Palm Springs a la Carte
Reviewed by Connie Martinson
It is said that every business man or woman has two businesses, his own and the desire to be in show business or run a restaurant. Neither is the way the dream seemed. In Palm Springs, Mel Haber found the way to combine both. He wrote with Marshall Terrill "Palm Springs a la Carte: The Colorfull World of the Caviar Crows at Their Favorite Desert Hideaway"(Barricade Books $23.95).
In other words, can a small town boy from Brooklyn, NY find happiness in the sunny Palm Springs running a hotel and restaurant? This is before Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells, when there was only Palm Springs and the rest was sand.
When he was 13 Mel's father died, a month before his father was at his Bar Mitzvah, his father was in a business where five checks arrived every month and he knew everyone when the family went to Miami Beach, Mafia and show folk. After his father's death, the checks stopped and Mel started a series of businesses. He got married young, had children and had a partner, Artie, who shared in the various businesses that Mel was in. In 1971 Mel decided he wasn't in love with his wife and that he was happiest when he was in California.
On a trip to Palm Springs with his new friend, Barbra, he started to look at real estate and on April 15, 1975, he bought the Ingleside Inn and restaurant for $300,000 dollars. He never looked back. There were tough financial years, there were people he never should have hired, but where else could he have gotten to know Frank Sinatra and catered his pre-wedding dinner to Barbara Sinatra at the restaurant now known as "Melvyn's".
Mel was present when a certain man who stepped out of The Sopranos placed a phone call to that certain singer telling him to be at the Dinner Theatre in Westchester, NY.
Along the way, Mel remarried and he has a daughter, Stephanie, who is in college. He opened disco dancing restaurants, and a Chinese restaurant, he even had a late night radio show. .Due to the economy and changing times, both have closed. Today, Mel is 72 but he still has the Ingleside Inn and Melvyn's and as he said to me when we taped, that if he sold it, five minutes later it would be "Mel, who?". I laughed and reminded him of the Jack Warner quote about "next week I am just a rich old, Jew". And with changing times, Palm Springs is coming back to be the centre of attention.
To buy a signed copy of Palm Springs a la Carte, go to www.inglesideinn.com, or visit Amazon.com.
Best-selling author launches new Web venture
Celebrity biographer and best-selling author Marshall Terrill recently launched a new Web venture, www.marshallterrill.com, offering writing and editing services for full-length book manuscripts, proposals, review and manuscript editing.
Best-selling author Marshall Terrill, along with editor Cheryl Hosmer, offer a one-two literary punch with their combined talents, experience and enthusiasm. Those who have a unique or original concept for a non-fiction book or novel can now take the first step towards getting published. Or if you need help editing or proofreading a manuscript, proposal, synopsis, query letter or how to approach a publisher, they can lend a hand as well.
“For years I've been quite successful helping friends and associates get published either through my editing services and critiques,” Terrill said. “Now I'd like to offer those same services to those who are sincere in becoming published authors.”
Terrill is a veteran reporter, author, editor and public relations consultant. Of his dozen books, three are best-selling biographies on the lives of Steve McQueen, Elvis Presley and “Pistol” Pete Maravich. His books have been reviewed in USA Today, People, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, US Weekly, The London Times, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle and OK Magazine.
His list of books include Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel (1994); Edd Byrnes: Kookie No More (1996); Flight of the Hawk: The Aaron Pryor Story (1997); Ken Norton: Going the Distance (2000); Earnie Shavers: Welcome to the Big Time (2002); Sergeant Presley (2002); The King, McQueen and the Love Machine (2002); Skywalker: The David Thompson Story (2003); Maravich (2006); Steve McQueen: The Last Mile (2007) and Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business (2007).
Terrill has also edited five books on several subjects: history, baseball and the film and music industry. Terrill also teaches a very successful college course, “How To Get Your Book Published” and has had remarkable success getting his students published.
Hosmer is the editor of the 2005 version of Steve McQueen: Portrait of An American Rebel; Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business; Maravich and Steve McQueen: The Last Mile. Hosmer is a former journalist specializing in community journalism and issues of poverty in the United States. She specializes in developmental editing, research, business consulting, marketing and website usability issues.
“There's nothing like taking an author's raw idea and working through it, watching it come to life," Hosmer said. "It doesn't matter if it's ghosting or editing fiction or nonfiction, creating business plans or a training and development module. Once you get that momentum and creativity up and running, it's exciting.
Marshall Terrill.com will also host monthly seminars, live Internet chats and offer updated tips on writing and editing.
For more information, go to www.marshallterrill.com.
