asked me if I would ask her if she really banged those guys in the back of the car…now you’re a hole and she was…Courtney Love!!!
My dad had a fur store in Bensonhurst Brooklyn.
Scanner
He gave away wooden coins for advertising…Ron would approve, he’s got a giant rubber shark!!
Directly, Across the street from the Fur store they filmed an opening scene at Lenny’s Pizza…
Ron Travolta, in the film, went to the window of the Pizzeria and ordered to slices, put one on top of the other and walked off and ate them…
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In all the years I ate there probably 2-300 times I never saw anyone do that!!! The one time I did it years later after the film someone saw me do it and yelled…Hey!!! John Travolta!!! in a good way too!
Here’s what’s really cool…Cheryl aka Donna met my mom!!! Cheryl went into the fur store and wanted a fur to wear in the film. She tried to convince mom to give her the jacket for free. I doubt my mom gave it away for free but I’m guessing she gave her a very good deal. Here’s a picture of Donna/Cheryl wearing the fur in the film:
What’s really cool about this? It’s the same fur you can see in the window of Baruch Furs!!!! Maybe not the identical one but the same type and they were hand made in the store. Check it out below!!!
As a last piece of change Cheryl aka Donna directed a short film. It was payback to someone who had written all her school papers so she could graduate High School. I heard she did a great job, I liked the film, it kind of funny too, a war film! I doubt you can find it.
Aside from from doing a memorable stand up routine at Pips Comedy Club in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn Ron Howard performed at another illustrious entertainment site nearby…Rainbow Lanes Bowling also in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn!!!
So what did Ron do there…great performance art!!! He was Andy Kaufman
And what did he do at Rainbow Lanes? Mighty Mouse!!! Here is Andy Kaufman doing Mighty Mouse!!!!
Ohhh wait…that’s Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman doing his Mighty Mouse shtick…but wait…Jim Carey was Andy Kaufman!!!! so we’re all good…Here I come to save the day!!!! The audience at the bowling alley ate him up after they were done being stunned at whiskey tango fuck they just saw!!!
What else was great about Rainbow Lanes other than Ron performed there? Larry David bowled there!! Here’s a picture of him which frankly looks more like Ron or the kid next to him. Kind of looks like a rabbi I once knew.
I wouldn’t normally believe that’s Larry however it appears that the kid on the top left may be Jeff Garlin also from the Larry David Show!!! Sure looks like him.
Let’s see if we can find a picture of Jeff Garlin as a kid!
Eh…who can tell?!
In the end Rainbow Lanes was turned into a public storage facility…the end.
Ron used to perform all over NYC. On one occasion, probably more he performed at Pips Comedy Club in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn.
Eddie remembered him. He states and I quote, “A cool drink of water, he was. A bit full of himself but he was entitled to be so. I don’t remember most of the act but he did an impersonation of himself from Dirty Harry where he played the gay guy in the park looking to have sex with Clint Eastwood. He tells Harry Callahan, “My friends call me Alice, and I will take a dare.”
I believe that’s him after all Ron Howard is…Alice Cooper!!! and his friends call him Alice!!!
After he did his impersonation of himself he broke into an impersonation of Clint Eastwood (note, he had asked the lighting guy for some sexy light for the moment of transition…it was really creepy!!! it was almost as if it was Ron Howard was there himself doing an impersonation of Clint!!!
Normally I’d put a picture of Clint Eastwood here but instead I found this piece of scrapple who did the worst impersonation of Clint ever only surpassed by Ron’s impersonation of him! Thank god they killed off Clint right after it. Piece of crap!!!
So I wore a very cool Clint EAstwood T shirt to the British Invasion Years concert and would you know it…neither John Lennon, nor Ringo Starr would talk to me!!!! It was just a silhouette of him!!! I felt so shunned!!! I thought it was because of running into Meatloaf and Stevie Vicks and her daughter but who knows? I’m always doing something right and wrong!!!
British Invasion YearsStevie Vicks Acoustic Duo Later prototype of the Stevie Vicks Acoustic Duo (Kinda Hot, might be their kids or clones)
I originally had Stan Laurel as Al Jennings and he may have looked so much like him they took a later photo but I studied John Brown and noticed the uncanny resemblance and revised this theory.
I’ve posted on these guys before. Amazing entertainers. March of the Wooden Soldiers aka Babes in Toyland is in my top 10 favorite films. I still watch it. Great depth with these two guys and I had the please of watching Bullet Train with Mr. Laurel who I spoke with afterward. Terrific guys. Bonus points: You can’t get a name like Edward Norton in Hollywood unless you’re related to Art Carney and here he is! Also a terrific actor and looks like Stan!!! Great stuff!
