Hey, everybody, Welcome to life is a gamble. This is episode twelve,
and my guest today is Joseph Mirhy. Joseph has produced over one hundred
movies. He's directed over thirty, He's written over twenty, also been involved
in television and longtime friends. So Joe, welcome to life as a gamble.
Thank you, Thank you for having me months. Great seeing you again.
You're one of my oldest friends, one of my kindest friends. We
hang out a lot together. We wrote a few scripts together, and we
made movies together. So we go way way back. Yeah, yeah,
And I want to get to that, but I really want to start at
the beginning, which is you're from a small town in Syria and you moved
to the States. How old were you when you moved to the States.
I was eighteen, maybe eighteen and a half. I was in nineteen seventy
two. I was born in nineteen seventy three, I mean fifty three,
seven seventy two, when I was eighteen eighteen and a half years old,
I think I finished high school and yeah, came to the States. And
what was your plan? What was the what was yeah, what was the
plan? You know, you know, every single person. I'm realizing,
and I seriously, you know, between I turned seventy years old, so
between sixty five and seventy you start reflecting on everything. You start reflecting on
you know, you know, like I grew up thinking my dad is an
idiot. You know. Then by the time forty five, I'm thinking my
dad the best, he did the best he could. You know, I
was lucky enough to see him and then talk to him. And then then
what who made me what I am? I start thinking, you know what,
it's my dad. Also his influence, although he he really is an
illiterate, he couldn't read or write, but he has this adventurous sense of
I'm going to do something good in my life. And he never went anywhere.
He was you know, he was he was. He fixed shoes and
and he repairs shoes. And we're you know, we're not poor, but
a little bit above poor, not a mentally class either. So so so
so my father influenced me. And even looking back, my father and who
five jokes? And every client who will come in to fix his shoes or
Chinese shoes or do something, he will tell his five jokes. And it
was painful for me to hear over and over and over again every every day
for years. But he has a this is just for life. And if
it wasn't for him, I start thinking, you know, he gave me
all the money he has for a dream that he's never been out of homes
for more than maybe one hundred kilometer or something. Did send me to the
US. So but it all starts again just thinking and reflecting. There's like
God, whatever he is, she is, whatever religion, kind of send
you somebody and guide you. And you don't you don't really see it.
You don't know it, you don't recognize it. Unfortunately for another ten,
fifteen, twenty thirty years later. And that person who God sent to me
was a painter, not house painting. He was an artist actually. And
when I used to go and get to my father his supplies from the zook,
I was like eight ten years old. I will walk by this guy
and this guy who's painting on a canvas, and then I'm a curious.
I started standing there and just watched them, and he was kind and he
said hello to me. And finally, every time I go back and forth,
I'll see the progress of that canvas the next day. And I was
I was really touched. And see how beautiful this guy painted. And he
just sat there, smoke a cigarette outside on the sidewalk and just paint.
And finally I stood there one time watching and he goes here. He gave
me the brush and he goes put some colors on this tree. And I
didn't want to do that. He said, do it just see. You
know, I'm going to go inside and get some water and sit down here
and start painting. So I sat them and start. I was afraid to
mess it up and put some colors. That came back and encourage me.
Wow, you're an artist. You're really good. You know who's your family?
So he tells me, and then I told him, you know where
my dad's shop is. So a few days later he asked me again to
to paint, and I started looking forward to it and stopped for a second.
And then then he took me by the hand, went to my dad
and he goes, listen. He said, this kid is talented. He
should you should put him in an art class. There's a summer art class.
You should put him in there. For my dad said, okay,
okay, no, no, and then he said and then he said isn't
the money because at the time probably cost a dollar to go in and and
and then he said, no, I don't want him to do. He
said, if I paid for him and I take him and register him,
will you please let him go to the art class. He did, and
he did that. He took me. He paid for me, he you
know, and he was he was asking me, what did they teach us?
What? Show me some of the paint the drawing. It was a
pencil and shadow class, so only with pencil, no colors. And I
showed him what I drew, and he goes, you, you're fantastic man,
He said, you have you have an eye for in composition. He
goes to the house and he takes the camera and the camera is one of
those cameras that you look into the linus, you know, into the viewer
for the top down from the top, and he put a film in it
and he said, go shoot some pictures. So I went and stuched,
you know, I shot the pictures and give it to him. He paid
for it to go to the lab. And so he encouraged me and me
in a while, there is a movie theater open next to us, next
to the shop, and the smallest movie theater, very very small, maybe
one hundred c and the owner will bring his shoes to us, you know,
I'll shine his shoes. It fixed his shoes for free. So he
allowed me to go and see the movies anytime I want. I'll walk in
in the middle of the movie and begin, you know, right after school.
