This story begins and ends with my mother Dolores M. Hall. To my mother, the Sun rose and set in Shirley MacLaine. She talked about Ms MacLaine often, attended her one woman shows in San Francisco and sometimes in Las Vegas. Naturally, she saw all of Ms MacLaine’s movies. Ms MacLaine was NOT an obsession with my mother, since, she didn’t go to Las Vegas just to see Shirley exclusively. And she actually never kept any memorabilia of Ms MacLaine, and she never made any attempt to meet Ms MacLaine in person or even get her autograph.
My mother was disabused of autograph hunting by Red Skelton, who treated her badly when she asked for his autograph. She never forgot the slight and determined never to put herself in a position to be humiliated by celebrities again. I later read that Red Skelton was a singularly unpleasant man to be around, for all his "on stage" persona and his hypocritical maudlin sign-off "God Bless". God Bless!!....... my ass!!
Please excuse my being ticked at Red Skelton, it was MY mother he was mean to after all. Wouldn’t you be angry at some level, if it was YOUR mother!
I didn’t discover that my mother for all her gushing about Shirley MacLaine, never kept any memorabilia connected with Ms MacLaine until after my mother died and I had to go through her personal belongings.
The reason will be clear by contrast in my mother’s relationship to four other famous people. My mother and father were great friends of George and Lee Liberace and Jimmy Diamond, the famous Dixie Land Band Leader and Lenny Herman, the great Big Band leader. But, not being Hollywood sycophants, this life long friendship came about not by groupie behavior, but purely by the circumstance of my father and mother’s particular talent of ballroom dancing.
Whenever they got on the floor, for some unknown reason other people stopped to watch them and rewarded their performance with unsolicited drinks from strangers. Thus, as the story goes George Liberace , brother of Lee Liberace, was a Big Band leader based in Sacramento and traveling a circuit that included San Francisco and Las Vegas (probably other places…but to my knowledge my mother and father only attended the gigs in San Francisco, Sacramento and Las Vegas). One night George Liberace was entranced and mesmerized by my parent’s ballroom dancing performance and at least on that night the drinks were on him.
Thus, began by a quirk of fate a life long friendship which led to introductions to Lee and his mother Dora and of course George’s wife Dora (a curious note: George had at least two wives named Dora and his mother’s name of Dora…odd coincidence I must say). This is a typical letter from George and Dora Liberace to my mother and father. In the letter when you read it you will see the name Lenny. That is Lenny Herman, the Big Band Leader, who was also a close friend of my parents. My (I’m going to let the cat out of the bag now) father, as I refer to him, Lawrence A. Hall, is actually my step-father. So there! You may not be able to see Kittu’s name on the letter, but, Kittu was George and Dora’s dog. Kittu always gave his regards to my mom and dad as well. You, also, can’t read Lenny Herman’s name in the letter. :
My mother and father were such good friends of the Liberace’s that here is an everyday picture of the brothers, probably taken by my father as just plain people:
Jimmy Diamond was a famous Dixie Land band leader. His fame to my knowledge was nationwide, but, he was headquartered in San Franciso. How he be friended my parents I do not know, but, I suspect it was the dance team performance that attracted his attention, it always did so. These are some pictures from a birthday party attend for Jimmy attend by my parents.
My father doesn’t appear in the next set of pictures because HE was the cameraman and he never really cared about celebrity, but, he did appreciate and support my mother’s love of George, Lee, Jimmy and Lenny:
In the first picture, Jimmy Diamond is in the white jacket and my mother is far left. If you look closely you will recognize her. In the second picture she is next to Jimmy on his left.
In Lenny Herman’s case there is an odd anecdote in connection with Lenny Herman which goes like this. Unlike, George Liberace, who was a prolific letter writer. Lenny Herman used the telephone. He made a point to call my mother throughout his friendship with my parents. Cut to: My father is deceased and my mother no longer has her beloved partner to dance with and enjoy their dates, and no longer traveled to the various venues that Lenny played, by this time I believe George was deceased and I’m not sure that Lenny was traveling, but, he did marry. Lo and behold, his new wife got it in her head that Lenny AND my mother were having an affair! Some affair he in Florida and she in San Francisco, California!!!!!!!!!!! The new wife forbad Lenny from calling my mother. So sad, that woman may have made poor Lenny’s last days a living hell. My mother, though upset was also amused that someone could be that stupid.
