By Jerry Price
Rabbi Levy Cunin of Chabad in Malibu, California, the well-known surfing town, says to Star Singer: “I really wonder why you choose to camp out in your car like a surf bum? And how you actually manage to always look clean and crisp looking like you stepped right out of G.Q. Magazine is a hoot!” Star singer smiles and answers: “I am so very happy living like this! I don’t pay any rent. I save a lotta money living this way. I can go anywhere I want, any time I want, and do whatever I want. I feel free. Somehow, in some way, my heart feels free. It all makes me happy. And I’m writing great songs!” Rabbi Levy laughs and he says: “Look, I have a space that’s empty nobody uses. It’s right over there. you see that building over there where that dry cleaning store is? I own it. Why don’t you move your stuff out of your car and live in that space in the back of my building? you can hang all your dapper suits and beautiful clothes in there and you can even sleep in there instead of your car if you want.”
The Rabbi gave a key to the security gate of the property to Star Singer and Star, whistling while he worked, set up his new living quarters. Star Singer was thinking to himself: Wow! Shelter! God bless Rabbi Cunin! Now, these are the very days when Star Singer was employed by Malibu Chicken Café. Malibu Chicken was situated directly on The Pacific Coast Highway. Star Singer had produced a TV commercial for Malibu Chicken. He walked in to that Malibu surfer’s hang out one day, sang a musical jingle he made up for the owner, Sean Weber, and was given not only a published TV commercial, but, also, he was given an evening job as a driver delivering chicken dinners to Malibuites.
Star Singer found himself delivering chicken dinners to luminaries (movie stars) of Hollywood who lived in Malibu. Barbra Streisand, Ed Harris, Martin Sheen, Martin Landau, Rod and Joan Benidict Steiger, Bruce Willis, Shirley MacLaine, Nick Nolte, Katherine Ross and Sam Elliot, all kinds of thespians.… an astonishing amount of well-known names. And Star Singer was ringing the door bells of these folk delivering chicken dinners to them. Straight out fun! And nearly everybody in Malibu had seen and really liked Star Singer’s Malibu Chicken TV commercial. And they, the stars, would come right out and tell Star Singer that they really liked his Malibu Chicken TV commercial!
Yes, Star Singer was enjoying life. He was living with no rent pressures, he had income from the Malibu Chicken delivery job, and he was popular as can be with the whole Malibu community because of his successful TV commercial. His mug was all over local TV sets and people were complimenting his singing where ever he went. Life was good. Life was very, very good.
But, where Star Singer lived, in the new quarters, in this bivouac Rabbi Cunan had given him, there were no lights. Of course not. There was no electricity. we’re talking a narrow space situated in the back of a building on the Chabad of Malibu property running the length of the building. The hovel was 5 feet wide by . . are you ready? .. 60 feet long. A long tunnel with no lights, nothing. Star Singer had to construct a wooden platform to sleep on. And he figured out how to screw hooks into the wooden rafters to suspend a long plumber’s pipe so he could hang his G.Q. wardrobe to keep his suits and sports jackets nice. He got it all together and he was happy.
One evening, while Star Singer was fast asleep, his cell-phone rang. It was 10 o’clock in the evening. A woman apologized for calling so late and then she asked Star Singer if he would like to have a small part in a Muppets movie. The lady said it’s nothing big but it is a day’s work and it’s a union gig (Screen Actors Guild / SAG). Excited and happy to get the call, Star was fumbling around IN ABSOLUTE PITCH-BLACK DARK trying to find a pen and paper so he could write down the call time and location of the movie shoot. you couldn’t see a darn thing! Total darkness! But, no way was Star gonna flub up this job! He scribbled the time and location of the shoot on a scrap of paper he managed to find… in the dark, and then he set his alarm clock for 5 A.M.
Downtown L.A. – Star Singer arrives at the Disney movie set called, MAD MAN MOONEY and SONS. This is the used car lot made famous in the original Muppets movie. This is the second Muppets movie they made. The wardrobe people gave Star Singer the very same costume comedian Milton Berle originally wore in Muppets One… cowboy outfit, big cowboy hat, the works. This is the real reason for Star getting this job. It so happens, Star Singer was the same size as comedian, Mr. Berle. Thus, the cowboy clothes would fit, etc. Anyway, Star Singer introduces himself to Miss Piggy, Kermit The Frog, and the gang. Star finds it interesting to learn that all the Muppet characters are actually operated by remote control. The Muppet characters are sophisticated puppets operated by puppeteers using mechanical linkages, rods, cables, and remote-control mechanisms. Well, the cameras rolled. The scene was shot, and that Muppets movie, with Star Singer (Robert Sanders) playing the role of Mad Man Mooney, opened in movie houses located all over the world.
New York Screen Actors Guild has Robert Leaman Sanders (aka: Star Singer) as member in good standing.
Theatrical casting company with Marcia Ross and Erin Toner hired Robert Leaman Sanders aka: Star Singer
Jerry Price, starofmalibu@aol.com
Address: Luis Cordero, Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador
