They shot at a trailer park in downscale Duarte. I parked in a vacant lot across the street. I found binoculars in the backseat and freeze-framed my focus. Arc lights gave me added eyeball oomph.
The trailers were beat-up and slapped down in rows sans tow hooks and cars. They looked empty. The crew stood on a pavement patch off to the left. They looked itchy.
They dispersed at 12:01 A.M. They peeled out in individual cars. They left their arc lights up. Two people stayed behind and paced the pavement.
Ida Lupino. Steve “the Schvantz” Cochran.
Ida smoked and sucked on a hip flask. The Schvantz sniffed a dress rack. It was standing by a trailer marked #36.
I waited. I watched.
12:08 A.M.:
A car pulls up. Freddy O and Johnny Stompanato get out.
Ida shoots Freddy a tongue kiss. Johnny Stomp shoots the Schvantz a mean look. Stomp enters #36 and exits with a small movie camera. The Schvantz dumps it in Freddy 0’s car.
12:13 A.M.:
An LAPD van pulls up. Six women hop out. They’re dressed in jail denims. The driver hops out. He’s dressed in LAPD blue.
The girls hit the dress rack. The girls hit #36. The girls exit looking vampy and dressed va-va-voom. The Schvantz licks his chops.
12:26 A.M.:
The girls get back in the van. Ida and the Schvantz hop in Freddy O’s car. Freddy and Johnny Stomp hop in. The LAPD man pulls down the arc lights and straps them to the roof of the van.
12:34 A.M.:
The car pulls out. The van pulls out. I pull out behind them.
We drive three blocks east. The car and the van pull into a courtyard motel. I pull into a vacant lot fifty yards east.
The Larkcrest Motel. Abandoned. One light in one room lit. A long string of dark doorways and windows.
I grabbed my binoculars. I crept into the courtyard. I peeped the scene perspiringly close.
12:46 A.M.:
The girls hit the lit-up room. The cop hauls the camera and arc lights in. Ida and the Schvantz hit the room.
12:50 A.M.:
Johnny Stomp walks around the courtyard. He opens the doors and turns on the lights in every other room.
Six rooms are now lit. Six rooms remain dark.
12:59 A.M.:
Freddy 0 hauls a box from his car. He circuits the six lit-up rooms. He drops a bottle of booze and two paper cups on six bright blue bedspreads.
1:04 A.M.:
The cop climbs in his van. He unloads a dolly. It holds six movie cameras. The cop circuits the six dark rooms. He dumps six cameras on six bright blue bedspreads. He shuts the doors behind him.
I got the picture. I got it in SIN-emascope.
The cop climbed back in his van. I snuck way into the courtyard. I hunkered down and entered a dark room on his blind side.
I flicked a light on. I flicked it off fast. I saw a 2-way peek built into the wall. I fumbled in darkness and bumbled into a door.
I opened it. I entered a lit-up love room. The 2-way looked out on the bed. I pulled the microphone and power pack off my chest and taped itto the bottom of the mattress.
I snuck back to the vacant lot sloooooooooow. I grabbed my binoculars. I waited. I watched. I patiently peeped the courtyard. I listened to grunts and groans in Ida Lupino’s room.
1:36 A.M.:
Ida’s door opens. Johnny Stomp walks out. I get a two-second tantalization.
Ida’s got her camera in tight. A blonde’s got the Schvantz trapped in her tonsils.
He’s huge. He’s a pineapple impaled on a pipe threader.
Stompanato shut the door and lit a cigarette. I waited. I watched. I patiently peeped the courtyard.
2:08 A.M.:
Six cars pull in. Six middle-aged men jump out. They’ve got smirks on their lips and guns on their hips. They whoop. They holler. Johnny Stomp greets them.
I zoomed in on their cars. I latched my lenses on their license plates and memorized them.
I ran to my car. I peeled out. I heard Ida Lupino yell, “Cut! That’s a take!”
3:26 A.M.: