Introducing Charlie

Charlie was one of a kind. Starting life in the Philippines as one of 18 kids, stowaway to get to the good ole USA, and pure tenacity and determination to get into and stay working in the movie industry.

And then there's his legendary passion for gambling, not to mention that he made his own films to distribute to a chain of Asian theaters that he also owned and operated. A true American success story.

His life reads like a screenplay. Running around with Charlie would have been a lot of fun, not to mention fast paced. Hollywood's heyday and hanging out with the movers and shakers. Late dinner at Musso and Frank's Grill on the Boulevard, then out to parties till dawn and then breakfast at The Pantry in downtown LA. All this followed by another full day of work back at the movie lots.

He participated through the glory days of Hollywood. Charlie worked from silent films to the talkies, from black and white to Technicolor and he worked on the lots at MGM, Paramount, Roach Studios, as well as all the other major studios.

The Gemora family's origin in Spain begins with the Moors. They were established in the Philippines in the 1500's by the illegitimate son of the Archbishop to the Court of the King of Spain. He was the first governor - there are stories from the islands that read like a swashbuckler novel.

They lived like kings, here's one story . . . To keep the Spanish galleons safe, one of my ancestors kidnapped the daughter of the Pirate King. His young son fell madly in love with her and that's why we have auburn hair and my dad's back was filled with freckles.

Carlos Cruz Gemora was born in 1903 on the island of Negros, the youngest of 18 children. They each inherited 3 haciendas or 1 million acres of land. His father died when he was very young and the eldest brother took over the assets, forcing even his own mother to relinquish her rights.

Carlos ran away to the capitol city of Manila and dove for pennies thrown from ships along with the other native youth. He was found and taken back to be sequestered in a monastery till he was old enough to sign his land away to the eldest brother.

At fifteen he was on a death watch with a body when it shot straight up into the sitting position. That was it! He got up, walked out and never looked back. Back to Manila and drawing sailors with sea shell frames, begging to be stowed away to the US of A.

He charmed some sailors who took him on board and hid him. Half way through the journey a pressure valve got stuck and they needed a very small person to wrench it open. Here comes Charlie to the rescue! So he was openly taken to the port of Long Beach. At this juncture he immediately started washing bottles for a dairy.

Hoping to be picked up as an extra on cattle call jobs, Charlie would camp out in the alley across from Universal Studios. He started drawing people as they exited the studio and was immediately snatched up into the art department. His artistic abilities quickly set him above the rest. Charlie started with sets, by nineteen he was Douglas Fairbanks' art director. He lived through the fairy tale time of silent films into talkies. His favorite was the monster time.

He designed and was in charge of building the set for the original Phantom of the Opera and he did the original facade of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, That set stood on the Universal back lot for many years.

During the twenties and thirties he ran with a fast crowd. Douglas Fairbanks was in there. It was all the rage to dress all in white, cars included. He would bribe the Lincoln dealer to get the first white Lincoln convertible with French horns in Hollywood to coup all of his friends. To get even with him, one of his friends laced his favorite candy with a strong laxative just before a hot date. You can imagine the result on everything white. The jokes they played were legendary, especially on each other.

My dad was said to have made and lost a million dollars seven times before the depression. He was first and foremost a gambler and secondly an inventor, which his makeup and special effects all come under, i.e. studio blood, lipstick in a tube, and many other inventions. His gambling stories could fill up a book in themselves. His schemes and partnerships, one with the slanderous Chief of Police of L.A. in the thirties.

Mike Cohen loved my dad and was my landlord in the 60's.

The whiz kid who wrote the Velvet Jungle stayed with us, along with his French mistress, while my dad tried to change his appearance. He carried a gun and a money belt with 25 G's. He was banned from the tables from Cuba to Las Vegas.

Our kitchen table folded out into a crap table, our coffee table was a standard lowered Roulette table - wheel and all. Every moment not on an invention or work we were at the race track (more stories), Jai Ali (More stories), dog track (More stories), wrestling (more stories). Hollywood Park to Tijuana was our circuit. The most fun was the train ride to Del Mar. There are too many funny stories around these adventures. He even came up with a horse liniment to get to the stables and the tips.