The answer is as multifaceted as Kevin himself. Like other wildly successful individuals who have made a mark across a range of disciplines, Kevin’s persona is an amalgam of life experiences, lessons learned and a unique dose of self-confidence that set him on his path from an early age.

“Shark Tank’s” broader global franchise, comprising 54 countries, now in its 17th season, has reached a staggering audience of over 100 million viewers. Kevin sits at the entrance between hopeful entrepreneurs and life-changing capital. He calls himself “Shark Tank’s American Dream Ambassador,” often ripping apart inventors’ balance sheets, or demeaning them with blunt putdowns. However, it’s his formidable track record that lends those bites their sharpened edge.

Kevin first rose to prominence when the educational software company he co-founded, The Learning Company, was acquired by Mattel in a landmark $4.2 billion deal in 1999. Today, he is one of the most seasoned leaders in the entrepreneurial space.  

As a prolific and quick-witted commentator, policy debater and bestselling author, Kevin has mastered the modern “omnipresence” strategy. With over 11 million followers across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, he speaks directly to the investor class whose wealth is derived from the capital markets. While his opinions can be polarizing, he is a sought-after expert for his ability to view world events and politics through the lens of capital flow.

Critics contend that his honesty veers into unnecessary verbal attacks. “You’re dead to me” or “Take it behind the barn and shoot it” are examples of him choosing a jagged performative edge over empathy. Do his audiences relish the predictability of the impending pain?  Or, perhaps, by hating Kevin for his actions, fans find a way to feel better about themselves. 

Whatever the reasoning behind the success, Kevin is a branding genius. He understood early on that humans are biologically attracted to conflict and catharsis. By leaning in to rebranding “meanness” as “honest truth-telling,” his brand didn’t just stick, it thrived. His popularity is unmistakably profound.

The biting irony is that he delivers verbal blows while meticulously polishing his somewhat ironic “Mr. Wonderful” brand. He lectures globally, advising industries, corporations, and universities on capital markets, and the intersection of global policy and business. At the heart of his operations is his “Something Wonderful” platform, which consolidates his “Shark Tank” investments into a unified support system for founders. His portfolio also includes WonderCare, an insurance provider, and his latest ambitious move, the massive Wonder Valley AI infrastructure project.

Additionally, his life experience has granted him the ultimate luxury: the ability to buy, market, and curate the finest the world has to offer. As a collector of “pièce unique” timepieces, vintage guitars, and investment-grade wines to name a few, Kevin has dominated the alternative asset category, earning the reputation for expertise that commands extraordinary respect.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Kevin at The Maybourne Beverly Hills, which has been his “home away from home” while filming “Shark Tank” in Los Angeles. Having studied the many layers of this brilliant, complicated, and deeply respected mogul, I wanted to peel back the “Mr. Wonderful” persona to better understand the machinery of his ambition and what truly makes this extraordinary man tick.

The lobby bar door swings open and Kevin’s entourage enters including friends, business partners and accoutrements. Kevin and his beautiful wife, Linda, quickly follow. As a large blue Tiffany & Co. box is placed center stage on the bar, everyone’s eyes focus on it as if the Crown Jewels were hidden inside. 

In a flurry, Kevin lifts the lid and reveals his latest prized possession, a custom necklace built around a 1-of-1 Dual Logoman autograph card, signed by Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Tiffany & Co. had mounted it in a heavy white‑gold frame and hung it from an oversized Tiffany HardWear‑style chain. Set with roughly 100 carats of Tiffany diamonds and 10 carats of rubies, the necklace weighs 2.2 pounds. 

Kevin, with his two partners, bought the card in August of 2025 at a Heritage Auction for just under $13 million. He explains the entire piece is valued today at an impressive $20 million.  

“Cards like this are indexed online based on the sales every night of cards similar to them,” Kevin offers. “Some cards go down, by the way. If an athlete gets into some scandal or something … But Kobe’s gone. He signed that card, and so I bought it.”

Kevin had the brilliant idea of enhancing its uniqueness with the help of Tiffany & Co.  

“They’re not just any diamonds. They’re Tiffany diamonds … I pitched it to Nicole Weiss (Global Head of High Jewelry). She said, ‘We love it. LVMH loves it. Let’s do it.’” 

Within two weeks, it was designed and completed using 3D robotics.  

“I have an attitude that I want to do extraordinary things,” Kevin shares during the interview. “How many people get to act in an Academy Award-nominated movie?” 

It’s highly unusual. Even his agents at United Talent Agency were against him reading for the role. 

“They said to me, ‘We’re very scared that you’re going to s–t the bed. You don’t know what you are doing. We’ve got a fantastic business with you. Why take a risk?’ I said, ‘I have to try it.’”

“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, and that was what was attractive about it. If you step out of your comfort zone, you exercise the most important muscle in your body, your brain.”

Kevin thoroughly enjoyed the experience, especially when it came to working with Timothée Chalamet. Now, Kevin’s entertaining new offers and hopes to do one motion picture a year. 

“The trouble is I’ve started at the top. The number one production company, the number one director, the number one actor in the world. Where do I go from here?”

Origin Story

Terence Thomas Kevin O’Leary arrived on a warm July 9th day in 1954 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was the first of two sons to Georgette Bookalam of Lebanese descent and Irish-born Terry O’Leary. Working in her family’s clothing business, Georgette had met and married Terry, a salesman. Unfortunately, the marriage struggled, mostly due to Terry’s drinking problem. They divorced when Kevin was 7. Soon afterwards, Terry passed away. 

During this difficult time, Kevin was also challenged and traumatized by dyslexia.  He felt ashamed in the classroom, unable to do what his fellow 6-year-olds could do. 

Worried, Georgette brought Kevin to see two experts on dyslexia at Montreal Children’s Hospital. They reframed Kevin’s thinking, convincing him he had a superpower. He took the lesson to heart. 

“I thought, ‘Why am I being ashamed? Why don’t I simply challenge these kids who are laughing at me?’ I said, ‘Watch this. I can read this book in a mirror. Can you do it?’ And they said, ‘How’d you do that?’ I said, ‘Well I have superpowers.’ And they’d go, ‘Whoa, that’s crazy.’” 

Kevin feels dyslexia and that period in his life taught him how to deal with adversity, and the need to be independent.

A few years later, Georgette married George Kanawaty, an Egyptian who worked for the United Nations as an international civil servant. The family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where George completed his doctorate in business.  

Dr. Kanawaty, today a man in his early 90s recalls, “I remember when we lived in Champaign-Urbana. We had rented a house on a golf course. Kevin was 8 years old. On his own initiative, he went and set a table near the 11th or 12th hole selling cold Kool-Aid drinks to golfers at $1 a drink. The entrepreneurial talent showed up at that young age.”

The family moved internationally throughout Kevin’s childhood.   

“I had a wonderful life that he provided,” shares Kevin. “I’ve lived in Cambodia, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Cyprus, Switzerland, Germany, France, Japan … I have a really interesting view of the world today and friends all over the world.” 

Kevin’s global upbringing laid the groundwork for his success, but it was a summer job in Canada that provided one of his most vital lessons. While scooping ice cream to impress a girl, Kevin ran into a tough reality: the power of the owner. When he refused to do menial work for the business owner, he was instantly fired. The experience became a revelation; the world is divided into two camps, those who own and those who serve. He decided right then that he would always be the one in charge. 

Practicality Over Passion

Another foundational lesson came from his mother. A quiet and disciplined investor despite their middle-class environment, Georgette offered “tough love” with respect to financial support as soon as Kevin graduated high school. Kevin funded his college education with loans and part-time work.  

His stepfather, George, guided with brutal honesty, and offered another key lesson. He told Kevin that he would starve if he pursued his dream of becoming a professional photographer. Convincing him to choose practicality over passion, George pushed Kevin to attend business school. George suggested that Kevin support his passions by building a money-making empire that funds them. Recognizing the wisdom in this, Kevin wasted no time making it a reality.  

“I always gut check before I open my mouth, ‘Is this the truth, what I’m about to speak?’”

Back in the Maybourne, after modeling his one-of-a-kind “bling” necklace and passing it around for everyone to try on in The Maybourne Bar, Kevin grabs one of his high‑end, rare and consciously curated guitars that was brought to our interview. Finding a comfortable chair, Kevin begins to serenade us.   

“You realize, as your career advances, the only thing that matters is your reputation. People don’t have to like you or agree with you, but they have to respect you.”

An example was Kevin’s working relationship with Steve Jobs. It was built on respect. 

“I did all of his educational software. He was not a nice guy, but he was a genius for what he built.”

Kevin’s The Learning Company was a major third-party publisher of educational titles such as Reader Rabbit and ClueFinders for Apple II, and later the Mac. It helped to cement Apple computers in schools. 

“We would fight a lot, but he would always say to me, ‘Look, are we making a ton of money together? Then shut up and just do what I say.’ I would say, ‘OK, Steve, that’s fine.’” 

Signal vs. Noise

He credits Steve Jobs for teaching him an extremely valuable working philosophy, the concept of signal vs. noise. It’s a mental model used to separate meaningful information called the signal, from the noise, which is random, distracting, irrelevant information. The term originated in the field of radio engineering and electronic communication during the early 20th century.

Kevin believes “There are three things you have to do every day, and that’s the signal. Everything that stops you from doing those three things is the noise. The ratio has to be 80%-20%. I’ve only met one guy in the world who’s 100% signal, that’s Elon Musk. He’s an unusual dude, a little eclectic, but he’s 100% signal. Look at what he’s achieved.”

Kevin believes that working outside of one’s comfort zone is very important in advancing. As he regularly addresses audiences in different industries all over the world, it forces him to prepare and discover new concepts of value. 

“I enjoy criticizing policy. When I see stupid policy from stupid politicians, I call it out. I’m not against the person. It’s just their policies are stupid, and it’s going to hurt people. I’m the only person you know that gets to work on every outlet in the media, the left, the right, the middle. I mean, the same day I’m on Fox News, I’m on CNN at night.”

Kevin has been criticized for going too far. When pressed, he admits, “I might have been better saying it a different way. That’s happened before, but I always gut check before I open my mouth, ‘Is this the truth, what I’m about to speak?’” 

But sometimes it can be hurtful and he admits that his adult children worry about the negative comments from some of his followers. 

“Which one of the 11 million are you worried about?” Kevin asks his children. “The lesson I get to teach is you can’t make everybody like you. It’s impossible. When I read a three-paragraph diatribe of utter hatred and not policy disagreement, just how much I hate you, I think to myself … What an utter waste of their time. What is their signal-to-noise ratio?”

Citing his children’s feelings on this issue illustrates just how sacred family is to Kevin. As the author of “Cold Hard Truth on Family, Kids and Money,” he views the family with financial pragmatism similar to running a business, requiring discipline, transparency and boundaries. Yet, the irony is hard to miss. While Kevin insists that emotions are bad for business, he is clearly driven by a deep emotional attachment to his own family.

Family Before Fortune

Kevin carries two phones, one exclusively for Linda and his two adult children, Trevor and Savannah. He has stated that if the family phone rings, he answers it immediately, even if he’s in the middle of a television taping or a high-level board meeting. Savannah, in interviews, has described him as a “softy” who loves to cook and play guitar. 

Forty-plus years earlier, Linda, a 21-year-old classically trained ballerina, met the driven 29-year-old big thinker at a gym in Boston in the 1980s. His charm and charisma won her heart as did their bonding over their shared love of food and wine. They were married in March of 1990 in a simple home ceremony with friends, pizza and beer, reflecting Kevin’s financial philosophy of investing their money even back then.  Thirty-six years later, they share a gratifying life together.

“If you have a successful family and you focus on marriage and you have kids and it works, it can be very rewarding later in life. A lot of people that are young are making mistakes.”

Kevin advises couples in selecting a life partner.

“Don’t move in together until you’re committed because it’s so easy … before you make it legal. Become married because within a few months, you’re going to find out it’s not that easy. And if you don’t have the bond of marriage, you’re just going to break up.”

Kevin claims most marriages break up due to financial stress. 

“Find somebody who has the same financial goals you have. Fifty-plus percent of marriages [fail] … It’s not infidelity. Most marriages can survive that, but they can’t survive financial stress because it just destroys the household.”

Hello Prenup is a company Kevin invested in. He explains, “We do prenups for women. It’s all online now. It works very well because it forces financial due diligence on both partners.”

Finding quality family time to spend together and learning how to listen are top priorities for Kevin. 

“We have a lake house in the summertime [in Ontario] … It’s very special family time. We hang out on the dock … work out, go swimming, take pictures or watch movies. It’s laid back … The sun sets very late, almost 10 o’clock.”

Become the Brand

Kevin’s Canadian summer in 1979 was very different and proved to be a turning point in his life. While pursuing his MBA at Ivey Business School, he took an internship at Nabisco under a “genius” Dutch product manager. Tasked with marketing cat food, Kevin witnessed a masterclass in branding. Even a “nasty” concoction of corn and bacon bits could be sold as a luxury, provided you have the gall to call it soufflé.

Years later, after the enormously successful sale of The Learning Company, Kevin pivoted to media, and instead of a new inventive business, he became the product to market. As a regular commentator on the Business News Network (BNN) in Canada, his style of sharp, clinical, and often controversial responses caught the attention of the Canadian producers of the British show “Dragon’s Den.” Kevin was later discovered and recruited by Mark Burnett, along with fellow Dragon, Robert Herjavec, to launch the American version, “Shark Tank.” 

“The trouble is I’ve started at the top. The number one production company, the number one director, the number one actor in the world. Where do I go from here?”

Proving that branding “mean” worked for ratings in Canada, was this the instigator for Kevin’s brand today?  

“It’s interesting because there’s a cost to that. A lot of people have never met me, but they don’t like me because of something I said. I don’t feel bad about it. I don’t care. I mean, I know it’s the truth, so I kind of roll on with it. Maybe I’m wired differently. I just don’t give a s–t. That’s the problem.”  

During the first episode of “Shark Tank,” after seeing Kevin abruptly dismiss a contestant’s entrepreneurial dreams, Barbara Corcoran turned to Kevin and remarked, “Look at you, Mr. Wonderful! You’re so mean.” Kevin immediately trademarked the name, but switched the sarcastic tone to a truth-teller narrative. His explanation is that he IS in fact Mr. Wonderful, by being brutally honest and preventing founders from losing all of their money. The “mean” guy now had a catchy, memorable name which his fellow “Sharks” promoted each time they referred to him.

Guided by the legacy of his mother and his trust in Linda, whom he wholeheartedly views as the O’Leary family CEO, Kevin’s track record proves he is a strong proponent of women in power.  

“I invest in a lot of companies. My outcomes have been extraordinary with women-led companies. I’ve made a lot of money … They mitigate risk better in the beginning for companies with $1 million to $5 million in sales … They know how to navigate the high-risk nascent period, which is 36 months … It’s the old adage: you want something done, give it to a busy mother. It’s the idea that they can juggle multiple mandates and they reduce risk.”

Aware of the inequities women in business face today, he offers, “Life isn’t fair. What I find about women CEOs or women founders is they understand life isn’t fair, but they don’t let that get in the way. They deal with it and they move on. I don’t hear a lot of women complaining about the injustice that does exist. They don’t have time to do that.” 

Surprisingly, Kevin’s drive for success is not purely financial.    

“The whole idea of being an entrepreneur is not about the greed of money, it’s freedom. You want to be free, and you want to do whatever you like. The only reason I’m here with you is I want to be.”

Time Will Tell

While he is widely known for his curated collections of vintage guitars, photography, fine wines, writing instruments, and now sports cards, it is Kevin’s horological journey that truly sets him apart. He now focuses exclusively on the world’s most significant “pièces uniques” acquired via sacred “covenants” with independent master watchmakers. In exchange for a promise to never sell a piece, he is granted the right to commission a one-of-a-kind masterpiece that rivals even the collections of Middle East royalty.

More fantastical are his rituals in how he experiences his collection, beginning with wearing two watches all the time.  

“It’s part of my look … Every day I wear six pieces. Two in the morning, switch at lunch, and then before I go out two more.”

After his morning workout routine, he spreads out 30–50 watches of his “untold” number in his collection, each with a different dial. All have red bands, with the exception of a few.

“Pantone 45C (red) is what I use for my bands and most makers know that about me.”

Offering me his wrist, he proudly shows me the watch on his right wrist. 

“This is a ‘pièce unique.’ There’s only one of them in the world … Made for me on ‘Shark Tank’ maybe five years ago by Francois, the CEO of Audemars Piguet. It’s a Royal Oak. There’s not another one in the world like this.”

A Rolex adorns his left wrist.

“They [Rolex] have taken a new step up in the world as master jewelers. They can incorporate stones into a dial like almost no one else on earth can do. I mean, this is the very, very famous rainbow dial where these colors in every rainbow match identically. Do you know how hard that is to do?”

Most important to Kevin is winning over the world-famous watchmakers.  

“It doesn’t matter how rich you are or how famous you are. If you want to get a watch, for example, from F.P. Journe, he doesn’t give a s–t about any of that. He only wants to know, ‘Are you a real collector? Are you somebody who will buy the piece, honor the piece, honor the brand, and never sell it?’ … I’ve had to get on my knees. That makes it even more honorable, more unique.”

Another challenge watch collectors and other alternative luxury asset collectors bump into is the high cost to insure the assets within today’s archaic insurance model. Most wearable assets are placed under the umbrella of the homeowners policy, and there is little flexibility with respect to appraisal, costs and appreciation. 

Recognizing the need, Kevin approached Chubb, the global giant, widely considered the “gold standard” for insurance. They did not believe the market would reflect the need for a white-glove, carve-out company. Kevin asked his 11 million social media followers, many of whom are watch collectors. Chubb would have been impressed with a few hundred positive inquiries. Kevin immediately received 3,800 eager responses. WonderCare was born that day, in partnership with Chubb, a stand-alone platform for collectors to manage their luxury “wearable portfolio.” 

Winners Embrace Failure

Does everything that Kevin touches or invests in turn to gold? Kevin admits he’s had many disappointments. 

“In venture investing, 80% fail. Two out of 10 work. I try to put those [the failures] behind me … I try and tell the entrepreneurs, listen. It hurts. It’s important that you learn from this what went wrong in the exit interview.”

Those who blame external reasoning are not learning from the failure.

“Some will say this to me: ‘Well, the market changed or our competitor did this or something happened external, but never do they say it was me. The ones that are going to be successful look inward and say, ‘What did I do wrong? What mistakes did I make and what did I learn from them?’ Because they’re the ones I want to invest in again. But the ones that always blame external reasons, they’re frigging losers. They don’t get it … You have to embrace failure, make it part of your DNA, and don’t let it happen again.”

He believes founders or company heads should know their weaknesses. 

Kevin offers, “I know what I am good at, and I know what I’m not good at … 

I’m a terrible logistics guy. I hate widget management. And if you think you’re good, you better prove it to yourself every month … I say that to myself every morning, ‘I am the very best. No one can beat me …’ That’s my attitude. That’s how I motivate myself.”

Linda confirms Kevin has always been extremely confident.  “In a smaller way. But everything was smaller back then. Everything is bigger now.”

“The whole idea of being an entrepreneur is not about the greed of money, it’s freedom. You want to be free, and you want to do whatever you like. The only reason I’m here with you is I want to be.”

Today, Kevin the self-made, entrepreneurial titan, mentors future generations on the brutal realities of searching for success, freedom and leadership. While his persona is a masterclass in “wonderful” modern branding, the engine of his success is his absolute conviction. 

When asked if total trust in his own messaging is the secret, Kevin is unequivocal. 

“People don’t follow you if they don’t believe you know where you’re going. It’s that simple … I lead with blind faith that I’m right.” 

The post Kevin O’Leary: Who is ‘Mr. Wonderful,’ Really? | Feature Interview appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Suddenly, the sound unraveled. Quickly opening his eyes, Gustavo saw worried, pale faces staring back at him. His instructor, Maestro Luis Jimenez, had arrived and stood in the back of the hall. 

“Oh my God, this is the end of my life as a musician,” said Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, recounting his terror in the hall’s silence. He thought, “I’m done. This is the end.”  

Maestro Jimenez slowly approached Gustavo. In a serious tone he said, “You have kind of a talent for conducting.” He then walked to his conducting block and raised his baton to begin the rehearsal.  

Later, Gustavo was summoned to the Maestro’s office. Instead of a stern reprimand, Gustavo was offered the introductory position of assistant conductor. This defining moment changed Gustavo’s life forever.

“I have to thank him a lot. I’m ‘here’ because of him.”

“Here” is the magnificent Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. For the past 17 years, beginning at the age of 27, Maestro Gustavo Dudamel has been the ordained “gift” to Los Angeles, the honored and cherished Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. But soon Los Angeles will be saying, “Gracias, Gustavo!”

His leadership is often described as magical, as he infuses enthusiasm and spontaneous engagement, making classical music feel relevant and alive. With his bold and diverse programming, his dynamic, performative approach and his ability to inspire contemporary works, Maestro Dudamel has captured the world’s heart in classical music. He has not only dramatically increased his audience fan base, but he’s also transformed younger more diverse enthusiasts towards classical music. The New York Times has called him the “superstar conductor” and has praised his talents with helping to make the LA Philharmonic “the most important orchestra in America—period.” 

“Under his leadership, we’ve become a model for what a 21st-century orchestra can be: boldly creative, fiercely relevant, and deeply connected to its community,” said Chairman of the Board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Jason Subotky.

During his extraordinary tenure, he’s energized global audiences, holding additional positions as Music Director of the Paris Opera (2021-2023), Music Director of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra of Sweden (2007-2012), and Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (since 1999). 

As a visionary, he’s created many symphonic firsts. He has led orchestra performances at major pop culture events, including the Super Bowl halftime show with Bruno Mars, Beyoncé and Chris Martin. He conducted the LA Philharmonic as it opened the 91st Academy Awards broadcast, and many collaborative performances with artists like Billie Eilish and Coldplay, as well as having been featured in mainstream films and series such as “West Side Story,” “Sesame Street,” and “Mozart in the Jungle.” He’s been awarded eight Grammy Awards and five honorary doctorates in music from highly respected institutions from around the world, including Harvard University. Internationally, he has received Spain’s Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, Chevalier and later Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Gold Medal, and is a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.  

Accolades aside, what drives this megastar maestro is deeply rooted in his humble beginnings and the transformative power he experienced as a participant in El Sistema of Venezuela.  Modeling that system he founded the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA). In partnership with the LA Philharmonic, YOLA today boasts over 1,700 young musicians ages 6-18, who receive free instruments, intensive music training and academic support.  

President and Chief Executive Officer Kim Noltemy of the LA Philharmonic noted, “For years, audiences have witnessed this profound and mutual affection between Gustavo and the orchestra, because when Gustavo conducts, what radiates from the stage is pure, shared joy. His deep respect and love for the orchestra are unmistakable in every performance.” 

This natural connection with his orchestra, and his innovative thinking and trailblazing collaborations, have inspired audience enthusiasm. This past spring, at Coachella, Maestro Dudamel brought the LA Phil to perform for the first time. He smashed all expectations and records by intermingling works by Bach, Strauss, Wagner and John Williams, with contemporary artists such as LL Cool J, Laufey, Dave Grohl, Zedd and Cynthia Erivo. Gustavo stated in the Los Angeles Times, “This performance ‘represents a journey of making music accessible to everybody.’” 

By successfully “crossing over” from classical music into the world’s pop culture, Gustavo Dudamel has ignited awareness, exponentially, of the transformative power of music. His historical Billboard magazine cover story in 2024, the first classical musician ever to be featured, signifies this unprecedented crossover. As he packs his bags for the New York Philharmonic, ending his extraordinary reign in late spring 2026, the Courier was honored with this rare opportunity to gain an intimate understanding of his astonishing, meteoric journey, his wisdom, and how he believes music can be a unifier to help heal the world. 

From the calm, carpeted corridor, I opened the Disney Concert Hall’s auditorium door to the thunderous power of the LA Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, led by Maestro Dudamel. Having been invited to peek in on his private rehearsal of a new contemporary composition, I quickly slipped into a back mezzanine seat. The empty hall in its colorful and acoustical grandeur further heightened the mesmerizing moment. 

The piece, “Earth Between Oceans,” explores the power of nature through the lens of the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Undoubtedly, I had entered during the dramatic Fire section. The robust “wordless choir added a dynamic timbre to the ensemble,” said Ellen Reid, its Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, at the world premiere the following night. 

Suddenly, Gustavo’s large arm gestures silenced the sound. In the quiet, he turned in his conductor’s rehearsal chair and called to Ms. Reid sitting in the orchestra section behind him. They shared words of interpretation. He then swiveled back to his orchestra, lifted his arms, and revisited the refrain. It was extraordinary to watch his process.

“The good thing is that she’s there,” said Gustavo, reflecting on the rehearsal later that afternoon with me in his private office. “But she’s letting me go. She writes the music, and we interpret it. She was very touched about what was happening.” 

Ms. Reid had never heard her creation performed live before that afternoon. Neither had Gustavo nor the orchestra.  

He continued, “And for me, it’s wonderful. It’s like having Mahler or Beethoven there. ‘Hey, Ludwig, what do think about it?  Are we doing well?’” Gustavo chuckled at the thought.  “Although they [Mahler and Beethoven] are not present with us, they are present with their music, and you have to really read the music to understand and bring them alive.”

This is one of the benefits of performing new, contemporary compositions. 

“It’s like a baby that walks immediately,” said Gustavo. “When we are playing something, we don’t know what is going to happen. [Ms. Reid] has an idea. We have an idea. She’s very talented. I have premiered other pieces by her, and she’s very clear in what she wants. But in that moment when you play something for the first time.” He pauses. “It’s beautiful.”

“Beautiful” is also the way Gustavo describes hearing the sound of live orchestral music for the first time in his life. 

Little Gustavo was 5 years old. It was Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, a symphonic suite inspired by the tales of “One Thousand and One Nights,” also known as “The Arabian Nights.” His young father was a trombonist in the youth orchestra.  

“I was blown away. It was like, wow! I have the memory of the theater where we were, and the amount of sound that was coming. I was so excited. I was trying to see my father. But I couldn’t see him because I was very little.” 

Music is in Gustavo’s blood. His parents met in a folk music group in Barquisimeto at the ages of 15 and 16. Young Solangel Ramirez Viloria, a singer and voice teacher, fell in love with Oscar Dudamel Vasquez, a trombonist and salsa musician. They raised their two sons Roger and Gustavo, in a musical environment, beginning with Latin music, bolero, salsa, and merengue. 

Gustavo’s grandmother, Engracia Vasquez de Dudamel, lived with the family when Gustavo was a boy. She has shared stories about him, arranging his toy soldiers in orchestral positions. While the music played on the record, he would conduct their performance. This imaginative play from an early age made conducting feel very natural to him. 

But it was the revered Maestro José Antonio Abreu, and his trailblazing work to democratize access to the arts, who lit the fire under Gustavo. While mentoring him toward maestro prominence, Maestro Abreu inspired Gustavo toward a life commitment to social advocacy. 

In 1975, Maestro Abreu created a groundbreaking music education program, funded by the Venezuelan government’s social services division, to provide free musical education for all children regardless of their socioeconomic background. Believing music is a universal right, Maestro Abreu felt music education was essential for the well-being of children at risk, providing social inclusion and personal development through shared music making. As music transmits harmony and mutual compassion, he was convinced it could unite communities. Called El Sistema, it grew into a nationwide network of hundreds of music centers reaching hundreds of thousands of children from underprivileged backgrounds. Maestro Gustavo Dudamel is indisputably El Sistema’s most successful alumnus.  

Entering the program as a young boy, Gustavo thoroughly enjoyed making music with his friends. It was his happy place. El Sistema was popular and thriving. At the young age of 12, he was selected as a violinist from all the children in youth orchestras in Venezuela to be in the National Children’s Orchestra. This was his first encounter with Maestro Abreu. 

“Of course, he was there all the time supervising the rehearsals. One day he asked me to lead, to show the people how to do it.” 

Maestro Abreu recognized Gustavo’s talent and took him under his wing. Soon after, he invited Gustavo on a trip to Caracas, at age 14, to witness his first ballet performance. It was a ballet rehearsal of  “Swan Lake.”

“I was sitting there, and he asked me, ‘Do you see the rhythm? … in the body? Do you see the melody?’ I was like, wow, I have to discover that.” “‘Now, where do you feel the harmony? The chords?’ It was amazing because it was the most beautiful natural expression … Maestro Abreu was a genius.”

He was instructing Gustavo to see the orchestra in the movement of the body. At another point, Maestro Abreu used the analogy of a flying bird as a metaphor to help teach the movements of conducting hands. 

“He said to me, ‘Your hand is like a bird. You feel all the air in the palm of your hand and there is the dimension of sound. You are taking the sound that is everywhere. Even if you think it’s silent, there is energy. That is harmony and that is sound. And when you are making the movement of the upbeat to start, you are bringing that sound there,” as he gestured lifting his arms in his office. “And this is the way I hold the baton in my hand because it’s the body and the wings. And this is the head,” as he continued to demonstrate. 

Maestro Dudamel often conducts major repertoire and signature works like Beethoven and Stravinsky without a music score. He credits Maestro Abreu for this preparation. When asked about his dynamic, performative choreography possibly being memorized, as it pairs seamlessly and harmoniously with the memorized music, Gustavo quickly dismissed the thought.  

“No, never. I don’t practice my gestures. I have never practiced my gestures. The thing is, if I prepare everything perfectly, maybe what I have in mind doesn’t go with what the orchestra is expecting. My advice to young conductors is to be flexible, to manage the moment … The process has to be very natural.” 

Additionally, there’s commentary about Maestro Dudamel’s magic when he performs. It’s referred to as a spiritual connection that transforms him. Gustavo did not deny this interpretation. Instead, he recalled a “very important lady in the arts,” who was the head of the Latin American Festival of Theater in Venezuela and a dear friend of Maestro Abreu. After observing Gustavo’s talent as a young man, she declared that he had “duende,” from Federico García Lorca’s essay, “In Search of Duende.” It explores the concept of artistic spirit, or “magic,” that presents itself through a visceral, spontaneous power. 

“She told me I have magic. I thought, OK, I’m possessed or something. But it’s true. There is something that goes naturally with my body, with my soul, what I listen to, and what I feel.” 

When Gustavo was 18 years old in 1999, he was appointed as the youngest Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. All of the musicians were graduates of the El Sistema program. As the chief conductor, he led the orchestra performing in Venezuela and around the world. 

“I had a series of concerts. I remember we played at the U.N. [United Nations].”

Enjoying performing with his friends, he was less motivated to do competitions. But Maestro Abreu had other plans for Gustavo. He felt Gustavo needed competition experience in order for his conducting talents to be seen and recognized internationally. 

Years earlier, when he was 11 years old, Gustavo heard a recording of Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony and quickly became a lifelong fan. When the opportunity arose in 2004 for Gustavo, at the age of 23, to enter the prestigious Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg, Germany, Maestro Abreu wanted him to enter. But Gustavo was in Berlin for three months as an assistant conductor to Sir Simon Rattle at the Berlin Philharmonic. Nonetheless, back home in Venezuela, Maestro Abreu filled out the application paperwork. 

When Gustavo returned from Berlin, he said, “I told my Maestro I was feeling bad. I need to check with the doctor. I was trying to avoid going back to Germany.”

But Maestro Abreu pressed. It was to be the first time that Gustavo would be leading an internationally acclaimed orchestra as a conductor, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. After two weeks in Venezuela, Gustavo acquiesced. 

“I never pushed myself to say, I’ve got to do this. I got to win. It’s not my personality. I went there to enjoy, to experience the beautiful moment of knowing a wonderful orchestra, and knowing great people.” 

The outcome dramatically changed Gustavo’s career trajectory. 

“I passed the first round; my name was there. The second round, I said, well, this looks serious; let’s keep going. Then third round, then semifinals, then I’m a finalist. And it was very natural. I never pushed myself, saying I’ve got to win. But I felt that from my fellow competitors.” 

Gustavo won and the international community took note. One of the esteemed judges in Bamberg was, at that time, the current Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen. In 2027, he will be returning to the LA Philharmonic as Creative Director, bookending Gustavo Dudamel’s tenure. 

Maestro Salonen shared, “When I saw him at the Gustav Mahler competition, it was stunning how naturally he connected with the orchestra and how effortlessly music flowed from him. He stepped in front of the Bamberg Orchestra, conducting a professional orchestra for the first time, Symphony No. 5 by Mahler, which is notoriously difficult to conduct, and it just flowed. The musicians [a hundred all older than him] accepted the fact that there was this young Venezuelan guy in front of them, guiding them, who didn’t speak much English. It just lined up beautifully. I thought this kind of talent doesn’t come across every year. It’s more like a generational thing.” 

Maestro Salonen quickly placed a call to the CEO Deborah Borda, requesting an invitation for this “conducting animal.” Soon after, Gustavo arrived in Los Angeles for the first time at age 24. The pressure was on, but Maestro Abreu had prepared him. 

Gustavo explained, “He made me play in the orchestra, to watch the conductors, and to feel what the musicians feel to be conducted. The work of conducting is not only making the orchestra sound good; it’s making the orchestra feel good … Remember that we are creating a sound together. We have the notes; we have the music composed by the geniuses of Beethoven or Mahler, all of them. But we have to reproduce that [sound]. And that is a feeling, a metaphysical process. [The conductor] has to create an environment where it is healthy to create beauty.” 

For him, the key is about inspiring and motivating the orchestra, adding, “I’m no one without the musicians because my instrument doesn’t sound.”

“You know how many times these musicians play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with so many conductors? What can be different in that moment? That is the secret. The secret is how you don’t change things. You try to enhance the moments and the spirit of everybody.”

That first visit to Los Angeles could have been overwhelming for Gustavo. He was coming from conducting a youth orchestra in Venezuela, and stepping onto the platform to lead one of the top orchestras in the world.

“It was an instant connection … I was conducting them and the interaction was, at the highest level, artistically friendly. The sharing of my ideas and how they were taking those ideas and making a sound from my ideas felt natural.”

“What I find maybe most amazing about him is that, after all these years of fame and success and adulation, he’s still an idealist. He believes in the importance of music as a social force, and that’s really impressive.”
– Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen 

His United States conducting debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in September 2005 was met with immediate and overwhelming success. More performances with demanding repertoires at the Walt Disney Concert Hall followed. His graceful and natural strength empowered the enthusiasm, reflecting the genuine admiration from the orchestra and his “charismatic power” with the audiences. The Los Angeles Philharmonic did not waste time. He was appointed Music & Artistic Director, succeeding Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen, in October 2009 at the age of 27. 

In 2007, before Gustavo formally took on his position as Artistic Director, he launched the YOLA program, directly inspired by his own formative experiences with El Sistema. With the dual goal of developing musical proficiency and fostering social change in diverse, underserved communities, it became a key component in negotiations with the LA Philharmonic’s leadership. As they enthusiastically embraced this concept, YOLA has become not only Gustavo’s signature project but also a foundational pillar of the LA Philharmonic’s mission. Together, they erected the Judith and Thomas L. Beckman YOLA Center in 2021, designed by Frank Gehry, located in Inglewood, as YOLA’s first permanent home.

“When you give an opportunity to a young child that is not in the environment of having opportunities, you are not changing the life of one person; you are changing the life of all that surrounds this kid … It’s a lot of circles: his family, his neighborhood, his community. Everything changes. When they see a kid walking with an instrument, they feel proud … This is the philosophy of YOLA. This is the philosophy of El Sistema. They are transforming their lives and the lives of the people that surround them.”

It’s also about one’s identity. 

“Mother Teresa of Calcutta said the worst thing about being poor is to be no one. And what a beautiful thing when you give a child an instrument. You are giving them an identity. You are giving them a place in society with the most sublime expression of humankind. That is art.”

Gustavo further explained, “If we look pragmatically and we open our mind and our soul, what we see are people producing beauty. Whoever you are, whatever you think, wherever you come from, you are united in that moment because you are sharing energy at the same time. What a beautiful thing. This is what happens on stage.”

He believes it’s similar to a violin and a trombone, a flute and a tuba. They all come together, and there is harmony. 

“I think the world right now is not in harmony. It’s in a cacophony. It’s noisy. But noisy in cacophony is also harmony. We [need to] really open our ears, open our souls, open our minds. We will see the beautiful chords that are inside. But we need more of this.”

This is what connected Gustavo to the love of his life, his wife, actress and director, María Valverde. They met while working on the film, “The Liberator.” She was the star; he composed the film’s soundtrack. Years later, their friendship developed into a romance, and in 2017 they were married in a private ceremony. 

From the very beginning, they shared “beautiful, deep talks about art, about the concept of ‘viendo la belleza del arte, looking at the beauty of art.’” He expounded, “This concept goes beyond what we can understand about art. But by opening the paths for opportunity, the younger generations can contemplate, share, work together and understand that community connections create harmony.” 

The Dudamel Foundation, which María co-chairs, instills the belief that art and music are fundamental human rights. Capable of fostering a more just, peaceful and inclusive society, music is a universal language that transcends barriers and speaks directly to the soul. Their foundation, which is a part of a global movement, not only aims to give every child the chance to fulfill personal dreams through music; it also sees music as the catalyst for societal transformation, inclusion, empowerment and lasting change. 

“What I find maybe most amazing about him is that, after all these years of fame and success and adulation, he’s still an idealist. He believes in the importance of music as a social force, and that’s really impressive,” said Maestro Salonen. 

Our time together was evaporating. We ventured toward his bookshelves, and I spotted his first Grammy, for Best Orchestra Performance in 2011, resting prominently as well as his most recent Grammy, one of three won in 2025, awarded for his conducting of the LA Philharmonic. There was a photo of him giving a speech at the White House honoring his friend José Andrés accepting the Medal of Freedom, and other prizes and awards from world leaders such as the President of Chile, and the President of France. 

He grabbed a small, weathered book off the shelf. “This was my Maestro’s, his agenda book from 1978,” a significant treasure from which Maestro Dudamel has modeled his life’s mission. He began to thumb through the pages of his heirloom. “See, he wrote, ‘This is done. This is what I have to do,’” pointing to the Spanish multicolored, handwritten entries. He took a moment, reading, clearly moved.  

“Under his leadership, we’ve become a model for what a 21st-century orchestra can be: boldly creative, fiercely relevant, and deeply connected to its community.” – Jason Subotky, Chairman of the Board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic

There were other memorabilia from some of his trailblazing concerts, which begged the question about future music collaborations. He offered that he has many. 

“I was with Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin, the other day. It would be a dream for me to do something with him. Radiohead is a group that I admire and I love. And many Latin artists I would love to work with. That was my home. I was listening from salsa, to rock, to classical. There was no border or a wall that separated music … Music is one, with different styles. It’s an expression of humans. That’s it.”

Which music does he choose when he is with María? He chuckled, “A lot of music.” Then he changed the direction of the question. “Family for me is the most important thing. And that is what provides me inspiration. I think of María, my son Martin, my parents …” as he grabbed a photo of his son. 

“He’s a teenager now. He’s wonderful. I love to go with him to eat and talk. I learn a lot. I think every time is my favorite when I’m sharing it with him.” 

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Martin lives in Madrid. Gustavo confirmed it is his home as well. 

“Yes, Madrid and Los Angeles.” His answer opened the door. Is he really not saying goodbye? 

Gustavo has said, “When a finale is approaching, you can feel it. Whether an orchestral piece concludes with a bang or a whimper, its ending is rarely ambiguous .… There’s only one thing a final movement, third act, and proper goodbye will always have in common—they are never easy to get right.” 

He has referred to Los Angeles as “home” in the media. He has also shared his intentions to continue to perform with the LA Phil in some capacity each year going forward. 

“I’d like to see this as Gustavo not leaving, just changing the nature of his role in the life of the LA Philharmonic. He will be coming back. It will be everybody’s highest priority to see him back in LA often. It’s not a farewell; it’s just a transition to another role. This is a relationship that will keep growing and deepening. I know Gustavo is going to be coming back as long as he’s around. And that thought gives me a lot of joy … Gustavo feels like family to me. We are very close. It’s a great relationship, and I’m very, very proud of it,” shared Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen.