So from eleven to twelve thirteen fourteen, I saw probably one movie I've
seen twenty times daily time, forty times. You know. I spend my
time in the movie and they only brought like one movie every three weeks over,
you know. So I saw you know, Humphrey Bogart, I saw
John Wayne, I saw Tarzan, and I saw Hercules. So who was
like, oh my god, this is what I want to do. So
so all this comes together because of this kind man who decided, you know
what, I'll pay attention to the skin. Wow wow. And then then
he helped me, you know, get a visa to get to come to
the US. You know, wrote wrote for a college, any college,
and and the only place I could because I didn't have a lot of money,
I didn't know anything. It was Palatka, Florida. Saint John Tollige
in Pavlatka, Florida. They sent me an application, went to the embassy,
of course, and the embassy they have no reason, they have all
the reasons not to give me, you know, my visa. I wasn't
rich. They didn't know if I was going to be a liability on the
government here. I only had four hundred dollars to take with me. And
there and this woman looked at me and she really liked me, and I
remember she was so kind also, and she stamped the visa. So now
I'm coming, I'm coming to Florida. And what were you going to study?
Art? Well, I couldn't tell my dad. I really want to
study movies, you know. I want to be a producer. I want
to stay. But you know, my dad said, what are you going
to doing study? I said, several engineers. I said, you know,
I want to build things, you know, And he said okay,
okay, And I said, this is the only place that And I showed
them a little article that I looked in a newspaper and Eric, of course
it was and he couldn't read it. But I'm reading them that even the
construction workers makes like six dollars an hour, seven dollars an hour. There's
a lot of money that would we make in a month, you know,
you know, you know guys working there, And he said, I said,
I want to make six dollars an hour. Dollars an hour, yeah,
and he's still okay, So go. So I went. And the
night before I was panicking. I said, wait a minute, I'm going
to the US. I'm looking at this map. I said, well,
how the map? How is the plane is? No, I'm going to
go to that city, to Florida. How would they know that they're probably
going to drop me in New York and that's it? How would they know
that? You know? So you know, I went to to New York
obviously, and the guy ripped me off. It took like twenty dollars for
my money, and he didn't give me the change. It was should have
maybe two three dollars, okay. Then took a bus a cat at the
cat going from one airport to the other. It was a different airport I
was going, and then ended up staying spending the light in New York.
Next day, I took the plane to Jacksonville. Jacksonville, I took the
the the bus to to Palatka. You know, right, on the weekend.
It was like a ghost town. Nobody was there, you know,
it was it was really it was really something. Of course, I and
you didn't know a single person, right, You're just I knew, I
knew. I knew one person in Palatka that my neighbor had gone there,
same thing that it was really uh an easy city to go to, an
easy college to go to. And I didn't see him till like a week
later because he was working in Jacksonville. And so I paid two hundred and
seventy five dollars I paid, So I only have like a eighty ninety dollars
left, and I have no no, no desire to to learn anything except
I kept thinking, I'm going to run out of money. I'm going to
run out of money. I'm going to run out of money. And what
did you spend the two hundred and seventy five for the college, paid for
the doms And what about where were you going to live in the dome that's
included in the door in the Wow? College was cheap back? Yeah fifty
years ago, Yeah, it was that much. So uh So I let
my roommate, you know the American Plan, Lou you know his name is
Steve. And I didn't understand literally awarded English, and I'm supposed to go
to the English, speak English. Didn't speak No, not speaking English.
So I mean, that's just amazing. You flew over here to this country
where you knew this one person and didn't even speak the language, not speak
the marriage and you know a few words here and there, but did not
speak the marriage. But I really, you know, I'm pivoting into something
else. I really think that the talent that God gave me, I don't
know, is it my face, the way I talk, whatever, that
people really wanted to help me for some reason. People helped me along the
way, you know, like my roommate helped me, you know, the
teacher helped me a little bit. And then finally I was eating. I
bought a pot and I bought a stove. You're not supposed to have anything
like this in the in the dorm, but I remember getting hot dogs and
he so I boiled eggs and hot dogs on the same pot. And the
love of the American you know, white bread, which is I hated.