The point of all this is this, my parents never invaded anyone’s privacy. So Shirley MacLaine was not a major factor in real terms in my mother’s or my life, indeed my mother’s fear of rejection prevented her from even seeking an autograph from Ms MacLaine, yet, by some amazing act of fate Shirley MacLaine figures prominently in MY life:
- Shirley MacLaine is the catalyst for "Seeds of Heaven"
- Shirley MacLaine saved my life and the lives of at least three other people and maybe more, as I will now explain.
Here’s how it all began. Almost thirty years ago, in the fabulous sixties when a great enlightenment swept our nation. Segregation was stamped out (Shirley MacLaine by the way was a marcher and kept company with the oppressed …I remember her acts of bravery on behalf of her Black brothers and sisters) Eastern mysticism and Buddhism swept the country but, flourished most predominately in San Francisco. I was deep in the training and study. I even went on a fourteen day fast of only water, my brain was very soft at the time and I thought that that was the road to spiritual enlightenment. All, I got out of it was hunger and a two week liquid diet to recover my health and ability to eat solid food.
But, one day Shirley MacLaine, was being interviewed on a talk show and she said, ‘I would love to find a project that would encompass all that I believe and practice.’ Or something to that effect. A little voice in the back of my head said, ‘I can do that.’ That was thirty years ago and over that time I worked on and off on "Seeds of Heaven"! The truth be known, at some level, I never really believed my work would ever see the light of day, much less a book form or a potential motion picture.
For reasons I won’t go into now, I bought a house in Rochester, MN in 2000. The realty people told me I had to keep the snow cleaned up on my property. Remember, I live in San Francisco and was planning to move when the time was right. But, to make a long story shorter, I had to drive to Rochester, MN and cleanup my sidewalks. Thus began the most incredible events of my life to this point. I didn’t know it but I was driving into the worst storm season in December for the area in three years.
I arrived in nice weather. Midwestern people are so nice. My neighbors provide me with power tools to expedite my work, though it was still backbreaking I got it done in jig time. But, one neighbor told me that a major ice storm was coming in. I didn’t really understand the nature of an ice storm, so I retired for the night in an unfurnished house.
I had the following dream:
Shirley MacLaine appeared to me in a green or (perhaps aqua-velvet) dress, it had a distinctive design. She enfolded me in her arms. It wasn’t a motherly embrace. But at the same time it wasn’t sexual. It seemed somehow warm though.
I awoke with a start at 4am on the morning of 16 December 2000. And, knew I had to leave immediately. I didn’t bath, I loaded the car and left.
I seemed possessed. Let me explain. I take a bath EVERY day! I feel guilty, if I don’t take a bath. The same kind of guilt that I felt when I first got laid off after working most of my life to that point in an 8 to 5 routine. I remember how awful, I felt…I knew it was wrong not to be at a job. And it was somehow my fault. This bathing daily routine was hammered into me from childhood. When I lived in Germany, the Germans were astounded that I took a bath every day. It may have had something to do with hot water. I don’t remember. But, they were peeved with me for using it up every morning.
In England when my circle of English friends discovered I took a bath every day one wag looked me in the eye and asked me: ‘What is it you are doing mate that makes you so dirty that you need to take a bath every day?” I, of course, astounded…………. had no answer.
But, as you will see for what transpired had I stopped for any modality, bath, toilet or breakfast the timing would have been alter to a degree that would have resulted in my death or injury and the death or injury of the occupants of two automobiles and a Mac Truck/trailer.