After 17 years of the Gustavo Dudamel era, he leaves a legacy of purposeful, transformational, artistic leadership, explosive growth and impactful community engagement, and a prestigiously historic elevation of the LA Philharmonic’s international profile. With more than 50% of the orchestra members coming from the Dudamel era, his visionary, risk-taking approach and deep connections with the musicians will ensure his influence will resonate in Los Angeles for decades to come. 

“We are closing a chapter, and we are opening a new chapter.  It’s very important for our institution to evolve and to be flexible to new things. But it’s beautiful to see that we are closing a chapter in such a beautiful state. It’s working perfectly … As I told the orchestra, they are the most important [part]. Whoever is at the podium, that is OK. In the end, it’s the LA Philharmonic. And that is why I’m so happy and proud of being part of this family.”

Gustavo has been having these discussions with his musicians during his orchestra rehearsals.    

“We talked about how this time has transformed us. It’s an evolution that is very powerful.  This relation will never end.” 

Still, it’s hard to close the chapter. Maestro Dudamel offered a Colombian poet who described it best.  

“A century in an instant,” he said. “Everything is so beautiful and intense that a hundred years passes in an instant … It’s what I feel. It has been 20 years coming regularly to Los Angeles. It feels like this year. It was yesterday, one hour ago. It happened because of love, a century in an instant … Love for the people of Los Angeles, love for the orchestra, love to all of these communities.  It’s their generosity …  I’m so grateful.”  

The post Gustavo Dudamel: The Legacy of a Megastar Maestro | Feature Interview appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Byron’s maternal grandfather was a union man as well, working for Great Lakes Steel for over 30 years. It’s no wonder that Byron assumed that he, too, would one day become a blue-collar man. And why not? It was the ‘60s. Detroit was a factory town that made “cars for the world … and music for the world. Motown … It was magical,” he recalls.

Growing up in an industrial town instilled in Byron the values that would propel his life’s path.

“I saw this incredible work ethic,” he says. “It’s a part of my DNA.”

He would know. A self-made media mogul of legendary success, Byron’s story is not only astonishing, it’s awe-inspiring and indisputably unique. Beginning as a stand-up comedian and evolving into a modern-day television “industrialist,” his rags-to-riches journey is one of extraordinary ambition, ingenuity, courage, strength and creative talent, and it reflects his keen understanding of “the business of show.”

The global media conglomerate, Allen Media Group (AMG), of which Byron is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer, owns/operates 27 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX network affiliate broadcast television stations in 21 U.S. markets and ten 24-hour HD television networks, including The Weather Channel, serving nearly 300 million subscribers. Headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in New York and Atlanta, Byron not only produces and distributes Emmy Award-winning and nominated shows, but he also distributes and sells advertising for 74 television programs from one of the largest libraries and advertiser-friendly lifestyle content collections in the world. Focused on free, ad-supported streaming that leverages his existing media assets with hyper-local news, weather, sports and traffic information, Byron is heavily invested in digital streaming platforms with HBCU GO, Local Now, TheGrio and Sports.TV. Moreover, AMG is the first African American-owned multiplatform media company producing and distributing wide-release motion pictures and content for all platforms.

Three-time Mayor of Beverly Hills Lili Bosse, herself a legendary figure in the city, has this to say about her friend and fellow resident.

“Byron is one of the most extraordinary people I know. He is a true trailblazer, visionary and a force of nature. We are kindred spirits, as we share the same life philosophy to start with ‘yes’ and then figure out how.  He is a loving family man and has a wickedly funny sense of humor. Byron is someone who can make anything happen, envisioning possibilities that most can’t even dream of. He is bold, innovative, fearless, and mark my words, light-years ahead of our time,” says Bosse.

Described in the press as a self-made billionaire, Byron catapulted from comic to media titan as a Black businessman in the white-dominated media mogul world. An honorable man filled with courage and conviction, Byron uses his earned platform to advocate for civil rights and philanthropic causes in an effort to effect positive change.

So how did this purposeful and passionate man from Detroit accomplish such a feat, and how is he leading going forward in the evolving media landscape? I set out to find the answers.

We met at the swanky Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Byron swooped in, sprinted through the field of hostess greetings and quickly directed them to lead us to a luxurious booth. Once there, he quickly and charismatically took control of the conversation, curiously diving in about the Courier’s circulation and digital capabilities. His intensity was penetrating; his expertise was invigorating. Within minutes, he left the table, requesting we move outside to improve the audible experience.

Situated in the back booth of the garden, the who’s who of the L.A. business community found their way to greet him, each one with a friendly “inside” comment or story. After a moment, he signaled me to turn on my recorder.

“Is it true you learned how to roller-skate before you could walk?” I asked.

“Back in Detroit, my grandfather and my grandmother on my father’s side built and owned the RollerCade Roller Rink on Schafer, and they controlled the cash register,” he answered.

From a young age, Byron understood the power of ownership and job creation. Beginning at age 6, he had the job of “floor guard” while his slightly older cousins managed the record player. Byron would stand in the center, surveying the rink, waiting for a slip and fall. The second someone did, he would blow his big whistle, signaling his cousins to stop the music to prevent a dangerous “stack up.” On special nights at the RollerCade, live music acts would appear, sent over from Motown, to familiarize the singers with performing and the community with the singers. Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations and Marvin Gaye were some of the regulars.

“I’ve known Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson since I was a kid back in Detroit,” he says.

One day, Byron’s mother, Carolyn, and his grandmother, Eddie Mae, took Byron and his four years older uncle, who today is AMG’s Chief Operating Officer, on a ride to “see where the rich people live.”

Impressionable young Byron was captivated by the magnificent mansions set on pristine grounds, homes of the Ford family, the Goodyear family and the Chrysler family. His grandmother proudly shared that she and many of her friends from their neighborhood had been “domestics” in the big estates they drove by. It piqued his curiosity, wondering how they became rich. The last sighting was Berry Gordy’s estate. Byron stared in disbelief.

He said to his mother, “He [Gordy] lives over here with all of these super rich white people, and I’m walking 30 minutes to the community pool?” His grandmother chimed in, “He’s got one in his house, and a bowling alley, too!”

The next eye-opener came a few months later in April 1968. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Riots broke out all over America, and the military immediately took over Byron’s neighborhood.

“I was looking down the barrel of a tank in my neighborhood as a 7-year-old. That was the moment I lost my innocence; I lost my childhood. I became a child of war. I realized that America looked at me differently. America didn’t love us. America tolerated us.”

By the summer of that year, Byron’s mother and father separated. He and his mother then decided to visit family in Los Angeles.

Carolyn had given birth to Byron 17 days after her 17th birthday.

“No one was betting on a Black teenage girl and a Black baby boy born in 1961, without any civil rights, accomplishing much of anything,” he recalls.

But Carolyn had big dreams for herself as well as her son. Two weeks in Los Angeles turned into a lifetime. For the first several years they slept on sofas and floors, switching houses and schools, thanks to family and friends. Byron was happy; he didn’t mind the instability as he was always with his mother. He accompanied her to every job.

“She was working at the Salvation Army, passing out goods to folks who were less fortunate than us,” he says.

Believing education is the key to success, Carolyn wanted to go to college. She was admitted to UCLA, something Byron describes as “probably the most dramatic thing that changed our lives.”

After graduating, Carolyn went on to receive her master’s degree in cinema and television production from UCLA, despite the numerous financial and discriminatory challenges she faced. The first was supporting herself and her son while attending school full time.

Byron vividly recalls overhearing a conversation between his extended family and his mother. “You can’t financially afford Byron. You should give him up for adoption.”

Afraid of being taken from his mother, Byron, at the age of 11, walked to the nearby Ralphs supermarket and pleaded with the manager for a job as a “bag boy.” It didn’t work. Walking away, dejected, Byron noticed a lady bringing her shopping cart back from the parking lot to a machine and receiving a stamp worth a penny. He surveyed the entire parking lot. If he rounded up 100 carts, he’d get $1 worth of food to bring home to his mother.

“That was it. I created my first business … I’ll keep collecting the carts and putting them in the machine, $3 worth of food, then $5, every day after school. I had to keep hustling and grinding if I wanted to keep my mother,” he says.

One day, Carolyn discovered Byron needed critical medical care due to an infection in his leg. Rushing to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), she worried for his well-being and the costs of his medical treatment. The hospital saved his leg from amputation and never charged Carolyn for the service, a gesture imprinted in Byron’s heart.

Byron’s dreams for a better life continued. Always with an eye back to Detroit thanks to communications with his father, he fervently read all he could about the Industrial Revolution.

“I studied the great entrepreneurs … I noticed it was all these industrialists who were so wealthy, and they built these amazing businesses. Remember when my mom and grandmother showed me those homes? I wanted to have a beautiful home like that,” he recalls.

Eventually, Carolyn, with Byron in tow, went apartment hunting through UCLA’s housing department. But the sight of a Black woman and her Black son in the doorway resulted in a rejection. UCLA housing then sent over a white couple who were successful in renting that apartment. It was the first time Byron remembers experiencing discrimination.

Today, when asked about racism, Byron shares he knows it will always be present. But the way to handle it is to “make it work for you.” The resistance racism creates can break a person or make a person stronger. It’s what has made him what he is today. If he loses it all tomorrow, he feels he could build it back even better.

Discrimination didn’t discourage Carolyn, either. While in graduate school, when she was declined for employment at NBC, she pushed harder, despite her financial circumstances, and asked if they had an internship program where she could work for free.

Byron adds, “When they said no, she asked the most important question that changed our lives forever. ‘Will you please start one with me?’”

The “yes” she received taught Byron the power of believing, of being persistent and to “always go that next step.”

Decades later, when Byron was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next to Johnny Carson’s star, he shared the credit with his mom. “This is not my star; this is our star,” he said.

As Carolyn progressed from NBC page to NBC publicist, responsible for getting magazine covers for their television shows, Byron was given entry into the world of unimaginable possibilities.

“While visiting my mom at NBC, I’m watching the network multi-purpose sets, and the cameramen gear up and focus. I’m watching the grips, and all the cable guys [put on the television shows]. I’m watching the executives negotiate with the producers, and the producers interact with the talent. It was a symphony,” he says.

Everyone came to know Byron as Carolyn’s son, a self-sufficient, friendly, respectful young teenager, enthralled by the workings of the television industry.

“I’m watching Johnny Carson tape ‘The Tonight Show.’ Then I would walk across the hall and watch Redd Foxx tape ‘Sanford and Son’… Flip Wilson tape his show with Richard Pryor, Bob Hope do his specials. Dean Martin do his. I’m watching the local news, an unknown weatherman, Pat Sajak, and an unknown sportscaster, Bryant Gumbel.”

Byron knew he was in a special place: not a car factory, a television factory. He was most intrigued by the comedy division within the factory, for himself.   

“I knocked on the door of this comedian on the ‘Gladys Knight Show’ in the summer of ’75 and asked, ‘Sir, how do I become a comedian like you?’ It was Gabe Kaplan, and he told me, ‘Go to the Comedy Store, and don’t forget to watch “Welcome Back, Kotter,” my new sitcom.’”

Byron called the “store” and asked the price of the jokes. The voice on the phone, Comedy Store owner Mitzi Shore, laughed and said, “This is a comedy club. We don’t sell jokes here.” Persistent, Byron showed up at 9 a.m. the next day and convinced the owner, despite his young age of 14, that he deserved five minutes on the stage. Drawing on his experience, Byron used a “Sanford and Son” character doing stand-up. He was a hit.

Soon afterward, Byron received a call from Jimmie “JJ” Walker, considered the greatest stand-up comedian in America at the time, and the star of the sitcom “Good Times.” He asked if Byron wanted to join his writers meeting. Byron said he had to ask his mom.

“I heard this guy in the background say, ‘Hey, tell his mom not to worry, we’ll have cookies and milk for him.’ And then I heard another writer, Jay, say, ‘Oh, Dave, be nice. Just be nice.’”

Carolyn allowed Byron to attend the meeting at Jimmie’s apartment on Sunset Boulevard. When he arrived, sitting in the living room were several up-and-coming comedy writers/producers, including the writers he heard on the phone, Dave Letterman and Jay Leno. The group met regularly; Byron’s payment was $25 per joke.

“It was great. I was a paperboy for the Herald Examiner at the time. I had to throw two newspapers to make a penny. Two! I had to throw 5,000 newspapers to make 25 bucks. I told Jimmie, ‘A joke for 25 bucks? I’m good!’”

Back at NBC, Byron was laser-focused on learning from the master, Johnny Carson.

“I lived in that studio. They used it for ‘The Tonight Show’ from 5:30 to 6:30. Hundreds of people were in that studio [audience] then. By 7 o’clock, that studio was empty. No one, just me and the janitor.”

Byron would sit at Johnny’s desk, imagining. He would sit in the guest seat and stand on the star, Johnny’s mark on the floor for the monologue, and practice the monologue from the evening left up on the board. While the crew members welcomed his self-training at NBC, Byron continued fine-tuning his craft at various comedy clubs around Los Angeles. At age 18, four years after his first stand-up routine, he received the official call from Johnny’s producer inviting the Fairfax High School student to be a guest on “The Tonight Show.”

He was the youngest comedian to ever appear on the show.

“When I was standing behind the curtain ready to go on, I was joking with the stagehands. I had my back to the curtain. They were laughing with me, and all of a sudden, they got really serious. Johnny Carson had come to the curtain and said to me, ‘Don’t worry, son. You’re going to knock ’em dead.’”

A powerhouse in comedy, Johnny Carson had opened the door for Byron and many other comedians like him. As a result, Byron created the half-hour comedy talk show, “Comics Unleashed.” The show, hosted by Byron himself, is still on the air after 19 seasons and has featured more than 550 comedians, including Cedric the Entertainer, Margaret Cho, Tiffany Haddish, Chelsea Handler, Kevin Hart, Gabriel Iglesias, Leslie Jones, Natasha Leggero, Jon Lovitz, Whitney Cummings, Howie Mandel, Nate Bargatze, Billy Gardell, Sebastian Maniscalco and Sinbad.

Moments before our press time, CBS announced that beginning on Sept. 22 of this year, “Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen” will take over the network’s 12:30 a.m. time slot. Episodes will then air Monday through Friday, with the series also available to stream live on Paramount+. “‘Comics Unleashed’ is a true passion for me, simply because this world can never have enough laughter,” Allen said. Executive produced by himself, Carolyn Folks and Jennifer Lucas, he added, “I created this show so that the best comedians can all come together and help bring non-stop laughter.”

Johnny was delighted with Byron’s premiere performance. Ironically, he incorporated Beverly Hills and Beverly Hills High School in his monologue. Jolene Schlatter, too, was impressed and raved about Byron to her TV producer husband, George Schlatter. It immediately landed Byron the position as co-host of the Schlatter’s new NBC hit show “Real People,” a forerunner to today’s reality TV.

Byron attacked his new position with a vengeance, interviewing people, learning how to tell compelling human-interest stories, and earning national visibility and credibility. He also studied how the weekly shows were created, marketed and monetized from the industry experts. But it was after a humbling experience in renegotiating his contract that Byron realized being a performer wasn’t going to be his ticket to success.

“Only I can determine my worth, and no one else. I just want to work for myself. And I haven’t worked for anybody else since ‘Real People’ ended in 1984,” he says.

Believing ownership was the only path to true influence and generational wealth, he began to understand how creation, distribution, syndication and advertising were the engines powering television. While he loved performing comedy, he had an insatiable desire to succeed in the business side of “show.” At the age of 19, he attended his first of 44 consecutive National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) annual conferences.

There, he met the kingpins of syndicated television, Roger and Michael King, as well as Al Masini, the pioneering producer of “Entertainment Tonight,” “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” “Solid Gold” and “Star Search.” At NATPE every year, Byron sat in on sales meetings and watched the professionals sell their shows in syndication. Masini recognized Byron’s aspirational spirit and took him under his wing, mentoring him like the son he never had.

In the summer of 1993, with fire in his belly, Byron started his own business. From his dining room, he used his telephone to communicate all over America and ignite energy around producing low-cost, advertiser-friendly shows for television stations that needed content. Producing his first show, “Entertainers with Byron Allen,” a forerunner to podcasts, he created a barter model with himself and friends as talent. He offered the show for free to the stations and kept the ad revenue, maximizing his resources and profits. Grabbing the concept from the industrialists, he vertically integrated.

“I controlled everything from A to Z. I would create the show. Then I would produce the show. Let’s talk about Rockefeller. He would pull the oil out of the ground. He would send it to his refineries to refine it. Then he would put it on trucks and send it to the gas station. Then he would put it in the gas tank, put the cash in the cash register and hit repeat. He was vertically integrating. He never passed it off. He did everything from A to Z.”

Similarly, Byron would create and produce the television show. He would give it directly to the television stations for free. He did not go to the networks but instead went to each individual station in America and sold the advertising himself. But he needed more content. Turning to one of Masini’s trailblazing formulas, Byron copied the content of one medium and converted it into another. Masini had created his revolutionary television programs from radio shows.

“So, I took the magazine stands and converted them into television shows. People are always going to be interested in beautiful homes … That’s Architectural Digest. They’re always going to be interested in cars, travel, food.”

Today, AMG owns ten 24-hour HD television networks, including THE WEATHER CHANNEL, COMEDY.TV, RECIPE.TV, CARS.TV, ES.TV, MYDESTINATION.TV AND JUSTICECENTRAL.TV. Producing television shows in an assembly-line way, each network is supplied with content that would have been found in magazines.

One of his biggest lessons was when a distributor stole Byron’s money, the final step to having complete control.

“That’s when I realized I had to go directly to the consumer, directly to the stations myself … and now I can do all the shows I want. That’s where the desire comes from, to creatively express myself, to make people laugh, to entertain audiences, to put a smile on their faces. It’s always coming from a good place.”

Byron believes his best training for the media business originates from understanding what the audience wants.

He stated in the press, “When you stand on a stage, and you perform in front of a live audience, and you get a reaction every five seconds—or you don’t—that is the best training that you could possibly have in the media business.”

In the process of building his empire, in April 2001, he met a beautiful television producer, Jennifer Lucas, at a restaurant club. After a five-year courtship and producing many television shows under Byron’s company umbrella, Byron proposed to Jennifer on Christmas Day. They were married on Sept. 1, 2007, at the Hotel Bel-Air. Soon, the family blossomed with the arrival of daughters Chloe and Olivia and son Lucas.

“I don’t try and push anything on my kids. I want to see what they discover and let them find their passion naturally. As a father, I just want them to be happy, healthy and not worry. I did enough worrying for all of them … Jennifer’s an amazing person. She’s my best friend. She’s absolutely fantastic. I got really lucky. Great mom, great wife, great family. I am truly blessed.”

In 2018, Byron‘s media company bought The Weather Channel, an American television network with the OTT streaming service, Local Now, which provides localized weather, news and traffic updates. After the acquisition, AMG transitioned Local Now to a free-to-access model, expanding its content with news, lifestyle and entertainment programming.

“Weather is a big business, a huge business. When you buy a company, you also get the intellectual capital. We gained a great deal of intellectual capital, platforms, software, technology. It put us in the news business in a big way, an important news business.”

Because of climate change, The Weather Channel is the number one most trusted news brand in America.

“Climate change has killed more people than all the wars combined throughout history. Climate change and global warming are very real. Everything is extreme: extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme wind, extreme wet, extreme dry. Weather is usually the number one or number two story in the newscast every day.”

Byron stated that the acquisition was the most important moment in his media company.

“As an African American, I think I broke a barrier … As an entrepreneur, it was the Jackie Robinson moment. As a Black man, I didn’t have to just do businesses that were focused on Black people, play in just the Negro leagues of baseball. I was able to now do something that was general market, and it was the major leagues … I’m one of one, a global entrepreneur, not an entrepreneur who only focuses on Black content.”

Yet his highly rated, video-centric community news platform devoted to providing African Americans with compelling stories and perspectives currently underrepresented in existing national news outlets, The Grio, is one of AMG’s most successful platforms, with more than 100 million annual visitors.

Byron is not shy in using his earned media mogul status to help influence by means of the truth, a concept he learned from Martin Luther King Jr.’s wife.

“Coretta Scott King was a friend of mine. I always wanted to look at Martin Luther King Jr. through her eyes. And I learned a lot talking to her. She was the one who said, ‘Our greatest weapon is the truth. Always bring the truth.’”

Byron has also made a point of giving back in meaningful ways. He has never forgotten the free medical care he received as a child from CHLA. Today, he is not only a member of the CHLA’s Board of Trustees, but he has also raised millions for the institution through the Allen Media Group’s Oscar Gala. The event, first launched in 2017, has featured performances by the likes of Toni Braxton, Babyface, Jamie Foxx, John Legend, Maroon 5, Katy Perry and Diana Ross.

He has prominently supported the Race to Erase MS Foundation, which is dedicated to the treatment and ultimate cure of multiple sclerosis (MS). He hosted the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s annual “Dinner of Champions” for over 20 years, raising more than $50 million for MS research and awareness. And in the fall of 2023, Byron received the Visionary Award from Jeffrey Katzenberg at the Visionary Ball in support of the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery. The event was hosted by good friends Jay Leno and Howie Mandel, with a special performance by Smokey Robinson.

In recent years, he has also recognized the importance of investing in education.

“Education is what makes the country its very best. If everybody’s educated, everybody’s engaged, and everybody is a part of the economic fiber of America, then America can’t be any better … It’s an investment in the future. It’s an investment in all of us … Spelman, [one of] 107 historically Black colleges and universities … is named after Rockefeller’s wife’s maiden name, Spelman. It’s an all-female school … funded by the wealthiest family in the world at the time.”

Recognizing the current HBCUs’ financial challenges, Byron stepped in to help with an ingenious sports media business opportunity. In 2021, his company founded the HBCU Go streaming network.

“I saw that these schools were not able to really produce and distribute their sports content and monetize it the way it should be. I wanted to help so I stepped in. There’s approximately 4,000 sporting events, and we control 95% of them. The business has grown by triple digits. We’ve only had it for three years, and the revenue keeps going straight up like a rocket. The athletes are extraordinary. These historically Black colleges and universities have created numerous Hall of Famers.”

Byron also used his influential media platform to help educate in February 2023. Six months before Oct. 7 and the horrific killings and kidnappings in Israel, Byron was honored with the inaugural “Legendary Honor” award from the African American Student Union at Harvard Business School. Selected for his transformative impact on the media industry and his advocacy for economic inclusion, Byron took this opportunity to speak to the students about the African American community owing the Jewish community a huge debt of gratitude, especially during the Civil Rights Movement. In his speech Byron said, “They’ve marched with us, stood with us, and they had a similar plight in how they’ve been treated.”

“I knew I had all these bright kids from Harvard … I was sensing and feeling the antisemitism back then … I was feeling it was increasing. I said, ‘I just want to give you [the students] the facts. I want to give you what really happened, and I need you to understand what’s happening now. I want to share a story about Madison Grant, the young man who went to Columbia Law School, who wrote a book in 1916 called “The Passing of the Great Race, Keep America White and Pure.” He’s upset about immigration, the Jews coming in from Europe. A young man reads this book and says, ‘This is the greatest book I’ve ever read.’ That young man was Adolf Hitler. So, not only did we create this racism and this antisemitism, we exported it all the way to Europe, and it came back as the Holocaust. You [the students] need to understand how it ties together.’”

When asked about the business challenges of today, as a trailblazing leader, Byron reflects on his lessons learned.

“Business is a contact sport. We’re having major contact right now. We’re getting hit hard. It is what it is. Get up and get back in the huddle.”

The football analogy sheds light on two attempted transactions Byron made in 2022. He announced his intention to bid for the Denver Broncos. Then again, in November of that same year, there were reports he was assembling an investor group to pursue the purchase of the Washington Commanders. While neither bid resulted in ownership, Allen has expressed ongoing interest in acquiring an NFL team and continues to be a prominent figure in discussions about diversifying NFL ownership.

In addition, the media widely reported that Byron made a significant bid to acquire Paramount Global in early 2024. His company, Allen Media Group, submitted a $14.3 billion offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Paramount Global. Including debt, the total value of the proposal was approximately $30 billion.

“We want to grow organically. We would like to acquire companies that work seamlessly with the assets we already have. Our preference is digital. That’s the fastest-growing section in media,” he says.

He believes that streaming is everything. Local Now, the technology to bring local news, weather, sports and traffic via the web, is the biggest platform they have going forward. Being free and laden with content downloaded in seconds makes it “unstoppable.”

“Linear [cable and over-the-air broadcast] has its headwinds,” he says.

Byron claims that people are cutting the cord, but it will never go away.

“Nothing ever goes away. It’s always additive. Everything gets bigger, and it’s more textured and layered. I haven’t seen anything replace a platform for the most part. Here are your movies, here’s radio, here’s television, here’s streaming … At the end of the day, I’ve always been impressed with Walt Disney. The technology has morphed in many different ways, but the mouse has stayed consistent.”

Mickey Mouse is the very valuable content.

“You can have a beautiful car, but it doesn’t mean anything unless you can put gas in it. The content is the gas or electricity … No one cares about the technology until there’s content that they can connect with.”

In examining his leadership STYLE, I ended the interview by asking him to complete the sentence, “I lead with ______?” Upon hearing the Dalai Lama said he leads with “listening,” and Nelson Mandela said he leads “by following,” Byron Allen said, “I lead with commitment. It’s the word before success.”

The post Byron Allen | How His Extraordinary Journey Created a Media Empire appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

“Women know we can do it. We’ve been shouting from the rooftops that we’re able. I’m tired of firsts … Who’s the best person for the job?”

The next morning Candace was awakened by the local and national news organizations camped out in her family’s front yard. Rolling out of bed, Candace, with her parents by her side, greeted the enthralled media. Everyone wanted to know about this burgeoning basketball phenom.  

To their surprise, she was not motivated by being the first high school girl in history to dunk. 

“It was more because my brothers dunked at 16. I wanted to dunk before they did.” 

Nor did she want to be the player known only for dunking. What mattered to Candace was everything about basketball.  

“My talent always lied in my ability to be versatile. I could bring the ball up the court, pass, shoot, rebound and run the floor like a guard. The dunking, I was resistant because when I dunked everybody just wanted me to dunk. I never wanted to just stay in that lane.” 

Candace had the maturity to recognize that being caught up in the moment could derail her career. At the same time, she had the foresight to understand the depth and breadth of her limitless potential. It’s what propelled her into becoming one of the most celebrated and influential athletes of this generation. 

With two Olympic gold medals, two NCAA championships as MVP and three WNBA titles, no feat has been unattainable for Candace. In 2008 Candace was selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft and joined the Los Angeles Sparks. She succeeded in her first year, again making history, as the first and only player to earn WNBA MVP and Rookie of the Year. She did this while pregnant. In 2016, she led the L.A. Sparks to their WNBA championship title, again in 2021 with her hometown’s team the Chicago Sky, and one more time in 2023 with the Las Vegas Aces. 

Off the court, Candace, aka Ace (from the last three letters of her name), has similarly dreamed big. She’s established herself as a media entrepreneur, as the first-ever on-air female analyst for both the NBA and NCAA on Turner Sports, as well as the spokesperson and ambassador for companies such as Adidas (President of Adidas Women’s Basketball), NBA2K, CarMax, Gatorade, Muscle Milk, Invesco QQQ and Dick’s Sporting Goods. With her authentic voice, Candace is an activist fighting for equality in sports and business. She is the subject of a full-length ESPN documentary entitled “Unapologetic,” and the founder of a production company, Baby Hair Productions. As a globally recognized public speaker, her TED Talk was ranked the sixth most popular in 2021. She is also an investor in several women’s professional sports teams.  

Earlier this year, with all of her momentum, Candace decided to pivot, not on the court, but in life. In an Instagram post to her 1.1 million followers, she said, “It’s time … I’M A BUSINESS man, not a businessman. This is the beginning … I’m attacking business, private equity, ownership, broadcasting, production, boardrooms … with the same intensity and focus I did basketball. My mission in life, like Pat Summitt [her legendary coach] always said, is to ‘chase people and passions and you will never fail.’ Being a wife and mom still remains priority #1.” 

As this is the year of the woman in leadership, I was given the rare opportunity to sit down with Candace, the GOAT, as she is often called by Shaquille O’Neal and other NBA superstars, to talk about her sports journey’s lessons, the importance of family, and her future aspirations in pushing the boundaries for women.   

Ever since Candace can remember, basketball has been an essential part of her life. 

“My basketball was in my crib.” 

Born April 19, 1986, in St. Louis, Missouri, Candace Nicole measured 2 feet long. Her proud parents, Sara and Larry Parker, happily brought her home to meet her brothers, 11-year-old Anthony and 8-year-old Marcus.  Soon after, the family of five moved to Naperville, Illinois where Candace was raised. Today, after a successful 10-year career playing in the NBA, Anthony is the general manager of the Orlando Magic.  Marcus also resides in Florida and practices medicine as a radiologist. Candace proudly suggests her “super intelligent, super intuitive” brothers helped shape who she is, thanks in part to the family’s stimulating dinner conversations. Her admiration for her brothers and their impact on her life remains steadfast.   

“My mom always tells the story that I walked at 8 months and was running at 9. I was always in the mix with my older brothers and whatever they did, I was trying to be there.”

Larry met Sara at the University of Iowa. He played basketball for the Hawkeyes; Sara was a cheerleader. Larry was Candace’s first basketball coach; Sara organized the team’s practices and tournaments. Yet, they raised their children without gender roles. 

“We didn’t have the, ‘You’re a boy, you cut the grass.’ I cut the grass. My brother cooked. I took out the garbage. We vacuumed. There weren’t certain gender roles.  My parents said, ‘If you can do it and you work for it, why can’t you accomplish it?’” 

That philosophy was embedded in Candace’s psyche, until her first crash course in winning. It was junior year of high school, her team went 34-0, and they won the state championship.   

“I remember thinking the game is becoming easy. I was kind of doing what I wanted on the court … taking the game for granted a little bit. And I tore my ACL.” 

It was her wake-up call. 

“They say absence makes the heart grow fonder … I became fueled by the ‘can’t.’ ‘Oh, you don’t think I can come back from this and be the player that I was?’ I’m going to come back and be better.”

She learned to commit to the process with laser focus, a foundational strategy for her life.   

“It was the commitment to not be physically out there doing jump shots, but bettering my jump shot by doing leg lifts and making sure that I’m rehabbing … and getting up early and studying and not letting school slip away.” 

With a multitude of knee, shoulder and foot surgeries, Candace equates the emotional rollercoaster injury ride to life itself.  She believes you need to have balance.  

“I was miserable when we lost. I would wake up, and I wouldn’t want to open the shades because we lost. I wouldn’t want to get out of bed because we lost. I’ve had to learn that you do what you can. You live in your purpose, and then you relinquish the results in whatever you’re doing. So even in my marriage, I’m divorced and remarried again. Even in being a mother, there’s so many times where you’re up late at night hoping that you’re doing the right thing, and you do what you feel is best and relinquish the results.”

“I wanted to be a mom so badly. I always envisioned it when I was a kid. I damn near played house until I was 13 years old.”

Despite the projected year sabbatical caused by the injury, Candace returned to the court her senior year of high school after five months of rehabilitation and went on to win back-to-back championships. She became the first female to win the McDonald’s slam dunk contest at the All-American Game, beating out two future NBA players, and was named the Gatorade Girl’s High School Player of the Year in 2003-2004, which earned her a trip to Los Angeles, her very first. 

At 17 years old, she was fixated on seeing Beverly Hills. “That’s all you heard about … 90210.”  Today, the city is a regular stop for her. You might pass Candace, listening to Adele or Jay-Z, as she cruises Mulholland Drive on the way to Beverly Hills for a business meeting or a fun dining experience at Wally’s, Honor Bar or Crustacean.

Back then, Candace was one of the most sought-after basketball recruits in the nation. She committed to the University of Tennessee, playing for the Lady Vols (Volunteers) under Pat Summitt, one of the greatest women’s basketball coaches of all time. 

Brimming with anticipation, her freshman year at Tennessee quickly turned to disappointment.  Her doctors discovered a hole in her injured knee, which meant another operation. While sitting out the entire year, her sadness swelled with the news of her parents’ divorce. It was Coach Summitt’s leadership style and assurance of Candace’s return that helped her through. She came back the following 2005-2006 season with a vengeance, delivering the first dunk in a NCAA tournament game, which she performed twice. The following year, in addition to dating a rising basketball star at Duke University, Sheldon Williams, Candace led the Lady Vols to win the NCAA championship, ending the current drought that had plagued Tennessee. As the now 6’4” college basketball sensation, Candace graced the cover of Sports Illustrated after clinching the 2007 championship. By her senior year, Candace had solidified a second NCAA championship, the hopes of a professional career and the possibility of a U.S. Olympic Team position. 

In 2008, Candace struck gold. As the WNBA’s biggest ticket, McDonald’s, Adidas and Gatorade all vied for her ambassadorship. Poised to make history in Los Angeles with the Sparks, she married Sheldon and received the honored invitation to represent the United States in the Beijing Olympic Games. It was not surprising that, with all of her momentum, she won her first gold medal. 

While standing on the gold-medal platform, watching the raising of the American flag and listening to the United States national anthem, Candace was exploding with joy in her heart, thanks to the new life growing inside her. 

Nine months later, “Out popped joy!” says Candace about her newborn daughter, Lailaa. 

“I wanted a daughter, and I wanted to be a mom so badly. I always envisioned it when I was a kid. I damn near played house until I was 13 years old. I was the youngest sister who always wanted a younger sister. I begged my parents, and they said, ‘No, you are the younger sister.’ In college, I was babysitting on Friday nights instead of going to parties. And then when I hit reality, it was like, ‘Well, you can’t do that and have a career.’  But I watched one of the greatest leaders do it.” 

Pat Summitt had a family during her career. 

“She [Pat] wasn’t playing; she was coaching, which I think is a little bit more intensive, honestly. And so, when I was about to have my daughter, I was like, I can do this. I know I can do this, and I’m not going to sacrifice one for the other.”

Within 51 days of giving birth, Candace was back on the court playing at full strength. During halftime, in the locker room that first year on the Sparks, Candace would breastfeed Lailaa while Coach Michael Cooper would give the team direction.  Candace made history again at the end of the season when she became the first woman awarded Rookie of the Year and MVP, even though the Sparks did not make it to the finals.  

Through it all, Lailaa breastfed for almost 15 months. 

“She wouldn’t take a bottle. She never had formula. And that’s not to say that’s the best for everybody else. But I put my mind to not sacrificing motherhood for my career, and not sacrificing my career for motherhood.”

Despite the WNBA’s establishment 12 years earlier, the disparity between Candace and her male counterparts in the NBA was blatantly obvious. NBA salaries for their superstars were in the multiple millions. Candace had to play in Russia, in the offseason, to make ends meet. 

“It was a great experience, don’t get me wrong. We had charter flights, we had chefs, we had drivers. I stayed in a fabulous apartment. My daughter went everywhere with me. I made a great contract where I could take care of my family … take care of my mom. I could do the things that I wanted to do … But I wish I could have done that here.”

When asked about her former Sparks teammate, Brittney Griner, whose arrest and detention in Russia made international headlines, Candace reveals it hit home on two levels.

“It’s like the part of the place that you thought was a certain way, and you were treated in that way, and then you see the different side of it. It’s scary. It really is.”

On a deeper level, Candace shares it’s personal. 

“My wife is Russian.”

With compassion, Candace explains, “It’s the war, and that means that you don’t know when things are going to get back to normal, or be OK, or be safe. I’ve always been super supportive of her and her feelings because I don’t care what type of home you come from, you defend your home, that’s where you’re from. That’s where her heart is.” 

Anna (her government name) or Anya Petrakova was born in Budapest, Hungary and raised in Russia.  Like Candace, she was introduced to basketball by her father, Viktor Petrakov, who played pro basketball in Russia and was a member of the Soviet Union’s National Basketball Team. After a successful college career in America at the University of Louisiana, Anna went pro in Russia, playing for several teams.  And like Candace, she received the invitation to represent her country at the London Olympics as a member of Russia’s Women’s National Basketball Team in 2012. Honored with the 2015 Player of the Year Award in the Russian Premier League, she is considered one of the most successful players in Russia.  

In 2012, Candace was introduced to Anna, the UMMC Ekaterinburg team’s new power forward. A teammate friendship began. Both women were in committed relationships.  By now, Lailaa was 3 years old, almost bilingual, in English and Russian, and more than ever, the center of Candace’s universe.

“This kid was on 12- to 14-hour flights from two years old. She would get on and say, ‘Is this a lay down flight?’ She knew that was overseas. If it’s just juice, it’s probably two hours. She’s just been here on earth before, I mean, I have it tattooed right here.”

Candace points to the tattoo on her forearm and reads it.

“My reason, Lailaa Nicole.”

Mother and daughter share the same middle name. 

“I’m so grateful that I had a kid that allowed me to do both [career and motherhood] and has been a part of this journey. And Lailaa is super special. I still believe she was sent here for me.”

Eventually, the wear and tear of a long-distance marriage for Candace and Sheldon became evident. While she was overseas for half of the year with her daughter and her mother, Sheldon was jumping between NBA teams. The stress of two professional careers spanning the globe was too much. Their marriage failed in 2016, one of the many challenges Candace faced while in the public eye and performing at top level on the court.  

As the sad reality of her impending divorce loomed, other negative news landed. Candace was passed over for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team, despite still leading in the WNBA. Worse yet, Pat Summitt, Candace’s lifelong coach, mentor and friend was losing her battle to early-onset dementia in the form of Alzheimer’s.  

But Candace rebounded, a true sign of a champion.  By powering forward, she led the L.A. Sparks to their first championship in eight years. When asked her secret for working through the ups and downs of life, both on and off the court, she recounted one of Coach Summitt’s life lessons.  

“Pat was who she was, when she was winning eight championships and when she lost 194 times, or however many losses she had. I think it’s just being that same steady person and never getting too high or too low. That’s what I respect. It’s committing to the process.” 

Live from the basketball court, seconds after Candace’s championship win in 2016, with her highest rebounds of the season, ESPN announcer Holly Rowe asked Candace, “What does this moment mean to you?” Fighting back her tears, Candace responded, “This is for Pat.”

Over time, and as a surprise to both Candace and Anna, their friendship evolved into love.  In 2019, while on a birthday trip to Mexico with Anna, Lailaa, family and friends, Candace presented a birthday cake to Anna with the words, “Will you marry us?” Two years later, they publicly revealed they had been married, along with the news that they were expecting their first child together.

Going public about her marriage to Anna was challenging for Candace. 

“People come to be who they are on their own time. And sometimes it takes people longer. It took us a long time because the life that we had envisioned for me, for her, wasn’t what the reality was. We were a happy family within these walls. And when we walked out, we were something that we weren’t. We were acting like we weren’t together when we were. I introduced her as Anna. But who is this person? Is she a friend?… And so, I just encourage people to work to be true to who they are in whatever setting they’re at. I think when you start trying to play too many roles, and be too many things to too many different people, you lose yourself.”

Especially as a parent, Candace felt she had to lead with truth and conviction.

“I can’t tell my daughter to be proud of being tall and do what you want, and follow your heart when I am not doing it myself. I want my daughter to know me as somebody that even if it’s a whisper, or even if it’s taking a big gulp before I say it, I’m going to be the one who says it. Even if it’s not popular, even if it’s looked down upon.”

Today Lailaa is big sister to brothers Airr Larry, 2 ½ years old, and 6-month-old Hartt Summitt, named after Candace’s father and Pat Summitt. 

“People ask me what age I like. I like whatever age they’re at. I feel like every year they just get better.” 

Suddenly, she calls to Airr in a higher-pitched, happy voice, having spotted him in the hallway of their home, shooting a shot into his Little Tikes basketball hoop.

“Hi Goose [Airr’s nickname]!  Did you have a good day at school? You’re going to take a nap?”