I hated that bread. And back then they didn't have like a selection of
breads you can buy, no pita bread, of course, no, no
really good bread. It was just white bread and it was terrible. So
I was eating that, you know, and and start to look for a
job. Go on main street. It was like a tailor shop. It
was, you know, a gas station it was. But nobody will hire
him to do anything. And I was going to run out of money.
So I told my friend, I said, you know, I said,
I'm gonna run out of money. I gotta I gotta leave here. There's
no jobs here. And he said, you know, you need to go
to Gainsville. You know, Gainsville is where Gainesville, Florida. It is
only an hour away, an hour, an hour and a half away,
whatever. And I went to Gainesville, packed my suitcase and went to Gainesville
and it was dropped at like, you know, walking through the street with
me, he said, go next to the to the university. You probably
can meet somebody who can speak Arabic, can help you. Went to McDonald's
and shot enough with three people steaking erb wow, and I asked, you
know, I told him, you know what I am, what's going on?
And I need I need help to find a place to live. And
one guy is at Palestine and I spoke to him, still speak to him.
His name brah hindj or Dan. And he said, I'll put you
up for a few days. So he took me to his apartment and he
put me up for like a week. And the other guy I met at
McDonald's, he was working at a place called Coffee King and he said,
you know, you know, let me take you there. Maybe they can
use you. And I went there and they gave me a job as a
busboy. I was making a dollar thirty five an hour and I was like,
felt like, you know, maah, this is great. So I
worked there and then it was another I needed another job. They only did
like three days. I got another job somewhere else as a dishwasher. And
then the same guy told me they're opening a steakhouse, new steakhouse. They're
looking for people. Maybe you should go there. So I went there and
they said they were paying one forty five an hour as a dishwasher, and
I said, okay, great, So that was my full time job.
Now I went from part time to different places to a full time six days
a week. And so you weren't going to school then if you're working.
I did not good to school. I not good school. I took the
first two or three months, two months in Polatka, I think, went
to classes and then it was really funny. I went, I said,
you know, the stood for me that I really wanted to be a producer.
And they said there's a production class that I said, okay, great,
So I went and sat in it and they were talking about the history
of the cinema, which is I didn't stand the guy they were so so
I left that class very quickly, you know, especially when I looked at
the book, I was like three hundred pages, four hundred pages, I'm
like, what the back? So I, when you know, I dove
onto working, working very, very very hard. Within six months, I
was went to like sixty five dollars one sixty five an hour to one eighty
five an hour. Because I was a dishwatcher. I wasn't the bus away.
I was a dishwasher. But I will watch the issues so fast and
I'll go out and help the bus for me, you know, and I'll
bring him an assistant director at the time, assistant director, assistant manager.
His name is David. The night magic said what are you doing in in
the dining room? It was a huge place and you know, you know,
I said, he said, do go watch the dishes. I said,
they're all washed, you know, start learning English. And so he
comes back to the dish dish washer place and he says, all the dishes
are washing star and I'm running helping the guy with the so he said,
oh my god. And then across the room from the dishwasher. So across
is when we cut the meat. So the meat comes at like twenty thirty
forty pounds pieces of meat, and they have a saw. It's this machine
that they cut it in. This now it's New York steak and it's this
and we grind Hamburger and the room is like fifty five degrees and at the
end of the they bring all the meat and they cut out. It was
a huge steakhouse. It was like like two times three times as biggest sizzler
called the Chaparral Steakhouse. And so the room has to be hosed down with
the hot water. So the guy is black, the guy who was hosting
hosing it, and I have nothing to do. He goes, hey,
come and help me. So I went and start hosing the room. And
then I start hosing it every day. So again the assistant manager will walk
by and what the hell you're doing? You know you're supposed to do the
dishes? Say, well, everything is done. So I come in the
morning one day and he sees me. I'm cutting the meat with this guy
you know, you know, and I'm putting you know, we marinate it
and we put it in trays and we put it in you know. And
so two or three days later he didn't say anything. He was really friendly
to me. Now he's seeing me how hard I work, and you know,
he will say, can you stay extra two hours, five hours?
