A Winters tale #2

California and the King beckon

In the late autumn, we published the opening salvo is in an epic three-parter, in which our regular contributor ANTONIO PINEDA began the story of David Winters, a figure who inhabited the tangled creative labyrinth of Greenwich Village, Broadway and Hollywood, uptown and downtown, and took rooms on several floors.

Over six decades, the subject of this profile was performer and dancer, choreographer and producer, operating in that high-octane milieu where hip actors and hot hoofers, inspired filmmakers, groundbreaking musicians and radical writers, regularly rubbed shoulders.

We now pick up on the second chapter in Pineda’s mesmerising mile-a-minute account as California calls and Winters heads for the Sunshine State…

A Winters tale in three acts

By Antonio Pineda

PART TWO: Presley & the Monkess, the Sinatras & Ellington and a tragic demise

AFTER THE excitements and acclaim of New York and Broadway, actor, dancer and choreographer David Winters was heading for the West Coast and Hollywood. As he recalled: ‘I was hot after the success of West Side Story. Sal Mineo graciously offered me a crash at his Hollywood pad.’

Winters explains: ‘Sal was already an established film artist. He threw me the keys to his sports car and I unfortunately crashed it on the freeway not long after. I was sorry and contrite. Sal just laughed it off. That’s what kind of great guy he was.’

He waxed eloquent on the rising star. ‘Sal Mineo was terrific in Giant with James Dean. He could play drums so he was a natural for The Gene Krupa Story. Sal and Gene were also the same height. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Exodus. Sal won a Golden Globe for that movie. He was humble and hospitable with me and was always a true friend.’

Pictured above: David Winters

The Big Apple was receding in the rear view mirror as David hit the road to LA, City of  Dreams, leaving behind the Abstract Expressionist painters, the Beat poets, the stars of Broadway theatre. The West Coast Beats were wild in San Francisco and Los Angeles and the film industry was influenced by the stars and directors of the New Hollywood, a resistant force pushing against the lumbering and fading studio system.

David Amram, who originated the jazz spoken word genre noted, ‘Alice Neel, Larry Rivers, Kerouac and I were all featured in the Robert Frank movie Pull my Daisy. Robert later hit the harder stuff and when he filmed the Rolling Stones cult film, Cocksucker Blues. Larry David remarked Pull My Daisy was shot about nothing and was the inspiration for Seinfeld.’

Change was in tow. Abstract Expressionism created painters like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and William de Kooning who drank and socialised in the Village with the Beats and the wider underground. The emergence of Pop Art led by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg would influence the worlds of cinema, poetry and popular music on both Coasts.

David began to teach dance classes in Los Angeles. Ann Margret was one of his first students. David remembers her vividly. ‘She was beautiful and a great dancer. She recommended me for the Elvis Presley film Viva Las Vegas. I choreographed four of Elvis movies in total but Viva Las Vegas was the best. Critics rated it as a breakthrough.’

Winters adds: ‘Elvis was a beautiful cat and was having an affair with Ann during the shoot. We were good pals. I spoke with Elvis about doing a film in future which would require serious acting. Elvis loved the concept, but Colonel Tom Parker and management wouldn’t hear of it.’ In her memoirs, Ann Margret refers to Elvis as her soulmate and stated: ‘We felt there was a need in the industry for a female Elvis Presley.’

Pictured above: Ann Margret and Elvis Presley

Veteran film director George Sydney and Tom Parker exchanged bitter remonstrances because Parker didn’t receive a credit as technical advisor. The director ordered cinematographer Joseph Biroc to shoot Ann Margret from different angles, the use of multiple cameras for each scene, and there were multiple retakes of her song and dance numbers. The shoot went over budget causing Presley’s manager to slash budgets on all future Elvis films in retaliation.

David choreographed the Elvis films Girl Happy, with Boris Sagal, and Tickle Me, directed by Norman Taurog. He also choreographed and collaborated with Ann Margret on the movies Kitten With a Whip, Bus Riley’s Back in Town, Made in Paris and The Swinger.

In 1965, he began to perform on television with his troupe the David Winters Dancers. Hullabaloo, a popular show of the day, featured his original stagings of dances like ‘the Watusi’ and ‘the Freddy’.

Winters returned to London in 1966 to co-produce and choreograph the TV movie Lucy in London. The star Lucille Ball featured with Buster Keaton, the Dave Clark Five, Wilfred Hyde White and the David Winters Dancers.He was reunited with his pal Sal Mineo, the Dave Clark Five and Phil Spector for a TV musical special TJ’s.

