"THE INTERVIEW" WITH MEL HABER (PART 3 OF 4)
I doubt that Mel knew he'd we'd be celebrating The Holidays like this but... Merry Christmas...
MM: Cecil's was the equivalent of New York City's Studio 54 in Palm Springs. When you look back, what is the single identifiable factor that lent that certain magic to Cecil's or Melvyn's?
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MH: The place (Cecil's Disco) was designed in such a way--there were two statistics that say a lot. One night at Cecil's, there were 42 Rolls Royce's in the parking lot. I don't think there's a dealership in the world that had 42 Rolls Royce's on their lot! That was the kind of crowd we attracted. Number two: the place was designed in such a way that this is a disco in Palm Springs in a shopping center. We had no dress code. Eighty-percent of the guys wore jackets and fifty-percent wore ties! In a disco in a shopping center in Palm Springs. It was just a place where you got dressed up to meet members of the opposite sex. As a matter of fact, that's where I met my wife! I was 44 years old. The disco board at Cecil's was up on the second level. You could see everybody come in and see everybody dancing and watch the cocktail waitresses. And my wife was a beautiful school teacher who walks in for the first time with a girlfriend. She sees me up in the disco booth and pokes her girlfriend and says 'Isn't that guy a little old to be a disc jockey?' It was truly love at first sight--all these years ago.
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MM: You've sat down with some of the most famous people in the world. You're an astute observer of people. Is there a certain identifiable trait that successful people have that stands out most to you?
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MH: No. And that happens to be a very good question because I am a great fan of people of accomplishment. It doesn't necessarily have to be money, but anybody who has accomplished something. And as I sat with these people, I tried to identify just what you asked me! And I couldn't. I couldn't figure out why this particular person was so successful at what they were doing. Of the people that I know, I think a lot of them have chutzpah--the Jewish word; they step up to the plate. One time, I had the pleasure of meeting (billionaire) Kirk Kerkorian. I'm a great reader of biographies and I had a collection of books. So at the the time Kirk Kerkorian came in, I ran home and I brought back his biography and I said 'Mr. Kerkorian, would you be kind enough to autograph this for me?' And he said 'What do you want me to write?' And I said 'Write To My Friend Mel, Kirk Kerkorian'. Well, the next time he came in the manager said 'Mr. Kerkorian wants to see you'. I got nervous. I ran to his table and I said 'Mr. K. you wanted to see me?' He said, 'You know, the last time I was in here you embarrassed me. You asked me for my autograph'. I said, 'Mr. Kerkorian, do you have any idea who you are?' He was absolutely serious that I had embarrassed him because I had asked for his autograph. So, who knows what quality makes somebody as great as they are?
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MM: What drove you? What drove Mel Haber to develop this world-famous hotel and restaurant with his blood, sweat and tears--16 hour days six and a half days a week for years? Something drove you.
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MH: Greed. G-R-E-E-D.
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MM: Greed?
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MH: Yeah, Greed.
-MM: Really?
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MH: (Laughing): Well, I come out of Brooklyn with just a work ethic that you have when you come out of back East that you just work and work. When I first came out here, Michael, my competitors said 'Look at this jerk. If he wanted to work 18 hours a day, he could have stayed back in New York'. These guys closed their restaurants three months a year, they'd close the restaurant at 11 O'clock at night; they didn't stay open until 2 AM. So just by sheer, brute force I was able to compete just by being there much longer than they were. And they said, 'Look, if I wanted to work 18 hours a day I'd never come to Palm Springs. I came out here t play golf during the day, open my restaurant four or five hours a night, close it three months a year and travel'. And I'm the last one to say that they were crazy! I am also fortunate enough to have some staff that have been there 34 years. And I built a product. People don't come there because Mel Haber is there. They come there for the ambiance, or they like the food or the help there. And I'm not a star. Hopefully, I'm an extricated attraction.
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MM: Or the main attraction. And I want to get to this. You were the host for a while of a show on radio called "Celebrity Radio" and you gave advice on the singles dating scene. Okay, I'm single.
Talk to me. What are your observations today from your vantage point of having operated Cecil's and restaurants about what makes the singles scene so difficult to navigate?
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MH: Well, first of all you have sexually transmitted diseases which didn't exist when I had Cecil's. AIDS was not a word in the early 1980's. Mothers Against Drunk Driving helped raise awareness about reckless partying every night. Those two elements coincided with the end of disco. People partied back then almost seven nights a week. Today, they're nervous. And rightfully so. Also, the Internet has come into play, where all people try to find others on The Internet. My biggest observation when I ran Cecil's--and I met so many single people--and a lot of the ladies used to talk to me. They'd meet a guy and after a dance say 'he's not my number 10'. And I used to say, 'Well, maybe the guy's a 7. Why don't you go with a 7 until you find an 8, go with an 8 until you find a 9 and you can't go from zero to a hundred overnight. And incidentally, I'm a very big philosopher on love relationships, I really am. You can't really know somebody until you go out with them, because everybody puts on a facade. Everybody has a shell out there. Until you really get to know them, you don't have a clue. Now if someone is repulsive, I don't suggest that you try and strip that layer off. There's another thing that I believe in. I don't buy the cliche' 'You can't judge a book by its cover'. I think the cover is the book. I think the way that ladies dresses is her tastes--nobody else's. The way she combs her hair is the way she thinks she looks good. And if I don't like her taste in clothing, nobody dressed her. She is the cover!
-MM: Okay, Mel. I'll have to give that some thought. I admit, I wasn't expecting to hear that. But that's why it's fun to visit here.
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Note from Michael Manning: To each and every one of you, dear readers, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas with my Warmth and my Love. Each year, I continue to find myself both surprised and sincerely touched by the depth of feeling so many of you consistently communicate to me. If only the whole world were like each of you! I Thank You with all my heart. And I'm aware that I owe many of you visits. I am still operating without my Laptop Computer (while it's in tghe repair shop), so my access is erratic. But I will catch up with you. Meantime, hug someone you love and celebrate Christmas!
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Mel wraps up our visit tomorrow with a cup of coffee and a word about an organization near and dear to his heart: The Angel View Crippled Children's Fund. Please join us!
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