Okay, I'll say ten hours, twelve hours whatever. So now he had
me come like at seven in the morning set up the line. But you
know, but everything they need for the lettuce that it made. Its the
you know, mob of the floor. Now I'm working ten twelve hours a
day, which is good. I'm making money. I'm happy. And so
one day he said to me, listen, this guy forgot his name,
the guy who cut the meat. He didn't show up because I saw you
cut the meat. You know how to cut the meat. I said,
yeah, I know how to cut the meat. So, you know,
he put an apron on himself and start cutting the meat and I start helping
him. All of a sudden, I became the meat cutter. I'm making
two dollars an hour, okay, moving up in the world. Six months
into this, I'm making to the Now I have the keys to the restaurant.
To come in the morning, you have to me. And now the
owners you know, meet me, and he tells him about me like a
great worker. Da da da. Then they made me an assistant manager.
Would I make a thousand dollars a month? Wow? Okay? And now
this process took how long? By now it's about a year. Yeah.
Wait, I just want to back up for a second, because there was
a story when you first got there, you were eating the hot dogs and
the eggs, where a guy told you about tuna. Oh yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah yeah yeah. So so yeah. One of the guys
told me, I told you all I ate. My budget was was a
dollar a day to eat the eggs. And he goes, you know they
have tuna, so and said for nine cents once you get some of the
tuna. I went yesterday and got a hundred can. I'm going to go
back to day and get one hundred can for nine dollars, I said,
please show me where the place is. So he took me this supermarket and
we walked in and sure enough, this can of tuna fix this time nine
cents. And he got a huge cart and he's putting all all his emptying
the shelves. And I said, when I said, why there is a
picture of a cat on it? You know, I don't know. I
said, maybe this is for the cat, says tuna, Look tuna,
I said, I said, I said, so we start asking the lady.
He spoke just as bad English as I did. Literally were making the
sound of him. Yeah, yes, it's for cat. So you didn't
actually eat any He was the only one and I told him, I don't
know if I can eat that, and he said it's truly good, and
he didn't put him back. He bought him, Wow, no one,
it's it's for cat. But later on we learn that the laws of making
u cat food or pet food that it has to be edible for humans just
in case. You know, so it's edible. So I didn't. I
didn't eat it, but yeah, he didn't eat it. So now no,
I moved to a regular apartment. I had my first girlfriend. I
went on my first date, which is a waitress who worked there, you
know, and and it was it was, it was everything was going well.
And now I decided, you know what, after I work for maybe
a year and a half, now they trusted me with the with the key,
trusted me with Now I'm doing the paperwork where I'm doing the deposits,
nine deposits. And then I said, you know, I got to go
back to school. I need I need to go back to school. And
they weren't really happy, but they loved me, and they gave me a
recommendation. They said, they said, well, but you still have to
work. I said, yeah, I can work. But there's a place
called twelve East. They just open. Some of the people I know they
worked there as waiters at night and they make like fifteen forty fifty dollars,
you know, in tips. It was a very very high and you know
place. And I said, I want to get a job as a busboy.
Maybe one day I'll be a waiter. And the guy said, I
know the owners. You want to work there. So the guy called the
owners and he said you're got to You're got to get the best guy there.
And so the guy I went there and he said, what do you
want to do And I said, I want to be, you know,
a waiter that I understand. You have to work as a busboy first.
And he looked at me, he said, come with me. He put
me in the car, went to a clothing shop and bought me two taxedos.
Wow, two taxedos. Because you're going to be the assistant major D.
You're going to see people. You have the personality to see people,
to talk to people. That's what you're going to be. And I went
there and all my friends thought, you know, I'll be lucky to get
a job. As you know, they were more you know, they were
in this country for five six years. They were a waiter, they seasoned
and they said, and now all of a sudden, I'm their boss.
Yeah. So and the mater d himself. He was a very he didn't
like the idea all the kids who does not speak English, well speak very
little English, you know, just because I was like twenty one years old,
now, you know. And so I had this taxedo and I'm seeing
people. Not the place was a was aware. So the very first thing
he said to me, he said, you know a lot of tourists comes
in here. Then asked what was this place. It was like massive,
twenty pavelant square feet, you know, banned different restaurants and bars. And
he said, you know, this place was a warehouse. So you're telling
me. You know, people would ask what was this place before? And
I thought, he said a whorehouse. So I will see people and they
all say, hey, what was this place before? And I said a
whoorhouse and they would laugh, what was this place before? I said the
whorehouse? And I said, okay, they laugh and sit down. So
one time he overheard me, he goes, it's so it's a warehouse.
You've done as, not a whorehouse, Richard. So then I walked by.