Candace shares, “He gets up and gets buckets before breakfast a lot of times, from his crib. I’ll give him the ball. When he shoots into the hoop, he always says, ‘Kobe!’ It’s really cute.” “Kobe” originated from reading Kobe Bryant’s book together. They also enjoy reading about “the GOAT,” Michael Jordan, Candace’s hometown hero.   

Airr responds sweetly with one word, “Basketball.” Candace repeats encouragingly, “Basketball, you’re right,” as the nanny brings Airr to Candace. 

“Give me kiss, give me kiss.” Airr leans in to kiss his mom. “I love you,” says Candace.

As the nanny carries him away, Candace admits, “I might say that I have, from a very young age, shown him basketball and how to shoot. We have basketball hoops all around our house, and every time we walk past them, he has to do his little shot.”

Does Candace plan on being a “boy mom” coach, mirroring Kobe’s “girl dad” status? 

“A hundred percent, yes!” 

With her blended and growing family, Candace is not guided by a particular religious denomination, but rather by her strong belief in one’s intention and purpose. 

“I wholeheartedly believe that we know when something is wrong or something is right … [It’s important] to hold yourself accountable and be disciplined, to do what you say you’re going to do.” 

She adds, “Kids will humble you … [They] don’t care who you are, how many MVP awards you get. You’re Mom.”

Often asked, Candace will not commit to her all-time favorite winning moment as she compares the question to choosing her favorite child. But when I requested her to name “three” favorite winning moments in honor of her three children, she happily responded.  

“Winning the first WNBA championship.”

“My Olympic gold medal in London because I got to share it with my daughter.”

“My high school first championship. Committing to the process and being rewarded for it.”

Driven by passion and purpose off the court, Candace has worked to break down barriers. Believing that sports can change lives, she has made inroads as an advocate for equality for women on a professional level as well as for youth.  

“I think sports is bigger than just sports. Sports is life. You’re teaching life lessons to young kids.”

As an ambassador for national brands, her speaking engagements and influential power continue to produce successful partnerships that provide for youth organizations.  As an example of her efforts, Gatorade and the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation Sports Matters Program partnered with Candace and donated $100,000 to continue advancing youth sports equality. 

As a role model, her ability to communicate her expertise and insightful perspectives has pushed the boundaries for women in broadcasting. In 2018, Candace broke into the male-dominated world as the only female analyst for the Men’s March Madness Tournament. Acing her analysis in that first year, she was offered a multipronged broadcasting role for Turner Sports, which included regular analysis and commentary for the NBA on TNT and NBA TV, along with the NCAA tournaments.  She continues in this role today with Turner Sports for the 2024-2025 NBA season. 

To illustrate her impact on the world of men’s and women’s basketball, when David Stern, Commissioner of the NBA and founder of the WNBA, suddenly passed away on Jan. 1, 2020, the NBA network went to Candace for her comments. As a female basketball legend and a savvy broadcaster, she reflected on his contribution and “his foresight to see that women’s basketball could grow.” She continued, “The WNBA is the longest-standing women’s professional sports league in the history of the United States. We are so grateful for what he’s done, as we continue to try to follow the blueprint of what the NBA has done to grow the game.”

As a producer, for her first Baby Hair Productions project in 2022, Candace chose to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark federal civil rights law that changed sports in America. But now, Title IX is in question in certain states as gender identity and transgender issues have surfaced. Candace infuses her “I can” motto into making sure Title IX is inclusive for everyone. 

“If you say you can’t, then you have to find a way that you can. Great understanding without completely agreeing is something that I wish our country got to a place of. And I think sports has always been a great unifier and has always united us in tragedy. There has to be a way for everyone to be able to compete.” 

She cites the New York Yankees playing in the wake of 9/11 and Kobe’s tragic death. Yet she’s frustrated by the blame game interfering with Title IX’s blanket acceptance today.  

“In America, it’s always women’s problems, and it’s not just a women’s problem. Why do women have to make the policies and figure out all of this stuff? And then we get blamed for it if it doesn’t work. I love the responsibility, but can we do this with everyone? Title IX was meant for equality in the very essence of the law. Somehow it gets lost in wrestling. Somehow it gets lost in male gymnastics. It’s always on the women’s sports. There are others that are benefiting from inequalities of Title IX, and we all have the responsibility to figure it out.”

Candace’s fight for equality in the corporate structure is just as important to her. As an outgrowth of her ambassadorship, combined with her leadership style, Candace has accepted the new role as President of Adidas Women’s Basketball. Her brand loyalty began when she was 15 years old, and Adidas supplied her team with products. 

“We grew together. We’ve been through injuries, pregnancy, I mean, we talk about CEOs changing. I’ve been through leadership change … There’s an allegiance that you grow up with in a brand, and I think it’s established at a young age. And so, I think for me as president, I want to impact youth and grassroots, and then we’ll find our signature athlete … who believes in the brand like I do.”

Today, Candace is an investor in the female professional sports teams Angel City Football Club and League One Volleyball LOVB, as well as an Athletic Ambassador for the Avenue Capital Group, Marc Lasry’s sports fund. Melding corporate management with sports franchise management and ownership is a huge goal of Candace’s. She aspires to own an NBA or WNBA team one day.

“Why not?” Candace fires back.

“Women know we can do it. It’s never been a question. We’ve been shouting from the rooftops that we’re able. I’m tired of firsts. The first female president of hockey, the first female president of NHL, NBA, NFL teams. Come on, man, this is 2024. We’ve got to get over this. Who’s the best person for the job? I think men are figuring it out, and I don’t think it’s telling women that we can do it. I think it is men realizing that diversity of thought is better.”

During a controversial broadcast on Turner Sports when Shaquille O’Neal strongly suggested that the WNBA lower the rim for better dunking statistics, Candace shut him down by not giving the question attention.  

“Sometimes people are fortunate to continue to not know what they don’t know. You sometimes don’t know the perspective. You don’t know the story. You don’t know what’s behind it. You don’t know the years and years and years of fight. And some people are fortunate to not ever have to experience that. I don’t think he was saying it to be disrespectful.”

After 13 years in Los Angeles leading the Sparks, Candace decided to go back to her hometown and play for the Chicago Sky. In her first year with the team, her leadership and expertise helped the team win its first-ever championship in 2021. 

But living far from her family in Los Angeles was hard for Candace. The following year, she accepted the offer to join the Las Vegas Aces, miles closer to home. Armed with her drive and positive energy, after one season, Candace led the Aces to their first title in 2023. Once again, Candace made history and remains the only player to win the WNBA championship with three different franchises.  

Unfortunately for Candace, the second half of her final championship season was spent on the bench due to another injury. She announced her retirement on social media earlier this year in April after 16 years of playing professional basketball. 

“I promised I’d never cheat the game and that I’d leave it in a better place than I came into it. The competitor in me always wants one more, but it’s time. My heart and my body knew, but I needed to give my mind time to accept it. … My last game, I walked off the court with my daughter. I ended the journey just as I started it, with her.”

At the end of our interview, while reflecting upon David Stern and his need to form the WNBA, Candace reveals her desire to move forward with a bigger purpose. 

“A lot of people celebrate when things come to fruition and everything happens. But you also have to think about the steps that it took and the no’s and the nays and the disbelief. He [Stern] was someone who truly bought in and stuck with it, and stuck through it when things weren’t right. Sometimes it’s going against the grain, and sometimes it means not being liked. And sometimes it means people not believing in what you say, but still continuing to go forward with it because there’s a bigger purpose. That’s what I want to do within women’s sports. I think slowly but surely, we’re a different game. And it doesn’t mean that we have to have the same path as men’s basketball. We have a blueprint, but we can change the plans a little bit.”

Thoughtful, authentic and inspirational, Candace commits to the process.    

“That’s what I’m going to do with women’s basketball. I’m going to continue to be a visionary of what’s next and what lies ahead. How can we make a bigger jump? How can we make a bigger push?” 

The post Candace Parker: Powering Forward appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

I recently spent the day with these influential car experts at Jay’s Big Dog Garage in preparation for this year’s Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance. What followed was a crash course in automotive history and design, and a rare glimpse inside their deep and enduring 50-year friendship, powered by the love of cars. 

With Bruce’s encouragement, Jay invites me to take a spin in his 1909 Baker Electric car. Once inside the ornate Cinderella-esque carriage, Jay, at the controls, releases the brake, sounds the horn and with surprising acceleration, glides us through his astonishing 140,000-square-foot garage in Burbank, California. Filled with over 200 exquisite, exotic and eclectic cars, and 168 “finest in the world” motorcycles, Jay’s motor sanctum is different in presentation from Bruce’s across town in Beverly Hills. Built in 1926 on North Beverly Drive, Bruce’s pristine car palace (small by comparison) houses his extraordinarily curated treasure trove in the first and oldest garage in Beverly Hills. 

Bruce Meyer’s family, referred to as “Beverly Hills royalty,” is considered one of the most influential families in Beverly Hills. Bruce’s father, Fred, together with his wife, Ruth, bought a small gift store in Beverly Hills called Gearys in 1953. Bruce joined his parents and grew the family business with a mail order division, an additional store and his entrepreneurial way of thinking. When his landlord offered to sell Bruce the building, despite his parents’ objections, Bruce made the first of his many real estate purchases. Today, his real estate portfolio encompasses key properties along Beverly Drive and Rodeo Drive in the heart of Beverly Hills’ business triangle. 

Elevated to CEO of Gearys in 1977, Bruce amplified the charge for Gearys becoming the iconic Beverly Hills retail center for distinctive home goods from the world’s finest artisans. His curated ideals for top-flight luxury were maintained throughout his 20 years, only to be further enhanced by his nephew, Tom Blumenthal, who began working in the family business at age 13. Today, Tom is the owner, president and CEO of the preeminent Gearys, and Bruce remains on its Board of Directors with his son, Eric, a United States career diplomat. His other son, Evan, a successful real estate developer, is the incoming chairman of Beverly Hills Architectural Commission. And Bruce’s cousin, Craig Corman, is a newly elected Beverly Hills City Councilmember. 

Jay Leno was born James Douglas Muir in New Rochelle, New York to Catherine, a Scottish immigrant, and Angelo Leno, an insurance salesman from a big Italian family. Jay was raised in Andover, Massachusetts and laid the groundwork for telling jokes among this sizeable built-in audience. While attending Emerson College in Boston, a young, determined Jay traveled regularly to New York to audition at the Improv and other comedy clubs. Oftentimes, the endless wait to present his stand-up comedy act took the whole day. But Jay persevered, believing in patience and the commitment to work hard. Eventually, he moved to California to make a go at comedy. 

Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, Jay appeared in television shows and feature films, but his breakthrough came in 1986 when he was asked to become a regular substitute for the legendary Johnny Carson on the “Tonight Show.” Adored by the masses, in 1992, the NBC network executives chose Jay to permanently replace Carson. For more than 20 years, viewers in 5 million homes welcomed Jay into their lives every night. Except for a hiccup in 2010 with Conan O’Brien, Jay remained the nighttime top dog for NBC until 2014, entertaining generations of audiences around the world. 

Wanting to share his car knowledge, Jay created an original series for NBC.com set in his Big Dog Garage. Within a year, it became a weekly prime-time show on CNBC for which Jay won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2016. After seven years, the show was canceled, but Jay pressed on. Today, through an active YouTube channel, he produces “Jay Leno’s Garage,” a series with over 3.63 million subscribers and over 900 million views, proving he’s the man of car influence. 

Their respect for each other is palpable. It began in the early 1970s before Jay and Bruce were successful. They frequented car rallies with other car hobbyists looking to talk about cars. Bob’s Big Boy in the San Fernando Valley was one of their main haunts. 

Jay posits, “I say women have friends; men have allies. Men find men who can help them do things. Then, they can do things for them. And then, you become friends, like, ‘Oh, I can help you with this. You help me with that.’ Most of my friends are people who can do mechanical things much better than me, and I help them because I’m in show business. It’s fun for them to come to a TV show, and they can bring their families.” 

Bruce and Jay’s generosity of spirit is as aligned as their natural attraction to cars. 

“I think the genesis of all this comes in your genetic makeup,” says Bruce. “I would be willing to bet Jay loved cars from day one, like me. My mother made a note in my baby book. ‘Bruce loves anything with wheels.’ I have three children. One of them is a car person. The other two don’t share the passion. There are people that just don’t relate to this. And there are people who do. It’s a mutant gene; I mean you can’t take the car out of me.” 

Jay ‘‘pretty much” agrees. 

He jokingly adds, “It’s how you got from one place to another. I mean, being 15 ½ [years old] was the worst because uptown was seven miles riding my bike. And the guy who’s six months older, he drives by with five girls in his car, and he’s waving. When I got there on my bike, everybody’s left!”  

Believing cars were a waste of time and money, Bruce’s father had little regard for his son’s fascination. Still, Bruce, the ever-resourceful “go-getter,” worked hard doing odd jobs during high school to earn enough money to buy his first motor vehicle, a 1950s BSA scrambler motorcycle. Storing it at a friend’s house, Bruce clandestinely raced on the weekends without his parents finding out. 

An avid reader of Hot Rod magazine, Bruce dreamed of building and owning his own hot rod. Despite the low cost, $100-$200, his parents forbade him from buying one. But when his great aunt passed away and left him a ’50s Plymouth, Bruce eagerly created and built his first version of a hot rod.   

While at UC Berkeley working on his degree in business, the industrious young man tended bar, bussed tables, sold embossed stationery and borrowed money on an interest-free student loan even though his father paid his tuition in full. Clever and tenacious, Bruce used the cash to buy and race motorcycles, eventually selling everything for a profit. 

Returning home, his passion for cars would not let up, even after he entered the family business. Impressed with his son’s business acumen, Fred finally broke down and helped Bruce buy his first car, a 1961 Porsche 356 for $2,700. 

When Jay was 14 years old, he and his father saw a 1934 Ford Pickup sitting at a gas station attached to the Tip Top Miniature Golf in Reading, Massachusetts. And like Bruce, Jay’s father did not see the point in buying a car other than for functionality. Worse yet, this particular 30-year-old car did not move. Jay was undeterred and $350 later, he owned his first car to restore. 

“Rosebud” was his first car in California, a 1955 Buick Roadmaster coupe. It was his mode of transportation during the 1970s and often a part of his comedy routine. Most importantly, it served as his chariot on his first date with his wife, Mavis.

It was 1976 when Jay stepped off the stage at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles and into Mavis’ life. She was actually in the waiting area of the ladies’ room, near where the comedians hung out when their eyes met. She told People magazine in 1987, “With Jay, I began to realize that this was the first time I was ever with someone where I had a perfect, calm sense of having arrived at my destination.” They were married in 1980. 

Mavis has been by Jay’s side ever since. An activist on the Feminist Majority Foundation Board of Directors, she has been their campaign chair to stop gender apartheid in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, Mavis was diagnosed with advanced dementia, and in a Los Angeles courtroom in April, Jay was granted conservatorship to ensure her future care. 

Eight years before the Lenos first met, Bruce was introduced to Raylene, the love of his life. The year was 1968. On their first date, before dinner, Bruce took Raylene to see a Porsche he was considering, setting the stage for the next 56 years together. 

Back then, before helmets and other safety precautions were required, Raylene would regularly ride with him on his motorcycle. She admits, “We all do kind of silly things when we’re young.” Married on Bruce’s parents’ wedding anniversary in 1970, they have gone on to share a wonderful life filled with three children, seven grandchildren, and trips to car rallies all over the world. Raylene adds, “The most important thing to Bruce is all the people he has met with regards to collecting the cars and the hobby. He loves people.” When asked about the dangers of being married to a man who liked to ride and race, Raylene said, “I was like a Pollyanna; everything’s going to be fine. I didn’t worry about him going fast in cars or anything. But I would say my prayers beforehand. I just knew that he would be fine.” 

Back inside the 1909 Baker Electric, Jay and I cruise onto the streets of Burbank as he hands me the car’s manufacturer’s manual. 

“These were women’s shopping cars,” he says.

Made and marketed for wealthy men’s wives, the electric cars did not need to be hand cranked. Ads were placed in publications such as Colliers or other fashion magazines, entirely directed to women, for the electric “horseless carriage.” Replete with floral fabric-laced interiors, make-up compartments for face powder and room in the carriage for shopping bags, the cars did not leave a mess on the garage floor from dripping oil. Back then, a man would not be caught driving an electric car. 

“We had electric cars before we had gas cars. But don’t forget, most people didn’t have electricity. Electricity was harder to come by than gasoline. In 1909, only rich people had electricity. But in New York, there were hundreds of electric taxis. In fact, in 1907-08, a third of the cars were steam, a third were gasoline and a third were electric. And they didn’t really know which one would win out.”

The inability to welcome change is often the challenge for innovation and adaptability. 

“There’s something called the ‘shock of the new.’ You can’t sell something before it’s time. It’s called a horseless carriage for a reason. It looks like a carriage. Oh, but there’s no horse. What? Oh, OK.”

As we return to the garage, passing through the main gateway, Jay explains he’s not a collector, as he never sells his cars. But he does believe they’re a good investment. 

“I bought the McLaren over there.” 

He points to a black car in a line of cars as he maneuvers the crank to back the Baker Electric into its parking spot. 

“I bought it for $800,000 in 1998-99. And the last offer I got was $20 million. So, that’s certainly a good investment. You know what I mean? It’s like anything. If you’re reasonably knowledgeable and you like it, chances are other people will like it, too. And they tend to go up in value. The idea of making money collecting cars is fairly new in the sense that you just did it because you like them. The fact that they go up in value, it’s just an added bonus.” 

In the United States alone, the market for vintage, classic and exotic automobiles is estimated to be $1 trillion. That figure represents about 16% of the value of the 275 million registered vehicles in the United States. In 2021, North American collector car auctions generated $2.2 billion in sales. In 2023, seven vehicles were offered for over $10 million, which contributed to the $3.4 billion figure spent in North American auctions. And in 2024, these figures are predicted to rise precipitously. 

Bruce joins us in the garage’s living room-like setting surrounded by Jay’s motorcycle collection, as Jay explains how motoring was a life changer for him. “I always prided myself; I was always able to get a car home. By that I mean, if I’m broken down by the side of the road, with a piece of twine and some wire, I could get it back to my house to fix it. [With] modern cars now, you don’t carry a toolbox. You just carry a cell phone, and the tow truck comes in because it’s so complicated and so electronic.”

Jay believes this is why young people today are not bonding with automotive functionality. Simple mechanical systems have been replaced with technological advancements. This was not the case in Jay’s and Bruce’s youth.

“You’re controlling your own destiny,” says Jay. “When you have something that’s broken, and you make it work and you fix it. I think there’s a great deal of pride in that. And satisfaction.”

Bruce highlights his friend’s natural talent.  

“Jay is absolutely curious about what makes things work. He works on his own cars. I wish I had his level of talent in that regard. I love the aesthetic. I think I bought the right cars just because they appeal to me. I love to drive them. I’ve raced Bonneville. I’ve raced motorcycles. I enjoy the whole thing about cars. Jay does as well. But Jay, when you see this other room, I mean this is not like my garage where nothing gets done.”

Next door to Jay’s Big Dog Garage is his restoration and maintenance facility. There, talented and expert coachbuilders work with Jay to preserve his fleet.

“You’re saving a piece of history,” Jay believes. 

This phenomenon can be seen in Bruce’s garage in Beverly Hills. There, you quickly understand the depth of his knowledge and his curating mastery. Even a nonenthusiast would be fervently impressed with the diversity of genres, historical importance, and the shapes and colors of every car on display. Each piece has a remarkable story, from the Porsche 935 K3, which was the first production car to win overall at the 1979 24-Hours of Le Mans, to the bright yellow 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB4 that was bought new by Bill Doheny (of the Beverly Hills Doheny family and Greystone Mansion). Don Prudhomme’s first slingshot dragster is there along with Clark Gable’s gorgeous tobacco brown 1956 Mercedes 300SC and the iconic 1955 Mercedes Benz Gullwing Coupe. It’s hard not to be in awe of this collection, which was 50 years in the making.

When asked in the press about the perfect car, Bruce responded, “If you could have one car, I don’t see how you could do better than a Gullwing. The build quality, the workmanship, the rarity, the beauty.” 

Jay expands on that notion. 

“It’s seeing cars as art… It is only fairly recently, by recently, I mean the last 30 years, that cars are seen as art. The Guggenheim Museum did a motorcycle exhibition about 25 years ago, and it is still one of the biggest exhibits the museum ever had.” 

Bruce chimes in, “Otis Chandler’s motorcycles went to the Guggenheim for that event. And a year ago, the famous architect Lord Norman Foster [the architect for One Beverly Hills] did an exhibit at the Guggenheim in Bilbao. He picked the cars and had the biggest gate they’ve ever had for an exhibit.”

Although their areas of focus are somewhat divergent, both enthusiasts agree that pre-1970s is their favorite era for cars. 

“I’ve focused more on race cars. I like cars with competition history. Almost every car I have is a race car or has some nexus to racing,” Bruce says. His motto, “Buy the best example of what you want, and pay whatever it takes. That way you cry only once.” 

He has other cars that invoke elegance and prestige such as the Clark Gable Mercedes, personalized with the actor’s engraved Saint Christopher’s Medal on the glove box and custom Mercedes luggage with Clark’s personalized tags.   

“They made 48 of these cars for royalty. The Shah of Iran had one, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Bing Crosby. It was the most expensive car of the day, selling for $16,000 in 1956. And it’s always been one of my favorites. It’s my wife’s favorite car. She’s said that if I sell that car, she goes with it.” 

While Bruce is drawn to the aesthetic component of automobiles, Jay is drawn to the cars he finds different, interesting or ahead of their time. He’s particularly interested in “noble failures.” 

“Like the Duesenberg, it was a much better car than it needed to be,” Jay says. 

Produced during the Depression, it was too expensive of a car, over-engineered and overpowered for its time. The company was owned by E.L. Cord, another Beverly Hills resident. Jay has many Duesenbergs; Bruce owns one as well. Both enthusiasts have received several awards for their beautiful cars. 

Jay explains, “That’s the trouble with a lot of these things. Some people don’t make it up to any standard. And some people make it so good and are perfectionists, they never get them into production.”  He cites the Mustang as an example, “It’s a sexy body on a Ford Falcon. It didn’t need independent suspension for the first 25 years because nobody cared. Just make it look sharp. It’s kind of cool. It’s affordable. It was a huge success.”

Abiding by his moniker “never lift,” as in “never take your foot off the gas,” Bruce exhaustively pursued bringing the deserved recognition to hot rod cars and their makers.  

“A hot rod is sort of a customized automobile. You take bits and pieces of different cars, and you make the car something faster, with better handling, than it was. But it was never recognized as a class. Bruce is really the guy that did that.” 

Jay searches for an analogy. 

“It’s like music versus rap. You had Mancini and all those people winning the Grammys and well deserved obviously, but rap music was sort of the hot rod child of music. It really wasn’t considered music initially. Bruce is the guy that said, ‘Hey, these hot rodders, these are real engineers.’ They learned on the back streets. Now, hot rods have become hundreds of thousands of dollars, which sort of defeats it. The idea was you did it with almost no money, just parts that you could find. And you used your will, and your skill and your technique with welding. You saw these old racers from the ‘50s and ‘60s who used to be harassed by the police for speeding. Suddenly, now they’re being honored. It was nice to see them get the recognition they deserve, to see the hot rod be recognized as an art form. Bruce is really the guy that made that happen.”    

Bruce responds, “That really warms my heart.” 

After 10 years of Bruce championing the cause, in 1997, he convinced the organizers of the founding Concours d’Elegance in the United States, at Pebble Beach, to create a class for hot rods. Not surprisingly, Bruce won the class with his Doane Spencer hi-boy. Today, it’s a permanent class at Concours events around North America. 

The Concours d’Elegance shows have served as entry points into the automobile industry. The “competition of elegance” dates back to 17th-century France during the Belle Epoque era, “a period marked by cultural refinement and artistic flourish.” Wealthy aristocrats and social elites would gather at grand venues, fashionable resorts and parks in France to display their luxurious carriages. Eventually, automobiles replaced the horse carriages as the mode of transportation. 

Bruce and Jay are regular presenters at Beverly Hills’ annual Father’s Day event, Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance. It’s the epitome of our modern-day, family-oriented holiday. Last year, over 45,000 people in the sparkling sunshine, along with their pooches, walked Rodeo Drive and admired some of the finest automobiles in the world. 

Originally, the Beverly Hills Concours d’Elegance sprang from a fundraising effort to restore the only remaining Beverly Hills 1928 Ahrens Fox fire engine, referred to as “The Fox.” Bruce led the fundraising charge. Soliciting the help of the community’s car enthusiasts and the Rodeo Drive Committee, the group convinced the City Council to approve bringing the Concours d’Elegance to Beverly Hills on Rodeo Drive. The inaugural event took place in June of 1993. Every year since, it’s touted as the most popular day in Beverly Hills and has become a Father’s Day tradition. On June 16 of this year, the 29th annual Concours d’Elegance returns with Bruce as chairman. Bruce and Jay will join the Beverly Hills Mayor and City Councilmembers in the winner’s circle, announcing this year’s award winners, with the restored Fox firetruck showcased nearby. 

For Bruce, philanthropy is a big part of his life. Among his long list of honors, he’s a Founding Board Member of the California Highway Patrol 11-99 Foundation. Presently, he’s on the Board of Trustees at St. John’s Medical Center and generously involved with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. When the Petersen Automotive Museum opened its doors in 1994, Bruce was its Founding Chairman. Today, the “Bruce Meyer Family Gallery,” within the museum, honors his enormous personal commitment and legacy. The Petersen Museum’s namesake, Robert E. Petersen, was also a Beverly Hills resident and the publisher of Hot Rod magazine. This coming October 2024, Bruce will be the honoree at their 30th Anniversary Petersen Fundraiser Gala, dubbed the Automotive Party of the Year.

Both Bruce and Jay are recipients of the Lee Iacocca Award. Among Jay’s charitable focuses, he’s honored those who helped him along his career path with scholarship funds, as well as supported war veterans, and victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. He has received two Emmy Awards, two TV Guide Awards, one People’s Choice Award and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He’s also earned two Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters, one from his alma mater Emerson College in 2014 and one from the Academy of Art University in 2021. 

“Jay has been awesome. He has raised more money for the California Highway Patrol and for the Petersen Automotive Museum. He’s very generous with his talent. There are other people of fame that just don’t give back like Jay does. And he’s a great citizen. For the police department and the fire department, he’s done shows. There are people that just don’t get it, but Jay does.”

Jay responds, “I’m a huge believer in low self-esteem. It’s the key to success. If you don’t think you’re the smartest person in the room, then you should listen. I mean, there were 4,000 recorded geniuses in history, and I met 3,900 of them here in Beverly Hills.”

More seriously, Jay says, “The trick is to know what your limitations are. If I have something that can help others, that’s great. Maybe they’ll help me in some way. I don’t have to ever ask for it. It just works out nice. Bruce knows everybody. So, if I need a doctor, I call Bruce and ask, ‘Who’s a good cardiologist?’ ‘Oh, this guy’s the best cardiologist.’ ‘Oh, thank you, Bruce. I appreciate that.’ And then he’ll say to me, ‘I need a comedian…’”

“When Jay calls and he needs something, it makes me feel like I have some value in his life.”

Not only is he generous, but Jay also enjoys spreading joy. Most Beverly Hills residents and tourists have spotted him cruising around town in one of his prized motorized machines. 

Jay offers, “I hate the fact that they’ve driven the film industry out of Beverly Hills, out of Hollywood. Everybody’s in Atlanta or somewhere else. When people come here, they expect to see something Hollywoodish. If I’m driving the Duesenberg or something like that and the tour bus goes by, yeah, I’ll pull over. I’ll take pictures with people. I like that. It’s fun.” 

“There are more people who have climbed Everest than members of the 200 MPH Club.”

– Bruce Meyer

He recalls, “One day I’m driving in Beverly Hills, and I see Peter Falk. I pull over and I said, ‘Peter, hey, how you doing? Can I give you a lift home?’ He thought for a moment and said, ‘I got this Mercedes. It’s been sitting there [at the house] for years. I don’t know what’s wrong. But you will.’ So, I drive him back to his house. We pull in, and he’s got a nice Mercedes, one of the convertibles, and I got in. I said, ‘Well, the key is in, but the battery’s dead. Lemme go and get jumper cables.’ So I go to my house, get jumper cables, come back. I put the jumper cables in, the lights go on. I say, ‘Peter, here’s the problem, you left the lights on.’ Immediately, he becomes Columbo. He said, ‘Son of a…’ He goes and walks in a circle, comes back to me and says, ‘You’re telling me I left the lights on?’ I’m sitting there watching this. He just took on those mannerisms of the character. It just made me laugh. That’s the fun thing about living here.” 

The chance of seeing two show business stars talking on the street is a rarity in any town. It’s as unusual as finding people who have joined the 200 MPH Club. 

“There are more people who have climbed Everest than members of the 200 MPH Club. That’s a statistic told to me by a member of the club,” shares Bruce. 

He is a proud member. The club’s association qualifies the drivers and provides the red hats, the badges of honor, for members to wear at automobile events. 

“To join the 200 MPH Club, you have to break an existing land speed record over 200 mph that had been previously set. In other words, in the category of cars, there are some cars that go 400 mph, and there are some cars that set records at 90 mph. They have lots of different categories, engine sizes and a variety of cars. For the club, you have to go over 200 in a car that set a record,” says Bruce. “I drove a Camaro. It was 206 mph against the 197 record.”

Bruce’s second time was driving the 1932 hot rod that he built. In this case, his goal was to exceed 200 mph in an open hot rod, and he accomplished his goal. 

Jay is not a member of the club, although he’s driven over 200 miles per hour many times. One such time, he took his C7 Corvette to Milford Proving Ground at General Motors and met with the head engineer to test the car.

“We get in the car and before the seat belts went on, I said, ‘Before we start, tell me the first time you ever went 200 in a Corvette.’  He goes, ‘Oh, I never have.’ I said, ‘You never have?’ He goes, ‘No, I’ve never been driven in a Corvette.’ ‘So, the first time is with a 73-year-old comedian in a car that I’ve never been in? On a track I’d never driven on?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I guess so.’ ‘Okay, fine.’  So, we went. We did a ton of laps, 40, 50 laps, hit 204, 205. I was having a conversation with him the whole time, and it was fine.”

Bruce adds, “Most supercars go 200, and now they’re pushing for 300. They take a car like that out to an airport, and they go 300. You may have a car that goes 300, and usually the old guys who can afford one only go 60.” 

In March of 2024, the Robb Report aggregated the latest information for the fastest, top speed car. In 1987, the Ferrari F40 broke the second-century mark, setting the benchmark, and creating the race to break the 300 MPH Club. Today, there are 25 cars that are ranked for speed, beginning with the Porsche 918 Spyder at 218 mph at number 25. The top two are the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport at 304.7 mph on the track and the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut at 330 mph, which is the manufacturer’s claim. 

Bruce says he is now in “self-preservation mode.”

“When I turned 75, I stopped running Bonneville. My whole life was motorcycles. But I’ve stopped because people are texting, and it’s kind of dangerous out there. Plus, when you’re in your older years, and you ‘go down,’ you don’t just brush it off. I’ve stopped snow skiing because I didn’t want to get hit by a snowboarder. And I hold onto railings when I go downstairs. Now I want to live and enjoy instead of doing something stupid, which I’m very capable of doing.” 

Like his parents, Bruce forbade his children from riding motorcycles. And yet, Bruce once rode his young son on a motorcycle to a birthday party. He directed Evan to hold on to Bruce with one arm and to hold onto the birthday present with the other. Hearing about it from the other mothers, Raylene was very upset. 

“It was just so stupid,” admits Bruce.

Turning the conversation towards Jay and his latest serious accidents, Bruce quickly refers to them as “mishaps.” 

In 2022, working under his 1907 White Steam car, gas hit Jay’s face, a spark jumped and his face caught on fire. Going to bed that night, the skin from his face and ear melted into the pillow, forcing the doctors to replace his ear and part of his face. Jokingly, he told People magazine, “I tried to get the Clooney face, but it wasn’t available.” In January of this year, while riding on his motorcycle, a 1940s Indian, he hit a wire, was clotheslined and knocked off his bike. Fracturing his collarbone, a few ribs and both kneecaps, the ever-determined Jay returned to his stand-up gigs soon after, still bruised but not broken.  

Have these latest events impacted Jay’s thinking? Have they given him pause about his future rides? 

“Not at all,” says Jay. “If I didn’t know why the accident happened, then you would go, ‘Oh, I have no idea why that happened or how it happened. I shouldn’t do that.’ But I see what happened. The guy, he had a wire across the road, but he didn’t have a flag on it. The sun was in my eye. It caught me in the neck and threw my face down.”

Bruce quickly chimes in, “Jay’s got another 10 years to go before he’s matured enough to quit.” Jay adds he has one more mishap left in him. “I think I got one,” says Jay lightheartedly.

What about the future of cars? 

Jay declares, “You can’t predict the future.”

Bruce agrees.

Jay analogizes, “If you had said 20 years ago, that 20 years from now, it’ll be cool for men to walk with their pants halfway down their ass all the time. Well, that looks ridiculous. It is ridiculous! But I see everybody wearing their underwear up here. Their pants are down there. I go, OK. Why is that? I don’t get it. But if you had predicted that, I’d say, you’re nuts!  You just don’t know what will be collectible or what’s in style.”

The electric car today has gotten traction. Jay’s “shock of the new” is subsiding. Most manufacturers are getting into the electric car business. Tesla surpassed early expectations once it was marketed to the masses. 

Jay states, “Mark Twain said, ‘I like progress. It’s change I don’t like.’ And that’s kind of what you have here. Tesla has no maintenance, no nothing, and it’s faster than anything else. It’s the fastest thing in my garage right now.” 

Bruce drives a Tesla as well. “I hate the fact that I love my car so much. I am on my second Tesla. And Jay drives the high-powered Tesla Plaid.”

In their view, electric cars are here to stay. 

Bruce theorizes, “I think the projections on the availability of electricity and what it takes to make electricity hasn’t been thoroughly thought out. If everybody went to electric, we wouldn’t have the grid to support it. I personally think we need to go to nuclear to source our electricity. But that’s like a dirty word. You have to be able to produce energy to run these cars. And I think as time goes on, they’re going to realize by 2030 or 35, it’s not going to all be electric. We couldn’t support it.” After a pause, he adds, “They’re working on synthetic fuels, and I think the hybrid technology can be [the future], even hybrids are pretty darn efficient.” 

“Something will evolve,” says Jay, as they continue to ponder the possibilities.

Our tour had come full circle. It began with the electric cars of a century ago and ended with the electric marvels of today. While the options for future locomotion are endless, one thing is for sure. These two reigning auto aficionados have indelibly contributed to the legacy of automaking and restoration, and will continue to influence the global car conversation for years to come. 

And yet, for Jay and Bruce, it was just another fun day, rapt in their passion, in Jay’s garage. 

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The year is 1998 and Eva Longoria has just been crowned Miss Corpus Christi, Texas.

Though Eva had plans to earn her master’s degree in sports medicine having received her undergraduate diploma in kinesiology, one of the prizes that came with her crown was a ticket to Los Angeles to compete in a prestigious modeling and talent competition. By the end of that contest, 28 agents wanted to represent Eva, enabling her to pursue her other passion, acting.

It would take two years before Eva was cast in her first prime-time speaking role, a job that would earn her a SAG card and elevate her from aspirational to bona fide actress. The role was only three lines, but it was opposite Luke Perry, on the hottest show in the world, the pop culture phenomenon “Beverly Hills 90210.”

Today, Beverly Hills 90210 is the place Eva Longoria calls home. 

Back then, as a struggling actress, it wasn’t imaginable for Eva. 

“Beverly Hills felt so far. Not in miles, in thought. It was so farfetched.” She pauses, realizing the serendipity. “I forgot 90210 was my first speaking role.” 

By the time Eva settled in Beverly Hills, her accomplishments had defied expectations. But maybe not in Eva’s mind. As an actress, producer and director, she has earned 14 awards and 33 nominations, including Golden Globe, People’s Choice and Screen Actors Guild Awards. As a global influencer, with 9.7 million followers on Instagram, Eva has earned the world’s respect in the entertainment, beauty, fashion, cookware and spirits industries. 

And this is just the beginning. 

With boundless versatility, passion and talent, Eva uses her influence and insight to overcome the barriers that prevent advancement for minorities, the underserved and the mistreated. Her purposeful mission is to effect real change. Through her foundation and charitable associations, she advocates for women’s rights, persons with disabilities and Latinx equality. And, in her spare time, Eva, a seasoned businesswoman, engages in diverse entrepreneurial endeavors. 

Focused, determined and driven, she also employs her authentic storytelling to message through her craft. This year, having directed her first highly acclaimed feature film “Flamin’ Hot,” an “inspirational, feel-good story,” Eva, as with many of her projects, used the film as a tool to educate and to provide opportunity. 

As the ultimate modern shero, a happily married woman and a new mother, one wonders how does this trailblazing woman of influence do it all?

Long before Beverly Hills, Eva was raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. Her family’s roots in the Lone Star State are traced back to 1603 when her ancestor, Lorenzo Longoria, sailed from Spain and arrived in the New World. But it wasn’t until 1767 when Eva’s 7th great-grandfather received a gift from the King of Spain. It was a land grant of almost 4,000 acres along the Rio Grande, which remained in her family for over a century. 

Born March 15, 1975, Eva Jacqueline is the fourth girl behind Elizabeth, Emily and Esmeralda. With her mother, Ella, and her father, Enrique, all have names that begin with the letter “E.” Eva explains the family tradition began with her maternal grandmother.

“My mom’s mom did that. And my mom chose to continue it. My mom’s brothers and sisters all start with an “E.” All my aunts, Elda, Elsa, Edna…There’s nine of them. Crazy.”

Eva was raised Roman Catholic and did not learn to speak Spanish until her mid-30s. When she was young and the darkest skinned in the family, her big sisters would jokingly call her “la prieta fea,” a Spanish expression meaning “the ugly dark one.” The thought is humorous as she became a world-renowned cover girl. 

Eva fondly remembers her childhood on the Longoria farm. 

“Growing up on a farm is a gift. I mean, it really is a gift. It gives you an appreciation for nature, animals, gardening and where food comes from. My dad would never let us eat fast food because we grew so many vegetables. He said there was no reason to ever eat out. We would pull carrots from the ground and just eat them. Not even wash the dirt off. We were savages at our ranch. We would run around all day.”

It was a different era in the 1980s, before cellphones and video games. 

“There was never a choice to stay inside. That was a punishment and the worst thing you could hear growing up on a ranch. It gave me such an appreciation for nature and specifically animals and raising chickens and raising pigs.”

Her father taught Eva and her sisters how to handle a gun to hunt. On “Dateline NBC,” Eva shared, “I can skin a deer, I can skin a pig. I can pluck a quail. You name it, I’ve done it.”

Giggling, “My first pet was a cow. I mean, it was definitely different.”

Eva feels it’s essential to raise her son, Santiago, with an understanding and appreciation of nature through taking care of animals. Fortunately, she still has her ranch in Corpus Christi. 

One of the biggest impacts on Eva’s childhood was her sister Elizabeth, whom everyone called Liza. She is intellectually disabled. Ella Longoria was determined to facilitate the best possible life for her eldest, as well as her other three daughters. So much so, she became a special education teacher providing guidance for the family and enabling her to accompany Liza in public school. Eva has shared in the press, “Growing up with a sister with special needs makes you selfless… you think of others first.” She also remembers volunteering annually with the Special Olympics. It helped her form her deep conviction to give back. 

Today, Eva’s Heroes, a nonprofit organization, founded by Eva in 2006, and based in San Antonio, Texas, puts into practice the lessons learned from her sister. It reflects Eva’s compassionate and empathetic desire to enrich the lives of other individuals with intellectual special needs. 