David reminisces: ‘I was on the road and loving it. I would have loved to direct the film of that novel by Kerouac. I grew up in that era. I walked the streets, hung out at the same venues, and rubbed shoulders with jazz greats, Broadway stars, Greenwich Village bohemia, and now the pop and rock stars that would provide a soundtrack for that subsequent generation.’

Winters entered the arena as director in 1967, with two episodes of the hit TV show The Monkees. He then returned to work with Elvis Presley in Easy Come Easy Go, directed by John Rich. That year would also provide his biggest triumph to date: the TV movie Movin’ with Nancy. He choreographed and acted with Nancy Sinatra, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Lee Hazelwood. 

David mused: ‘Nancy and I were dear friends. She was ending her marriage to Tommy Sands, a pop idol of his day. Tommy, Elvis, and P.J. Proby played a gig when they were teenagers at a joint in Houston called the Hitching Post. My choreography received an Emmy nomination. This led to the creation of the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography, which I was awarded in1970.’

In 1968, David co-founded the production company Winters/Rosen and did a TV special with Ann Margret. He choreographed and starred with his dance troupe in the highly acclaimed TV special Monte Carlo: Cest La Rose. Princess Grace Kelly explored Monte Carlo for the audience. Francoise Hardy, Gilbert Becaud, Terry Thomas, Prince Ranier and Toni Basil were the attendant celebrities.

Pictured above: Frank and Nancy Sinatra

Raquel Welch was next to receive the Winters magic touch. Raquel,  a CBS special, starred Tom Jones, John Wayne and Bob Hope. It was filmed in exotic locations: London, Paris, Mexico City, Acapulco, Big Sur and Hollywood. On the day of the show ratings received a 51 percent and 58 percent share respectively.

In 1971, he produced and directed Once Upon a Wheel, a documentary about auto racing. Paul Newman starred and narrated. David and Paul were old pals. ‘Paul and I hung out in New York in our salad days. We played baseball on weekends in a Broadway league. I knew Paul was a big fan of motor racing. I approached him about doing the show. We lined up Kirk Douglas, Mario Andretti, Hugh Downs, Dean Martin and Caesar Romero. Paul was off to the races.” 

The Hollywood Reporter reviewed the film very positively: ‘Spectacular...Paul Newman and celebs  performed for David Winters with joie de la cause, abetted by extraordinary editing. A poetic study of man and machines...Incredible effect...Most exciting.’

In 1972, David produced, directed and choreographed The London Bridge Special. The production starred Tom Jones, ballet great Rudolf Nureyev, Elliott Gould, the Carpenters, Charlton Heston, Chief Dan George and Merle Park. That same year Winters was as producer of the Timex All Star Swing Festival, which earned a Peabody Award and a  Christopher Award. It starred Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington.

Kirk Douglas, Michael Redgrave, Donald Pleasance, Stanley Holloway and Susan Hampshire starred in a production of TV musical Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Directed, produced and choreographed by Winters, with songbook by Lionel Bart, it was nominated for three Emmys.

Alice Cooper, the controversial shock rocker, was to be the subject of the next project by Winters. It was aptly a lot titled Welcome to My Nightmare, a musical concert film of the eponymous experience, directed, produced and choreographed by Winters.

Pictured above: Alice Cooper

David spoke fondly of the performance. ‘Alice Cooper is a consummate showman, the “Godfather of Shock Rock”. It could well have been entitled, Alice Cooper and His Adventures in Wonderland. It was a phantasmagoric exposition of theater, horror and music. We filmed live at the Wembley Arena in London.’

Winters adds: ‘I introduced Alice to one of my dancers, and he married her. The film didn’t do well initially, but, like The  Rocky Horror Show, it became a cult favorite and made its investment back and more.’

In 1976, Sal Mineo was performing in the edgy role of a bisexual burglar in the black comedy PS Your Cat is Dead. Mineo had made his directorial debut  in 1969 with a play entitled Fortune in Men’s Eyes. It co-starred the unknown Don Johnson, soon to achieve stardom in the smash TV series Miami Vice.

It opened at the Coronet Theater in Los Angeles and enjoyed a New York run. Set in a jail, the play generated public scandal for its prison rape scene. It enjoyed huge audiences, while being either praised or vilified by the press and public. The programme dedicated the play to James Dean.

The production of PS Your Cat is Dead was a success in San Francisco. Mineo received favorable reviews for his performance, and the theater piece moved to Los Angeles. Theater critic Bob Kigins wrote: ‘Mineo all but steals the show with his marvelous outlandish gestures, his facile facial contortions and his robust delivery.’ Around this time, Sal moved into a pad in West Hollywood two blocks from the Sunset Strip.