The guy hated me the major did. He just said. I was
young, I was bubbly, I was happy. I'll do whatever it tastes.
And of course, the first time somebody gave me five thousand, five
dollars tip, five dollars they give me a tip, I seated him and
I didn't know what the hell why they're giving me five dollars? You know,
you know, So then I learned people look tep you. So I
seated some people and the guy grabbed me and goes, get me a screwdriver,
I said, And I went to the table and I pushed on the
table. I said, there's nothing wrong with the table. And he started
laughing, and I thought, oh my god, I'm funny. Okay,
so I walked around back, walked by the end because where's my school driver?
I said, you really need screw driver? Yes? So I went
to the interview and I said, lest this guy asked for screwdriver. There's
nothing wrong with the table. It's not shaking or anything. It said,
drink you the mess? Oh man? So how did you get from Florida?
When? What the best one is? When a girl said to me,
can I have sex on the beach? No? Yeah, where it's
a drink? Yeah yeah? And I'm thinking what First it's like, I
love this country. And second part, we need to learn how to swim?
Man? Oh man, So okay you're talking. You're talking about taking
a chance. Now I have a girlfriend. I'm doing really, really well.
I quit my first job to go to school. I took some courses,
some English courses. Now two years, two and a half years passes.
I said, I got to make movies, and I just put everything
in the car, moved to Hollywood. Wanted to get to Hollywood. And
again, you don't know anybody. I know, I know, I know.
I knew one person in Hollywood. I knew one person in Los Angeles.
I have learned about different people introduced me to And I called him and
I told him I'm going to come down. He said, okay, come
down, and I drove to Hollywood. So you're talking about life as a
gamble. Every time I was comfortable, I was very very comfortable. I
was working in this beautiful place, and now I have a place to live
and I have a nice, you know life. I have a good car,
and moved, moved, and now I was in this place. She
is very tempting to stay there twenty years, thirty years by a house,
you know, very tempting. I got to get to Hollywood. So I
went to Hollywood, get in a car. When they packed everything, left
the girl behind, left the girl behind. Wow, she followed me.
She followed me back to Hollywood. Actually lift everything and went and drove to
Hollywood. Now I'm in Hollywood. And I arrived like midnight, and I
told the guy, please take me, take me, show me Hollywood,
show me howp So he's taking me. He said, okay, he get
me in the car. It's he was living on Rampart and near Burnhout,
you know, really bad area. I was staying with him for the first
day or two and I got a room. I got an apartment in the
same room. But the same night high Arrier was like at midnight and I
said, take me. Think I want to see Hollywood. Don't see help.
So he's taking me. He's driving and he's talking and we're talking,
talking, talking, talking, and I said, take me to Hollywood.
He said, you are in Hollywood. And he's taken me up and down
Hollywood Boulevard and they all we see is his hookers and pemps and dirty And
I said, no, this is not Hollywood. He said, yeah,
this is Hollywood. Very disappointed first, you know, impression of public.
And now okay, I the same guy. He got me a job as
as in the bakery Pika Peka bread. You know, we started working in
the bakery and as a driver delivering the bread with him. We'll go with
him and we start taking bread and start talking to different markets like rough supermarket
or market basket. People didn't did not know Peter bread. We introduced the
Peza bread. We introduced the Bakla Bah Well introduced all these people to open
raps for these supermarkets. Uh, and then again, you know, a
year of that and I quit again. I quite I needed to do something
else. Meanwhile, I went to l SEC. I registered the LFC l
SEC to take some film film productions, you know, but I couldn't make
it. I didn't, you know. I found out that the apartment building
I was in, I got friendly with the manager and finally I said to
him, I can't make it here. I don't know what to do.
You know, I'm just like throwing in the towel. I can't save enough
money. The rent is too expensive. LA is expensive. I was smoggie
back then. This is nineteen seventy five, I would say. Now,
yeah, three years later, now seventy five, and traffic l a SEC.
I wasn't getting I was. I was miserable, and I said,
he said, you know, you need to go someplace. You want to
save money, You need to go to some place like Vegas. What's Vegas?
He tells me. He gave me the route how to get there,
my clothes. That was the most difficult move I've ever made, because you
didn't know anybody there. Know whether zero. I didn't know anybody, but
it was comfortable here. I knew now enough people, I'm going to school,
I have a routine, I'm working in a place that I liked,
all arabs and pita bread, and it was it was a very comfortable situation.