Despite Enrique working as a tool engineer and rancher, and Ella working full time, money was tight. Years before Eva’s quinceañera, the traditional coming-of-age celebration for Latinas, Eva realized there would be no money for her party. As the story goes, she “swiped” her sister’s ID and got a job flipping burgers at Wendy’s before the age of 15 to make enough money for her celebration. Her grit, determination and self-reliance were being realized. 

At Roy Miller High School, Eva not only played three sports, basketball, track and gymnastics, but she also made the cheerleading squad and head drum major, a near impossibility all at the same time. These extracurriculars led to a cheerleading scholarship at Texas A&M University in Kingsville. Five years later, after winning Miss Corpus Christi and scoring her first trip to Los Angeles, Eva was excited about visiting Hollywood. 

“I remember just wanting to go see the [Hollywood] sign when I arrived. All I wanted to do was live in Hollywood so that when I wrote home to my mom, my address would be Hollywood, California on the envelope.”

Finding success was not easy. To make ends meet, Eva worked at an executive search firm. Roles offered to a Latina were few and far between. Her dream was to have a recurring role on a soap opera. But first, she needed a break. “Beverly Hills 90210” was it. 

As for eventually living in the coveted zip code?

“It was my husband who wanted to move there. We lived in Hollywood. He was the one because of the show [“Beverly Hills 90210”]. One day he said, ‘I want to live in 90210.’ When we got married, we immediately started looking there. I have my husband to thank for that.”

In 2013, a friend set Eva up on a date with José (Pepe) Bastón, a Mexican-born businessman, and a successful Televisa executive and producer. She shared that by date two she was already swept away. Eva told People Magazine, “He was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. He was so charismatic, charming, sweet and funny.” When Bastón proposed to her in Dubai, Eva went to social media, posting photos of the couple with the hashtags, #Engaged #Dubai #Happiness. In a white gown designed by her best friend and bridesmaid, Victoria Beckham, Eva married Pepe during a sunset ceremony at his home in Valle de Bravo, Mexico on May 21, 2016. Three years later, Eva gave birth to their son, Santiago Enrique (Santi), in June of 2019. 

The timing of the move to Beverly Hills, the Garden City, with her baby could not have been more perfect for Eva. 

“Not only did we move [here], we moved [here] and then COVID happened. To be able to walk during COVID was like a gift. I lived in the Hollywood Hills for so long. There’s no trick-or-treating, there’s no walking anywhere. You have to get in your car and get out. And during COVID, it was such a gift to not only walk outside on beautiful streets, but you could also admire the landscaping and the palm trees. You feel like, OK, this is L.A. living. We really felt this is what people think about when they think of L.A., like this street right here, these palm trees right here. And then you get the beautiful tour of these gorgeous homes. I could just walk and walk and walk and just stare at people’s gardens and people’s fences and people’s doors.”
And like her attraction to gardens, Eva’s character, the sassy, sexy Gabrielle Solis, on the highly successful ABC series, “Desperate Housewives,” was desperately attracted, while married, to her gardener. Eva starred on the show throughout its run, from 2004 to 2012, and received numerous awards and nominations.

Cast in the show more than three years after her first speaking role, it would take another three years before Eva was cast in her first feature film. While on “Desperate Housewives,” Eva starred in the thriller, “The Sentinel,” opposite Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland. She is not shy in sharing her feelings and reflecting on her years of hard work to gain traction in her acting career.

Her roles continued far beyond these few notable ones, and as her star rose, Eva began popping up in high-profile advertising campaigns in both male and female fashion magazines, as well as in many glamorous cover stories in Vogue, People, Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire. To this day, she is included on most magazines’ “top” and “best” lists. In 2005, she became a spokesperson for L’Oreal Paris and remains featured in their print and TV ads today, 18 years later.

In describing beauty as she’s matured, Eva has a different point of view from when she was younger.  

“It’s always wonderful to be called beautiful or be on these lists of most beautiful. And I think it’s cliché to say beauty comes from within, but it really does. If you can exude confidence and intelligence and empowerment, there’s nothing more beautiful on a woman. And that doesn’t necessarily come from makeup and haircare. That comes from knowing who you are. That beauty comes from being empowered in your job, being stable in your relationships. There are so many things that I personally identify with [when it comes to] beauty, and I think it has very little to do with the exterior, but I’m older. I’ve evolved to this place of really understanding and knowing beauty is deeper and has very little to do with the superficial surface.”

As time moved on, Eva broadened her creative energies to include producing projects under her UnbeliEVAble Entertainment company. She began to direct series episodes and documentaries, with an eye toward one day directing feature films. Satisfying her need to message through storytelling, Eva, as a producer, examined the plight of the migrant farmworkers and their dire working conditions in “Food Chains.” Similarly, “The Harvest,” another UnbeliEVAble documentary, is told from a child’s perspective about the deplorable working conditions that “tens of thousands of children face” in fields across the United States every year. 

By revealing these true-life stories, through the vehicle of film, Eva reminds us, “I don’t speak for the Latino community. I encourage the Latino community to speak for themselves.”

Recently, UnbeliEVAble Entertainment was folded into the media holding firm, Hyphenate Media Group. This new venture, which Eva co-founded with Cris Abrego, is part production company, business incubator and talent scouting agency. 

To further enhance her activism, at the age of 34, Eva returned to school to earn her master’s degree in Chicano Studies at Cal State Northridge.  

Aware of the inequities that affect Latinas and wanting to improve their trajectory, Eva created the Eva Longoria Foundation in 2012 with its mission, “to help Latinas build a better future for themselves and their families through education and entrepreneurship.”

Along with its advocacy and research, the foundation has funded educational programs such as STEM workshops aimed at school-age Latinas as well as classes and workshops for Latina entrepreneurs. In addition, the foundation has given $1.9 million in dispersed loans to 220 Latina entrepreneurs, enabling them to employ and retain more than 600 Latinas. 

Breaking through to that next step to become a feature film director, as a Latina, albeit an accomplished actress, series television director and producer, took confidence, conviction and self-belief. 

“It’s definitely hard for women behind the camera for sure. We in no way have gender equity in our industry, but honestly, that’s across all industries. There are very few women on boards, women in corporate America, women as CEOs. With Hollywood, people make the assumption we’re very progressive so Hollywood’s getting it right. We’re not. We’re far from getting it right. And again, if you look at the numbers, we have less women directing TV and film than we had a couple of years ago. So those numbers dictate we’re going in the wrong direction. But how can we be going in the wrong direction?” 

Eva advocates that the Hollywood community should course correct and broaden the applicant pool. But first, it has to acknowledge the problem. 

“Why wouldn’t people be more conscious about hiring women? It’s still a problem that we have to address and acknowledge because it’s not going to change. And we have so many amazing female storytellers that should have the same opportunity as men to get their projects made.”

Eva suggests that the cause of the problem is where change must occur. 

“I always hire ‘with the lens of other,’ whether that’s a woman, a person of color, a person with a disability, LGBTQ. I don’t think there are people at these studios up in a tower going, let’s not hire women and people with disabilities. I think they unconsciously work with who they always work with. It takes a different mind frame to expose them to a different talent pool. Let’s tap into a different talent pool that is equally talented. Just because you are doing a diversity hire does not mean you’re getting less. In fact, sometimes it makes your movie better.”

This year, in her feature film directorial debut, “Flamin’ Hot,” Eva tells the story of Richard Montañez, the son of a Mexican immigrant and a janitor at Frito-Lay who created the idea for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Following her own advice, Eva cast a wide net by offering opportunities and opening new doors. What was her takeaway? 

“That I could do it. I think a lot of times, specifically female directors say, ‘I don’t know if I’m ready. I don’t know if I know enough, I don’t know if I can.’ And we go in it with this real vulnerable, insecure position. At least I did. I was thinking, why did I say yes to this? Having that fear of not being ready and then finishing it and going, not only was I ready, I know what I’m doing and I’m good at it! I don’t think men do that. I don’t think men go, ‘I don’t know if I want this shot.’ It’s like they just go, assume the job is theirs and they get it. And so, for me, I think that was the biggest lesson was not only, you can do this, it’s you’re really good at it.”

Proud of the film’s message, Eva offered, “There was even a stroke of love in how we did the cholos… This was his [Montañez] lived experience. These characters were real people. And I think that we really were applauded for how we portrayed Latinos in this film, even to the cholos who are real, complex, beautiful people.”

The film, “celebrated an immigrant story rooted in the United States,” reported the New York Times and was screened with Eva in attendance at the White House with the President, First Lady and 600 attendees. President Biden said, “Opportunity is a cornerstone of our democracy and the American dream. And you’ll see in the film, that’s exactly what the Hispanic community embodies: opportunity, courage.” 

This was not the first time Eva was invited to the White House. In 2012, she supported Barack Obama and was one of seven Californians named co-chair of President Obama’s reelection campaign. 

Of the many hats Eva wears in the entertainment industry, including as a talk show host and podcaster, the one she would choose to wear first and foremost is as a director. 

“I just really enjoy it. I love having control of the final product. As a director, you’re in charge of everything. I like having the control of the overall creativity.” 

Pride-filled and passionate, you can feel Eva’s commitment to her Mexican culture in just about everything she does. Combining that with her love of family, food and fun, it’s no wonder she explored ideas around cooking as an avenue to hone her business acumen, along with her creative talents, in becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Unlike her character in “Desperate Housewives,” Eva loves to cook. A talented chef, Eva has authored several cookbooks inspired by her Mexican roots. She even posts about her cooking skills on Instagram, “There’s nothing like a homemade meal and sharing memories in the kitchen with your loved ones.” Of late, she posts videos that include her son Santiago. “He’s been cooking with me since he was two,” she told People Magazine. “Nothing brings me greater joy than feeding my family.”

Joy inspires laughter, and when Eva recently launched a new cookware line she named it Risa, Spanish for laughter. From the moment it appeared on the shelves, it received rave reviews in materials, design and storage simplicity. But not all food endeavors have been successful. Beso, which means kiss in Spanish, a restaurant and nightclub Eva created and co-financed, first opened in Hollywood in 2008, and later in Las Vegas. By 2011, the venture had failed, but provided Eva, as a young entrepreneur, with some valuable lessons. 

Casa Del Sol Tequila, which Eva calls her “baby,” was founded in 2021 by a female-led team “inspired by the magic of golden hour and the legend of the Aztec goddess of agave, Mayahuel.” The company touts that among its many distinctive qualities, instead of sourcing whisky barrels from the United States, it uses Cognac barrels from France. This unique aging process results in an extremely smooth liquid with a distinct flavor and aromatic profile. 

Despite the fact that Eva had been approached by many tequila companies over the past 20 years, she chose to become a founder of Casa Del Sol. 

“[The company] was really honoring the traditions of tequila making, honoring the jimadores [workers] in the fields, honoring the people of Jalisco, making sure people understood how to drink tequila, the tradition of tequila, the art of tequila. It wasn’t a money grab. It wasn’t a celebrity endorsement. It was a really authentic approach to celebrating the most iconic symbol of Mexico, which is tequila.”

“And then when I tasted it, I was like, ‘What is this?’ The juice is the best in the industry, hands down. We’re the only portfolio that ages in Cognac barrels, which gives this insane smoothness. Not that it’s a tequila for women, but we have the most women of any company in key positions. We have a female master distiller. We have a female president. We have a female CEO of the distillery. It’s important that we have success. So that the industry itself can put more women in positions of power, and go, ‘Oh, that works. Women can do this job, too.’ All those factors really made it a no-brainer for me to sign on to Casa Del Sol.”

The president of the company, Colbi Corbett, shared, “We looked at the landscape, and we really wanted a strong Latina voice as a co-founder in our business. We wanted to be able to have someone authentic and someone who has real genuine ties to the region. [Eva] is an incredibly savvy businesswoman [and] we looked at [her] as a true business partner. She’s had a ton of successful ventures in front of and behind the camera. And anyone who knows Eva knows about her grit, her hustle, her ability to make things happen.”

As for the company’s female Master Distiller, Carmen Gonzalez Alfaro, Corbett adds, “Less than 11% of Master Distillers in the tequila industry are women. We’re very proud that Carmen is our Master Distiller. When we go to hire, we want to make sure that we’re offering opportunities for women to be successful.” 

This year on CNN, Casa Del Sol was highlighted in “Searching for Mexico,” a six-episode series that explores the lesser-known parts of Mexico. Choosing Eva as the journey’s tour guide, Stanley Tucci and the team at CNN made the right choice for a delectable food and travel experience. Eva’s favorite segment is Veracruz, the port gateway between Mexico and the rest of the world. 

“I really loved Veracruz. I didn’t have many expectations for it. This was where everything started. This is the port where the conquest happened. This is where Indian spices came through, Asian spices, Asian cuisine, African cuisine, everything came in through that port. And so, Veracruz is probably the most eclectic state [in terms of] cuisine. It was so beautiful to see the history that had settled there. And I love Mexico City because it has a bit of everything; you can get Jalisco tacos or Oaxaca tacos or Yucatan fish. Mexico City has so much to offer.”

Just as Eva relished exploring her roots traveling Mexico, the holidays give her the perfect opportunity to tap into the traditions, food and celebrations of her culture. Aligning perfectly with what soothes the soul for Eva, it’s a special time in the Longoria-Bastón home. 

“We’re a Mexican household, so we do tamales at Christmas. It’s a tradition. You need a whole assembly line to do it. Usually, it’s all the aunts and the cousins, and it takes a lot of people. It’s labor intensive, but they’re so good. I don’t know why we only eat them around Christmas.” 

Eva offers that Santiago witnesses the tamale-making tradition and enjoys the fun when her big family gathers. 

“And we make a lot of Christmas cookies called pan de bono. That’s been a tradition in my house forever at Christmas time. We make buckets and buckets of them and give [them] out to everybody. Most of our holiday traditions really center around the kitchen.”

As for the New Year’s holiday and resolutions, Eva shares she would like to better her meditation skills. 

“My meditation is my workout, so I have an hour every morning, early. I have to get it in because it’s my mental health hour more than my, ‘I’m going to work out to get abs hour.’ For me, it’s really about clearing my head and setting up my energy for the day. But I wish I would meditate longer. I’m inconsistent with my meditation, so that’s what I’d like to do better.”

If Eva’s meditation is her workout, then how does she find peace? 

“Well, my family is my peace. Peace for other people may be a spa day. Sometimes they want to escape from their family. But for me, traveling is peace. Traveling with my family [is something] I love to do. I think traveling is still one of the greatest luxuries. It’s just so expensive now. But for me, peace is being with my family. But I also think the biggest lesson to people is you don’t have to do extravagant, expensive things to find peace. It could be a bath at the end of the night. It could be lighting that incense, lighting that candle that hasn’t been lit or throwing in the bath bomb. Use the bath bombs, don’t accumulate them. Use the good china, use the good plates. Don’t save them for a special occasion. Really live that life. Live!”

And as she lives her best life, who has guided her—who has been Eva’s north star, her role model? Who has influenced her and motivated her to move through life as she does? 

“I didn’t grow up with celebrity culture. So, if you ask people today, ‘Who’s your role model?’ They’ll name somebody famous without knowing them, without ever meeting them. When you ask me, it’s always my mother, my role model, my example. She taught me about my work ethic. I never have to really look that far to see an example of the woman I want to be. I even think about how much she did when we were young, and that’s what makes me feel like I’m not doing enough. I need to do more.” 

But she doesn’t do it alone. “I have an amazing tribe of women around me. My best friends of 30 years are smart, independent, incredible women. There’s no truer statement than birds of a feather. Specifically, for young people, who you hang out with is a bigger indicator if you’re going to be successful than whether or not you went to Harvard. I’ve purposely surrounded myself [with] examples of women I want to be.”

Sharing her time between Beverly Hills, Texas and Mexico is challenging enough. But then to juggle her many business ventures with developing her entertainment projects, advocating for the issues important to her and finding time for her family, it’s hard to believe Eva is as productive as she is. Her assistant, Jessica Peron, shared that those close to her know her secret. She’s the “master multitasker.” Even Steven Forbes at the 2019 Forbes Women’s Summit asked her, “Is there anything you aren’t doing?” Eva jokingly responded, “Well, I don’t sing.” 

Despite the importance of family to her, Eva decided to have a child later in life. Having lived for 43 years and then having a child was a big change. 

“It’s changed me completely. People sometimes go, ‘Oh my God, your life’s so complicated now that you have a baby.’ And I’m like, ‘No.’ He’s actually simplified my life because you’re no longer the center of your universe…I always felt like, oh my God, I’m going to miss out on that. I have to go there. I should do that. I need to say yes to that. Now, it’s so easy to say no if it really takes away from the time with my son. Time is precious. Time is my greatest resource. And so, for me, it’s been easy to reorganize my life now because he’s such the priority. Everything just falls away. He’s actually simplified my life.”

And then she adds, “Another way it’s changed me is it’s made my philanthropy so urgent. Ever since he’s come into this world, I’m like, we have to hurry up and make the world a better place because it’s scary. It’s a big job, now more than ever. It’s a big job.” 

Eva could have sat back and enjoyed the fruits of her fame, or retreated into the bliss of new motherhood, which would have been understandable, but she didn’t. She worked hard to get to where she is, and when she was given the opportunity to finally produce and direct, Eva pointed that lens squarely at the issues affecting Latinos. Beyond founding her charitable organizations, she’s driven to help others get a fair shake. Still, to her, it isn’t enough—she needs to do more. 

Given what she’s already accomplished, and leading by example, we can only imagine what that “more” might look like. One thing is for sure, it will come from her authentic desire to effect change for the better. 

And that is what makes Eva a proven woman of influence. 

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Walking aimlessly down a wide, empty corridor, past the lockers toward math class, Mike Amiri’s 15-year-old imagination steers his thoughts and slows his pace. Turning the corner, he crashes into somebody.

“Sorry,” says Mike, quickly realizing that somebody is Lenny Kravitz! The rock star!

A former student of the school, Kravitz is at the height of his fame.

“I’m Mike,” he offers, containing his excitement.

“Lenny”

“I know. Love your music. But what are you doing back here?”

“Thought I’d stop by. See some of my old teachers.”

“Want some help?”

“Sure. You know Mrs. McKenzie?”

Mike leads Lenny. They reach room 170.

Lenny peeks in, “Yep, that’s her.” Mike opens the door.

Mrs. McKenzie looks up, “Mr. Amiri, shouldn’t you be in class?”

Lenny pops in front of him. Mrs. McKenzie lights up! The class goes wild. Mike, a die-hard, impressionable rock ‘n roll fan, stands back, rapt in the moment, his math class a million miles away.

Twenty-six years later, at the posh Hotel Costes restaurant in Paris, Mike is dining with his wife, Shirin, when Lenny Kravitz approaches.

“Mike…”

“Lenny…” Mike stands to greet him.

“My stylist just texted me you were here. I wanted to thank you for the jacket you made me. I love it.”

“I’m glad,” says Mike.

“It’s iconic.”

“It’s pretty nice,” Mike offers humbly.

“Great to finally meet you,” says Lenny.

“We’ve met before.”

“We have?”

“Years ago. When you visited Beverly High.”

“That was you? Really!”

Mike nods yes.

In that moment of serendipity and recognition, they embrace.

Bumping into a rock star in the hallway of your high school is unbelievable, even if that school is Beverly Hills High. But to meet him decades later and find yourself on par with that rock legend, that is extraordinary. This chance encounter is one of the many signposts along Mike’s journey signaling that Mike Amiri, the fashion designer, has arrived.

In just nine short years, Mike has built an indisputably world-class, luxury fashion house. His eponymous fashion line, AMIRI, blew up so fast it gave established houses whiplash as they watched the new kid on the block open his flagship near them on Rodeo Drive in 2020.

Back in 2014, Mike was stitching one-off stage pieces for musicians like Axl Rose and Justin Bieber from the basement of a Thai restaurant in Hollywood. Soon, he was selling out collections at the fashion cult mecca Maxfield. He has been nominated three times (in 2019, 2021 and 2022) for the prestigious Menswear Designer of the Year Award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, alongside Tom Ford and Rick Owens.

Today, it’s The Weeknd, Usher, Leslie Odom, Jr., Black Coffee, J Balvin and Teyana Taylor who are wearing Amiri’s clothes. And his fans aren’t limited to those from the stage. A-list movie and television stars like Brad Pitt, Paul Rudd, Rege-Jean Page, Tessa Thompson, Natasha Lyonne, Robert Pattinson, Tyler James Williams and Jared Leto wear AMIRI. Mike’s reach has spread to athletes as well, such as Lionel Messi and Odell Beckham Jr. In the championship boxing bout in Las Vegas on April 22 of this year, boxer Ryan Garcia wore head-to-toe AMIRI in and out of the ring.

Along with the Beverly Hills flagship, there are currently nine standalone AMIRI stores worldwide in the U.S., Japan, United Arab Emirates and China. Part of the meteoric rise also involves 160 boutiques, “shop in shops,” inside globally esteemed retailers including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman in the U.S.; Selfridges and Harrods in London; Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Joyce in Hong Kong.

With the expansion into footwear, womenswear, children’s wear, accessories and lifestyle products, along with his newly renovated store on Rodeo Drive, AMIRI is projected, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, to do $320 million in sales in 2023, up 56% from last year.

The soul of the brand is, at its very essence, Mike Amiri himself. His interpretation of California luxury lifestyle is undeniably authentic, built on his own life experiences growing up in Los Angeles, playing basketball, skateboarding, creating street art and hanging out at the rock clubs on Sunset Boulevard.

Where other fashion labels attempt to replicate L.A. culture with products like logo-emblazoned skateboards or campaign images featuring our famous palm tree-lined streets as backdrops, Amiri is the real deal.

So, how did a kid from Beverly Hills High, with no connections, without a bottomless trust fund and zero fashion design education get here? It’s an oft-asked question by those who want to know his “secret sauce.”

I set out to find the answer.

Leaping over puddles on the rare rainy and windy day on Rodeo Drive, I reached AMIRI’s flagship storefront as the black-suited security guard opened the door to let me in. And like Dorothy’s gloomy, black-and-white Kansas switched to sunny Technicolor Oz, this dark day quickly transformed into a bright, calm, inviting AMIRI haven. I soaked in the store’s staging, the simplistic artistry, the mood-setting music and the strategically suspended clothing hanging from the high ceilings. Here, purses mimic chic basketballs, skateboards are designed by L.A.-based artist Wes Lang and handcrafted leather totes show off California landmarks.

Soon, Mike Amiri, like the mastermind from behind the curtain, emerged from the back of the store, brandishing a warm smile, reflecting the sunshine he seemingly created. With a welcoming hug, he led me upstairs in search of a more intimate space for our interview. On the way, we passed a stylized workspace, a walled art installation featuring spools of thread in a rainbow of colors above matching antique sewing machines. Mike shared that the cabinets in front of the wall were filled with drawers of handcrafted or fine bejeweled accessories to enhance custom design for AMIRI’s exclusive VIP clientele.

In the next room, he invited me into a living room-like setting, poised for our interview with two stunning AMIRI logo motif armchairs, surrounded by soft drapery. I could not wait to dive in, to learn how this young designer had stormed the fashion industry in record time, and how he found the magic that ignited a global community to embrace his critically acclaimed, Los Angeles-based luxury brand.

The son of two Jewish Persian immigrants who owned an antiques business, Mike grew up first in Hollywood, then Beverly Hills. The middle of three boys, Mike spent a big part of his childhood in a dreamworld.

“Oftentimes, I created things, adventures, by myself, in my head… At some point, I realized that my brain was just geared for creating things that don’t exist and the possibilities that may exist. It wasn’t necessarily about clothing. It was just more storylines, or narratives, or looking at things a little bit differently than other people saw them.”

He also pursued your average teenage boy interests like basketball, skateboarding and riding BMX bikes. At some point, Mike became captivated by the notion of heroes, spending many hours watching the heroic deeds of characters in Westerns and war films with his father, a proud enlisted U. S. Army man.

“I love the idea of heroes, not just lead singers in rock bands, but in any field. Currently, I’m fascinated with people who become iconic in their fields, those who are obsessed with ideas regardless of adversity.”

Wanting to be cool like the rockers in Hollywood, Mike merged his finely honed imagination with his desire to stand out. In middle school, he attempted his first trendsetting garment. Having seen the punks on the street with DIY patches on clothing, he asked his friend’s mom to sew the front of an old Mötley Crüe T-shirt onto the back of his denim jacket. For $20, he created his own Mötley Crüe piece. Soon his friends in Beverly Hills followed.

“It was me kind of creating that hero for myself.”

When you distill Mike’s recollections of adolescence, a clearer picture emerges, one perhaps defined by his, sometimes fraught, search for a creative outlet. One of these outlets was graffiti, which, while in high school, put him in minor trouble with the law. This led to himsitting down with the school’s counselor. During their meeting, Mike recalls the counselor’s suggestion, “Maybe you just have a need to see your artwork displayed, and you’ll get a sense of pride from that.”

It made an indelible impression on Mike.

“It really changed my understanding of why it happened. It really made sense to my teenage brain.” Pondering today, Mike shares, “When you connect the dots backward, it’s really amazing.”

A Renaissance man, Mike taught himself how to play the piano and drums, and how to use production software on the computer. While in college, Mike reconnected with his old friend, Tiger JK, considered one of the founders of the hip-hop movement in South Korea.

Tiger JK was a classmate of Mike’s at Beverly Hills High School.

“I just really loved kind of exploring how to create things… And when I knew he was interested in music, I said, ‘Well, I can make songs [with him].’ I really fell in love with doing that part of it. It felt natural to me. He ended up becoming a really big artist in Korea, and I would go there and visit him, and sometimes help him perform.”

In the process, Mike learned how to read and write Korean. The group won awards at the Asian Music Awards, honoring much of the music Mike produced and wrote.

Mike knew in his heart this was a detour and not his true path. But the lessons he learned prepared him for the next chapters of his life.

“I did understand what it was like to create something. And watched it carry on a life of its own. To make something from nothing… It’s saying ‘yes’ to something that you have a creative opinion. And not looking at it in a way [in which] it’s unbelievable or ridiculous, whether it’s creating music in a foreign country or saying that you’re going to build a luxury brand.”

When he returned from Korea, Mike applied to law school. “It seemed like a very responsible thing to do… to follow a safe path.”

Mike chose a school that had a campus eight blocks away from the heart of the fashion district in Los Angeles. While he was working towards a law degree, he satiated his artistic drive.

Curious and intentional, Mike submerged himself in the many facets of the fashion industry.

“I would go to the vintage stores and open a blazer and try to understand why they put padding on certain areas. It was deconstructing and trying to understand how things are made.”

He engaged with stylists who were creating pieces for different people. Through them, Mike learned the processes of making a finished product. Soon, the stylists asked Mike to help create garments for their artist clients. He was also included in the design projects for some of the larger American fashion houses.

Eventually, he took the leap and set out on his own, deciding any limitations he would face would be seen as opportunities. He likened the need for resourcefulness to the garage band days of his youth, when the fonts of inspiration and creativity flowed more than funds.

“The thing we always talk about within the design studio is let’s pretend that we can’t buy the best pinstripe wool in the world. So how do we create that? What makes Amiri ‘AMIRI’ is not the fact that we’re able to use the best materials in the world. It’s the fact that we’re able to bring something new to the conversation, which is a youthful, creative sensibility.”

While he was defining his brand’s identity, Mike began to build an impressive clientele of L.A. performers making hand-crafted, unique stage pieces for them. This experience guided him to explore an authentic L.A. rock ‘n’ roll fashion vibe. Mike experimented using traditional materials, manipulating them and employing some outside-the-box craftsmanship. For example, he took cashmere sweaters and jeans to the desert in Joshua Tree and blasted them with a shotgun to give a scorched and tattered effect.

As a native with extensive travel experience, Mike was well aware of the way Los Angeles has been perceived by the world as a place where dreams are born. He wanted to incorporate this uniquely L.A. feeling as a part of his brand’s identity.

“If you are not from here, it means something different to you, and something a bit more romantic. When I go to Italy and people learn I’m from L.A., they say, ‘Oh my God, Los Angeles. It’s my dream.’ I think that reaffirms that we represent something here. There is a dream here that people relate to. I mean, if you look at California, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, this is where people come to chase something bigger than them. There’s so much that it represents, opportunity and optimism. And I always ask myself, ‘What does that look like in clothing? What does that look like on a runway show? How does that feel and why?’”

Mike wanted to set himself apart from the European brands by telling a story that was authentic to his experiences. He posited, “‘Why don’t I bring an authentic California cool to the market? Why don’t we use just as good fabric, just as good sewing, with the same coolness and DIY approach?’”

It was a bullseye for Mike.

“I bring the perspective of someone who is from the city, who knows what it feels like to be from California. There’s a certain romantic notion about a T-shirt and jeans in California. How do they feel? They’re soft, they’re worn in. Your T-shirt might have a little bit of sun fade. There’s a certain color palette associated with that. It allows people who are in Europe, when they buy it, to feel like they’re getting a little piece of California.”

Mike began to filter everything through this California lens, and eventually, it became part of the DNA of the brand.

“I deconstruct suits so they’re super comfortable. It almost feels like you’re wearing a T-shirt because that’s the weather we have here. In L.A., you can go to lunch at 3 p.m., and still go to dinner at 7:30 p.m., wearing the same thing. How would you do that if you were wearing a stiff suit? There’s a certain comfort level associated with this California dream.”

AMIRI jeans are a perfect example of the brand’s distinctive identity. At a time when most designers shied away from men’s skinny jeans, believing their silhouette was too feminine to catch on, Mike ran headlong into the challenge. Using stretch-infused fabric, his jeans became known for their extremely comfortable, yet super tight fit. When he introduced them into the marketplace, AMIRI jeans quickly became identifiable and extraordinarily successful.

Mike lasered in on his brand’s identity, “Modern luxury through a California lens” he proudly exclaims, adding “The plan was always to have an American aesthetic.”

When he was ready, Mike approached the trendsetting, iconic fashion retailer, Maxfield, in West Hollywood. He convinced the owner to stock a few of his designs. He then spent an inordinate amount of time with the salespeople on the floor learning about his new customers.

Mike would ask himself, “Who was this guy? An artist? A performer? An athlete? And as I would design, I would imagine that person a little bit more and put my creative spin on these heroes. And it went from six pieces, to eight pieces, to 15 pieces, to 20 on the rack. And it wasn’t selling anywhere else in the world. If you wanted to buy that product, you could discover it on social media, or you could discover it in Maxfield, alongside some of the best work in the world.”

The hype around the collection was largely built on social media. Knowing this, Mike fully utilized these platforms, which he credits as immeasurably responsible for launching his brand.

“Social media helps democratize what talent can shine. If you look at the traditional fashion world, you’re either discovered by a company, or there is an editor that will help highlight you. Or you’ve worked yourself into a sales showroom. You have to wait for someone to say, ‘Yes, I’ll give you a try.’”

Mike calls these arbiters of fashion, “gatekeepers.” While he believes they are relevant, he does not believe they control the process as they once did.

“I would never have survived in that world. For me, it was more of ‘I’m creating this piece, and I’m going to post a picture of it. And feel free to talk about it if you like it or if you don’t… And if you like it, you can buy it here…’”

By interfacing with the customer, Mike found a more direct route to market his brand. He spoke to a new generation who could check out his post and see, for example, what a designer’s daily activity entailed. In so doing, he created a genuine relationship with his customers, one with complete transparency. They learned about the AMIRI artistic approach combining traditional, delicate, exquisite European craftsmanship and fabrications with a DIY, innovative, garage sensibility.

After the AMIRI pieces flew out of the store, Maxfield proposed a pop-up shopping experience for his customers. Mike interpreted the offer differently.

“It wasn’t like a little pop-up shop in my head. It was my first retail store. And I was going to treat it as such… This is my tester for Rodeo Drive.”

An exclusive AMIRI space, it was filled with everything from a handbag, to a hat, to pants, to a jacket. The purpose was to put together a whole outfit with AMIRI. But money was tight. Mike had to run a lean, mean operation. There were only a handful of people, including Mike, working on his designs and the development and production of the goods. Despite the young brand having never done this before, it sold out nearly $300,000 of merchandise in just three hours.

“It was really organic… but a painstaking process from beginning to end. The product was so detailed and thoughtful and took forever to make. When it got to the rack, it was a bit undeniable.”

For Mike, when it comes to the finished product, the whole isn’t greater than the sum of its parts, the whole is the sum of many great parts.

“To complete a perfect product, it’s never 50 plus 50. It’s one plus one plus one until you get to 100, every little element, from color, to fit, to fabrication, to length… All of these things make the whole. But it’s never, ‘Oh that looks great because they’re using a special sort of thread…’ Every element counts.” Later he shared, “If something is undeniably good, how can you say no?”

Mike also believes that exclusivity is the key to success in the luxury market. Another foundation is incorporating selective discipline. Early on, he exercised “restraint not to sell to a lot of people.” Maxfield, well known for being an ultra-exclusive boutique, carried AMIRI for 1 ½ years before Mike sold it to another retailer.

Barneys Beverly Hills started, like Maxfield, with only a few AMIRI pieces at first. And like Maxfield, Barneys quickly sold out. Mike replenished the small order, understanding that scarcity is a part of the successful formula. The new pieces quickly sold out again. The cycle continued, and slowly grew, with Mike continuing to make his regular recon visits with on-floor salespeople to learn about his ever-expanding customer base. Eventually, AMIRI became one of the top five-selling brands for the entire Barneys company.

“My path deviated from a lot of designers where they would sell what they needed to sell to whomever would buy.”

Russ Patrick, Senior Vice President, General Merchandise Manager of Men’s, Gifts & Home and Children’s at Neiman Marcus shared, “Mike has distilled his L.A. upbringing into a distinctive look that resonates strongly with our Neiman Marcus customer. We began our partnership almost five years ago by launching the collection in our Beverly Hills store, complete with an innovative and welcoming shop-in-shop. Many years later, our customers’ desire for AMIRI continues to grow and so has its presence across our portfolio of stores. Mike’s success as an American designer, on a global scale, has been impressive and swift for a relatively nascent brand. He has shown an incredible amount of focus, thoughtfully and carefully expanding the brand’s presence and assortment, cementing his place as an influential brand in the luxury space.”

The location of the product line is another vital component in building a luxury brand, Mike believes. Birds of a feather flock together.

“[My designs] have to be with my peers. I need to sit next to Gucci. I need to sit next to Christian Dior. And some would say [referring to the brand], ‘You’re 2 years old.’ And in my head, I said, ‘There’s no difference between my art and this art.’ And some buyers would pass and regret it, and other buyers like Barneys, for example, said, ‘I’ll make that deal with you.’”

Similar to the qualities he admires in his heroes, Mike possesses strength in his conviction. Determined to win by taking control of the process and the company’s destiny, Mike was able to choose where AMIRI was sold.

“Whatever I did at Barneys, I did in Selfridges, and I did in Paris, and I did in Tokyo, and I did in every department store saying, ‘I’m not going to sell this unless it’s within a luxury context because this is of that caliber.’ And doing that around the world, little by little, it created a community that was global…The amazing thing about it is, I won’t be the last one to do this. I think this is going to be a bit of a blueprint.”

He believes many more designers, not from the traditional designing world, are going to emerge and open stores on prestigious streets around the world like Rodeo Drive.

The international fashion entrepreneur and connoisseur, Renzo Rosso, founder and Chairman of OTB (Only the Brave) fashion group based in Italy with companies including Maison Margiela, Jil Sander, Marni, Diesel and a minority stake in AMIRI, states, “AMIRI is something unique. Mike is an absolute genius, and he has been able to create a brand, which has a soul, a distinctive voice and is recognizable among all the others. The project Mike had in mind and what he wanted to do were the factors that led me to believe in the project and invest in it.”

Mike has a consuming passion for his brand, but it’s not the only love in his life.

Married 14 years to his beautiful wife, Shirin, he is the proud father of three, daughter Kayla and sons Ryan and Jordan. Having to balance his business with his family life has forced him to make some hard choices, even sacrifices with respect to spending time with his children.

“I think in the beginning, when you’re building something so grand, you have to be obsessed with it. It is one of your children, as well. I don’t think there’s any way to do anything so big if you’re not completely obsessed. When they were younger, they did remind me of the things that I have missed. But once the foundational work was done in the company, I was able to balance out my time much, much better. And also include them in my world. It’s not really a sore subject anymore. They hardly ever bring that up. They have a pride in understanding that I was able to do something that’s very rare and uncommon.”

Rosso added, “Mike and I also have a strong personal tie, and we try to spend some leisure time together with our families during the year. We share our perspectives, ideas and experiences, and I feel these are very meaningful moments for both of us. I strongly believe that family is a source of inspiration and positive energy for Mike; this is one of the most important values for him, and it contributes to his extraordinary creativity and passion.”

After Mike’s bow at the AMIRI Spring-Summer 2023 Paris runway show in the Jardin des Plantes, his children, along with Shirin, leapt out of their chairs and spontaneously rushed to their daddy to
congratulate him.

“The thing I heard most from people, ‘My favorite moment in any fashion show was watching your son jump out of his seat and come hug you.’ I heard that so many times. It’s really great that the sacrifice was both theirs and mine. And the celebration is both theirs and mine.”

For Shirin as well, she’s been a part of AMIRI from its inception.

“I always tell people to surround themselves with people who reaffirm who they see themselves as. When we were first building this,” Mike continues, “Our friends were all professionals with professional careers. I was an artist. I never felt I was a small artist. I always felt like I was more than I was at that time. Shirin made me feel that way. There has never been a difference between then and now. Not having even 100th of what we have now.”

The AMIRI’s aspirational scope has continued to broaden, thanks to Mike’s ingenuity and forward thinking. Presently, the company designs in the California chic, relaxed, luxury space and not only for men. Forging paths and winning awards, Mike has led his company into footwear, womenswear, eyewear, childrenswear and lifestyle accessories, including leather goods and handbags.

Where does Mike find inspiration?

“When I first started making pieces, and they were stage pieces for singers, and these were the frontmen of bands, there was something heroic about them that you wanted to connect to in the clothing. Whether it was shaped a certain way, where it moved a certain way, where it shined a certain way. And I think [by] taking that sensibility and bringing it to the street level, you don’t have to be a rock star to create that feeling of specialness, the confidence somebody can get from clothing. And so, when I’m drawing characters now, when I’m thinking about runway shows, I always say, ‘Who’s my hero this season? Where is he going? What era is he living in? How do I make that touch back to today? What would he look like today?’ When I make sportswear or tracksuits, I look at Michael Jordan. I look at the swagger he carried. I look at the length of his shorts or the fact that his cutoff T-shirts stuck out an inch farther than his shoulders and how it created a strong shoulder silhouette.”

Similarly, Mike describes the “AMIRI woman” as a hero, her own hero. He thinks of the male hero and the female hero as the same person.

“She carries that same shining glimmer that I want the guy to have on stage. She has the confidence, the femininity, but has enough strength to wear things that are traditionally masculine silhouettes.”

Mike designs a lot of tailoring for women, like oversized suiting, while keeping the same principles of ease, comfort and luxury.

“I just love the way a woman looks when she empowers herself in something nontraditional. There’s a certain strength to that. And it came when I started opening stores and noticing the women who would come with the men customers, grab [a] blazer and throw it on. And I’m like, ‘Oh, she wore that. That was hers.’”

He also describes the AMIRI woman as confident, irreverent and effortless. With the completion of two full women’s collections under his belt, including women’s footwear and accessories, Mike believes he is on the right path.

But will the women’s footwear match the success of the men’s footwear division? In total, today’s AMIRI footwear is almost 20% of the entire business. Again, Mike did not develop the footwear division traditionally by attaching a sports influencer to market the product. Instead, Mike forged his own path.

“Like our skeleton low-top sneakers, it feels like a casual sporty silhouette. But when you touch it, the leather is a true luxury leather, and the lining is luxury. And then the inside of the shoe feels like you’re on pillows. It almost feels like the details of a handbag. And the art on [them] was really just created from things we did as skaters where you would write and draw bones on your shoes. So, it’ll have the juvenile sensibility of the bones, but the execution of a luxury house.”

