The Beverly Hills Supper Club (Where the Stars Came to Hang Out) An Autobiography of My Teenage Years in Beverly Hills

By Robert Allen Jenkins

An intimate look into the lives of the rich and famous and many top movie stars from early Hollywood. Personal stories from my relationships with stars like Bette Davis, Mae West, Cher, Jack Oakie, Diane Linkletter (daughter of TV personality Art Linkletter) and others that you can’t get anywhere else. Humorous and nostalgic. A great read.  

I was just a poor country boy from South Georgia who had an opportunity to see a different way of life. I spent most of my teenage years living in Beverly Hills with my aunt, whose close friends included celebrities, movie stars and dignitaries. I was fortunate enough to get to know many of these people myself and spent a lot of one on one time with them. Bette Davis and I became very close and she confided many details about her career and her years in Hollywood.

Mae West hosted my sixteenth birthday party in her Santa Monica home.

Before Cher was a star, her mother was a close friend of my Aunt’s and she was one of the first people I met. She took me out and showed me Sunset Strip when I was a kid of fourteen and she was fifteen. Just a few years later, Sonny and Cher were at the top of the charts.

I dated Art Linkletter’s daughter Diane for nearly a year.

My aunt was very wealthy and lived in one of the most lavish homes in Beverly Hills. She was a celebrated hostess whose parties were attended by the likes of Lauren Bacall, Al Jolson, Mickey Rooney, longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, Melvin Douglas, Broderick Crawford, and Sugar King of Havana Julio Lobo to name a few. The book contsins many personal photographs.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Allen Jenkins
• Release date: Mar 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781507089002

Robert Allen Jenkins

Robert Allen Jenkins is an American country songwriter.  He has enjoyed success in the field and has had his songs recorded by a number of top country artists. He owns three music publishing companies where he publishes his music and the music of some other talented country songwriters. Robert's life has been quite interesting and he is writing his autobiography in three segments. His first book, The Beverly Hills Supper Club, is about the time he spent during his teenaged years living in Beverly Hills with his wealthy aunt and his friendships with many celebrities and movie stars. The next book, in progress, is the funny things that happened to him growing up poor in the deep south. It promises to be very entertaining. The last will be about his years in the music business. Robert has always enjoyed making up stories for his grandchildren, who can’t wait to hear them when they see their grandpa. Encouraged by his wife Lyn and his children, he has put some of the stories to paper and is continuing to create new stories. His wife Lyn is the illustrator and they work hand in hand to create the stories, as they have in all their other endeavors for their forty plus years of marriage. Robert’s first children's book, What Can I Do, is a favorite among his six grandchildren.  It is a picture book for younger children and beginner readers (ages 2-8). It is the story of a puppy who is trying to find out what he can do. It teaches the lesson that although we may have different talents, we are all good at something.  We just have to find out what it is. Robert has a number of children's stories written and will be publishing them as the illustrations are finished. He would appreciate your reviews, and of course, five stars are his goal. If you would like to review Robert’s work, we will have a certain number of free downloads for reviewing purposes. Contact us by email. [e-mail] Robert lives outside of Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife Lyn on a small farm where he raised his three children.

Book preview

The Beverly Hills Supper Club

(Where the Stars Came to Hang Out)

An Autobiography of My Teenage Years in Beverly Hills

Robert Allen Jenkins

Copyright 2015 by Robert Allen Jenkins

From the Collection: Robert Allen Jenkins Growing Up (Autobiographical Stories)

Published by Robert Allen Jenkins

All Rights Reserved

This work is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This work may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without express written permission of the author. The only exception is brief quotations in reviews.

This book is autobiographical and I have written it as I remember it. The stories of Aunt Mary’s early life were told to me by her or my Aunt Lorraine. I have not used the last names of some of the non-celebrities mentioned in this book out of respect for their privacy.

Thank you for purchasing this book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I would really appreciate your 5 STAR rating as well as a REVIEW. I would be honored if you would share your thoughts on Facebook or other social media. Please look for my other books and stories as they become available.

I would love to hear from you. You may email me at [e-mail]

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Mary Parker

Chapter 1

Tinguaro was a seven-acre estate in Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills, California. My name is Robert Jenkins and I grew up in that home in the sixties. The estate was owned by my Aunt Mary who was a southern belle from Alabama, known for her lavish dinner parties. She was a gracious hostess and entertained movie stars, celebrities, diplomats and the international social set. They came because of the privacy, the great food and the free liquor. I was a young fourteen-year-old boy who lived with her for five years and got to see it all first hand.

Aunt Mary was quite an interesting lady. She grew up in the south in a very poor family. She never had much and was working a job by the age of fourteen. She told me that she met an older couple, Mr. and Mrs. Marx who gave her a job as a car hop at the ice cream parlor they owned. They were struck by her beauty and how she could interact with people with such confidence.

Aunt Mary as a young woman

They saw that she had the potential to rise above her poverty. When they asked her if she would like to learn a different way of life, she jumped at the opportunity to move into their home. They were very wealthy and tutored her in etiquette, how to speak properly, how to entertain and more. Mary learned how to choose the proper dinnerware and prepare menus and guests lists. She learned to supervise the running of a large home with servants. The Marx’s entertained often. But one of the most important things she learned was to prepare gourmet foods with a southern touch. Mary was a quick learner and soon it was as if she had been born to wealth.

Through the Marx’s, Mary met John Trout, the man who would become Mary’s first husband. Soon after their marriage, John had a job opportunity to manage a large department store in Ft. Lauderdale so the two moved to Florida. With John’s generous salary, they were able to acquire a comfortable home, complete with swimming pool and room to entertain. 

Frequently Mary would meet John for lunch downtown. When Mary was alone at the table after lunch one day, a man came over and said he was a chauffeur and that his boss would like to meet her. Although Mary declined to meet the man, she noticed that he would often be in that restaurant where she would dine. He continued to approach her and eventually she consented to talk to him. He constantly told her how beautiful she was and how he was attracted to her. They became friends and later he was able to convince her to have lunch at his home. He sent his chauffeur to pick her up at her home. Mary told me that her marriage to John was beginning to fail and she was falling in love with Sig.

Sig Bechhold was a German scientist who defected to the USA during WW II, providing information that would ultimately help us defeat the German army. Our government paid him well and provided him with a luxurious home and many amenities. Mary divorced John Trout and she and Sig were married. They lived at Sig's Florida estate in Ft. Lauderdale.

Sig and Mary were invited to all the social events in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, as well as entertaining in their own home. My Aunt Lorraine, Mary's younger sister, lived with Mary for a while during her teen years and accompanied Sig and Mary to some of the parties. Aunt Lorraine told me that on one occasion she had danced with Fulgencio Batista, who lived in Florida for several years after he was President of Cuba and before seizing power and becoming the dictator of Cuba. Batista was eventually overthrown by Fidel Castro who brought Communism to Cuba and formed an alliance with Communist Russia, the USSR. Castro and his brother Raul still rule with an iron fist in

Reviews for The Beverly Hills Supper Club (Where the Stars Came to Hang Out) An Autobiography of My Teenage Years in Beverly Hills

[Lyn Bullard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An interesting view of some Hollywood greats. As a fan of the early Hollywood stars, I found this book very compelling with some new stories and information I hadn't heard before. The author's personal friendship with Betty Davis was especially fascinating. I also like the perspective, from a teenager's point of view. I would imagine it to be like Alice in Wonderland to experience such glamor and wealth after growing up poor in a small southern town. I would definitely recommend this book.