Mineo was arriving home after a rehearsal on February 12th, 1976. In good spirits wearing blue jeans and a red floral print shirt, he drove his blue Chevelle through the Hollywood streets populated by the hipsters and trendy wannabes and parked in the carport in the alley near his apartment. 

Witnesses heard Mineo scream, 'Oh my God..No..Help me please’, as a man subsequently described by witnesses as a white or Mexican with long brown hair ran away. The cinema star died on the spot from a single knife wound that pierced his heart.

Highly acclaimed crime writer James Ellroy researched the case with the aid of the hard boiled police detectives who prosecuted the crime. The detectives scoured the apartment where Mineo resided.

Pictured above: Sal Mineo

They found a little black book that contained information that represented a who’s who of film, mostly British. The red carpet, A-list stars, poet-playwright Harold Pinter and director John Schlesinger topped the list. Twiggy, Hayley Mills and Charlotte Rampling provided the girl power. Highly acclaimed actors Stanley Baker, Denholm Elliott and Edward Fox featured in the same contacts collection.

Ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev, French icon Alain Delon, Paul Newman  and Joanne Woodward and Bette Midler were included. Writer Roald Dahl and his wife Patricia Neal mixed with James Coburn, Peter Lawford and James Caan. Sal had compiled a directory that embraced agents, production companies and studio executives.

Ellroy, the author of Hollywood Confidential, also noted another find by the Noir Hollywood detectives. A red book containing Hollyweird pornographic gay film houses, male hustlers, petty drug dealers, the offal and detritus of the low life that floated like flotsam and jetsam on the sordid underbelly of Hollywood. They investigated all the aforementioned. No connection to the crime was established.

Forensics by police noted that Sal had needle punctures over his body. Sal was a self- professed user of marijuana and LSD and was also known to inject cocaine. He was also thought to ingest steroids to chemically heighten his sex life.

The remains of Sal Mineo were flown back to New York for the funeral. Five days after his death, 250 mourners gathered at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Mamaronoc, New York, to say their final farewells. Yul Brynner, who trained with Michael Chekhov and mentored Mineo in the elements of acting during their performance in The King and I, was in attendance.

Desi Arnaz Jr, Natalie Wood, Elliott Minz, Warren Beatty, Dennis Hopper, Paul Newman and Peter Lawford attended and paid their respects. Following the wake, Mineo was laid to rest next to his father, who pre-deceased his son by three years, at the Gates of  Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

The case went cold. An unexpected break came in 1977 when a woman named Theresa Williams came forward and revealed to police that her husband, Lionel Ray Williams, had bragged to her that he murdered Sal Mineo.

Although she later rescinded her words and claimed Spousal Privilege, detectives now focused on Williams. Detectives had visited him when he was in LA County Jail awaiting bad check charges. Williams said he had heard stories of gang members murdering Mineo on a drugs deal gone bad.

Williams later served time in Michigan, at Calhoun Country jail, on those banking infringements. He was overheard bragging to fellow inmates that he killed Mineo. Wardens of the prison alerted police in Los Angeles. He was charged and extradited to Los Angeles to face murder charges.

The trial was full of controversy. Three witnesses claimed a white or Mexican male with long brown hair was seen fleeing the scene of the crime. Williams was a black man. Police obtained pictures of him from the time of the murder. They revealed a light skinned black male with bleached hair. The evidence was damning. Williams was sentenced to 51 years in prison. Williams served 15 years and was paroled but speedily succumbed to the revolving door syndrome and was soon back in prison.

I pressed David Winters to comment on the macabre demise of his great friend. Nancy Sinatra and David Carradine photographs gazed upon me from the walls of his Far East offices. A poster of Viva Las Vegas with Elvis in his pomp reminded one of the Presley connection. Barbra Streisand and David posed from a publicity photo for A Star is Born.

The Bangkok sun shone as bougainvilleas bloomed outside, nestled under the palm trees that adorned the apartment complex that housed his living quarters and work space. The clouds framing the sky above cast a spell redolent of wild orchids and jungle bush. The road had by now brought him to reside in South East Asia. 

David’s housemaid served lemonade, as his headquarters also doubled as his residence. He stared out the windows of his offices at the city skyline and rubbed his eyes. ‘Sal, James Dean, Natalie Wood, Nick Adams, all starred in Rebel Without a Cause. All of them died violent and untimely deaths...a curse, who knows...I believe Sal was in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

Monsoon rains accompanied by thunder and lightning splashed against the windows of his office and cast a magic spell over the Bangkok panorama.

NEXT TIME in ‘A Winters tale #3’: Michael McClure & Peter Fonda, Lenore Kandel & Paul Newman

See also: ‘A Winters tale #1’, November 29th, 2024