Once again, Mike follows his authentic, creative formula, staying within the boundaries of the brand’s identity.

“There’s something special about using creativity more than capability. The second you lose the magic you had when you were by yourself in a garage or a basement is when the shine starts to dull.”

To keep on the pulse, Mike welcomes collaboration. This is evident from his unique partnership with the contemporary American artist, Wes Lang, for AMIRI’s Autumn-Winter 2022 Menswear and lifestyle collections. Mike was attracted to Lang’s pedigree. Having established his first workspace at the Chateau Marmont, Lang built a global name for himself and shares Mike’s innovative approach. Their collaboration is thought of as an exploration of the city’s aesthetic heritage, reflecting the intersection of the worlds of rock, skateboarding, luxury, craft, art and glam — that defines Los Angeles.

Mike looks to create a buzz with his collaborations, to create something from two minds that would not exist otherwise. He hopes to do many more in the future.

Of all Mike’s accomplishments, he’s most proud of his efforts to pay it forward.

“I’m fully aware, and I’m in awe every day that we get to do what we do. But the purpose has to be more than building something really big for yourself.”

Thus, he created the AMIRI Prize. It’s a $100,000 award for the winning entrepreneurial designer who is granted a company-wide mentorship to help the winner understand the trappings of designing a brand. The award provides full transparency into AMIRI’s successfully executed infrastructure. Most importantly, it enables a young, talented designer to create and execute a business plan.

“The big purpose of AMIRI is not to be the independent designer who created a luxury empire. It’s to be an independent designer who helped spark a bunch of other independent designers to create a new generation of empires. I think that’s the thing that excites me the most.”

Promoting empathy is meaningful to Mike. This past January, he chose to bring awareness of the social injustices occurring in his family’s native Iran. Following his Paris Fashion Week show, he appeared at the end of the runway in front of the most influential fashionistas in the world, wearing a black T-shirt that read in bold letters, “Woman, Life, Freedom.” It seemed fitting as the platform was fashion, and the social injustice issue was ignited around traditional clothing.

“I felt a responsibility to use that opportunity to shed light and awareness, that whatever picture is going to be of me that will go around, it’s going to make a statement that either educates people on what’s going on or tells people that ‘I feel you; I understand; I’m aware.’ Maybe there’s a part of it that we don’t have power in changing things physically, but we do have power in creating awareness and acknowledgement.”

So, what’s next?

“I’m just dreaming bigger. I always thought that you think big until you make it happen, then you realize there’s something actually bigger that is in front of you, and you go at that, which seems impossible, but you make it happen and then you dream even bigger…”

Mike’s well-versed in dreaming. He’s been doing it his whole life.

“You have to [dream] because the end goal is not the reward. The reward is the journey along the way, and as soon as you think you’ve reached somewhere, that means your journey has stopped. So, for me, it’s always something else because I’m obsessed with creating this path and this journey, and I don’t want there to be a finish line.”

Odds are, there will never be a finish line for AMIRI.

At the end of our interview, Mike walked me back through the store, continuing to answer questions about his designs hanging about. I listened to him proudly describe the workmanship in every item my eyes landed on, pointing out each exquisite detail and the California cool feeling it connoted.

As I pushed the front door open and was instantly transported back into the black-and-white gloom of the day, I found myself in awe of the world Mike has created.
What’s astonishing is it was born from the boundless imagination of an intrepid teen, who haunted the rock clubs of Hollywood and the hallways of Beverly Hills High, and ended up on the runways of Paris Fashion Week.

His rise to the top was unorthodox. He rejected the standard career trajectories dictated by the fashion industry elite, skirting around the whims of editors and buyers, and chose instead to appeal directly to the masses. His monumental success in carving out his own space, on his own terms, within the luxury retail market has made him a unique visionary. And in the process, he’s created a road map for other aspiring young designers around the globe to follow.

Mike turned a dream in a basement workspace off of Sunset Boulevard into an international luxury fashion house with a gleaming flagship storefront on Rodeo Drive. He did it his way. And if you ask him, he’ll tell you, he’s just getting started.

The post Mike Amiri: Building A Modern Luxury House On His Own Terms | Feature Interview appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

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It was a season of firsts. It was Glasgow’s first year as head coach for the Griffins; first year they used social media culminating in 22.4 thousand followers, 16 million video views and 2.9 million likes on TikTok; first year Buckley made it to the southern section of state; first year they hosted a regional state tournament seeded number one, and finally, the first year they clinched the Southern section of California competing in the state finals.

“We have fun when we’re together, on and off the court,” Glasgow told the Courier. We’ve learned to trust each other to do what the team needs in order to win. He teaches not to look for the end result. “We don’t play hard to win, we play hard, because that is just who we are.”

As for next year, Glasgow has high hopes. With a roster of 12, only three graduating seniors and several good players in the pipeline, he offers, “We will definitely be back at state.” Summarizing the season, he adds, “It was insane to watch how everyone grew tremendously, individually, and as a team, in all aspects, not just in volleyball.”

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“I came to America with the idea that I was going to work in Beverly Hills. It was not even a question–I would work in a salon in Beverly Hills,” she says. 

But after accomplishing this, she firmly set her sights on her next goal, to realize her dream of owning her own salon.

While on her reconnaissance walks, Anastasia often found herself drawn to a building at 430 North Bedford Drive.  For two years it sat vacant with a sign on its façade that read, “Dembo Realty,” until one day, she decided to take the plunge. She called the realtor who later set up a meeting with the landlord.  

When, face-to-face, the landlord heard Anastasia’s plans to open an eyebrow salon, he was incredulous, “You do eyebrows!? Get outta here. You can’t pay rent. This is Beverly Hills lady.”

Undeterred, Anastasia returned to his office with magazine photos and articles of her famous clients.  

“I’m going to make this street famous,” she told him. “You have to believe in me.” 

He didn’t. 

Driven by her convictions and life experiences, she tried again.

“I am sure your grandparents or great-grandparents came here. Immigrants as well. Somebody gave them a chance. Please give me a chance. Six months. If I don’t make it, I will leave.”

The landlord eventually gave in. 

In May of 1997, “Anastasia” opened its doors to a long line of awaiting customers, many of them celebrities. Vindication was quick to follow, when the landlord, seeing the crowd from his office across the street, called the salon to verify that all of the people were, in fact, queuing up for eyebrow service. When the receptionist confirmed, he was astounded and asked to speak to Anastasia.  She got on the phone and told him flatly, “Like I told you, I’m going to make this street famous.” To this day, 25 years later, the space has remained her flagship salon.

Anastasia recounts this defining moment in her life from a hotel suite in Paris.  She’s taking a break from her jam-packed traveling schedule, which has taken her all over the European continent, to virtually connect with me in our Beverly Hills Courier offices.

 To beauty buffs and die-hard makeup aficionados, Anastasia probably needs no introduction. Even women who prefer to go au naturale have, more than likely, at least heard of the eyebrow brand, “Anastasia Beverly Hills.” In the early aughts, Anastasia revolutionized the cosmetics industry by creating a then-unheard-of niche centered around a technique and product devoted to something most never gave a second thought to–eyebrows.  These days, brows are a multimillion-dollar category in the beauty industry. You can’t walk down a beauty aisle without bumping into a display case of products promising thicker, fuller, tidier, better-shaped brows, all thanks to Anastasia’s trailblazing concept.

In June, Forbes published its list, “America’s Richest Self-Made Women 2022,” which ranks the wealthiest women in the United States.The article placed Anastasia at number 38. 

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Anastasia Beverly Hills, with products now available in almost 2000 stores internationally. To fully understand the scope of her rise to a globally recognized mononym with a beauty empire, Anastasia, from Paris, takes us back to the start. It was 33 years ago, at age 32, clutching her two-year-old daughter, Claudia, in her arms, when Anastasia boarded an airplane from her Eastern Bloc homeland en route to America.  

Born in Constanta, an ancient town founded around 600 B.C., Anastasia grew up in Romania’s fifth-largest city and largest port on the Black Sea. Despite being immersed in culture, Roman mosaics, celebrated Greek mythological history and ancient ruins, life was challenging under Communistic regimes for Anastasia and her family. By the 1980s, it became untenable. Severe rationing of food, electricity and gas was commonplace. 

In 1986, while traveling on a ship for work in Europe, Anastasia’s husband, Victor, obtained asylum in Italy at the American Embassy, thereby opening the door for Anastasia and their daughter to come to America.

After three long years, Anastasia was able to legally leave her mother and sister (her father had passed away when she was a young girl) and travel for the first time, boarding the airplane, with Claudia in tow, bound for America. Their eventual landing spot was Los Angeles.

“Everybody on the planet Earth, from every small town to a big town, dreams of Beverly Hills. I was dreaming 30, 40 years ago. People are still dreaming. So that was my dream, like everybody else.”

In Communist Romania where all information was controlled, Anastasia’s introduction to Beverly Hills was through movies.

“I mean it was very hard for us to even buy a Vogue magazine. But I remember ‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ with Eddie Murphy. I think I watched that movie 100 million times. And ‘Pretty Woman,’ another movie.”

These celluloid images–of ritzy boutiques along Rodeo Drive, palm tree-lined, sun-drenched streets dotted with sprawling mansions, where handsome men in European convertible sports cars escorted incredibly stylish women to lavish dinners–captured Anastasia’s imagination. And they flickered on the screen in stark contrast to the realities of life that surrounded her. She knew she was going to Beverly Hills.

She arrived to find those two-dimensional moving images come to life. Beverly Hills seemed to fulfill all of its onscreen promises. But her unwavering desire to live in America prevented her from considering what the transition would be like in a new country, far from home.

“I never, ever for a minute, thought what I’m going to do there. Or it’s going to be bad, I’m going to be lonely. But when I arrived in the United States, in Los Angeles, I felt like, oh my God, I don’t know anyone. I don’t speak the language. I miss my family, I miss my home, I miss everything. I cried for the first six months. Every day.”

A stranger in a foreign land, Anastasia had to support herself and her daughter. Returning to Romania was not an option as the revolution was about to take place. At this time, she was offered her first job in an American salon, as a waxing aesthetician, to replace another Romanian woman going on maternity leave. It was there she quickly learned the techniques in America were very different from those back in Romania.

“As aestheticians, we had to go to a pharmacy and make a custom cream because you couldn’t go into a department store to buy a cream. This is why sometimes I think women are so lucky to live in the United States. You can choose from whatever you want. You are overwhelmed by so much. In Romania we didn’t have any,” she says.

Anastasia describes beauty school in Romania as an intense and extensive two-year program. “You need to learn biology and chemistry. People didn’t go to a dermatologist for anything other than dermatitis or a really (serious) skin condition,” she says. “But for a facial, for pimples, they used to go to an aesthetician.”

It was while working as a waxing aesthetician that she discovered how little attention was given to eyebrows. Worse yet, she remembers the style was extremely thin with an unnatural high arch. Recalling the lessons from her art teacher in Romania, she knew that when painting a portrait, the eyebrow is important as the shape affects the subject’s emotion. If you want to change the emotion, you have to change the shape of the eyebrow. But how can that be done when the brow was so thin and round?

Having also learned about Leonardo da Vinci’s use of Golden Ratio proportions in his works, she had the idea to apply the concept to eyebrows with respect to the bone structure of the face. Maybe a system could be designed by applying this mathematical theory to enhance eyebrows. Anastasia went to the library in Los Angeles to do more research. 

After months of studying da Vinci’s mastermind approach, she went to an art store and created a stencil, a tool to shape the eyebrow. She began to work on her own eyebrows until she obtained the perfect, natural arch. Soon clients would take notice.  

“My clients would ask me, ‘What did you do? Did you cut your hair? You look different. You look better,'” she says.

Clients wanted Anastasia to work her brow magic on them, but the process took extra time. Soon the owner of the salon complained to Anastasia that the eyebrows were eating up the “facial” time, and since the salon did not charge à la carte for eyebrows, she could no longer provide the ancillary service.

This did not hold Anastasia back. She began taking house calls on weekends. Eventually, entire households, men and women, wanted her service. This convinced her she was on to something.

“The transformation with the right-shaped eyebrows was so incredible that I really believed that [the concept] would make a difference on everybody’s face.”

Deciding this was her path, she opened up the Los Angeles Times looking to rent her own space.  “I told my husband, ‘I’m going to open my own business and it’s going to be in Beverly Hills. I don’t want to go anywhere else. Only in Beverly Hills.'”

She admits it was scary at first, but she had a vision. She believed in eyebrows.

“Look, I left my family. I left my country, I left everybody, all my friends. I left my house to come here. I’m not going to do this for the rest of my life. To be in a small little room. I want to build something. And I have this vision. I really believe in it. Everybody was saying, ‘You are crazy…You can’t pay rent doing eyebrows. This is not big enough.'”

Between 1992 and 1996, she rented a small room at Juan Juan in Beverly Hills, and Anastasia, driven, focused and passionate, built an impressive clientele of movie stars and entertainers, supermodels, successful business executives and local folks, such as Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, Eva Longoria, Naomi Campbell, Victoria Beckham and Oprah Winfrey. Since eyebrow products were limited on the market, Anastasia took a playbook page from her time in Romania, mixed together drugstore products–Vaseline, aloe vera and eye shadow–and used them in her salon.

One such client, actress Poppy Montgomery, and her agent approached Anastasia about Poppy filming in Canada for several months and requested Anastasia to provide a small traveling case of the products Anastasia used in the salon. About the same time, her clients would comment, “My eyebrows look perfect when I leave, but after I take a shower, I still have gaps. It’s not the same. I need products.”

Anastasia recognized the big opportunity to mass-produce eyebrow products. Ever resourceful, she made several stencils and filled many little containers with her formulas for the clients who could not regularly come into the salon.  The concept was revolutionary. She knew she needed to manufacture these products and capitalize on what she felt was “lightning in a bottle.” So, she hopped on a plane to Italy, the only place where cosmetics were mass-produced at that time, and began working with a manufacturer.

She also knew that the timing was right to pursue her dream of opening her own salon. By now Romania had recovered from the revolution. The government was giving back Anastasia’s home. Feeling the pull to return, she decided to visit Romania and contemplate moving back, permanently. But after one week, she knew she belonged in Beverly Hills.

“I think it was very good for me to do that because I realized that it was important to close that door,” Anastasia says of her visit to her native country, which only served to strengthen her resolve to make it here in America. “And I said to myself, ‘Okay, this is where I’m going to build a business. This is the country that will give me the opportunities.’ In Romania, I couldn’t do it.”

It was after this trip, armed with a renewed sense of resolve, that she found her own eyebrow salon in Beverly Hills, at 430 North Bedford Drive.

Shortly afterward, Anastasia would make a decision that would forever entwine her business with Beverly Hills where she knew she would make her mark. Her lawyer approached her, advising that her single name was not strong enough for her company. He suggested adding “Beverly Hills” to the brand’s name. She wholeheartedly agreed. “I felt this incredible pride to represent the city as it was my dream to be in Beverly Hills.”

Anastasia officially became “Anastasia Beverly Hills.”

At this point, her daughter Claudia was a young child, and as a single mother, Anastasia often brought her to the salon.

As a child back in Romania, Anastasia would spend time at her parents’ tailoring shop, which they operated out of the front of the family home. It was there that Anastasia received first-hand knowledge, watching her parents, and then her mother alone, interact with clients.

“My mother used to cater to the wives of leaders of the Communist Party. But even with normal people, she never made a separation. Everybody wanted to look beautiful. And she loved that.” Anastasia credits her mother with passing down this egalitarian legacy of ensuring customer satisfaction for all, a legacy Anastasia was passing down to Claudia. 

In 2000, Anastasia finally launched her first full-scale eyebrow product line. It was a resounding success with her clients. Her motto about success? “It’s 10% talent, 90% hard work. The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

She proved her “lucky” theory soon thereafter. Two executives from Nordstrom came into the salon for an eyebrow treatment after reading about her innovative approach to eyebrows in magazines. While buying her products following their appointments, they told Anastasia that they wanted her products to be sold at Nordstrom. 

Anastasia knew that going from a single, local boutique to being a part of a well-respected national department store chain with dozens of locations across the country would be transformative. But she was true to her mission. Instinctively, she felt her products would not be successful unless the employees were trained with her eyebrow products and techniques. Focused, confident and determined, Anastasia convinced the top brass at Nordstrom to invest in brow studios within their stores. 

Peggy Moore, VP of Cosmetic Merchandise Manager of Nordstrom, shares, “I was honored to be the first national merchandise manager to launch Anastasia products and services for Nordstrom stores,” she says. “In our first meeting, I remember she was genuine, and her business plan was unique. She understood the customers’ needs, the retailers’ needs, as well as how to bring it together in a profitable way. She was the hardest working vendor that I ever met, and her tireless efforts surely paid off. She was and still is the real deal.”

But training beauty consultants all over the country on how to work with the products, along with waxing and shaping, became an exhaustive process. Her hard work ethic went into full gear.

“Saturday, we’d finish at the salon at 7 in the evening. We’d take our carry-on, fly on the red eye to one city. The next day, Sunday, I would wax eyebrows all day long, and Claudia would teach the client how to use the products. Then at 7 p.m. on Sunday, we’d go to another city close by. We’d do another event on Monday in Nordstrom, and Monday night we’d fly back and arrive at midnight. We worked seven days a week. This is how we used to train the aestheticians.”

Claudia, now a college student, was by her mother’s side as always, going on these training trips and working part time, manning the front desk at the salon. Until one day, fed up with Claudia showing up to work late for the umpteenth time, Anastasia fired her. In disbelief, Claudia left the salon and looked for another job.

Anastasia claims her multi-tasking daughter was extremely efficient and talented, particularly in servicing the customers, answering phones, and facilitating credit card transactions. Still, Anastasia felt she needed to teach her daughter a lesson. A month passed. Anastasia hired several people to replace the work of Claudia. Anastasia missed her but was unwilling to beg her to come back.

“One day, Claudia came in [to the salon] and said, ‘Mom, can I borrow some money? Because after taxes, I don’t have enough money to pay my rent.’ I told her, ‘You wanted to be independent, I’m sorry. Go and get another job. I’m not going to give you the money because you need to learn.'” With that, Anastasia went back to her appointments. An hour later, Claudia was still there. Seeing her daughter’s resolve, she softened, and offered Claudia her job back but warned, “the moment you walk inside this store, I’m not your mother. And you have to work harder than everybody else. Because I’m going to be tougher on you than everybody else. I will set an example with you.”

 She joined Oprah and a multitude of celebrities, including Nelson Mandela, at the opening of Oprah’s Leadership Academy for Girls, south of Johannesburg, South Africa, in January of 2007. “That was the moment when I said, ‘This should be my mission to give back in life.  Because this is what is the ultimate happiness.'”

A female founder and CEO, Oprah Winfrey inspired Anastasia to “pay it forward.” Over the years, Anastasia has honored her commitment. She has recognized and reenergized the ongoing efforts to create positive change for women all around the world. And most importantly, Anastasia believes in the importance of education. “I think it’s important to give back, to sponsor children to go to school.”

Anastasia supported the building of a small community school in Africa for Albino children. In Los Angeles, she assists United Friends of the Children in putting foster youth through beauty school with the belief that these young people can make a living, be self-sufficient and enjoy what they do. In Romania, she has been a part of the Blue Heron Foundation for 16 years.

“When we started, there were so many orphanages in Romania with children. They didn’t have windows. They didn’t have doors. It was tragic. It was such an honor for me to partner with Blue Heron to help those kids. I could not stop crying because everybody was talking about how this organization changed their lives. Now the kids are growing. We put them in schools. I sponsor children in the university. It’s amazing.”

Blue Heron Founder and President Stefania Magidson counts Anastasia as one of the organization’s faithful supporters, calling her “an intelligent, fearless woman who built a renowned beauty empire, who has not hesitated to give back as soon as she was in a position to do so.” In fact, Magidson says that thanks to Anastasia’s generous financial support and presence in the community, she has inspired many other donors to align their philanthropic efforts with the organization. “We continue to be enormously grateful that we can always count on her support.”

Anastasia managed to juggle her philanthropic efforts while building her brand, which for years continued to grow apace. In the intervening years between 2007 to 2010, she expanded, launching a plethora of new brow products–powders, waterproof gels, crème tints, and a collection of every imaginable tool, from brow brushes to tweezers, needed to maintain arches.

In 2010, Anastasia appointed Claudia the President of Anastasia Beverly Hills after Claudia had tirelessly worked her way up the ranks at the company, mastering every aspect of the business. 

Anastasia credits Claudia for one of many invaluable contributions to the company. She led the company to Instagram in the earliest years of the platform.

Claudia shares, “2011 was when I realized that social media had power. And that’s when I started dabbling on Instagram. Finally, I got the brand onto Instagram in August 2012. And my mom didn’t really get it. But she didn’t have money for advertising and marketing, compared to all the other brands at Sephora and Ulta. So, I said, ‘You need to speak to the customers directly, and this is how you are going to do it.’ And she said, ‘Okay.'”

They began posting and encouraging special relationships with beauty product users. Claudia studied them, and the competitors, and admits she is a good “pattern reader.”

“I saw the patterns, and I thought we should make some makeup starting with the  ‘Contour Kit.'” 

This was Anastasia’s first foray into makeup. Launched in 2014, based on what had become her signature use of the Golden Ratio in supporting one’s natural bone structure, the kit presented highlights and shadows used to bring balance and proportion to the face. It also made contouring popular among all beauty lovers, not just professional makeup artists.

Anastasia Beverly Hills sold 50,000 kits in one day, leaving Anastasia and Claudia in shock and without stock for four months. They no longer needed to travel as extensively. Instead, they could post videos on social media and reach, and teach, more clients than ever.

It’s undeniable. Claudia’s visionary instinct to embrace social media has enabled Anastasia Beverly Hills to have an extraordinary social media presence.

By 2015, the Anastasia Beverly Hills Instagram feed was listed as the most followed beauty account by digital think tank L2, which ranked 106 major beauty brands based on their digital reach. 

Three years later, in 2018, CNBC published a report that the private equity firm TPG (Texas Pacific Group) had made a strategic investment in Anastasia Beverly Hills, valuing the company at $3 billion dollars. Anastasia maintained the largest ownership.

Today, there are approximately 80 brow studios inside Nordstrom stores, and the brand is carried in national retailers Sephora, Macy’s, Ulta, Saks Fifth Avenue, Dillard’s, and on the biggest e-commerce outlet, Amazon.

The mother-daughter team continually pushes the brand’s expansion forward, creating and identifying room for improvement in the formulas, such as eyeshadows, liquid lipsticks, and color palettes. Claudia has led the creative team into exciting new areas like the Norvina Collection (Norvina was the name Anastasia had planned to give her daughter, after her paternal grandfather). This latest inspiration is a series that provides makeup for professionals and an exciting entry point into vivid color for all consumers. 

 “She’s smart, she’s hardworking, she is incredible. And I’m so proud of her,” says Anastasia of her daughter.

When asked about staying in front of the trends within the competitive beauty industry, she says that they strive to innovate while always engaging with their audience.

“Presently, we are working on many different ideas as we want to expand, but the ideas need to make sense. We try many formulas, technologies, and ideas evolve, but for us to go forward, we have to believe in it 100%.”

While Anastasia touts that the brand works for everyone, regardless of age, race or sexual orientation, she also makes it clear that she’s never strayed from her tried-and-true Golden Ratio methodology. 

And she admits she’s made mistakes along the way.

“I’ve made so many mistakes. People think that if you are successful, you don’t make mistakes. Of course, you do. This is how business is. You need to try, and you make mistakes and you learn, and remember never to do it again.”

When asked about her biggest achievement, Anastasia points to her daughter. “I think that I was able to give my daughter this drive and the fact that she loves what she does so much, and she has a purpose, in life together with me, is I think my biggest achievement.”

It’s interesting to note that her list doesn’t include founding her company, a homegrown, local business in Beverly Hills, now a global success, or the fact that she’s never taken on a partner.

To financially help her fund the company throughout the years, Anastasia turned to the real estate business, another passion of hers. And she’s done remarkably well, buying, redesigning, and reselling homes in Beverly Hills.  She shyly admits “for myself.” Then she clarifies, “I put everything I made back into the business. Because remember, I didn’t have any investors. I was a 100% owner.”

For Anastasia, her ambition and dedication are always paramount. She approaches her goals and works to fulfill her dreams with laser-like focus. 

 “When I came here, my goal was to be significant. To do something that is going to make me proud and would satisfy the way I am. Because I cannot be mediocre. I need to be the best in what I do. When I see the result, the final result gives me joy.”

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“Thank you for all you do for me,” Nicolas replied.

“You wear the finest clothes,” Bijan shot back. 

“I’m grateful,” responded Nicolas earnestly. 

“What are you going to do when you are 30? Huh?” Bijan pressed.

Bewildered, Nicolas asked, “Dad, did I do something wrong?” 

Bijan’s penetrating eyes meet his son’s. 

“I’m sorry for whatever I did,” said Nicolas as he watched his father disappear through the office door.

Racking his brain, Nicolas struggled to understand his father’s anger. Thursdays were Nicolas’ day off from the boutique. But this day, his classes at Pepperdine University ended early. He decided to cruise on into Beverly Hills and surprise his father. As it turned out, his father surprised him. 

Bijan returned holding a gorgeous jacket. Recognizing the garment, Nicolas sighed in relief. It’s the one they designed together in Italy six months earlier. Its price tag was half the cost of his Porsche. 

Wrestling his generous nature, Bijan wanted to give his son the very best but feared the trappings of excessiveness would impede Nicolas’ desire for growth and accomplishment. 

Bijan put the jacket on Nicolas, and they stood together, father and son, looking in the mirror, proud of their design. “It’s my gift to you,” Bijan said. They hugged. The moment was special, more than Nicolas could have imagined.

It would be the last moment Nicolas would ever share with his father.

Back home in Malibu, a few hours later, Nicolas received the call. His father had suffered a stroke and was being ambulanced to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. 

Arriving at the hospital, Nicolas was greeted by his older sisters and other family members. Bijan was rushed into surgery, but the doctors explained there was little hope. The former Mayor of Beverly Hills, Jimmy Delshad, the highest ranking Iranian elected official in the United States at that time, hugged Nicolas and looked into his eyes. “You are Bijan now. You are a man. Make us proud.”

“It was the push I needed to give me strength,” said Nicolas. Over the next several days the Beverly Hills Police Chief, along with many other family friends, visited him and his family at his father’s house in Beverly Hills. 

Bijan Pakzad never regained consciousness. The man who built the legendary House of Bijan, the most expensive boutique in the world and the one and only international sartorial design house born in Beverly Hills, passed away two days later on April 16, 2011. 

Unlike his immigrant father from Tehran, Iran, Nicolas Bijan Pakzad was born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the same hospital that tried to save his father, and the same medical center his beautiful daughter came into the world.

Bijou Bijan, named in honor of her grandfather, was born this year on 2-22-22. Her welcomed birth presented beyond reason, an eerily impactful connection to Bijan’s birth of April 4, 1944 (4-4-44). Was it coincidental or a sign of Bijan’s presence, a north star in his son’s life? Nicolas believes his father is watching over him both in his personal and his professional life. 

For years, Nicolas has had a burning desire to spread his wings and fly. 

“Like my dad felt at my age, I too felt a calling to achieve my own ambitions,” says Nicolas, now 30 years old. “I didn’t want to look back 25 to 35 years from now and know that I didn’t at least try, try to build my own legacy.”

What held him back?

“In starting my own brand, I wanted to make the right decision respecting my father’s legacy, a new creative endeavor, an extension of his legacy. It’s taking his traditions, his teachings, his generosity, his principles, his perfectionism, his authenticity, all the things that drove him, and giving it a new modern interpretation.”

NB44, a new luxury brand set to launch late this year, is Nicolas’ own line of bespoke menswear that’s less buttoned-up and formal. Aimed at a more youthful, modern clientele, “It’s a new service and experience that the world craves in today’s changing times,” explains Nicolas. And the name, NB44? It’s Nicolas’ initials coupled with the number that honors his father’s birth.

Nicolas is settling into his new role as father himself. He and his wife Roxy Sowlaty, who once starred on the E! Channel series the “Rich Kids of Beverly Hills,” are enjoying this exciting new chapter as parents.

Roxy and Nicolas were friends first. Born and raised in Beverly Hills, Roxy was introduced to Nicolas by her high school pal, Rob Kardashian, and she and Nicolas began to date a few years into the friendship. Turning towards design after graduating from USC and Parsons New School of Design with a master’s degree, Roxy, today, is a talented and successful interior designer with her own firm specializing in high-end residential projects.

In Paris, on the famous Pont des Arts bridge, she happily accepted Nicolas’ surprise proposal and planned a grand wedding in Italy.
COVID-19 derailed it to an intimate, beautifully glamorous garden wedding in their backyard seen by, according to Nicolas, millions of interested viewers on social media.

While showing me through their extraordinarily designed San Ysidro Ranch style traditional home in Beverly Hills, formerly Taylor Swift’s residence, Nicolas shares, “This is all Roxy. I take no credit.” 

With a spring in his step, Nicolas leads me up the stairs to visit the nursery, a charmingly sunny, perfectly outfitted baby nest in Bijan yellow. I learn, “Yellow” was a possible name choice, but Nicolas would not hear of it. Bijou, meaning “gem” in French, is a tribute to Bijan, and the name Nicolas wanted for his daughter, though he and Roxy both affectionately call her “BB.” He leans over the crib railing and touches BB’s beautiful face. It’s clear he’s mesmerized by her cooing sounds, her delicate beauty and the miracle of her presence. 

“I’ve never loved Roxy more than I do now. And the whole process of the pregnancy and giving birth, a whole new chamber of my heart has opened up. I want 20 more kids, but I am sure Roxy would object.” 

Returning back down the stairs, Nicolas acknowledges the importance of the Beverly Hills community to him just as it was to his late father. A few weeks earlier, Dean Viana, a former Captain of the Beverly Hills Fire Department, had come by to meet Bijou and to give Roxy and Nicolas CPR training now that they’re parents. Having stayed in touch over the years, he was one of the heroes who had tried to save his father the night Bijan was rushed to the hospital 11 years earlier. 

“There is no doubt of the contributions my father has made for Beverly Hills and, likewise, the contributions Beverly Hills has made for my father’s international success. It was a great partnership.” Nicolas cites the example of the Bijan designed cars. For years the Bijan one-of-a-kind yellow Bugatti and Rolls Royce cars were, and still are, parked in front of the store on Rodeo Drive. Not only did the city allow Bijan to do this, the City Council voted unanimously to award the House of Bijan its own yellow parking meter to match its car, a spectacle that hundreds of thousands of visitors to Beverly Hills enjoy every year. 

But the parking meter and cars are just small pieces of the Bijan legacy Nicolas inherited. As a young boy, the late Bijan Pakzad admired his father, an industrialist, especially how he dressed for work. His parents sent young Bijan, one of five children, three brothers and one sister, to be educated at the exclusive Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland and in Italy. His focus was design despite his parents’ desire for him to study engineering. He opened his first boutique called the Pink Panther in the heart of a thriving Tehran. By the age of 30, Bijan knew he would never reach his goals in clothing design unless he went to America. 

“He wanted to go to Beverly Hills. There he believed he could build and achieve the American dream,” shares Nicolas.

Bijan emigrated to the United States in 1973 and, along with his 50% partner Mr. Daryoush Mahboubi-Fardi, bought a parking lot on Rodeo Drive, the site for his future store. Three years later, in 1976, they opened the newly constructed “House of Bijan” on the east side of the 400 block of what has become one of the most famous streets in the world. For almost 50 years now, the House of Bijan reigns as a premiere shopping destination of the world’s elite. 

Sitting down with Mr. Mahboubi in the Bijan offices, he provides this heartfelt description of his past business partner and best friend.

“The first impression when you met Bijan was that he was very personable. He treated everyone with respect and in return everybody treated him with respect,” Mr. Mahboubi says. “He was very passionate about everything he did in life. He had passion for family, for business, for design, for food. Everything he did, he did it with an extraordinary amount of passion. There was no filter blocking it out, or dimming the strength of his passion. And the third thing you felt about Bijan was that he was truly talented. Personality, passion combined with talent made for a very special recipe for success in this business.” 

Soon the House of Bijan was touted the most expensive store in the world. The claim went uncontested as Bijan, cloaked in courage and fortitude, obtained and sustained his vision: The finest, exclusive sartorial house of quality and design, coupled with unmatched personal service. The result was a financial windfall. 

“The proof is in his success and in the relationships he built,” says Nicolas.  

At a time when boutique owners aggressively encouraged customers to enter their stores, enticing them with marketing devices such as sales and discounts, Bijan locked his front door and said he would see customers “by appointment only.” 

His reasoning was misunderstood, Mr. Mahboubi explains. 

“The first day we wanted to open the boutique, Bijan said, ‘Dar, I have an idea. I want to make it by appointment only.’ The only business of its kind in the world that was paying huge amounts of rent on the most famous street, Rodeo Drive, was saying, my doors are locked. As though you have to qualify to be able to enter. But that message was actually 180 degrees different from what Bijan meant. What he meant to say was, ‘I respect my customers so much that when they come into my boutique, they should not be waiting or wasting their time.’ So, for example, if we have 22 staff members in the boutique when a customer walks in, all 22 members attend to one customer. No other retail operation has that kind of setup. And that is true respect for the customer and his time. And almost all of our customers are extremely important. Their time is extremely valuable.” 

The average client’s attention to shop and buy is surprisingly short. 

“We only get 20 to 30 minutes from the customer,” says Mr. Mahboubi. “In those 20 minutes, we can either sell them $20,000 or $2 million and we choose to sell them $2 million (when) they’re capable of buying $2 million. We’re capable of showing them, to their satisfaction, $2 million worth of merchandise, in their exact fit, their exact taste, their exact color palette, and their exact fabrics that they love. We specialize in this. We kept the business very small, but we kept adding to the value of each customer.”

Mr. Mahboubi claims that many designers have tried to copy what they do.

“Nobody has ever succeeded in copying what our formula is or what our recipe is. It’s very unique. For example, everybody makes a suit and everybody pays from $1,000 to $3,000 for hand stitching, cutting and sewing. But nobody pays $2,000 per yard for the fabric. So, a sports jacket that takes 3 1/2 yards to pay $6,000 to $8,000 just for the fabric is unheard of. But because we know nobody else would actually dare to do that, we do it. And we do it with very special colors.” 

By 1985, from his second boutique located in Manhattan, the New York Times reported that Bijan had amassed 15,000 customers including kings, U.S. presidents, prime ministers, iconic movie stars, superstar entertainers and influential religious leaders. “Simplicity and honesty” best describe his clothing line, Bijan said in the article. In 2002 the New York boutique closed leaving Beverly Hills its original and only flagship boutique, allowing Bijan to remain solely in his favorite City of Beverly Hills and close to his young family.

Adding fragrances to his empire, Bijan began designing and manufacturing perfume for men and women in 1988, which earned him three prestigious Fragrance Foundation Awards, including one launched in partnership with Michael Jordan in 1997. In an article in the Los Angeles Times in 2001, Bijan Perfume and his fashion business had $3.2 billion in sales. Bijan’s designed perfume bottle is featured in the permanent exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution. 

As the only son, youngest child, and heir apparent to the House of Bijan brand, the weight on Nicolas’ shoulders was incomprehensible when his father died. Just 19 years old, a sophomore in college, a part-time employee of the business, Nicolas struggled to find his footing. Days later, when he turned on his computer, he found almost 5,000 emails, condolences from people Bijan had touched. 

One such letter came from an Iranian writer, Shirin Sadeghi, assigned to write Bijan’s obituary for the Huffington Post. In it she wrote, “He dressed President Obama, the Queen of England, Ronald Reagan, the Sultan of Brunei, Prince Charles, Bill Gates and any number of others of the powerful and wealthy of this world. But more than anything he dressed the soul of so many of us young Iranians in America who felt unwelcome and unsure of where we fit in within this massive country that had so much to do with what happened and was happening in our homeland. ‘The reason for my success is because I’m Iranian,’ Bijan said once. We never doubted it, or forgot his words.”

Bijan was revolutionary, not only as a clothing designer but also as an immigrant. Instead of being ashamed of his roots, he not only was proud of it; he used it as a part of his unique style. His authenticity began with his unwillingness to conform or completely assimilate. 

The House of Bijan’s website quoted Bijan, “The world said to conform, the world said to settle for less. The world said to compromise and no one would know. So I made my own world.” 

He didn’t change his Iranian name, his accent, or his ideals of dressing when he came to Los Angeles. He didn’t focus on his disadvantages or the people who resented him because of his former nationality. 

While he communicated through the vernacular of “broken English,” the powerful meaning behind his words was always understood. Nicolas considers that his father used his broken English to give himself more latitude with making his points and to “award himself permission to speak words that might ordinarily be considered inappropriate, but with an amusing charm and naivete.”

“Not willing to conform took serious courage,” says Nicolas, the kind of courage that became Nicolas’ guiding light. He had to accept the reality of his father’s sudden death, and push forward. “It is what it is and there’s nothing I could do about it. You sink or swim,” he says. And the affirmations of his father’s legacy, through the stories in the emails, truly helped. 

Nicolas remembers his father’s words, “You must be kind to everyone you encounter. Treat everyone with respect. Be polite, gracious, with everyone you meet. Because you never know who they are, or how they may come back in your life.” 

Nicolas’ parents had first met professionally when Bijan had hired Nicolas’ mother, Tracy Hayakawa, a model, for his fragrance lines. She, along with their children, would later be featured in countless ads, billboards, commercials and magazines in tribute. Half Japanese and half Irish, the exotic beauty was “the love of his life,” Nicolas shares, even though they were divorced by the time Nicolas was a year old. “My dad was in love with my mom until the day he passed away,” a gift Nicolas is grateful for as a child of divorced parents. Their relationship remained extremely amicable throughout Nicolas’ life. 

A product of many cultures, Iranian, Japanese, and Irish, Nicolas is proud to be an Iranian American as well as a Japanese American. But growing up, he was challenged by his inability to fully communicate through language with many of his family members, especially his Iranian grandfather. Bijan brought his entire family from Iran to Newport Beach, California. Nicolas’ grandmother, who is still alive today, is full Japanese. 

When Nicolas was a toddler, his mother began a relationship with the American billionaire businessman and philanthropist, David H. Murdock. Among many positions, Murdock was the Chairman of Dole Food Company, owner of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, and later would develop the luxury Sherwood Estates and Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. His mother married Murdock a few years later, and young Nicolas was raised on the Murdock farm in Thousand Oaks. Shuffling between his weekdays on the sprawling farm and weekends in Beverly Hills with his father, Nicolas had a privileged life. Whether he was meeting royals or rulers of countries with his father, or running on pineapple plantations and christening cargo ships in Germany with his mother, there is no doubt Nicolas was exposed to the finest things life offered.

For father-son one on one time, Bijan would take Nicolas on long day trips in the car. Cars were a passion they both shared. Bijan had amassed a pristine car collection including designing multimillion-dollar cars in partnerships with Rolls-Royce and Bugatti and enjoyed sharing his love of automobiles with his impressionable young son. Often surrounded by people, this was Bijan’s way of bonding with Nicolas away from his staff. Cruising to the beach, on Sunset Boulevard, or up and down the coast, “that was our thing on Sundays,” Nicolas recalls fondly. 

“I remember the first conversation I had with my father about my future. We were driving on the 405 Freeway, about to get onto the 101 Freeway. Just me and him. I remember this; it’s engraved in my mind. He said, ‘I started my career with relatively little. Look where you’re starting. What you’re starting with. You could be as big as Ralph Lauren. You could be as big as Giorgio Armani.’ And by the way, Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani, they looked up to him. But the point is he was trying to instill in me that I cannot take for granted what he had created for me.”

This conversation did not intimidate Nicolas. Instead, it helped to mold him and make him feel confident. It also prepared him for what was to come all too soon.

