He stands beside the pool, looking rather taller than I had imagined and casually dressed in slacks and a sports shirt with a Betty Boop motif. “Hi, there!” he calls in a sharp Brooklyn accent that takes me somewhat by surprise. As I walk to meet him, he extends a white-gloved hand in welcome and gives me a broad, beaming smile. That famous Mickey Mouse smile. He grasps my hand with a firm grip and I can’t help noticing that he wears a Ronald Reagan wrist-watch.
“Come over to the yard, and I’ll fix you a drink,” he smiles and leads the way across a neatly manicured lawn to an Italianate patio behind the imposing pseudo-gothic villa that, mysteriously, has never been listed in The Starland Guide to Hollywood. Motioning me to sit in one of the white cane loungers that are dotted around beneath the palm trees, he goes to the drinks-trolley.
“Too early for a Sorcerer’s Apprentice?” he asks. I have to confess that I’ve never heard of the drink. He gives me a faintly patronizing smile and begins emptying the contents of various bottles into a cocktail-shaker. “They invented it for me at Musso & Frank’s on Hollywood Boulevard, back in 1940,” he explains and pours out a large glass of vivid lilac-coloured liquid and hands it to me.
[…]