The first miracle:
I left immediately. And while going about 70mph
thru snow flurries a car I was about to pass decide
he would not let me pass. I slowed quickly. He hit
a slick and spun about wildly, I slowed. He quickly
slid backward into a field (lucky for him it was open
country) and came to a stop. I could see he was okay
and my speed carried me several miles, as I decided
what to do....in the rear view mirror I saw a van and a
trucker stop, so I decide he was okay and did not
use my cell phone to call 911. It would
have been far too dangerous for me to stop also.
The Second Miracle:
The man who attempted to cut me off made a faithful decision. Because had he not cut me off and cause me to be upset and shaken enough to need to get off the freeway, a disaster of major proportions awaited us all. So, his stupid act saved all of us and was the last element in the Shirley MacLaine dream drama that was played out. I often wonder what made him cut me off. Was his hand moved against his will? This was absurd what he did. I was saved by the latest rental Ford Explorer with ABS brakes and four wheel drive. He was saved by good handling of his spinning car and an open unobstructed field! The other passenger vehicle and the Mac Truck and Trailer occupants were saved by their selfless good Samaritan act to aid a fellow traveler.
I instinctively decided against continuing on, I pulled into a Best Western.
When, I came down for dinner, people were poring into the motel. I asked what was up. I was told there was a ten car and truck pileup about two or three miles ahead. I, now, knew.............HAD I kept going I would have been in the accident. I thought of the dream!!!!!!!!
Had Shirley MacLaine appeared to me in this dream specifically to save my life?? I believe so!! I am a Dream Savant. My dreams have meaning and are prophetic in very specific ways as is outlined in a book I self-published in 1983:
Who’s Going to Win Tomorrow
Or
How To Use Your Dreams For Fun And Profit
But this was much different than any prophetic dream I had ever had. It was different in that I was compelled to do what I did. I did not sit down and analyze it and come to my conclusions which is the usual procedure. This was pure instinct and a driven instinct that overrode all my normal habit patterns.
The problem was I still had 2000 miles between me and San Francisco. Deep in some part of me I knew that the dream was symbolizing a kind of spiritual protection and was prophesying that I would arrive home safely, though, in my conscious mind I kept denying the validity of it. I was in great fear at a conscious level.
As I proceeded, I instinctively made excellent decisions. One was to go south thru Denver and try I70. I kept in constant contact with the highway information lines and discovered there were avalanches on I70. I continued south to New Mexico, thru Arizona and finally safely in California I cruised home.
The rental Ford Explorer sustained not even a scratch. (As many renters discover nicks and scrapes of any size or significance could be very costly.)
John Donne
Meditation XVII: No man is an island...
"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
I believe we are all connected at the Subconscious and Unconscious level. In my study the two levels are varying in depth, the Unconscious deeper that the Subconscious layer. But, here we all meet, great and small. The least among us and the greatest among us.
I think if I judge Shirley MacLaine by Madam Blavatsky’s hierarchical flow chart. She is a great Being operating on a plane about three tiers below the Christos (Light Consciousness). She is one of those Beings who incarnate frequently with a mission of some sort. Even SHE probably doesn’t know what that mission is and is probably better off not knowing. To know it in its entirety is too distracting, that veil is lightly laid over her vision, but, as a quasi-expert analyst of these matters here is how I break her down:
Note her Astral uniform:
A Green Evening Dress uniform, symbolic of the chakra from which she operates. I make it the healing aspect of the Heart Chakra (The Twelve Petaled Anahata [Sanskrit name] the seat of intuition, the Chakra out of which all artistic ability springs. But, the most important part of the Uniform is the Black frontispiece and the parallel gold stars that ride up the front of her torso and bends left across her shoulder to the Left side, the left brain of Intuition and Inspiration without a source or cause…she just knows! She is a member of a great order of spiritual Beings and a very High Order Ray has bestowed some kind of rank for ability for some act of importance that the Black field means command of the Universe at some elevated level and ruler of Star systems…symbolized by the parallel Gold stars that ride up from her feet to her shoulder. That is breath of command! Indeed.
"There are more things in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy,"
Hamlet to Horatio - Shakespeare
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