“These profound discussions came from a point of this amazing love, from him to me. Losing your dad at 19, a complete shock in my life, a lot of people would ask themselves, ‘Oh my God was my dad proud of me? Did I make him proud?'”

Nicolas has no doubts.  

“Every day he was telling me how proud he was. It gave me a sense of ‘surety.’ I was very disciplined by him. He would be tough and hard on me, but he would always show so much love. And even after he would yell at me as parents yell at their children when they deserve it, because God knows I deserved it, he would embrace me after. I knew I just had to sit there and let him discipline me. And then after, he would make an appearance in my bedroom or wherever I was and try to spend quality time with me.”

Growing up with his mom and stepdad during the week and his father on the weekend gave Nicolas, he believes, the right balance. He just had to make sure to call his father every single day. 

“That was the rule, no matter what. You have to imagine, me being away from my father during the week was tough for him. I’m sure he felt like he was losing me. If I broke that rule and didn’t call him one day, I was scared to call him the next day. When I finally did, he’d ask why I didn’t call. Then he’d hang up on me. And I’d call him back or I’d be in more trouble. I know now, it was a lesson. I had to be present in my father’s life.”

While walking through Nicolas’ beautiful home during our interview, he points to a photo in his home office of his mother holding him as a baby and offers proudly, “Bijou is identical to her.” 

Nicolas has always been close with his mother. He describes her as a “very strong, powerful woman. She had to be to have been married to such incredible and powerful figures with her children. She’s my biggest supporter, my bodyguard, my protector.” 

Behind his desk, he leads me to personal letters, many from dignitaries including U.S. Presidents Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, Obama, and Trump and says, “I’m hoping for President Biden, too.” All contain the recurring theme of gratitude to Nicolas for helping them look good. There are also several signed photos of Muhammad Ali with whom Nicolas was very close to as well as a red glove signed by the two biggest boxers in the world, Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alverez. He explains, “They’re rivals as big as Ali and Frazer. They fight each other but they came together to sign this glove for me.”

On his desk sits a little leather sign, “It can be done.” It was his stepfather’s, and he shares, “I believe Mayor Lili Bosse has one on her desk, too.” He smiles, “I’m in good company.”  

Recently Nicolas celebrated his stepfather’s 99th birthday. Even after Nicolas’ mother and Murdock divorced when Nicolas was a teenager, Nicolas still credits him for instilling life’s values and teaching foundational lessons. 

“Mr. Murdock really did guide me from a boy to a man. And even after my father passed away, he was still guiding me from a boy to a man,” Nicolas says with reverence.

Nicolas’ mother shares, “David gifted little Nicolas his first car at 10 years old, a small two-seater truck to drive around the farm, a stick shift no less. I would often come home to find little Nicolas not studying with his tutor, but out driving the tutor around the ranch giving guided tours. It was something else to drive with him. He always enjoyed the company of adults and could relate with them as no kid could. Adults also always gravitated to young Nicolas; I believe they could see the ‘uniqueness’ and enjoyed his company.”

She goes on to explain how close Nicolas and his father were at the end of his life and how Bijan groomed him to take the reins. But, she adds, “At 19 Nicolas needed more time with him. The irony is that had Bijan not passed, Nicolas would not have had the opportunity and obligation to step into those very large shoes which he has done with such grace, dedication and love. He had to grow up very fast suddenly and navigate some very complicated matters and relationships; it was heartbreaking. But as Nicolas does, he won over hearts and proved himself and has grown into an extraordinary businessman in his own right. It is uncanny sometimes when Nicolas will do or say something exactly the way his father would have said or done or even ‘reacted’ to as a man now. Something Nicolas could not have learned from Bijan. It is almost as if Bijan himself is inside of Nicolas… Forget that Nicolas is the spitting image of his father down to his toes quite literally,” she laughs.

As a child, Nicolas loved hanging out on the farm with the horses, chickens and the cows, riding dirt bikes, driving his truck and going to school in Calabasas. He wanted nothing to do with clothing design or fashion.

“To be honest, if I was my father, I would have been a bit panicked,” Nicolas chuckles. 

But when girls came into the picture, the landscape changed. 

Nicolas remembers realizing, “this sartorial, handmade, beautiful clothing made in Italy, business, fancy cars, and all of these celebrities like Michael Jordan and the Presidents… I don’t care if the other option in my life was becoming the president of the World Bank, I’d say no.” Laughing assuredly, “I’m good with fashion.”

At 13 Nicolas knew he was “taking over the business.” He told his father, “I’m going to tell you how to do it!” But it wasn’t until Bijan was gone that Nicolas realized what a creative and authentic visionary his father was. 

“My father questioned conventional wisdom with respect to retail. He rejected or disrupted the status quo. He built the most expensive, most exclusive, highest quality men’s brand in the world and then told people they couldn’t have it. It was genius.” 

At the House of Bijan, exclusivity is critical. Most items are labeled and numbered like fine art. Usually only one or two pieces are made of the same design. Bijan would explain that his discernable client is intelligent and wants to feel as if he is wearing something unique and made just for him. Bijan firmly believed the cost of each garment had to reflect its production.

He also mastered the art of understanding and servicing the customer. 

“When somebody walked in to meet my father for the first time, he would say, ‘Who is this person that is in front of me?'” recalls Nicolas. “‘Is he conservative? Is he confident? Does he want to be perceived a certain way? But in reality, he’s not that way?’ Clothes speak very loudly or the presentation of somebody speaks very loudly. And even if they say, ‘I don’t care about clothes.’ That also says something. When you dress somebody, you have to understand who they are. You have to be able to understand what they want, even if they can’t tell you. My father did this so well.” 

Nicolas learned the art of customer service from his father. He shares that when he was 27, he met the “biggest retailer in the world, who also happened to be the richest man in the world.” He complimented Nicolas saying, “Customers rule, and you live it.” This is a motto for Nicolas’ new business. 

Customers did rule for Bijan, but he didn’t shy away from challenging societal conventions. As a disruptor, controversy surrounded some of his ad campaigns. Nicolas calls it his “provocative positive” style. The promotions had purpose. “They were not reckless, like some of the campaigns today,” he says. An example was Bijan’s ads in 2000 that featured a nude rotund model named Bella. Bijan defended the ads saying they paid homage to painters, Peter Paul Rubens, Henri Matisse and Fernando Botero, some of whom are in his own collection. “I embrace the beauty of all women,” Bijan said. The backlash turned to acceptance when Tina B

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“Hi Lisa!”  I turn to Jeanie Buss, smiling, warm and welcoming.  It’s a personal greeting, not by an assistant, but the owner herself of arguably the greatest franchise in NBA history, today valued at $4.6 billion.  She moves my attention to the nearby commanding golden door, the majestic gateway all Lakers pass through every day.  I begin to imagine the past and future “greats” on their way into the Laker
training sanctuary, as Jeanie leads me up the imposing staircase to the executive offices. 

Just outside her suite, the championship rings are displayed in a glass-encased shrine. Jeanie explains the winning story behind each uniquely designed ring. I can sense her humble pride and the fond memories they elicit. On the wall hangs a painting, by Megan Moore, depicting seven Laker superstars, commissioned by Phil Jackson for the team. Jeanie shares, “These were the guys, the core team that won 2000, 2001, 2002. It’s kind of like basketball paradise.”  

Turning the corner, past sweet Delores, a teacup Maltese in her mini daybed, Jeanie guides me into her office. I gasp at the sight of the royal Laker procession. Eleven exquisite gold Tiffany trophies are perfectly placed on the credenza, the stunning basketball facility, their backdrop beneath. Jeanie offers, “Hear the beat of the balls bouncing? (Of course, I could.) It’s the heartbeat of the center.”

The Los Angeles Lakers had won 16 titles, 10 of which under the leadership of Dr. Jerry Buss. Given the franchise’s championship culture, one may have thought success would come easily in the next era. 

But after her father’s passing, the Lakers’ winning record disappeared. Jeanie knew she had to make tough decisions to win the Lakers’ place back atop the mantle. Courageously, as President, she released her brother, head of basketball operations, and restored the Laker dynasty to its former glory, after a decade of absence.

Earning the most recent trophy, awarded in 2020, Jeanie led the Lakers to their 17th Championship, tying for the most ever won by one team in the NBA. 

Jeanie is more than an owner; she is now the driving force behind this legendary sports franchise, and she is leading in her own style. 

CEO World Magazine lists Jeanie Buss in the “top 10 most powerful women in the business of sports.” Adam Silver, the Commissioner of the NBA, calls Jeanie “NBA royalty” and tells the Courier, “She has been an influential and respected voice in our league for decades.” 

As the first female controlling owner and President to win an NBA championship, Jeanie Buss holds the sceptre as the Queen of the Court.

Jeanie Marie was born September 26, 1961, the third of four children of Dr. Jerry and JoAnn Buss. Challenged as a young girl by the heartbreaking divorce of her parents, Jeanie found sports to be a welcome pastime. As Jerry was building his lucrative real estate business while owning and running the Los Angeles Strings, he didn’t have much time for his eldest daughter. Still, he invited her, beginning at age 14, to attend many World Team Tennis meetings. In high school, Jeanie played girls basketball at Pacific Palisades High School and was the official scorekeeper for the high school boys basketball team.

Bouncing from one home to another, she entered another type of competition, the Miss USA program. Jeanie finished as a finalist in the Miss Beverly Hills Pageant and won the crown in the Miss Palisades Pageant. Upon her acceptance to USC, she decided to move full time into her father’s new home, the renowned Pickfair estate in Beverly Hills. It was 1980, the year after Dr. Buss bought the Lakers and the Great Western Forum.

Within the first months of living with her dad, Magic Johnson appeared at Jeanie’s front door to begin his career as a Laker. He was 19, and Jeanie was 17. In what was Magic’s, Jerry’s, and Jeanie’s rookie year, the Buss family won their first championship, in 1980, thanks in part to fellow teammate veteran Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. With the thrill of this first victory, the absolute desire to win was forever cemented.

Under her father’s tutelage, Jeanie grew more fascinated with sports. At age 19, Jerry offered her a job, while still in college, as General Manager of the Strings. He also introduced Jeanie to a young woman he was impressed with, Linda Zafrani. Forty years later Linda (now) Rambis is the Executive Director of the Lakers and works alongside Jeanie in every aspect of the Lakers’ organization.

After graduating with honors in business, all the while learning by her father’s side, Jeanie was appointed head of the Los Angeles Blades roller hockey team and named “Executive of the Year” by the league. Impressed with her abilities, Dr. Buss increased her role. He named her President of the Forum, while upping her responsibilities in the Laker organization including serving as the Alternate Governor on the NBA Board of Governors. In 1999, she was named Executive Vice President of Business Operations for the Lakers, and eventually, Vice President of the Lakers. At the same time David Stern, the Commissioner of the NBA, assumed Jeanie would run the Los Angeles WNBA team. But Dr. Buss corrected him and said Jeanie is going to run the Lakers one day.  

During her meteoric rise, Jeanie was always guided by what felt right to her. A large picture of Jeanie as a little girl hangs on the wall behind her desk. She says that it honors the little girl in her heart and is meant to remind her not to lose that spirit in a world that can be crushing.
“Little Jeanie inspires me to be strong, to remind me of who I am at the core.” Always having a mind of her own, she appeared in Playboy after her only marriage ended in 1995. She began to receive more press attention when she was highlighted in a Sports Illustrated article about the Buss family headlined “She’s Got Balls.” Shortly after, Phil Jackson, of the Chicago Bulls dynasty, arrived to coach the Lakers. Jeanie began dating him, which turned into an engagement. The high-profile Los Angeles relationship ended after 16 celebrated years.

Following her father’s passing in 2013, the Laker’s ownership was placed into a trust with the beneficiaries including Jeanie, her two older brothers, her younger sister, and her two half-brothers. Jeanie became team President and the representative for the Lakers on the NBA Board of Governors while continuing to oversee the business and basketball sides of the Lakers. Her brother, Jim, became Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations. 

But after three straight years of the Lakers missing playoffs, when Dr. Buss only missed the playoffs twice in 32 years, Jeanie knew she had to make changes.

“Pressure is a Privilege” says Billie Jean King, Jeanie’s dear friend. In 2017, Jeanie did not fold. Instead, she created a partnership with UCLA Health and led the building of one of the finest training facilities in the NBA. She fired her brother as head of basketball, and a nasty fight ensued in the courts and on the world stage. But Jeanie prevailed, saying she did not attain new power. She exercised the power that she had, and the judge agreed.

Jeanie asked Magic Johnson to come back to steady the ship, and the two welcomed Rob Pelinka, Kobe Bryant’s lifelong basketball manager. Together they enticed “game changer” LeBron James and reshuffled the coaching staff. Quickly it became clear the Lakers were back on their path toward greatness.

But Jeanie could not have predicted what was to come.

In 2019, less than a year after he was greatly responsible for signing LeBron James, Magic resigned, telling the press before he talked to Jeanie. Later he said, “If I talked to her first, I would have never stepped down.” Then Jeanie’s mother passed. David Stern, her close confidant and mentor, suddenly collapsed and later died. And little did she know, she was approaching one of the worst tragedies in NBA history.

One month later, Kobe was killed in a helicopter crash with his daughter, Gianna, devastating all of Laker Nation and the world. As a warrior and leader, Jeanie pushed forward, even in the face of the impending doom of the monolithic pandemic. She remained strong, focused and determined, applying the lessons learned from all the great teachers she had along the way.  

Incredibly, in the most emotionally and physically challenging year in NBA history, especially for the Lakers, Jeanie led the Lakers to win the championship title.

Her story has made history. And not just in basketball.

Jeanie is a leader who endorses female empowerment. As co-founder and investor of WOW, Women of Wrestling, Jeanie helps to provide a path for female athletes. Working toward refining leadership as a woman, and encouraging diversity, she dyes her hair rainbow colors in support of Laker Pride Night, a celebration of LGBTQIA+ history month. And this 2021-22 NBA season, Jeanie proudly welcomes Shay Murphy to the Lakers coaching staff, the second female coaching associate in the team’s history.

Having a soft spot for comedy, Jeanie is joining comedy star Mindy Kaling and comedy writing star Elaine Ko, as Executive Producer along with Linda Rambis, for a 10-episode comedy series for Netflix, based on the back office of a female-led NBA team. While Jeanie has said the show is not based on her life, she believes the nearly 40 years of backstage drama that she and Linda experienced will go a long way. It makes sense as Jeanie has dabbled with stand-up comedy and feels humor has helped her deal with her many losses.

Jeanie is also executive producing a nine-part docuseries to be released in 2022 on Hulu. Teaming up with the renowned film director Antoine Fuqua, the series will examine four decades of Laker history, and, in particular, the “Showtime” era told by the organization itself. 

As a business creator, Jeanie is co-founder and co-owner of Cincoro Tequila, a portmanteau of the Spanish words for five and gold. Originating serendipitously one night in 2016, after an NBA owners meeting, five “golden” participants birthed the business idea. The diners included: Jeanie, Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck and his wife Emilia Fazzalari, Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan, and Milwaukee Bucks owner Wes Edens. Today the company proudly displays four different expressions of tequila.

During the pandemic, the fight for racial equity intensified. Guided by Jeanie and her Lakers, the Los Angeles community learned how sports can teach the world about hate and inequality while promoting empathy, understanding, and a path toward healing. The mural entitled “Leave a Legacy” by Gustavo Zermeño Jr. on the wall of the Bixby Coffee building in the Mid-City area exemplifies this message with Kobe on top. “In the Paint” is also a Lakers’ program Jeanie is proud of. Its mission is to “support and uplift” BIPOC artists.

Adam Silver tells the Courier, “Jeanie learned from her father what it takes to run a successful NBA franchise. She has built on that knowledge and established her own identity and leadership style. She’s inquisitive and thoughtful in her approach and has surrounded herself with other talented executives.”

As a leader, Jeanie exhibits kindness with everyone she comes in contact with, emphasizing collaboration and inclusivity. She is comfortable taking chances, first consulting the most talented people who surround her, one of the many lessons from her father. And she never loses sight of the fact that the Laker Nation is the heartbeat of what the Lakers stand for.  Everyone comes together under the purple and gold flag. The platform is bigger than any individual, player or coach. 

Within the NBA, Jeanie encourages and supports other teams to do their very best, believing it only makes the league better and more competitive. Commissioner Silver adds, “Jeanie is very active in league matters and is a key member of our Labor Relations and Advisory/Finance Committees. Her perspective is valued by her fellow team owners as well as the players because of her lifetime of NBA experience. She has strong opinions, but she’s also collaborative and understands how to build a consensus.” 

When asked whether she would have been Governor for the Lakers if her father hadn’t owned the team, she answers, “Probably not.” But after five years of running the franchise and leading the Lakers to its first championship title in 10 years, she knows she’s got what it takes. 
“I deserve to be here,” says Jeanie.

An icon in our community, Jeanie has fond memories of receiving the Beverly Hills Courier on her front doorstep in Beverly Hills. Understanding the importance of community connectivity, she has happily honored the Courier with this exclusive and intimate conversation.  

It’s holiday time. And the city shines with festivities and lights. It’s also a time of reflection. Can you share a special Beverly Hills holiday memory?

Is there anything better than Rodeo Drive with holiday lights sparkling overhead? Beverly Hills is so beautiful at holidays. I remember one season; my dad took me to lunch at The Grill on the Alley. And he said, “I want to buy your Christmas present today. We’re going to walk over to Tiffany’s and I want you to pick out something special.” I think he knew what he wanted me to get, one of the key necklaces. But it was really about the idea that we spend the time together and create a lasting memory. It was really such a special day.

On move-in day to Pickfair, you found a surprise tucked away in a closet upstairs.  What was it? And tell us about the powerful female force looking over you? 

My dad bought the Pickfair estate, which was where Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, the first real movie stars of their generation, lived in Beverly Hills. When they met, they were both married to other people. They got very high-profile divorces, unusual in the 1920s. So, they were kind of shunned by the Hollywood establishment. They moved to the outskirts, to Beverly Hills, to an old hunting lodge. Hollywood was where everybody wanted to be, but they weren’t welcomed in Hollywood. 

What treasure did you find?

That first day at Pickfair, I found an Oscar that was Mary Pickford’s.

An Oscar statue? Just collecting dust in the house, and no one knew about it?

Yes. They gave her the honorary Oscar, for Lifetime Achievement in 1976. One of her last appearances on-screen. She passed away in 1979 and the house went into probate. Dad made an offer of what he felt the land was worth and it was accepted. Soon I was studying everything about Mary, and she’s always been an inspiration for me ever since. She started United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, DW Griffith, who was the big director, at the time.  She was a woman that was at the forefront of her industry and had a seat at the table. And you know, she was the highest earning star and a brilliant business woman.

And therein lies how she has been your north star.

Yes.  Beverly Hills is a really great chapter in my life.

Soon thereafter, a tall, skinny, young man with a big smile named Magic Johnson showed up at your Beverly Hills front door. You learned a lesson in that first encounter about the power of the Lakers. What was it?

When the doorbell rang my father was busy with another matter and asked me to bring Magic into the living room, offer him something to drink. So I was making small talk. Magic said, “You know, I’m really happy that I was drafted by the Lakers, but I’m only going to sign a three-year deal because I want to go home and play for my hometown team in Michigan, the Detroit Pistons.” And I went, “What??” I said, “Excuse me for a minute.” And I ran upstairs to my dad and said, “You’re not gonna believe what he said. He’s only going to stay for three years.” I’m like hyperventilating, I’m so worried about this. And my dad just calm, cool and collect, didn’t miss a beat. And says, “Jeanie, the first time he puts on the Laker uniform and walks up out on the floor at the Forum, he’s never going to leave.” And he was exactly right, (giggles) because Magic never left. He could be the mayor of Los Angeles. He is Los Angeles!

When you began working for your father, he connected you with Linda Rambis. Tell us about this relationship. 

When I started working for my dad, I was a student at USC. When he offered me the job, I said, “Oh great. Now I can quit school.” And he said, “No, you have to finish school. Or you can’t have the job. You either have to do both or stay and concentrate on school.” And of course, I wanted the job and he said, “I want you to work with Linda,” who had been working for him for a couple of years. She’s an excellent marketer. My dad was so impressed with her and offered her a job on the spot after he met her. He felt that she had the street savvy, the toughness that I lacked and that we would complement each other in terms of skillset. It’s been a collaboration since. I treasure it.

Title IX was passed when you were a young girl. Almost 50 years later, we are still far away from equality. In what aspects do you think we may get a little closer to equality in the NBA? More female coaches, female governors, back-office employees?  And what about the male and female financial disparity?

Well, it’s kind of two different things.  Title IX was to give equal access to facilities, and opportunities for male and female athletes.  Today you have women who are competing in sports from a young age who train hard and earn a scholarship and have their college tuition paid for. That was the goal of Title IX.

When you start talking about pay, the reason there is a discrepancy is that you get paid based on the revenue that you bring in. And so you can’t say, how can a male basketball player make so much more than a female basketball player? Well, I guarantee you, if the revenues were the same, it would be the same. And if the revenues were more in women’s basketball, it would be more than men’s. It’s about revenue catching up.

As an entrepreneur, I say, there’s all these female athletes who have trained from the time they were 8, 9, 10, 11, who go on and receive a scholarship to college and compete for their school. Now what do they get to do after? These are athletes who have sacrificed a lot to be at the top of their sport. But unless you’re going into the WNBA, or maybe you’re a tennis player, or now there’s a woman soccer league, there just aren’t enough places for women to turn pro to earn money after training and dedicating themselves. So that’s why I’ve invested in WOW, Women of Wrestling. People like me have to make opportunities for female athletes to earn a living, to have a chance to perform to a massive audience, to be given a platform, and rewards for all that dedication from the time they were children with the dream of being an athlete. And so, for me, wrestling made the most sense.

But women have been wrestling.

Only as part of men’s wrestling, the side show, the undercard match. They didn’t ever get to be the center stage. They didn’t get to be the show. And so, WOW is an all-female wrestling league and it’s just like wrestling, good versus evil, women standing up for what they believe in, right or wrong, misguided or not. They will fight with passion and, let them fight it out in the ring. Wrestling has some of the greatest athletes that we’ve ever seen, and it’s given a platform to people like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Cena, and Hulk Hogan. They’ve had a chance to become superstars because of the platform and the personality and the athleticism that they have.  Where is that for women?  This is a small investment I can make. And it’s me personally. It’s not the Lakers doing this. This is from my own funds. This is from my own passion. And I want to see these women have a chance to be the stars they were meant to be.

In the NBA, there are less than a handful of female owners in a pool of 30 NBA teams.  What about referees? What about coaches, assistant coaches, trainers, women who really understand basketball, not just great players? When will we see more opportunities for women in the NBA?

Compared to where it started 30 years ago?  We have so many more female referees in the training system coming up who are gaining the experience to call games in the NBA. It may not be perfect now, but the changes that I’ve seen in my 30 years are amazing. It’s only a matter of time that it’ll be more reflective of the population. And in all aspects of the business, the front office, ticket sales, broadcasting, sponsorship sales. It’s been great to see the evolution.  And, you know, if I can inspire the next… I hope that’s the case.

With over 400K Twitter followers, tell us about your Twitter profile picture.

Sports Illustrated was doing a story on my family. It was 1998. They interviewed both my older brothers, my younger sister, myself and my father about the family, but about my dad really, and what his plans were with the Lakers when he retired. This was before they had even moved to STAPLES Center. My dad told us all to cooperate with the story, which included a photo shoot. So they sent a photographer to my house. He comes in and he explains to me how he wants to do the picture. Well, I snapped and quickly declined because I told him that I thought he was just trying to make me look foolish. And he goes, “I’m really sorry, but I don’t know who you are. I’m a fashion photographer. I’ve never been hired by Sports Illustrated before. They told me to come and take a picture of you. And the only requirement that I had was I had to somehow put basketballs in the picture.  I was trying to find inspiration.”

He said, “I found that how Italian women hold melons, it’s like from your heart.” And I go, kind of like a pin-up shot. I love pin-up stars like Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable. I wasn’t naked for the shoot, I was wearing a bathing suit, but I didn’t realize he could photograph me in a way that you wouldn’t know if I was wearing anything or not. And it ended up being this beautiful picture, like a 1940’s pin-up. Sports Illustrated loved it so much that they changed the entire article to “She’s Got Balls.”

A great name for you today.

It foreshadowed a lot. I’ve had corporate people tell me “I don’t know if we can work with you. You have to change your Twitter picture.” And I’m like, what are you telling me? To censor a picture that was in Sports Illustrated?  It’s like, no.  I’m not changing it.

In 1995 you were featured in Playboy. What inspired you to do it?

I was coming out of a divorce.  I was 32 years old at the time, and I’d always wanted to model in Playboy. My Aunt Susan was a Playboy bunny. My dad owned the Playboy Club in Phoenix, Arizona. Playboy was part of my life. My dad was very good friends with Hugh Hefner, but I auditioned like any other person who wanted to pose for the magazine. They had to send my pictures to Chicago to be approved.  I never mentioned anything to my dad until they approved me as a model.

You were called a model?

Yes. I wasn’t a centerfold. I didn’t qualify.

What a loss for them.

(giggling) No, seriously. It was an experience that I did for me. It was for my own personal growth and coming to terms with who I am and fulfilling a dream. Jimmy Connors, a friend, and member of the L.A. Strings tennis team married a former Playmate of the Year, Patti McGuire.  I always looked up to her, and I remember asking her about it. And she said, “Once you do it, it will always be part of your life. You’ll be somewhere and when you least expect it, somebody will walk up and ask you to sign a copy of the magazine.” Still, to this day, I get people sending me photographs to autograph. And I feel if people take the time to mail them to me and ask me to sign them, then it’s something that you do. But Patti was right; it lives forever.

You have said in the press that Dr. Buss was worried; you were so ambitious that you wouldn’t create a family. You have also said in the press recently that you are mom now to your players.

And when I become grandma, that’s when I have to resign (giggles). No, I mean, now I am the age of the parents of most of our players. When I was in the relationship with Phil Jackson, he was definitely the father figure for many of them. And so, it was a natural fit for me to evolve into that role of mother. That was an important time for me to understand as a role model. 

You’re the mother to all these young players, and the kids keep coming and keep coming.

And it’s hard when they leave the nest. It’s very hard on me.

Tell us about your mom. We hear so much about your dad. How did she influence you?

My mom just was a sweetheart. I have her laugh and anybody that met her would use the words kind and sweet smile. I like to think that’s what I got from her.

Were you close?

Not as close as I was with my dad. I wasn’t interested in cooking and homemaking. When I was a kid, my dad would send me out for donuts or whatever, and then I’d deliver the donuts and then I wouldn’t leave the room. I’d go sit in the corner, and listen to what they were talking about.  I found business fascinating.  

In an effort to support your athletes off the court, you have created an environment that encourages their outside interests, in particular their entrepreneurial pursuits. Why is this important?

There would be some people in my position over the years who would say, “Hey, the players made a lot of money, once they’re gone, I don’t care what happens to them.” And to me, it’s like, once you’ve been a Laker, you reflect on our organization, whether you’re currently playing or 20 years after you retire. You are part of the Laker family, the Laker brand. It’s important that anyone who has been on the Laker team is healthy and thriving and doing well.

Please tell us more about your relationship with Phil Jackson.

He just bowled me over. Like, wait a minute, what’s the deal with this guy? As soon as I heard his voice, there was something about his voice that I just knew. And I said to him, if we’re go

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This special birthday celebration tradition began in 2008, when Ringo responded to a journalist’s question about what he wanted for his birthday. “The idea just came to me – that at noon your local time on July 7, my birthday – wherever you are, if you want to, say, think or post ‘Peace & Love.'” I decided to invite fans to join me on the streets of Chicago in front of the Hard Rock, and we have been doing it ever since.”

In 2019 there were over 30 Peace & Love events all around the world. Last year the pandemic prevented an in-person event. Instead, Ringo moved the celebration to the virtual “Ringo’s Big Birthday Show,” which featured unseen and unique performances by Ringo, Sir Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Sheryl Crow and many more. The show was broadcast globally and raised funds for the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the David Lynch Foundation, Musicares and WaterAid. This year there were Peace & Love regional gatherings, both in person and on Zoom, in Argentina, Costa Rica, Colombia, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Italy, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, elsewhere in the U.S., and here in Beverly Hills. 

Afterward, Ringo shared with the Courier, “During this time of the pandemic… Barbara and I had a beautiful time with some of our friends as we celebrated my birthday with our traditional Peace & Love moment in front of my hand sculpture in Beverly Hills. I had a wonderful birthday… thanks to everyone who celebrated with me.” 

Happy Birthday Ringo and all the best and brightest wishes! Thanks to you, our world is a better place!

The post Ringo Starr’s Birthday Wish for “Peace & Love” Around the World appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

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Hello!?… It’s Lionel I’m looking for… Is that you?” The door to the trailer swung open and Lionel’s support staff, his stylist, hair and make-up artists, photographers, and assistants marched in, purposely focused, in anticipation of Lionel’s live national telecast of “American Idol.” Bruce Eskowitz, Lionel’s manager, who had been visiting with me, began to introduce me to Lionel’s team. And in that instant, the man I was looking for, the legendary Lionel Richie, walked in. 

Brandishing his beautiful bright smile, Lionel held out his arms for my hug as Bruce quickly introduced me to him and his fiancé, Lisa. The interview had been set weeks ago, but something instantly told me my greeting was authentic Lionel. His warmth and charisma come naturally. As if we were friends from the neighborhood, the comfortable conversation began to gush. Or was it “me” gushing over him. 

Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on June 20, 1949 to school teacher Alberta Foster Richie and retired army captain and Army System Analyst Lionel Brockman Richie Sr. Raised with his sister, Deborah, in the house across the street from Tuskegee University, music, religion, and academics were a big part of the Richie home. Lionel’s maternal grandmother, Adelaide M. Foster, a classically trained pianist and the choir director for Tuskegee University, sat regularly with Lionel at the piano, and encouraged him to attend the university’s musical events. His uncle, a big band player and arranger, stirred Lionel’s interests in jazz and provided Lionel with his first saxophone. 

Once becoming a student at Tuskegee University, Lionel focused his energies, beyond his academics, on music. During his freshman year, he entered a talent show in a group called the Mystics. They had great success and were a big surprise to the upperclassmen. A well-known group made up of seniors, called the Jays, took notice. When they graduated, the two groups decided to merge. The Jays and Mystics became one, calling themselves the Commodores. In their travels they played a great deal of the venues referred to as the “chitlin circuit”.

In 1969, while Lionel was still in college, the Commodores traveled to New York for their first studio recording with Atlantic Records. While there, the group’s manager arranged for the Commodores to play at a black lawyers’ convention where Suzanne De Passe of Motown Records happened to be. Immediately impressed, she brought the group to Motown and signed them to open for the Jackson Five in venues and stadiums around the United States. 

The Commodores’ first big hits, such as “Machine Gun” and “Brick House,” were known for their funky, danceable sound. Their first album debuted in 1974, the same year Lionel achieved his first success as a songwriter with “Happy People,” recorded by The Temptations. Lionel graduated Tuskegee University, that same year, with a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics. He married Brenda Harvey, his college sweetheart, the following year. 

Thanks to Lionel’s song writing and lead vocals on love ballads, the Commodores amassed hits such as “Just to Be Close to You,” “Easy,” “Three Times a Lady,” “Still,” and “Sail on.” In 1980 Lionel wrote and produced “Lady” for country singer Kenny Rogers, and the title song for the film “Endless Love,” which was recorded with Diana Ross. It earned Lionel an Academy Award nomination, five Grammy nominations, an American Music Award and a People’s Choice Award. 

In 1982, Lionel ended his association with the Commodores in a heartfelt break-up and released his first solo album, “Lionel Richie.” It sold more than two million copies, and featured the single “Truly.” His second album, “Can’t Slow Down” released in 1983 featured the “chart-popping” singles “Hello,” “Penny Lover,” “Stuck on You” and “All Night Long,” which he memorably sang at the closing ceremony of the XXIII Olympic Games. More success followed in 1986, with an Oscar win for his song “Say You, Say Me” for the film “White Knights,” and a nomination for “Miss Celie’s Blues” from the film “The Color Purple.” Another album followed that year, as did one of his most notable accomplishments. He co-wrote “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson. The single sold over 20 million copies, and the event Lionel mobilized raised more than $60 million for African famine relief. 

In the late 1980’s, Lionel slowed down for a desperately needed break during difficult times. His father passed away, and Lionel’s marriage to Brenda (with whom he shared their adopted daughter, Nicole) ended. The “king of love” pushed forward. He married Diane Alexander two years later, and together they had two children, Miles Brockman and Sofia, who were raised in Beverly Hills. The couple divorced in 2004. 

In the subsequent years, Lionel continued to write music, release albums and dazzle audiences globally. His tenth studio album, “Tuskegee,” in 2012, a compilation of 13 hit songs performed with country stars, brought him back to the top of the Billboard 200 chart. In 2015, his performance before 150,000 screaming fans at the Glastonbury Festival in England was hailed as “triumphant” by the BBC.

Accolades for Lionel have come outside the entertainment arena, as well. Three prestigious universities have awarded him with honorary Doctorates in music: Boston College, Tuskegee University and in 2017 the Berklee College of Music. He received the Kennedy Center Honors Award for his lifetime contributions to American culture in 2017. Lionel has been an advocate for Breast Cancer Research over the years. And in 2019, The Prince of Wales selected Lionel as the First Chairman of the Global Ambassador Group for the Prince’s Trust. 

It’s no surprise that Lionel has said that he’s “addicted to exhaustion.” As a businessman, in 2018, while on “Idol,” he said “Hello” to home décor, launching his “home collection” business. He has invested in “Heal,” a service that provides home-based medical care. Lionel thinks of it as an “Uber doctor” in the privacy of one’s own home. And his perfumery business, aptly named “Hello,” uses his creative sensory talents. Lionel’s newly-released scent has been recognized as the 2020 Fragrance of the Year, top five finalist, by the Fragrance Foundation.

Success in these new endeavors is hardly surprising, given Lionel’s accomplishments thus far. He has won four Grammy awards as well as being named the 2016 MusiCares Person of the Year. He has one Academy Award, 17 American Music Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the 2014 BET Lifetime Achievement Award, and the NAACP Image Award for Entertainer of the Year. He is executive producing “The Sammy Davis Jr. Story” for Paramount Pictures as well as the Robert Johnson movie for the studio, and a film for Disney Pictures that will feature Lionel’s songs. He begins his fifth year-long residency in Las Vegas this fall, at The Wynn. He’s back in the recording studio and has just completed his fourth season as a judge on ABC’s “American Idol.” Lionel is one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. As a global icon, he is truly beloved.

Lionel, what made you fall in love with Beverly Hills?  

Well, I just realized over the years that when people would say, “where are you going on your vacation?” some people would reply, “I’m going to Greece,” or “I’m going to London,” or “I’m going to Tokyo,” or wherever they are going around the world. I discovered something about Beverly Hills; I don’t have to travel anywhere. Everyone is from everywhere here. It’s such a diverse place that if you want Greek food, we’ve got it. Italian food, we have it. We also have the greatest stores. And by the way, you will bump into everyone in the world at every restaurant in town. It’s the greatest place because it has a European vibe but in America. One corner has one vibe; another corner has another vibe. One house has one vibe; another house as another vibe. It’s a melting pot of the entire world, and it’s just the coolest place to live.

Growing up in Tuskegee, your grandmother played Bach throughout the house and spent hours with you at the piano. Can you tell the story of when she discovered you couldn’t read music? 

The first part of my life, I was trying to read music the honest way…the way my grandmother was taught. So, one day, she gave me an assignment in which she would play it for me once, then leave the room so that I could rehearse the piece. When she would walk back in, she would say, “All right, here we go. Let’s play it.” Well on this one particular day, I must tell you, I played the piece from beginning to end, flawlessly, but my grandmother looked at me and said, “You didn’t read the music.” And I said, “Grandma, I read the music.” She said, “You did not read the music.” I said, “Why don’t you think I read the music?” She said because I didn’t turn the page. It was at that point I realized I was not able to read the music. But I could copy whatever I heard. 

When did you realize that playing music by ear was not going to be an impediment?

When I joined Motown, and believe it or not, I realized shortly after that some of the greatest writers in the world – Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson – could not read music. Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Erroll Garner, the great jazz player wasn’t that good at reading music, but he could really play from his own head.  Once I got my own permission from them, I was able to experiment. Yes, they could play the piano, but they couldn’t do all that orchestration.  That’s when I realized, I can do this. And, of course, hallelujah! It worked.

You were raised in the Deep South during the 1950’s and 60’s where racism was rampant. When did you become aware of the oppression, injustice and inequality around you?
When I was growing up in the South in Tuskegee, Alabama, I was basically living on a college campus. As kids growing up, we called it the bubble because we didn’t really know what was going on outside of our bubble. It wasn’t until probably the March on Washington on Walter Cronkite in New York on TV when I realized it was happening in Montgomery, Alabama, 38 miles away from Tuskegee.

Your parents worked hard to shelter you from the brutal realities. Why?

I have to tell you, I now understand when the Klan was marching through Tuskegee, in my early years. My parents put us to bed early. So, we never knew that they were marching. Anything that happened in terms of racism, they kept it from us. For the longest time we couldn’t figure out why our parents were shielding us from this. As we got older, I asked my mom and dad why they kept us out of that. They said, “because we wanted you to grow up knowing there were no limitations. And if we told you what was happening, and what people thought of us, then it might limit your goals as to what you would pursue in your future.”

Today, 50 plus years later, what advice do you have for all of those out there who are facing obstacles?

The hardest person in the world to get to know is yourself.  The hardest person in the world you have to trust is yourself. The hardest person you have to believe in is yourself. And the most important person to meet, if you meet no one else, is yourself. All the world needs is your special understanding and interpretation of you. 

As a world-famous parent, which has its built-in challenges, you often look back to the lessons you learned from your parents. Your father’s advice and teachings made an indelible mark on your life. Can you share some of his words that still resonate with you today?

He would say to me, over and over again, “aptitude plus attitude determines altitude.” If you are just smart, and you have all the aptitude and nothing else, you go halfway. If you just have the greatest attitude in the world but no aptitude, you go halfway. But if you have both of them together, the sky’s the limit. If you have to have only one, having the right attitude will put you in a higher position because people will like to be around you so much. 

Another one… I kept asking my dad, “I don’t understand why you’re so happy. I’m playing back your life and you’ve had a very difficult life. I don’t understand why you’re just so happy every day?” And he said, “Son, if you lose your sense of humor, they have you.” 

They have you? 

You can lose your house; you can lose your money; you can lose friends and family. But if you lose your mind, it’s over. The only way to really survive in this world is to have a sense of humor. And I have found that over the years, that is the only thing that has gotten me through some very difficult times. In the face of complete disaster, I would think about how my dad would smile through this situation. And the answer is, it’s recoverable. If you understand that life is a challenge, life is painful, you can overcome obstacles. It was George Washington Carver who said, “Great men and women are not born. They were just individuals faced with a problem and overcame it.” I’m using that as my mantra as I go through life. 

Community means everything to the City of Beverly Hills and to the Courier.  Please tell us about the community in Tuskegee.

I refer to my growing up as the village. But really, it was a university campus where it was a melting pot. We had German professors, Czech professors, French professors, and it was just every imaginable kind of doctor and lawyer, etc. Segregation was all around us. Still, it was a melting pot. I use that association when thinking about Beverly Hills. In Beverly Hills, we have almost that same sense of community where we have just about every imaginable walk of life. It’s all religions and all cultures. It’s this incredible community of people. The world is in conflict, but we live in Beverly Hills where everyone is from wherever. You can actually come to Beverly Hills and get the best education of your life in terms of what the world is like.

The people in our community share a love for our city and enjoy its connectivity. My bet is you know your neighbors. 

I do know my neighbors, and the people across the street. Especially during the pandemic, it’s become a really fun thing.  I’ve gotten closer to my neighbors than I’ve ever gotten before because I’ve never been home for a year and four months. So, I mean, we’ve had all kinds of behind the mask kind of conversations, and I’ve gotten to know them even better. We have different views on things, but also, we have so much in common. 

Who were your mentors? Who have you ‘idol’-ized along the way? 

Tuskegee, Alabama had some very famous people. I was very blessed. I didn’t realize that. Those guys walking around in those Airforce uniforms…those were the Tuskegee Airmen. As time went on, I realized, oh my God, Chief Anderson. Well, that was Charles Anderson’s father. He was the one who flew Eleanor Roosevelt in the first flight to see whether black pilots could actually fly a plane. She went up with Chief Anderson, Charles Anderson’s father. But he was Chief Anderson to us. 
Even my grandmother and Mel Dawson, who wrote the Negro Symphony. He was just an amazing arranger, conductor, writer, and composer. He would come by the house talking about music with my grandmother. She also knew Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. 

My family was a member of the Episcopal Church, and Father Vernon Jones had a huge influence on my life. He managed to get all of us to be interested in the lessons of the church by putting a ping pong table and a pool table in the undercroft of the church. Every Saturday we would go by the church, and he would teach us how to be altar boys and at the same time, we tried to beat him at ping pong and pool. It’s how he mentored us in terms of paying attention to certain things in life. I was very blessed. 

And once you left Tuskegee?

Outside of Tuskegee I must tell you, Quincy Jones, Sidney Poitier, and Gregory Peck [have been my mentors]. I happened to run into some wonderful, wonderful people when I first came to Beverly Hills, and they gave me solid advice on how to maneuver, and how to navigate the world of entertainment and the world of celebrity. Clarence Avant, Dick Clark, I can call off so many wonderful people. They were just there for me. And then of course, there’s a grandeur to have been able to have known Nelson Mandela. 

Did you meet him in South Africa or in America?

I met him in America. When we first got word that he was coming to America, (a group of us) were all given assignments and it was funny – my assignment was to make sure that he had suits. So, I went shopping at Neiman Marcus with Winnie Mandela. I remember we were running around the store and this was the first time I ever met her. This sounds like a dream. But at the same time, it was such an amazing moment to know that this man just spent all this time in prison, and he came out, reunited with his family, and then came to L.A. and to New York for the first time. And we had something to do with it. 

He whispered something in your ear that brought you to tears. What did that teach you about humanity and humility?

First I was in awe of being in his presence. It just fascinated me to know that a man can spend that much time in prison and come out and have his sense of humor…and have the wherewithal to say that it was a teachable moment, instead of a bitter moment.

He whispered to me, “I want to thank you for your lyrics, because it got me through many years of isolation in prison.” The fact that he had heard my music, that he knew my music, and then for him to tell me that I contributed something to his health, mental health, whatever the case may be, just made me feel so worthy of being a human being and a songwriter. I was reduced to tears. I just didn’t realize I touched somebody so isolated from the world for so long.

On “Idol” you have said, “Singing is singing. Moving people to evoke an emotion is everything.” Did you make a conscious decision at one point that you were going to sing about love? Or did it naturally evolve from the hopeless romantic that you are?

Let me just establish the fact that I am a hopeless romantic. I am in love with love. There is nothing else that matters or survives. We come to this planet in search of love. We only feel good when we are loved, or we are in love with something or someone. It is just a natural thing of life. “I Love You” are the only three words that never go out of style. And so, it doesn’t matter whether you are a rock star, or a stoner or a gangster, or a politician, not to put that in the same light [laughs], but the point is sooner or later, you’re going to tell someone “I love you.” Three corny words. The simplicity of writing about things that matter, matters of the heart…it’s timeless. I miss you; I want you; I need you. I’m lonely. I lost you. I want you forever. I always figured if I could get my music played at a wedding, I’m halfway there.

“Life begins after you step out of your comfort zone” is another one of your wise quotes, and one that truly resonates with me. Tell us about that shy young band member who was coerced to kiss a strange girl.

Well, I was unlike the guy you see and know now. I was painfully shy when I was younger, and I wanted desperately to be in this band, the Commodores. Everything was going along very well as the horn player, until I found out I was going to be a lead singer. I was writing the songs so I started spending more time up front as a lead singer. It was just Clyde, the drummer, and myself. The keyboard player was Milan Williams. I was the saxophone player. I prefer to say I was the best saxophone holder that ever lived. 

When I got up to the front, remember very shy, I kept ignoring the girls. And so, members of the band kept screaming at me, “Kiss the girl in the front row!” And I kept saying, “I don’t know the girl in the front row.” Remember now, in Tuskegee, Alabama, you don’t just grab girls and kiss them. The guys in my band were older than me and had been in other bands before…I’ve never been in a band before. So, I’m up front, and finally, I bend over and I kiss the girl in the front row. The entire room screamed. And then the next problem they had after that was “Lionel, stop kissing the girl in the front row and sing the song” [laughs]. 

What about the unexpected pairing of you and Kenny Rogers? You were a saxophonist in a funk band and a budding song writer, and he was a country singer? Your power ballad, “Lady” became a record-breaking hit for him. It also helped launch your solo career. Please tell us more about this “gruesome twosome” and about this lifelong friendship.

It was the most unlikely friendship, but now that I look back, probably the most divinely orchestrated brotherhood that could ever happen in life is the story of Kenny Rogers and Lionel Richie.
I got a phone call from Kenny saying, “I would like to have one of your ballots.”  21 million copies later, it was just the greatest thing that ever happened since sliced bread. From there, we became buddies.  But he lived here and I lived in Alabama. He kept trying to convince me to move out here and I kept saying “No, I like living in Alabama.” So finally, I was in his guest house in the Knoll, (an iconic property in Beverly Hills) and I said “I’ll just stay in the guest house here in Beverly Hills.” I was as happy as can be paying little money and making a lot of money, and writing “Hello,” “All Night Long,” etc.  That was a magical house. Then Kenny sold the house to Marvin Davis, after I was the one who showed Marvin the house because I was in the guest house working on the songs. So I made a deal with Marvin Davis, “I get to stay in the guest house; I come with the house.” That was our joke. Marvin bought the house and I stayed in the [guest] house until finally one day he said, “I think it’s time for you to buy your wife a house…I think you need to basically get out” [laughs]. 

Kenny and I, from that point on, became this gruesome twosome. I was there when his kids were born. He was a brother that I never had. Every kind of experience that I was about to go through in my life, he had been through the same thing. When I was leaving the Commodores, he left the group, The First Edition. Every time I would go through a certain period of my life, he would sit down and tell me that this is what it’s going to feel like, this is how you should deal with it, etc. He basically was a mentor through that whole period of my life. I must tell you, there has never been a person that was more suited for my Southern roots. He’s from Houston, Texas; I’m from Tuskegee, Alabama. And for some weird reason, I’m still going back to look at my family history, because I know we were related somewhere along the line. He was just the perfect friend and we had so many years of laughter to the point where, no matter where we were, I would walk on stage and we had the greatest impromptu show of life. I miss him to this day; I really do miss him. 

The Commodores were described as the “Black Beatles” from Tuskegee, but eventually the family broke up. You have described it as a challenging period. How do you reflect on it now?

Well, you just touched on a lot of things. The Black Beatles, we didn’t give ourselves the name. We played a show in Germany and in that show was the likes of AC DC, Queen was closing, and the Commodores were the opening act. Now, of course, what the heck are we doing on this show? But anyway, it was a disastrous show and just before we went out on stage, we did an interview backstage. In the interview they said, “who are you guys?” and we said “we want to be the Black Beatles. We’re going to take over the world.” When the article came out it said, “Look out world, the Black Beatles are coming.” That’s the greatest thing you could ever write. We only had two hit records. So, it was just hilarious. 

But the break-up was very difficult because everyone saw us as a group. These were brothers I never had. In fact, I was saying every day “Thank God for the Commodores because then there would be no Lionel Richie.” And that’s the truth, because they gave me the opportunity to sit in this little cocoon, and just take it all in and grow and discover. From that little quiet kid who was shy on that university campus in that first talent show together to then going to Madison Square Garden.

You took a break from the entertainment industry in the late 1980’s. What did you learn during that time off? 

That break was not a break I was expecting. Truthfully, I didn’t take that break because I said I think I need to take a break. That break was like a divine guidance break.

My father called me on the phone and said, “I’m going for a doctor’s exam and I want you to come and go with me to check this out.” You know, my dad was a military guy; I never saw him sick a day in my life. So, for him to ask me to do this and to be with him, I thought, oh, this is pretty serious. From that moment, I found that it was a slippery slope. 

And what I thought was going to be a short period of time for him to recover and to go back, it ended up being two and a half years to his death. And then from there, I didn’t want to start the album and miss that opportunity to be with him. During this period, I also went through a divorce and throat surgery and everything else. It was a terrible period of my life. But it was very interesting…it gave me an opportunity to do something I’d never done before, which is stop and reflect. I look back on it now as probably the best thing that could have ever happened because if I had kept going at the speed I was going, I would have probably crashed and burned. There’s just no way to keep up that kind of pace and not hurt someone whether it be mentally, physically, or emotionally. Something was going to break. 

But I got to learn from my parents a lot more. I found out that I had great friends not only in Beverly Hills and in Los Angeles, but also in Alabama, because everyone was reaching out. And so, it gave me a sense of community again. People that knew me in Beverly Hills, but I didn’t think they thought enough of me that we were friends…they came forward and helped me through a very, very painful period. And so, it was one of those moments that I look back on. Yes, it was not pleasant in terms of what I was going through, but yet,
I think it did a great deal to mold me into who I am today. 

“We Are the World,” was one of your crowning achievements. You co-wrote the song for more than 40 of the biggest musical stars of the day for African Famine Relief. Please share the challenges leading up to this once in a lifetime accomplishment. 

This question right here could probably take three volumes of books; I am going to try to consolidate it as best I can. This was a monumental task of really not knowing what we were biting off. 

Harry Belafonte called on the phone and said, “we have a situation…I go to Africa every year, and we have a crisis. We need a

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 Visionary Women Co-Founder and Beverly Hills Councilperson Lili Bosse told the Courier, “Today’s summit was the quickest two hours I have ever experienced. Watching these iconic trailblazing changemakers gives the sense that truly positive change is possible when open hearted, open minded, bold women come together with a shared vision. I feel energized and ready.”

 The sentiment shared by Bosse was particularly evident during the panel featuring Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice. Both described their personal experiences, their unifying thoughts, and how they shattered the glass ceiling before, during and after their astonishing journeys as the 64th and 66th Secretaries of State, respectively.

 After the event, Visionary Women Co-founder Angela Nazarian said, “I am overwhelmed by the positive response of our community. This proves that our message of unity and finding common ground has struck a chord with our audience.”

 If you missed this profound and extremely enlightening two hours, do not worry. It will be available for free “on demand” Monday, March 8, International Women’s Day! https://www.visionarywomen.com/ 

The post Epic Visionary Women Summit For International Women’s Day appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Bestselling author, member of our community and the Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Steve Leder’s new book, “The Beauty of What Remains, How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift,” was recently published by Penguin Random House.

Written exquisitely, this book is ultimately not about death, but about leading a more beautiful life because of it. The timing of the book’s release is especially relevant today, as there is no better event than a pandemic to prove to each of us that life is temporary and precious.

“Death is the great teacher of life,” says Rabbi Leder. The pandemic has forced us to change, to slow down, to eliminate so much, and in so doing, it has revealed the beauty that was there all along. It inspires us to live a more meaningful life, filled with love, devoid of excess and replete with essentials.

In this new book, which became a bestseller on its first day, Rabbi Leder takes us on parallel journeys, one that he experienced as a rabbi and one as a son. After 30 years of guiding thousands of congregants through loss and grief, he is forced to grapple with and confront his own feelings with the passing of his father. Rabbi Leder’s message could not be more welcome, healing and inspiring.

As a member of Wilshire Boulevard Temple for the past 25 years, I have witnessed Rabbi Leder’s profound teachings and experienced his immeasurable compassion. This latest book is one of his “greatest gifts” as he shares his wisdom and his life experiences while guiding us to live a beautiful and meaningful life. I was deeply and positively affected by it.

Rabbi Leder graciously granted the Courier the first print interview about the book. This is the second of two parts.

What is “God time?”

God time is my way of saying that certain things cannot be rushed nor can they be slowed down. Grief is like that.  There is no wrong way to grieve. And grief is a nonlinear process. Anyone who thinks the shortest distance between two points is a straight line doesn’t understand grief. You can’t rush healing. You have to allow the experience to unfold in its own way and at its own pace. Now, there are things you can do during that experience to help garner insights. I hope reading the book will be helpful to people who are grieving, for example. But when it comes to being ready to move on, whatever that means, you’re on God’s time. You’re not in your own dimension of time.

You speak beautifully about memory; memory is light. This touched my heart. If we remember, nothing can ever take our sunshine away.

Only human beings were granted a gift, the ability to summon the past willfully, into the present, and carry it with us into the future. That’s not like a squirrel remembering where the acorns are, which is instinct. You can literally decide I’m going to stop for a moment and think about my mom right now, and you can do it. And that’s an extraordinary treasure given only to human beings.

As you know, my father had Alzheimer’s and so I saw it up close. When we no longer have memory, in a sense, we’re no longer ourselves. Memory is the most gracious and beautiful gift bestowed upon human beings by God. Without it, we’re nothing more than an animal.

The other beautiful thing about memory is that it enables us to round the sharp edges and leave behind what we choose to forget. This is where the book title comes from. We can choose to embrace the beauty of what remains, not just the loss.

In the book, you share a magnificent story about a Stradivarius violin, written as if the violin was playing while the words of the story unfold. The message is about caring for those who have died, but who have not left us.

It was such a profound moment when I learned that even though it’s an inanimate object, if you don’t play a violin, it dies.  The finish and the tone are ruined if it is ignored and not played. It takes us back to this earlier point. Judaism is constructed in a way that requires us to remember the loss of a loved one, at least five times in the year. And of course, there are all the others, the birthdays, the anniversaries, and the ordinary moments during the ordinary days. I often advise people who are grieving that they need to create a daily ritual. I don’t care what it is. Look at a picture, read a poem, light a candle to remember your loved one, but create a ritual as a vessel to contain it all. The willful act of memory is healing.

You advise us to live our lives as a good ancestor we will never know. What do you mean by this?

We don’t think of ourselves as ancestors, but we are, just not yet. And one of the ways to think about leading a worthy life, a noble life, a meaningful life, a beautiful life is to consciously live as a good ancestor. The Seventh Generation Principle, the law of the great Iroquois Nation, mandated that when the elders deliberated, they had to consider the effect their decision would have on the seventh generation to follow. In other words, live as a good ancestor. That’s what it takes to be a good human being. To think beyond yourself.

You talk in the book about a block of stone, and we turn that stone into a statue of our lives. Please elaborate.

I think during the pandemic, it’s a particularly helpful way of thinking. There are many beautiful things hiding in plain sight, but we have to stop in order to notice and appreciate them. If you think about Shabbat for a minute, it’s mostly a list of rules about what we can’t do, not what we have to do, but what we may not do. And that creates the negative space for beautiful things to flourish. For example, during the pandemic, look at what happens when we stop driving all over town on the freeways. When we stop waiting in line to buy and buy some more, when we stop an aggressive social life, when we stop being away from our children and our spouses, think of all the beautiful things that emerge. It’s like a block of marble. You chip away until this beautiful sculpture remains. The sculpture was always in there. The beauty was always in there, but it took removing things chip by chip for it to be revealed. That’s another reason why I called the book, “The Beauty of What Remains.” I am not for a moment dismissing the terrible pain caused by the pandemic.  That being said, the cessation of our frenetic lives, where the centrifuge of life was just spinning us apart, to this hunkered down, home centered, tiny handful of people who really matter in our life right now, is very beautiful.

You say, “It is a simple fact that we do not have forever that makes our love for each other so profound.” You use the analogy of a flower.   

That’s what Wallace Stevens said, “Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers.”

You appreciate a flower when it’s in full bloom, in beautiful colors.

Because, you know, it’s temporary. It’s a rare moment when you smell that rose. And you also know that its death is required in order for life to go on. Nature is replete with metaphors for the importance and value of death. Nothing would live without it. The lifecycle of a forest is dependent upon death.

In the prologue you explain that this book is your apology. You wanted to set the record straight for the way in which your most popular sermon given the year before your father died, a sermon on death, was shy of the real truth. This revelation was a result of you experiencing death, upfront, at the very core of your being, with your father’s passing. What is that deeper truth you learned?

Before my father died I had already been a rabbi helping people through death and loss and pain for 30 years. I thought I had been doing a pretty good job. I would have given myself maybe an A minus, having officiated more than 1,000 funerals. But when my father died, I realized that what I was saying wasn’t the deepest truth. First of all, I rethought my understanding of memory. I have a much better, I think, understanding of the duality of memory.  While it’s such a gift, it’s also a burden. Memory can be beautiful and it can hurt. There’s a duality to memory. And that’s the deepest truth.

The other thing that I talk about in the book is I used to say to people in the early days of their grief, “It won’t always hurt so much.” And I learned that’s false. The truth is it won’t always hurt so often. But when it hurts, it hurts every bit as much. I learned that grief is like waves. The waves do grow further apart and they do diminish. But every once in a while, when your back is turned, you get hit by a rogue wave. And it turns you upside down, gasping for air, at the loss. That’s the truth of grief. It is not that it doesn’t always hurt so much. It just doesn’t always hurt so often. Because no matter how long it has been, when loss hurts, it still really hurts. These are just a couple of the things that my father’s death forced me to rethink and rearticulate for the people I am caring for.

Your honest, heartfelt admission after experiencing your father’s passing serves as a guiding light and an inspiration for all of us about life.

My father’s death has made me a better rabbi. It’s made me a better man. It’s made me a better father, made me a better husband. It’s made me a more humane human being.  Death and loss can ennoble all of us to live more meaningful lives.

We have all gone through one of the most trying years, and now we have turned the page to a new year. Please provide us with some words of reflection, optimism, and encouragement for 2021.

There are a number of things I would say. I learned one from a friend of mine who had three different cancers; the third cancer was lethal. When I asked, ‘what did the first two cancers teach you?’ He said, ‘Time flies, even when you’re not having fun.’

The pandemic is going to end. This experience has been scarring and formative for many of us, and ultimately, it’s going to end.  Sometimes after certain surgeries, when people are depressed, I’m able to say to them, ‘Everyone gets better from this. You’re going to get better.’ So, as simple as it sounds, I think remembering that time flies, even when you’re not having fun, and that we’re going to get through it, is helpful.

I’m grateful for the year that has passed as it has really tested my capacity for gratitude. It’s hard to be depressed if you’re grateful. But I think this has been a year-long lesson in gratitude for the simplest of things. Look back on the past nine months. Are you not amazed at how you have adapted and found ways to flourish and live and love? Be proud of what we have been through together and apart. Be proud of what you have done, and how you have done it. Know that going forward, no matter what life puts in front of you, you will be a resilient person who will find beauty.

It’s true that anyone reading the Beverly Hills Courier newspaper pretty much is on the lucky side of the pandemic. They have a driveway that the paper could land on. Yes, from a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs perspective, we are the lucky ones. But we’ve also done an amazing job. Amazing. Every one of us has gotten to this point through this pandemic. And there is no reason to believe that we are not capable of doing the same and then some in the year to come.

There is a point I made in the previous book, “More Beautiful Than Before” about going through difficult times. We’ve all been through hell these past nine months. And when thinking about the new year, the important thing about going through hell is not to come out of it empty handed. Ask yourself, “What am I going to carry with me from this experience? What am I coming out of this hell with that I’m going to make positive use of for the rest of my life?”

Let’s think about this new year as the opportunity not to come out of hell empty handed.  Loss hurts, but there’s a lot of beauty that remains, and you can hold that for the rest of your life.

This is what growing older is. It’s loss after loss, and then a gain, and then a loss. Life is ultimately about holding on and appreciating the beauty of what remains.  It really is.

After graduating Northwestern University, and studying  at Trinity College, Oxford University, Rabbi Leder received a Master’s Degree in Hebrew Letters and Rabbinical Ordination from Hebrew Union College. He is a regular contributor and guest on “The Today Show” and writes often for TIME, Foxnews.com, and Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper. His published essays have appeared in Town and Country, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, where his Torah commentaries were read weekly by over 50,000 people.

The New York Times called Rabbi Leder’s first book, “The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Things,” “uplifting.” His second book, “More Money Than God: Living a Rich Life Without Losing Your Soul,” received high honors as did his third book, “More Beautiful Than Before; How Suffering Transforms Us,” which reached #4 on Amazon’s overall best sellers list in its first week. Newsweek Magazine has twice named Rabbi Leder one of the ten most influential rabbis in America.

The post Part 2 of 2: Rabbi Steve Leder on His New Bestseller appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Written exquisitely, this book is ultimately not about death, but about leading a more beautiful life because of it. The timing of the book’s release is especially relevant today, as there is no better event than a pandemic to prove to each of us that life is temporary and precious.

“Death is the great teacher of life,” says Rabbi Leder. The pandemic has forced us to change, to slow down, to eliminate so much, and in so doing, it has revealed the beauty that was there all along.  It inspires us to live a more meaningful life, filled with love, devoid of excess and replete with essentials.

In this new book, which became a best seller on its first day, Rabbi Leder takes us on parallel journeys, one that he experienced as a rabbi and one as a son. After 30 years of guiding thousands of congregants through loss and grief, he is forced to grapple with and confront his own feelings with the passing of his father. Rabbi Leder’s message could not be more welcome, healing and inspiring.

As a member of Wilshire Boulevard Temple for the past 25 years, I have witnessed Rabbi Leder’s profound teachings and experienced his immeasurable compassion.

This latest book is one of his “greatest gifts” as he shares his wisdom and his life experiences while guiding us to live a beautiful and meaningful life. I was deeply and positively affected by it.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Rabbi Leder for his first print interview about the book.

Part I of 2

For almost a year now, this horrible pandemic has affected our world and has taught us many lessons. You say, “The global fear of death woke the entire world from its slumber. It has stripped a lot of nonsense from our lives.” What other life lessons have we learned?

We’ve learned to be grateful for the most seemingly ordinary of things. A roll of paper towels, a slice of toast with butter, cooking together, eating together, playing games together, walking in our neighborhoods, the simplest things. This pandemic has taught us a lesson in essentialism. Really the beauty of essentialism, without dismissing the pain and suffering behind the reason.

And you speak about the importance of being with the people you love most.

Yes. And one of the things I think the pandemic has taught us is it’s not a very long list. It’s an important reminder that it’s who, not what, we have that matters. It also has taught us about those who have less and our obligations to help them. We’ve all learned, if we didn’t know it before, just how poor and vulnerable most Americans really are, and that presents its own opportunities to serve.  I see the pandemic as a call to duty, one colossal epic call to duty.

During these times, which of the five senses do people miss most?

The ability to touch. Assuming you have food to eat and a place to live. I miss hugging people. You know, at funerals, for example, since we’re talking about death, not to be able to embrace someone who is suffering and mourning and grieving is so difficult and wrong. But we don’t have a choice.

The quote, “Tragedy and sorrow come to all of us. It’s part of what it means to be human and alive.” What can we do to help the pain?

There are a lot of things that can diminish our pain when we’re suffering. The most important of which is to reach out. The Talmud says, “The prisoner cannot free himself.” It’s such a powerful thought. We have to reach out. Death and grief are an invitation to reach out, and to respond when reached out to. The worst part of pain is not the particular affliction. It’s the feeling of isolation and abandonment that hurts so much. And if we can pierce that feeling of isolation and abandonment, then there’s healing regardless of the medical condition.

The next thing of course is to prevent yourself from catastrophizing the future, as much as possible. Hope really matters. Hope makes a difference. You can live for a day without food. You can live without electricity. You can live without your internet. You can live for a day without many things. You cannot live for a single day without hope.

This is so baked into Judaism. The National Anthem of the Jewish people is Hatikvah, the Hope. We end the Seder by saying, ‘Next year in Jerusalem,’ which is the hope for return to Israel. We open the door to Elijah, the prophet who will herald redemption. You can’t even say goodbye in Hebrew. The word we use when parting is Lehitra’ot, which means, ‘Until we see each other again.’ Even goodbyes are said with hope. I think when dealing with pain, hope is extremely important. Most people I meet with when they’re suffering, it may be the worst thing they’ve ever been through, but it’s not the only difficult thing they’ve ever gotten through. And it’s very important to remember that everything that helped us get through difficult things in the past, all of those resources, internal and external, are still with us. We’re still able to use them to move forward.

When a person is near death, who is most fearful? The surviving family members, afraid of facing life without them, or the dying person?

I have spent 33-plus years of being at the bedside of dying people; people who are really actively dying; literally hours or a day or two away from death. And I ask, ‘are you afraid?’ Not once has the answer been yes. Because when you are really ready to die, it is as natural a part of life as breathing. In my experience, the living, not the dying, are the ones who are afraid.

Most often old age and/or disease have a way of preparing the living for death, they have their own rhythm and power that brings everyone along until you get to a point, which is unimaginable under any other circumstance, where death begins to make perfect sense.

If you really love someone, then that means you love them so much that you are able to put what is best for them ahead of what is best for you. And while it may be best for you to remain alive, there are many times when what is best for the afflicted person is for death to arrive as a peaceful friend.

This is very helpful to people who come to see me and say they’re really afraid of dying. And I say, that’s good because that’s the clearest indicator that you’re not. If you’re afraid of dying, it is not your day. It’s counter-intuitive but true that fear of death can calm people down when they understand it’s a clear sign they are not dying.

Anxiety is for the living?

Yes, which means you have time to let death teach you about living and loving your life.

In the book you say for better or for worse, death is life’s mirror.

This is another one of those counter-intuitive points where addressing the fantasy that people have about dying and death manages expectations. For example, I often get a call like this: ‘Rabbi, I’ve had a terrible relationship with my father most of my life, but he just received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer that gives him three to six months to live. Now I’m really looking forward to having a great relationship with him during these last few months of his life.’ My response is, ‘That’s possible, but it’s unlikely,’ because people tend to die exactly the way they live.

If your father was difficult, or had an anger problem, or was indifferent to you in life, most probably that’s how he’s going to be in death. So sometimes it’s really bad news that people die the way they live. But sometimes it’s really beautiful and wonderful news because that means that someone who was generous and kind and loving in life will be that way in death. Dying does not give people a new personality. It just doesn’t. I think knowing this is actually helpful, not hurtful, for those of us who mourn.

You say that death makes everyone more so. Can you explain?

As I said, death doesn’t change someone’s personality, but it does intensify it. The planners become more intense planners, the jokers tell more jokes, the feeders bring more food, the deniers go deeper into denial and the gossipers gossip more. Sometimes it is terrible and sometimes it’s beautiful, but it is almost always true that people die the way they live.

In the chapter, ‘When more is not better,’ you speak about the challenges you face when called to a dying person’s bedside to talk about euthanasia. You wear two different hats, the man and the rabbi. Sometimes you are torn between traditional wisdom and today’s science, between Jewish law and civil laws governing the human condition. The story of your friend Tara is an exquisite depiction of this conflict and the struggles you face as a spiritual leader. How do you find clarity?

I don’t think you ever really find clarity. I think you learn to live with ambiguity. Sometimes it’s very clear what the right decision is, regardless of what Jewish law might say. But many times, it is not so clear and you make a judgment call and you learn to live with the ambiguity of it.

We all are raised to believe that when we have a choice to make, if we make the right choice, we’re going to have a good outcome, and if we make the wrong choice, we’re going to have a bad outcome. One of the many things I’ve learned as a rabbi is that often, life doesn’t give us a good choice or a bad choice. It gives us a bad choice and a worse choice.  We have to reckon with that and the ambiguity of it all.

There’s an old Yiddish expression that says a half truth is a whole lie. Let’s apply that thinking to eulogies. What is the importance of telling the truth when someone dies? How is it a blessing, or is it a curse? And please share about the art of telling the truth.

I think that ultimately, when you are honoring a person who has died, you honor them by revealing their humanity. I don’t think you’re honoring someone by presenting a perfect, which therefore means false, characterization. I think you really honor someone by revealing the depths of that person’s humanity, which includes their failures and flaws. Obviously, this has to be done with great sensitivity and intelligence and heart. There’s a way to create a full and rounded picture of a person’s life, including failures and flaws without cruelty and damning judgment.

This is very much about both what needs be said and how it ought to be said. There are ways to frame a flaw that are beautiful or hilarious. It’s an art. Fundamentally, I think that if a eulogy is only two dimensional, it will ultimately not honor the deceased the way a full, three-dimensional picture will. And of course, the family very much needs permission to talk about these things.

You say death is the most profound of all teachers.

In fact, at some level, I think that death is the only teacher. Imagine a deathless life. It would be meaningless. There would be no ambition. No one would have children. No one would aspire to do anything. If this virus wasn’t deadly, do you think that any of us would be living the way we’re living right now?

No.

Not at all. Franz Kafka said the meaning of life is that it ends. He was right. And ideally, this is not a book about death. This is a book about the ways in which death can inspire us to lead more meaningful and beautiful lives. It’s certainly done that for me.

It certainly has done that for me, too.

After graduating Northwestern University, and studying  at Trinity College, Oxford University, Rabbi Leder received a Master’s Degree in Hebrew Letters and Rabbinical Ordination from Hebrew Union College. He is a regular contributor and guest on “The Today Show” and writes often for TIME, Foxnews.com, and Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper. His published essays have appeared in Town and Country, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, where his Torah commentaries were read weekly by over 50,000 people.

The New York Times called Rabbi Leder’s first book, “The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Things,” “uplifting.” His second book, “More Money Than God: Living a Rich Life Without Losing Your Soul,” received high honors as did his third book “More Beautiful Than Before; How Suffering Transforms Us,” which reached #4 on Amazon’s overall best sellers list in its first week. Newsweek Magazine has twice named Rabbi Leder one of the ten most influential rabbis in America.

Learn more about Lisa Bloch’s conversation with Rabbi Steve Leder in the second part of this series next week.

The post Rabbi Steve Leder on His New Bestseller–A Courier Conversation appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

Richard Starkey, a lad from Liverpool, was born on July 7, 1940 in his parent’s home in Dingle, on Madryn Street. Four years later, his father, a bakery worker, left, abandoning Richard and his mum, Elsie. Life was further challenged when Richard was diagnosed with several illnesses due to complications from an appendectomy and tuberculosis resulting in extended convalescent stays in children’s hospitals. This is where he first realized he loved drums. The staff would come around the hospital with a variety of instruments for the children. Richard would not participate unless they gave him a drum. About the same time, his mother remarried Harry Graves, who encouraged Richard’s interest in music.

A few years later, Richard was introduced to skiffle music, music played with substituted household objects, and was invited to join a band called the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group.  At age 17, he received his first real drum kit for Christmas, a right-handed player kit, even though he was left-handed.

Rory Storm and the Hurricanes was his next band. Against his parent’s wishes, he forfeited college, at Riverdale Technical College, when the band was offered a three-month gig at the Butlins holiday camp in Wales. In Liverpool, his friends called him “Rings” because he wore a lot of rings on his fingers. He took a liking to the name and started answering to Ringo Starkey. Eventually he felt the name did not fit quite right. He dropped the “key,” added an “r” and Ringo Starr was born.

While playing with Rory Storm’s band in Hamburg, Germany in 1962, he received a call from Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager. Brian wanted to know if Ringo could fill in for their drummer, Pete Best, the next night. Ringo was booked, but offered the following Saturday. On stage that night, the instant the band began to make their sounds, Paul looked at John and at George about the drummer playing behind them.

They nodded to each other; they knew “he’s there,” confirming Ringo’s position as the Beatles drummer going forward.

In February of 1964, during the Beatles first trip to America, 73 million viewers watched them on the Ed Sullivan Show, a moment in time that changed the music world forever. But the fanfare did not affect these four small town Liverpool boys as they shared two hotel rooms for the entire American trip. “I love Ringo” lapel pins were the best-selling Beatles merchandise. And the Ludwig drum company quickly boosted sales to 13 million after Ringo displayed the American company’s logo on his bass drum during the Ed Sullivan performance. Today, Ringo’s gifted gold-plated Ludwig Super-Sensitive snare drum is exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In 1971 after the Beatles broke up, Ringo began his unprecedented run as the first solo Beatle to score seven consecutive top 10 singles including: “It Don’t Come Easy,” “Back Off Boogaloo,” “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen (You’re Beautiful and You’re Mine).”

In addition to being one of the world’s brightest musical luminaries as a singer, songwriter, drummer, collaborator and producer, releasing 18 solo studio albums to date, he is also a talented actor, author, photographer and painter. He is proud of his many awards and honors including: an Academy Award, an OBE Officer of the Order of the British Empire award, a Daytime Emmy nomination, as well as a BAFTA nomination and a star on the Walk of Fame. He has won nine Grammy Awards and has had 27 Grammy nominations. Most of his album titles reflect his life philosophy such as: “Choose Love,” “Give More Love,” and “Stop and Smell The Roses.” In June of 2013, the Grammy museum opened “Ringo: Peace & Love,” a record-breaking attraction and the first major exhibit to focus on a drummer. In September of that year, Ringo was awarded the prestigious French Medal of Honor, being appointed Commander of Arts and Letters in recognition of his musical and artistic contributions. Among his vast acting roles, he is probably most pleased to have starred in 1981 in “Caveman” with the beautiful actress Barbara Bach, with whom he fell in love and married.

Ringo is the father of three children, Zak, Jason and Lee Starkey, from his first marriage to Maureen Cox, and the stepfather of Barbara’s children, Francesca and Gianni. Add grandfather and great-grandfather to the portrait of his growing family and it’s easy to see why Ringo is very proud.

He’s often asked, “Where were you the day John was murdered?” “In the Bahamas on holiday,” he shares. Ringo was stunned and devasted as everyone was around the world. He immediately flew to New York to see what he could do. But, of course, there was nothing.

Ringo has shared that the Beatles once were offered 50 million dollars for one 25-minute reunion gig. Sadly, it never happened.

When asked what would he have been, if he didn’t make it as a drummer? He answers, “A drummer.” He knew at 18 “this is going to be my life.” Known for his distinctive drumming sequences as they are near impossible to duplicate, he attributes it to his emotional style. His drum fills are also remarkable. Most often one can listen to a Ringo drum part without the music and still identify the song.

Behind his recognizable shades are Ringo’s penetrating blue eyes. He exercises regularly, calls himself a vegetarian and enjoys taking walks in the neighborhood. A student of Jainism, an ancient religion from India, he meditates daily and believes “that the way to enlightenment is through absolute focus on peace and love and non-violence towards all living things.”

On a personal note, before the pandemic, from our Courier offices we often watched the droves of people and happy awe-struck school children drawn to Ringo’s hand sculpture in Beverly Gardens Park. Their magnanimous reactions were always a sight to behold.

We happily celebrate Ringo’s one-year anniversary of his artwork, a gift to our City, and applaud his keen awareness of a hand gesture, adopted in 1969, that universally conveys the importance of his healing message. It’s timeless and essential in our world today.

Following his “Knighthood” investiture, on the grounds of Buckingham Palace, Ringo shared with the British news services, “It’s an honor actually. It means it’s a recognition of what I’ve done in music and in life.” When the interviewer brought attention to the embossed insignia on the box encasing the highest-ranking Order of the British Empire award, “Sir Richard Starkey, Beverly Hills, California,” Ringo shrugged, “That’s where I live!”

Those who know Ringo well share that beyond his extraordinary talent, he is easy going, quick witted, passionate, straight forward, funny, and generous. Most importantly, he follows his heart in everything he does.

We are very fortunate that between his philanthropy work, his time spent painting, his authoring another book due out this Christmas, and his days creating new music in the studio, he was able to carve out the time for this rare conversation.

John Lennon got it right when he wrote the song in your honor. Ringo, you are “The Greatest.”

As an iconic musician of the 20th and 21st centuries, you can live anywhere on the planet. We are honored that you have chosen Beverly Hills as your primary home and your community for the past 28 years. What is it about Beverly Hills that you like, that you “love,” and that you connect with?

I love California – and I always have. From my first visit here – I just loved Los Angeles and California. The warmth, the sun, the light and the attitude, it is so great, this casual laid back and easy-going lifestyle.   

The world renown rock ‘n’ roll photographer Henry Diltz shares “our two biggest senses are hearing and seeing. Music and photography go together.” He believes you are “a really good photographer with a unique eye.”  Within your photography portfolio, there seems to be a fascination with objects, animals, people, flowers, moments in time, and peace and love signs. You once said “I love to laugh. And my art keeps me entertained.” As the co-writer of “Photograph,” a song about the power of the image, please tell us about your love for taking pictures?  And can you explain and cite an example or two?

I have had a camera since the sixties and I love taking photographs. I take images of anything that attracts me – I’ve got a whole series of just empty plates, and the funny and interesting patterns after a meal that can be randomly left behind.

As a beacon of philanthropy, you, along with your wife Barbara, have founded the Lotus Foundation. All proceeds of your art work are donated to: substance abuse, cerebral palsy, brain tumors, cancer, battered women and their children, homelessness, and animals in need. It’s an incredible act of generosity and compassion. 

Barbara and I founded the Lotus Foundation so we could give back and support as broad a range of causes and charities as possible. All my proceeds from my art work and my books go to support the Lotus Foundation.

Is there one story you can share about how you have been inspired to help the world in this gracious way?

Yes, I remember seeing something from WaterAid, and how many people do not have access to clean water. Something so basic that everyone needs to survive.

If nothing else, every single person on this planet should have clean water to drink. I’ve been supporting WaterAid since.

It is known that you are predominantly left-handed, and yet you always play on a right-handed drum kit. Obviously, it hasn’t impacted your “perfect beat.” Are there any drawbacks such as the challenges of a roll? And why haven’t you rearranged your kits to make it easier for you?

I learned on a right-handed kit but lead with my left hand. I wouldn’t rearrange the kit or do it any other way. That’s how I learned and it’s just the way I play.  The fact that I am left-handed makes it weird because I can’t roll the way most do from a snare to a tom tom. I have to come at it backwards. And I could never work a fill out—it comes with the emotion of a song. That’s also part of my style—I am an emotional player and I always follow the emotion of a song.

From afar we see a deep loving connection between you and your beautiful wife, Barbara Bach Starkey, your life’s partner of 39 years. Might you share something special about the love of your life?

I fell in love with her the first time I saw her at LAX, her boyfriend was putting her on the plane when we were on our way to film ‘Caveman’ in Mexico. It took two months, she tortured me for two months, but we did get together and we are still together today. I don’t know any secrets—all I can tell you is that I love Barbara and I am blessed she loves me.

You started Ringo Starr And His All Starr Band more than three decades ago. With a medley of talented musicians moving through the band, including a performance with Paul McCartney as well as his appearances on your solo albums, the All Starr Band is still going strong today. How did the idea for this band come to you? And how do you go about making your choices as you change up the musicians?

I began the All Starrs in 1989 when my lawyer got a call asking me to put a band together. It was my first tour and my time playing sober. I was really nervous but just opened up my phone book and started calling all my friends—and everyone said yes!!! There were 11 of us on that stage including 3 drummers!!! I’ve been putting All Starr bands together ever since and last year we celebrated our 30th year playing at the Greek nearly 30 years to the day that I had the first band there.  How far out.

Paul has never played in the All Starrs—the only time he joined us was to surprise me for my 70th birthday at Radio City Music Hall. That was a great time.

What music do you listen to in your home? For uplifting, energizing moments? For calming moments? For some damn good music moments?

I listen to everything and like to put my music setting on random. I feel blessed I love all music—ok, nearly all music—from country to classical.

Today any person with a sound mixer can make a recording that would have cost thousands of dollars to produce in a studio in the past. Has technology taken over too much of the music making process? Or has this development provided new pathways for creativity? What are your thoughts?

Technology has been great for me because now I can record at home. I have a studio right in the house and I’ve been making music all through this pandemic. You used to have to go the recording studio. Now I can just go to another room and then pop back and have a tea break with Barbara.

You give credit to John Lennon for starting the Beatles down the path of “peace and love,” and yet you have made it incredibly relevant today. What inspired you to push this message? What drove you to want to connect the world years later with these words?

The Beatles always promoted peace and love and I’ve been doing it ever since.

The holidays are supposed to be happy times shared with family and friends filled with love, good cheer and peace. But with COVID, we are challenged by the simplest forms of connecting, communicating and sharing happiness.  You’ve said in the press that you are staying close to home. How are you and your loved ones navigating through these difficult times?

It’s a global pandemic and we are getting through it like everyone else. Thank God for the internet so we can stay in touch with our friends and family who we cannot go see. I send peace and love to everyone having a hard time or feeling lonely. It is a tough time, but we all have to get through this together. Stay home, stay safe and wear a mask.

A few weeks before your birthday in 2008, a journalist asked you what you wanted as a gift. What did you say?

In 2008, I was asked what I wanted for my birthday. The idea just came to me—that at noon your local time on July 7, my birthday – where ever you are, if you want to, say, think or post “Peace and Love.” I decided to invite fans to join me on the streets of Chicago in front of the Hard Rock, and we have been doing it ever since.

This birthday gift became a tradition. But this year, your 80th , it was a virtual star-studded celebration.  The stream raised money for a number of organizations including the Black Lives Matter Global Network for the fight to “end all this racial violence,” as well as the David Lynch Foundation, MusiCares and WaterAid. During the event, you said, “Black Lives Matter. Stand up and make your voices heard.” As an ambassador of peace and love, please share with us your hope going forward?

We had big plans for this year, my 80th, but as you know, everything changed with the pandemic.  We didn’t want it to pass without doing something. Putting together “Ringo’s Big Birthday Show” seemed like the best way to not only have a bit of a party but also to raise some money and do some good too. Barbara and I also went down to the Beverly Hills Park on July 7 and at noon we stood in front of my Peace sculpture to say “Peace and Love.” (wearing our masks of course!)

You were a unifying healer through your music and artistry during the civil unrest in our country more than 50 years ago. This was never more evident than when the Beatles, during their famous 1964 tour, refused to play before a segregated audience in Jacksonville, Fla. We are now living through it again. Is history repeating itself?

Have we learned from our mistakes? What are your observations? What can we do differently to make us better as a society?

All each of us can do is stand up for what we think is right and treat people with peace and love and lead by example. I’ve never understood treating people differently because of the color of their skin. The Beatles didn’t stand for it then and I still don’t.

What is your hopeful message to our youth and all generations about the future?

PEACE AND LOVE

Ringo, it’s an honor and a unique pleasure, to have had this experience, to hear your unifying thoughts during these challenging times and to gain insight through your historical, artistic lens. From one Beverly Hills resident to another, thank you for leaning in, for caring about our community, for sharing your “style” and your commitment to humanity, and most importantly for giving your “words of wisdom.”

With admiration and appreciation,

LISA T. F. BLOCH

The post FEATURE INTERVIEW – RINGO STARR – A Rare Conversation appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

From Compton to Couture. From learning in sweat shops to presenting on the biggest Fashion Week runways around the world, Johana Hernandez is a Latinx millennial sensation. Creator and owner of GLAUDI, known for her wedding gown, special occasion, red carpet haute couture designs, Ms. Hernandez, is launching her first men’s collection. Due to the pandemic, instead of launching her collection in late September at the Ritz during Paris Fashion Week as she usually does for 2020, Johana has pivoted. As a new member of our business community, she has brought Paris to Beverly Hills by premiering, in this Beverly Hills Courier world exclusive, her “first men’s and women’s bespoke suits” campaign.

Johana Hernandez’s meteoric rise began at her parents’ knees. The two El Salvadorian immigrants shepherded their daughter to their jobs in the factories producing garments for global brands, including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. As a young girl, with familial generations of humble garment makers before her, Johana learned clothing construction and manufacturing processes. In her early teens, she began designing as a hobby with her mother. Attending FIDM, she was plucked by Bebina Jeans and quickly became a head designer. At 19, she was featured in the Wall Street Journal for her designs, which included casual sportswear. Leaping to international brands, she landed at Seven7 Jeans for several years as a knits and jeans designer as well as a designer for plus size retailer Lane Bryant.

In 2011, at age 24, without financial backing, she founded the family business “GLAUDI,” named after her mother Gladis. Driven by her early childhood experiences, and her devout Christian faith, Johana built a company where she implemented a culture for her employees to be compensated fairly and treated with respect. She also insisted her company be guided with the purpose to help others. It’s no wonder the moment California was mandated to shut down earlier this year, Johana turned her factory of design into making masks. Thousands of GLAUDI masks were donated to hospitals for frontline workers, the LAPD, and security officers and their medical teams at L.A. County prisons.

GLAUDI’s flagship stores are in Beverly Hills and Downey, with additional ateliers in Downey, Chicago and Istanbul, Turkey.

Johana also addresses the needs of the underserved from Compton to El Salvador, having funded the construction and supplies for a school in El Salvador. Her thinking, “If your goal is to just become rich and famous, it’s super empty. But if your goal is to give work to people, to build schools, to give back to the community, that’s leaving a legacy. And that’s my dream for our brand.”

After fifteen years of hard work, vision and innovation, Johana shines as a confident, energetic, phenomenally creative young woman who credits her faith for her success. As a hopeless romantic, she oozes positivity and passion in everything she does. She goes as far as blessing each dress, if her clients welcome her to do so, and she signs each GLAUDI wedding dress sketch with “What God has joined together, let no one separate.” Mark 10:9.

Mentored by Nichole Richie and John Varvatos, she was featured on NBC’s “Fashion Star.” In 2013 she was nominated to be part of People Magazine Espanol’s one of the 25 most powerful Latinas. In Latina Magazines’ 30 Favorite stars under 30, she joined Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. As a judge on “The Fashion Hero” airing worldwide and on Amazon Prime, Johana searched for everyday models of all shapes and sizes to become GLAUDI ambassadors, focusing on taking the rejected to be respected.

Besides adorning some of the world’s most beautiful women, a multitude of Latina superstars, and international celebrities, she has been featured on CNN, Fox News, Spectrum 1, ABC 7, Telemundo, Univision and in the New York Times, Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, and Harper’s Bazaar. On Sept. 19, the host of the Creative Arts Emmy’s, Nicole Byer, Netflix’s series host of “Nailed it,” chose to wear Johana’s creation to present the awards on the international telecast.

Johana’s goal is to inspire, “I came a long way from Compton to Beverly Hills. If I can do it, you can do it, too!”

September is Hispanic Heritage month, and we are living in unprecedented times. Let’s refresh the conversation. Please join us as we celebrate a young, accomplished fashion designer in our community, who, with an uplifting voice, helps us celebrate the happiest moments in our lives.

Lisa Bloch: Our world is filled with uncertainties. Is this the right time for wedding celebrations? How has your business been affected?

Johana Hernandez: It’s true about our world, but ‘love is not cancelled.’ It never is. Weddings are being done. They’re just smaller. Or they’re doing virtual ceremonies and the bride wants, more than ever, to look beautiful on her special day. Or they’re planning small, out of town weddings and we make dresses that fit the location. They’re still booking me because it takes about six months to a year for custom dresses, and three to six months for our collection dresses. I just don’t know how we’re going to handle next year when I have so many weddings all at the same time.

Why did you choose to open your boutique in Beverly Hills?

It’s the capital of fashion. I’m the youngest designer business owner in Beverly Hills of Salvadorian descent. I’m the first Salvadorian-American to do Fashion Week, six seasons already, at the Ritz in Paris. I like to do things that are different and to bring something new for everyone to love.

Known for your exquisite bridal collections, why have you decided to design a men’s collection?

I’ve always wanted to launch a men’s line, but it was never the right time. My dad died two months ago. His short name was “Rey.” In Spanish it means king. I want to respect and honor men like my father. So, I felt it was the perfect time after losing him and feeling how important men are in our lives. As women, we need to love them. As a female designer, I can help to empower men, as I appreciate them and honor them. It’s time to get back to business. I want to empower men through the men’s suits, the same way I do women with women’s suits and gowns.

Please tell us about your power suits.

GLAUDI’s suits are custom and comfortable. They are made to fit every shape and size. All of us have different shapes. Fit is so important. I embrace all body types. For guys too. Men come in every shape and size. Every suit is made to measure.

You know when you are wearing a suit that doesn’t feel right. At GLAUDI we believe that if you are not comfortable, you won’t be able to achieve what you’re trying to do through presentations or to enjoy your event. Choosing the right fabric and making it fit right is the only way to go. I have stretch in some of my fabrics. They are soft and fresh and breathable, so you don’t feel hot in them. They fit correctly so that when you sit down, nothing is bulging. It makes you feel good about your body. It makes you feel confident and bold so you can focus on what is at hand.

Women can be strong and successful, and at the same time, beautiful and feminine in a GLAUDI suit. A man is strong and successful and gentle in a GLAUDI suit. It all shows in how the suit fits. That is why we spend time customizing each suit for each client. We have tons of patterns, but my goal is to make suits that are comfortable to wear, are flattering, and reflect a bold, confident person. I know so many amazingly successful men who have businesses, or who are getting married, and they want something from me. But for a girl to make a man’s suit is not normal. Usually men design for men. It’s beautiful to be able to respect men and give them what they want.

For women’s suits, I definitely add more tailoring to shape women better, instead of looking boxy. My pants are higher waisted to bring attention to the right places and to be more complimentary. I’ve created special shoulder pads that are not too high, but give you a strong structure, yet don’t make you look tired with bad posture. These are the little details that make a difference.

What is special about the GLAUDI bridal dresses?

Everything is special for our GLAUDI brides as our dresses take thousands of hours to create. All are handmade. I sketch and design in front of the brides who choose to do custom gowns and the brides who shop from our collection, they get to have a personal bridal stylist. All designs are made to fit each bride perfectly.

At GLAUDI brides never settle for a dress. I make their entire fairy tale wedding come to life as we also have dresses for bridesmaids and mother of the bride. When it’s complete, it brings joy to all of us. And now that COVID is here, I know a lot of brides are having smaller weddings. We are launching our bride tuxedo suit in white with this campaign. Bridal suits are so polished and elegant for women.

You would schedule an appointment online or over the phone with our stylist or with me. In our first meeting, I sketch in front of my clients, so they see everything coming to life. They get a dress that is made for them. We do tricks with corsets and bras inside of the dresses to help women look their very best on her wedding day. Most girls cry when we photograph them in the dress for the first time as they can’t believe they look so beautiful.

And your GLAUDI Men’s “Rey” collection?

With our new men’s tuxedo suits to complement the bride, we are doing some new things. When men get married in their tuxedo, they want to dance and have fun. It’s a real celebration. So, I think about the fabrics I use to make them feel comfortable to be able to move. I add stretch to their suit. This is super exciting because no one has done this. It still looks structured and beautiful, but they can easily move. We are also making for grooms the ability to tell their love story with printed photos in the lining of their blazer. It’s really fun.

Please tell us about your red-carpet collection, as well as the fabrics you choose.

This is the collection I always show at Paris Fashion Week. It is designed for women who are bold and not afraid to shine. When she walks into a room, she doesn’t have to say a word. Her dress speaks for itself. This is the girl who is noticed on the red carpet. It is worn by the woman with confidence.

We use the best fabrications from all over the world, Italian laces, silks from Paris and Italy, and made in our atelier in Istanbul.

I noticed in one of your big fashion shows you employed a young, energetic model with Down syndrome. Can you tell us about her and your decision to include her in the show?

It was New York fashion week this past February 2020. When she came out on the runway, everyone was cheering. It was really special. I added her to the collection because I feel every girl could feel beautiful no matter what. She is now modeling all over the world. I think there’s a lot of girls that need to see that there are girls like them achieving their dreams. It’s empowering. I feel like we are all made to be equal and to just be uniting, loving and kind. Anyone can achieve anything.

Did you dream about one day designing a luxury brand?

I always wanted to design clothes that would help people. We give work to a lot of people because we make all of our garments by hand. We don’t mass produce. So, when you get a suit or a dress, it’s all hand made. You’re giving work to people that are here in the U.S. mainly, or in other countries, people who are humble. We are helping families through fashion.

Your faith is very important to you. You do regular Bible studies in your store. During COVID, are you doing them virtually? Tell us about “God is Fab.”

It’s my Instagram handle. I created it to mentor girls and inspire women to get their confidence back through faith. I love to empower women to help them find purpose and God given talent no matter what religion we are from.

Who’s your mentor?

Hmmm, my parents and God, to be honest.

What’s your biggest challenge?

I’m usually the only Hispanic in the room as a luxury fashion business owner and designer. Being a Latina designer, I put in triple the work. Unfortunately, there are still people that feel Latinos aren’t made for this, when my family has been in fashion for generations. Sometimes I don’t get opportunities because of my skin color, because I’m Latina. Now I have decided to let my work speak for itself.

When I was younger, I didn’t notice it was weird. Until my assistant, one time, said something to me. She was like, did you see that everyone looked at us? We were like the only Hispanics. She made me open my eyes. Sometimes I literally feel like I’m Rosa Parks and that feeling inspires me more to succeed, to bring everyone together through fashion.

And in Beverly Hills, since you have arrived, how has it been?

My neighbors have been really great to me. And we’ve been helping each other out during COVID. I feel like Beverly Hills, once you get in and people get to know you, it’s like a little family and they want to help. There are some (neighbors) who have been around for many, many years. They’ve been super welcoming. We talk about lots of things. As a millennial, I have strengths in places where I didn’t even know. Like they need help on social media which I’m happy to help them. It’s what I love about being here. There’s a community, especially with the business owners. The Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce has so many services to help us. And that’s really great to have because you feel you’re a part of something.

I imagine you may be feeling conflicted. As you just shared, you have experienced inequalities and injustices in your lifetime, and understand the Black Lives Matter message. And yet you’re also a business owner, who has worked hard to open a boutique in Beverly Hills, only to be thrust into a position of having to protect your valued business. Are you caught between two worlds?

I grew up in Compton. My friends were super diverse, like me. We’ve always mattered to me. Originally, I thought it was a bad thing being born and raised in Compton, but now I’m grateful for it as I am making a difference. We were very conservative Christians. We had nothing to do with gang violence or crime. As I grew older, I’ve come to embrace that part of my story. People need to know that it doesn’t matter where you come from, we should treat one another with love and respect.

Now I am really glad I can share my story. It’s not about where I came from or the color of my skin. We’re here to make everyone who wants to feel empowered and beautiful, to feel and look that way. And I’m just excited that it’s a place where you get to meet people from all over the world.

International travel has been curtailed. How has this changed your business model?
I don’t target tourists. I don’t target celebrities. They find me. My brand has a look. If the client is local, they visit us in the store. I love to have good relationships with my clientele. If the client is from out of town, we work through emails and through zoom.

What was the reaction from the Latino world when you opened in Beverly Hills?
Oh my Gosh. Everyone was super proud and excited. We were in all of the Latino media. Like it went viral. Even the president from El Salvador sent a message on social media about it. It’s very inspiring. I love being that designer who makes you feel like, why not?

What inspires you?

I’ve traveled around the world, designing. And in every country, in every language, I meet the same girl. Like me, a woman who’s confident and who wants to achieve goals. Even the guys. Like they all want to fall in love. They all want to achieve their dreams. They just speak different languages. GLAUDI is for everyone. Don’t look at me just as a Latina designer. I am a designer. Don’t see color. See the beautiful collections and wear them and feel confident. I want to unite everyone. You know what I mean?

I sure do. Where do you see yourself in five years with GLAUDI? What do you hope to have accomplished being a part of the Beverly Hills community?
I want to continue here in Beverly Hills, of course. I want to present my designs internationally. I’m already showing in Paris and I’m going to Italy, to Milan. Across the United States, I really want everyone to get a little piece of what we do. I want it to always be about empowering people and taking them to the moon to celebrate the most special events. We design for the happiest moments in your life. That’s the time where you come for a dress or a design. I want to be able to help you celebrate, and not let it be about this year’s color. It’s about feeling good. It’s about you.

Johana Hernandez, this has been an honor and a pleasure. You are one extraordinary young woman, a role model and an inspiration. As the wedding and red carpet emperadora (empress), Beverly Hills is lucky you have chosen our City to be GLAUDI’s home. Congratulations for being the Beverly Hills Courier STYLE’s first Fashion icon! And welcome to our community!

With respect and appreciation,

Lisa Bloch

www.glaudicollection.com

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8-lxxfZkjw[/embedyt]

Instagram @GLAUDIbyJohanaHernandez

9608 Brighton Way
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

The post A Fashion Phenom in Beverly Hills appeared first on Beverly Hills Courier.

On Friday, May 29, at an undisclosed secure location, the Beverly Hills Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was dark and empty. Computers were dormant, except for those operating remotely, due to the COVID-19 crisis. The next morning, Saturday, large crowds of people took to the streets to protest police brutality following the death of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers. As the protestors moved to midtown Los Angeles, representatives from each department in Beverly Hills mobilized. City personnel from every government 

department knew that morning that they were to report to the EOC. The field commander in the Mobile Command Center was in position. By late morning, the EOC was manned and ready. As news of police cars burning and looting spread, the EOC learned that Rodeo Drive may be targeted. By Monday, the National Guard was deployed and on the ground in the City. Seven days later, the Guard was gone. 

Inside, City and law enforcement officials wear different colored vests to quickly identify their respective roles within the 

EOC. No time can be wasted. Surveillance from the City’s approximately 1600 cameras is broadcast in real time on countless computers and 12 television screens amidst the bustling of the City employees. Usually, the EOC is activated just a few times a year for large-scale, high-profile events such as the Golden Globes, the Vanity Fair party, the Los Angeles Marathon and Presidential visits. Otherwise, during an ordinary week, the designated emergency space is vacant. Last week was anything but ordinary. 

The assigned seating is organized into five groups: the management division, comprised of public information, safety, legal and management liaisons; operations, including representatives from Public Works, Police and Fire Departments, Community Services and Community Development; planning and intelligence, overseeing the overall plan of procedure and maps; logistics, comprised of departments that coordinate supplies, personnel, information technology and transportation; and finance, responsible for how the operation will be funded. Structurally, the EOC centralizes the various departments to streamline the flow of information and communication during times when each second matters. 

A whiteboard states that, among many other goals, the EOC’s mission is to provide safety for the people of the City, reduce property loss, protect the environment, allocate emergency response resources and be a hub for the City’s emergency operations. 

Following the horrific death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, hundreds of thousands of citizens mobilized across the country taking to the streets to protest police brutality. Beverly Hills was no exception. 

The City Council held an emergency closed door meeting the morning of May 30 after seeing large crowds of protesters making their way to Beverly Hills from neighboring West Hollywood. The City Council and City Manager, George Chavez, directed the Beverly Hills Police Department to use all their resources to protect every square foot of City. Interim Chief of Police Dominick Rivetti disseminated the orders to his department within minutes. 

The BHPD has cultivated close relationships with the Los Angeles Police and Fire Departments, and the Santa Monica, UCLA and Culver City Police Departments, which sometimes come together to form a larger public safety entity. During the afternoon, BHPD officers embedded with LAPD and LAFD relayed real time information back to the EOC. The City’s cameras broadcasted eerily quiet surveillance footage to the televisions inside the EOC. 

Soon, reports coming in from east of the City required immediate attention. Swaths of protesters, a larger group than expected, were marching down Beverly Boulevard from the Fairfax district towards Beverly Hills. Even with a robust plan outlining how to proceed in an emergency, the unusual nature of these protests required more resources than what the BHPD had in place. “The minute we could see the crowds, we got the cameras connected to that part of the City,” Rivetti told the Courier. “And so, we knew what we were dealing with the minute they hit Burton Way, but we also had the intelligence from our other law enforcement partners.” 

Before long, a crowd of 2,500 demonstrators entered the City. “We were fully staffed and fully in the field,” said Rivetti. The protestors led a civil sit-in on Rodeo Drive, completely within their rights. Others began to tag City Hall, the police station and various other buildings and businesses. 

Coordinating with officers from the mobile command center – a motorhome outfitted to duplicate a dispatch center staffed with a Captain, Lieutenant and officers – Rivetti made a decision. Drawing on best practices and lessons learned from law enforcement agencies around the country, the Chief weighed whether the benefit of extracting sole vandalizers against the cost of more violence, rioting and potential loss of life. As chief, the decision was his to make. “We’re not going to move into a crowd of 2,500 people to make an arrest for nothing more than graffiti,” he told the Courier. “It was a strategic decision.” With 135 BHPD officers in the paramilitary structure, the police were outnumbered by nearly 20-1. 

While blocking traffic is an ordinance violation, the BHPD took the posture of remaining out of sight, but in the area, deploying officers on motorcycles and bicycles to control traffic. “The way that we could stop 2,500 people from coming into this city on that particular day would be to violate 2,500 people’s constitutional rights,” Rivetti said. Assistant Chief Marc Coopwood added, “Absent there being a life that was about to get lost or somebody was going to get seriously hurt.” 

Another group of protestors was approaching. “We knew right away through different intelligence sources that a criminal element was intertwined” among the protesters of the second group of over 1,000 protestors, Rivetti told the Courier. Soon, civil unrest permeated the streets, blocking traffic on Santa Monica Boulevard. 

The City’s resources were strained to capacity and additional resources were required. Manpower and vehicle requests were subsequently initiated through the Los Angeles County Emergency Operations Bureau. People committing unlawful acts had woven themselves into the crowd of lawful protesters. Shortly afterwards, between 40 and 50 deputies were in Beverly Hills assisting the police department through the evening. “A lot of the resources that we deployed, like police officers and safety personnel, were driving in plain cars because we didn’t have many more police vehicles,” Rivetti told the Courier. 

When describing the need for mutual aid, Rivetti equated the scenario to that of a blazing wildfire. If the fire department arrives on the scene to find the fire is out of control, and beyond their capabilities, the firefighters call in for support from partnering departments. When the police department is met with a situation that surpasses their capabilities, they too call for assistance from the surrounding area. 

By late afternoon, the first crowd of roughly 2,500 mostly law-abiding protesters had moved on, and a second group entered the City with embedded violators and looters dominating the protestors’ impassioned message. BHPD officers blocked off Rodeo Drive to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic to prevent further property damage and theft. Still, members in the crowd got through the barricades, looting boutiques on Rodeo Drive and neighboring business blocks, defacing City infrastructure and damaging businesses. 

As the sun began to set, the streets filled with what felt like anarchy. During this time, in the EOC, the City’s security cameras were showing – in real time – rocks, bottles, metal locks and pipe wrenches being thrown at police officers in the field. Rivetti responded to these assaults by calling for dispersal orders. Within moments, the helicopters circling above declared to the rioters to disperse and the City was instituting 

a curfew. When the crowd below disregarded the announcement, they were considered to be unlawfully assembled. The BHPD deployed tear gas to force the dispersal of the stragglers. 

BHPD quickly pivoted to confront the people burglarizing. “We had arrest teams preplanned and deployed them as soon as it was safe enough to do that,” Rivetti told the Courier. “We made a lot of arrests that night. We recovered a lot of merchandise, and we recovered a lot of evidence,” said Coopwood. “Once this all settles down, we’re going to make more arrests based on what happened two Saturdays ago, and we have this all on camera. We’re going to create a small task force to go after these people who victimized our community and we are going to bring them to justice,” added Coopwood. 

Sixty-eight persons from the local area and out of state were arrested. Approximately 100 businesses were vandalized. 

By Sunday morning on May 31, 100 members of the National Guard were on the ground in Beverly Hills assisting local law enforcement. “We have a very balanced approach, protecting not only the business community, but the residential community,” Rivetti told the Courier. “When we had the National Guard here, they were very visible in the business community. That freed up all of the Beverly Hills police officers to protect the rest of the City.” The BHPD enlisted non-law enforcement agencies by using their vehicles – having the seal of Beverly Hills and red flashing lights – to aid the police department in patrolling the city and being a “force multiplier.” The police department also called on non-City agencies, including correctional officers based out of Chino, special agents from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation, officers from the Santa Paula police department and military police sent by the United States Air Force to patrol the residences. 

The City’s Public Information Manager, Keith Sterling and his colleagues were lauded by other Los Angeles media outlets for the City’s quick news dissemination. Sterling told the Courier, “As much as we and our neighboring communities prepared, this was an unprecedented event. The amount of people that came into our City was a record. And as much as we prepared, we needed additional resources to be able to manage. And that’s what we did over the night.” 

As the days unfolded with curfews set in Beverly Hills, protests continued. One of the key tactics used in the EOC, with the help of neighboring law enforcement agencies, was the ability to identify and work with organizers of the protests.

The afternoon of June 2, tensions were high on South Santa Monica Boulevard and Rodeo Drive, where the Courier observed an impasse between the Beverly Hills Police and a throng of protestors. The crowd chanted “Take a knee” as they faced a phalanx of officers. Officer Don Chase approached the demonstrators and took a knee as a show of unity. He spoke with and listened respectfully to the protestors, who moved in close to him, attentively. After a few minutes of heartfelt discussion, the crowd began shouting the officer’s name approvingly. And, they dispersed peacefully before the 1 p.m. curfew. The Courier captured the moment on video, which was broadcast to millions of viewers on Spectrum News. 

The following day, in the EOC, the Courier had the unique opportunity to speak with Mark Pazin, Chief of Law Enforcement and Homeland Security for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (OES). Pazin happened to be working out of the BHPD EOC that afternoon, overseeing the state’s resources. Namely, the National Guard in our very City. Sharing his philosophy on law enforcement during emergencies, Pazin told the Courier, “Once we leave that door, everybody’s on the same page. One team, one fight. That’s the motto.” Pazin was appointed by former California Governor Jerry Brown in 2014 and then transitioned with Governor Gavin Newsom. 

A record 10,000 protesters marched through the City during the week – after Saturday May 30, all peaceful and calm. Groups of teenage girls were handing out cold bottles of water to demonstrators. Parents walked hand in hand with their children and dogs, using the historic moment to educate the next generation. Front line responders, doctors, fellows and medical students, just off their rounds from local hospitals, in surgical blues, were seen marching, while offering water bottles and first aid. 

On June 9, the day the funeral for George Floyd was held in Houston, Texas, Rivetti told the Courier, “We will continue to watch your homes and respect all person’s constitutional rights keeping the safety of our residents and our business community in mind.” When asked how he can assure the community that they are going to be safe, the Chief responded, “Well, we’re going to do what we’ve always done. That is to give 110 percent of our energy to make Beverly Hills a safe community. We’ve been doing that here for the last hundred years, plus. And we’re going to continue to do that. The City has the police department’s full commitment.” 

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Proud of the history of her namesake, established by her grandfather, Moses, a newspaper salesman who bought the Daily Racing Form and the Philadelphia Inquirer, Wallis, from a young age, watched her father, Walter, take over the family business and grow the company into a media empire. Albeit one of privilege, Wallis’s childhood in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. was not without struggles (her parents divorced when she was 10 years old, and her only sibling, her brother Roger, committed suicide at age 22 while on leave from Harvard University). This may have helped to mold her empathetic approach to life.

In the early 1970’s Wallis, along with her four children, moved to Los Angeles as her physician husband accepted a position at UCLA Medical Center. The marriage ended in divorce in 1975. That is when Wallis moved her children into a 22-room, Wallace Neff home on Ridgedale Drive in Beverly Hills where she raised them through adulthood.

In 1988 Walter Annenberg sold his Triangle Publications to Rupert Murdoch for a reported $3 billion dollars and created the Annenberg Foundation with one-third of the proceeds. Over time and under his leadership, the Foundation created and funded primarily educational institutions such as the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in Los Angeles, as well as providing major gifts to support the arts, presidential libraries, hospitals, orchestras, and museums. Years later, in 2009, as Walter’s only surviving child, and an active, passionate participant, Wallis became Chairman of the Foundation.

Wallis learned the importance of philanthropy from her father, as well as great judgment when it comes to people. Innately she is also a woman of strength, a woman with her own “Style.” So, when she was given the reins, after her father’s and step mother’s passing, Wallis sought not to ride it, but rather to build on it, her way.

As a trailblazer, she has provided accessibility, paths for all to enjoy life in ways never before imagined. By transforming the five-acre, historical Marion Davies beachfront property in Santa Monica, the public can enjoy a private, well cared for, easily accessible beach day at the Annenberg Community Beach House. Wallis created the first universally accessible treehouse in Torrance, which is the national prototype. As a devoted pet owner, Wallis, wanting to enhance the bond between people and their companion pets, created PetSpace which provides accessibility and interactive study, as well as support for adoptable pets. She also spearheaded Proposition 12, the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, in the state’s general election in November of 2018, easily winning the measure.

The recently-opened Wallis House is a project of Aviva, a grantee of Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation. The facillity provides transformative bridge housing for single mothers, their children and their pets. In 2018 the Wallis Annenberg Soccer Stadium for women and men opened at UCLA. And of course, Wallis’s desire to support the arts is seen through the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. In providing the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City, Wallis enables the community to be exposed to art, history and experiences captured through the lens, otherwise not seen. These are just a few of the many changes to our Los Angeles community Wallis directed in her quest to support social injustices, female empowerment, and an overall better quality of life for all.

With the population living longer, Wallis recognized the need for a center in Los Angeles for the aging, “so older Americans can keep learning, growing and giving back,” she says. Of the new Rem Koolhaas-designed community center, the Wallis Annenberg Center for Purposeful Aging, Senior Rabbi Steve Leder of Wilshire Boulevard Temple explains, “It is her genius to locate it in the City’s newest and arguably one of the most important modern masterpieces in Los Angeles. Her intention is to rebrand in people’s minds what it means to grow older in this country.”

Most would agree that all of Wallis’s transformative contributions emanate from her compassion, innovation, and insightfulness. It’s a “Style” all her own. When Wallis’s father passed, the Foundation reported it had given away over $2 billion to educational establishments and art institutions. Today the Foundation has distributed over $5 billion and has made more than 14,000 grants worldwide.

Wallis is smart, decisive, instinctual and knows how to leverage real change. Because of her commitment to build and strengthen our Beverly Hills and Los Angeles communities, and her desire to support “our” community newspaper, she granted us this special time.

There is a plethora of philanthropic causes that you support, many of which help to transform people’s lives. Can you provide insights as to what makes a potential project resonate with you?

Well, for starters, they transform my life too. It’s a tired old cliché, “It’s better to give than to receive.” But these things become clichés because they’re true.

Now, how do I choose projects to support? It starts with a deep connection to the cause. I have to give from my heart, first and foremost. Which is why I’ve been focused on issues like women’s empowerment, engaging people in the visual and performing arts, strengthening the human-animal bond. Things that really matter to me.

Beyond that, I try very hard to not simply throw money at problems, no matter how worthy they are. Even for a foundation as large as Annenberg, that would never make a dent in the problem. Think about an issue as sprawling as girls’ education in the developing world, or animal welfare. No foundation could write a big enough check. You couldn’t squeeze enough zeros on it!

So at Annenberg, we do something different: we invest in innovators. Rule-breakers. People who are creating brand new models for change. That way, their example can be copied, and leveraged, creating change on a scale no philanthropist could ever afford. That’s our approach, and I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to achieve.

As a visionary and an innovator, how has this process evolved over the years?

If I look back at my philanthropy, the greatest evolution may be this: We started out supporting new models for change, as I mentioned. Over time, we’ve learned to create some of those models ourselves. Look at The Wallis, right in the heart of Beverly Hills. By creating a world-class center for the performing arts, we preserved and restored the old Post Office – a real part of Beverly Hills history. We established a new venue for great performances and productions. And we found a way to engage the whole community – to enable them to actually practice the arts. I think, if I may be so bold, that it redefines what an arts center can be. We still support other people’s ideas, in fact we do it every day. But now we’re a little less afraid to come up with them ourselves.

Our community is very thankful that you created the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts as it has greatly impacted our City. Have your goals been met? Can you explain more about the Grow @ The Wallis and Grow @ Annenberg programs?

Some people believe the Declaration of Independence mentions “the pursuit of happiness” precisely because it can’t be achieved because it’s a goal we’ll always be striving for. I feel the same way about our Foundation’s goals. Women’s equality. Economic opportunity. Engagement with the arts. These are journeys, not destinations. I don’t think we’ll ever meet them.

But we’ve done some wonderful things. My son Gregory created Grow @ Annenberg, and I’m incredibly proud of what he’s done. It supports everything from health to education to humanitarian efforts around the world – again, not simply by writing checks, but by supporting new approaches, by helping them to grow. Grow @ The Wallis is, I think, what really distinguishes The Wallis from a typical performance space. The whole community is welcome there – not just as an audience, but as participants, as the stars themselves, if you will. For too many people, the arts are some dusty relic on a shelf, something that’s totally irrelevant to everyday life. So we try to find ways to reach out and grab people. To say, the arts are about you, right here, right now. And it can be the fuel, the inspiration, for anything you want to do in your life. I know it has been in mine.

You spent your childhood in Philadelphia and in Washington D.C.  Is there a moment with your mother that you look back on, remembering fondly, or a lesson you learned from her you want to share?

My mother was a woman who taught by example. So much of the way I live my life comes from her, probably in ways I don’t fully understand. For one thing, she was a private person who also had a public role, and had to balance the two, which she did with incredible dignity and grace and strength. And I took note of that. She showed me how you can live for yourself, and be very clear and strong about that, but also use the platform you have to help others, to get things done. You can have a public side without living as a celebrity, without
turning your life into a reality show. That’s what she did, and that’s what I try to do.

What is the best advice your father ever gave you as a young girl? What would he say to you if he was sitting with you right now and discussing your work with the Foundation?

If he were sitting here now, he’d probably say: make sure you don’t do it the way I did. Do it your own way. And I think that’s right. You have to be who you are, and do your work in the way you’re comfortable doing it. I’m delighted that my children are so engaged with the Foundation too. But they find their own projects, their own ways to give –such as Gregory’s work with Grow @ Annenberg.

We all know the line from Luke, “To whom much is given, much is expected.” My father believed that; he lived it. He raised me to live it too. But there are a million ways to live it.

Other than immediate family members, what person or persons have had the most profound influence on your life?

There are so many I could mention. So I’m going to mention just one. His name is Leonard Aube, and alongside me he ran the Annenberg Foundation for 12 years before his passing in 2015. He helped me give over $2 billion to more than 2,500 nonprofits globally, and made an enormous difference on every issue you could name. He was the Lennon to my McCartney, the Gilbert to my Sullivan, the yin to my yang – the perfect philanthropic partner. But above all, he had a joy, an infectious excitement about helping people that made him totally unique. Just being in a room with him, you felt the world was going to get better, that very day. He was an extraordinary man. With a mischievous sense of humor too. We could use a lot more Leonard Aubes, I’ll tell you that.

What is your favorite restaurant in Beverly Hills? Your favorite clothing designer? Your favorite hotel to stay in, or to dine in Beverly Hills, or in the surrounding areas? Do you have a favorite bakery or confectionery?

Those are hard questions for me to answer – not because I don’t love a good cookie, or a beautiful dress, for that matter. But at this point, I really like to be at home with the people I love, and with my pups. Beverly Hills has the best in just about everything – from Spago, which is still terrific, to Nate ‘n Al’s, which the Azoffs wonderfully saved from oblivion, to Harry Winston’s, where you could probably find a diamond the size of a suitcase. I love it all – but I get the greatest joy from the things you can’t buy. Another cliché, I know, but for another one that just happens to be true.

What books are currently on your night table, or books that you have greatly enjoyed?

I have so many on my night table right now, I think I need another table. But here’s one that I find delightful. It’s a wonderful book of fictional letters by the actor Mary Louise Parker called “Dear Mr. You,” which is about human relationships, really – with family, with friends, with random people on the street. The writing is very evocative and beautiful – and it’s a really insightful book about the people we cherish and the ones we don’t. I also found Susan Orlean’s new bestseller, “The Library Book,” to be surprising and moving and utterly riveting, and also a wonderful piece of local history, about the Central Library fire in 1986. It’s quite a page-turner, which isn’t always the case when you’re writing about a public library!

You have four children and five grandchildren. Can you describe a perfect family day?

We like to be together, above all – to take a nice walk on the beach, to watch some sports, or maybe binge a great TV show. The simple pleasures, really. You won’t find us hang-gliding or free soloing, or anything like that. A nice brunch and a stroll is much more our style.

Where do you go to do your best thinking?

I do my best thinking right by the ocean. Because the ocean reminds me that there’s an eternity out there – and that we’re lucky to play the tiniest part in it. It’s humbling, and grounding, and I think that’s a good state of mind when you’re trying to think.

What is your biggest fear?

To paraphrase FDR, my biggest fear is not conquering my fears.  I see life as a journey toward being completely comfortable with who you are, and what you do. A journey toward oneself, really. And if you can truly be yourself, then what is there to fear?

People may be surprised to learn that you are a sports fan. Which sports and teams are your favorites to watch? Is this experience something you shared with your father?

I’m a very big sports fan, bigger than I care to admit sometimes. The outcome of a good football game can really affect my mood. And I know I’m not alone in that.

The Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren once said that he always turned to the sports page first – because it records people’s accomplishments. Whereas the front page has nothing but man’s failures. I agree with that. Sports is a realm of human exceptionalism. Of people who do the things we wish we could do. Plus it’s just plain exciting to root for your team. Mine happens to be the Rams. It is something that I shared with my father – though I probably care about it more than he did.

Photography, a passion of yours, is described as a moment in time, never to be replaced or redone Is there a moment in
your life you wished was photographed, so you could visit it again and again?

Probably seeing my children for the first time, meeting eyes with them. What’s great about the best photography is that it takes you deep inside the emotion of a moment. It lets you see beneath what is happening. It’s like a window into the soul. I can’t even imagine how my eyes must have sparkled and shone on those honest-to-God birthdays.

It is clear that the bond between humans and their animals is very meaningful to you. We have seen this with PetSpace. Can you share why you are interested in this area, which resonates with so many of us?

The comedian Elayne Boosler had a great quote about this. She said: “If you’re not covered in dog hair, your life is empty.” I totally agree. I mean, how many humans in our lives stay wholly in the moment – no grudges, no guilt, just total acceptance of who we are, and only the purest emotion and instinct to guide them? I’ve been an animal lover all my life, it’s that simple. I think it’s worth the cost of a lint brush, a million times over, to have all that joy and love and comfort. And I want to share it with others too.

Of all the things you have accomplished, and continue to pursue, what are the projects that are most meaningful to you?

So many of them are. The Annenberg Space for Photography. The Wallis. The PetSpace. AltaSea. The work we do to help other non-profits succeed. I could go on and on. But I can wrap a little ribbon around it, in this way. For many years, L.A. had been seen as a second-class city. In the arts, in higher education, in civic spirit, in every way really. And I understand why. Some people have a hard time believing you can find real grit and substance in the town that produced “Beverly Hills 90210.” But the truth is, L.A. is as diverse, as creative, as driven, as dynamic a city as you will find on this earth. I’m proud that so many of my efforts – at USC, at The Wallis, at LACMA, in areas as wide-ranging as marine biology and sustainability and international diplomacy – have helped to improve that image, to show that LA has always been a force to be reckoned with.

As a visionary, what are your philanthropic goals or dreams for the future?

I’ve been so incredibly lucky with my philanthropy, with the things I’ve been able to achieve, with a lot of help of course. It’s enough for three lifetimes, really. So my only goal – and I’d say it’s quite an ambitious one – is to keep it up.

From one Philadelphia born woman to another, who chose home to be here in Los Angeles, similarly drawn in through UCLA, thank you for giving me the honor of this interview.

Your wealth of knowledge, life experience, ingenuity, generosity, and unwavering desire to help humanity is awe-inspiring, and a testament to the extraordinary lady you are. For all of us whose lives you’ve changed for the better, for all of the animals who can’t speak the words, and for all of us who are learning from you how to create positive change… we say thank you.

With admiration and appreciation,

Lisa Bloch

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