But I realized I can live nicely, you know, get by,
but I'm never going to get a hat. And when you were going to
do this, like, I mean, did you just feel like I'll always
be able to find work. I'll find somewhere to stay, and I'll be
able to get a job somewhere or much. I remember vividly the minute.
I remember standing outside, and outside it was I was living on the third
floor looking over the street, which is first of all, every time you
come home, we gotta circle two three blocks to find a party. That's
fine, okay. It was approximately noon, it was raining and Paul Anchor's
song sang having my Baby, What a lovely way to say I love you
whatever that song is. I remember it like it was yesterday and decided after
the guy told me about Vegas and I start packing my clothes, I went
down, put everything, say I'm going to Vegas. Man, here's the
key, and he said good luck, and went that's it, and I
went to Vegas. And I drove to Vegas. The very first stop.
They were remodeling the Aladdin Hotel. But it's only like six story, and
they had a buffet. It was like a dollar forty nine or something.
I went in there and I the reason, I say, alad in this
Arab you know, it's it's an air work, you know. And I
went in there and I stuffed myself, you know, with all the food,
and then went down Las Vegas pool of work all the way till the
strip ended at the Sahara. Now I could have made the left turn,
my life would have been different. And I made a right turn, and
I went the second street after the Paradise is van pattern and it says apartment
for rent. I went made the right and went in there and rented an
apartment. And rented the apartment, and the manager of it was a lady
about fifty to fifty five. I said, listen, I just walked here
from La She's asked me for reference, she's asked me for an application.
I said, I don't have anything. I have enough money at five hundred,
six hundred dollars and my rent was I think seventy maybe sixty dollars fifty
dollars whatever a month, one bedroom, yeah, one bedrooms like twenty two
so with a pool inside of it, in the middle of it. And
she told me, what's your qualification? I said, I work in the
restaurant, you know. She said, okay, you have to go and
resist her at the Calenary Union. You know, that's the only way you're
going to get a job. And I said, but I want another job.
I want to be a dealer. So she said, okay, you're
going to go to a dealer school. And she looked into the again.
Another person who really helped me anybody also said no, you know whatever,
but she helped and so I went to both. I went to the Calenary
Union and registered, and then I went to the the dealing school and they
asked for I think two hundred dollars one hundred and fifty dollars for six weeks.
They said anyway, and then, but I needed the job right away,
so I kept the driving, stopping at seven eleven, I said,
I'll be a cashier in one of the seven eleven on Boulder Highway in Sahara.
I actually used to be at seven eleven. In there, they hired
me. You make a ride on Sahara from Boulder Highways on the left hand
side the Battlemarkadel and it was brand new seven eleven and they hired me to
work graveyard shift. It was working, you know, open twenty four hours
a day. So that's how it started. And then I kept going back
to the callinary I should. I want to get a better job, and
you know for dealers. I finished dealing school and then I got a job
as a room service leader at the at the Startust Hotel, STARTUS Hotel room
service leader, you know the mine shift, and I was working seven to
eleven during the day. It suits me to the day. And then it
was another hotel, small, small little casino on Boulder Highway called Sky Sky
siland Skyland Island. So they hired me as a dealer twenty one. It
didn't make any money. I wanted to break into the to the casinos.
So I get very very friendly in at the start hotel. I started on
the city at I started, but we were doing really really good at tips
in the room service. We were doing really really good in the I was
working in the graveyard eleven to seven and you get all these people, you
know, drunk at the end of the night, and you know, and
they tip you, get some food, get some drinks, whatever. And
then Frank Resenthal remember the movie movie Casino. Yeah, yeah, my boss.
He's food and beverage manager. And I used to take care of Frank
Resenthal. He used to always take a shuwgar off at two o'clock in the
morning, three o'clock in the morning. Whatever. He will call for champagne,
he will call for food. As a matter of fact, they started
hotel, I had five or six restaurants, and one of them will still
open just for Frank because he wants to eat something. So we'll close at
eleven feet in the twelve o'clock and if they knew he's gonna eat something,
they'll say suddenly they'll leave the kitchen open for him, and they sure enough,
I'll go and get food for him. And he's the first guy who
gave me twenty dollars twenty. I didn't know who he is. I knew
he was he was important in the hotel, but I didn't know he was
a monster. I didn't know who is, but I knew I was working
for a play for a monster joint because one of the one of the guard
security guard grabbed a hooker and then from the second floor. The Star does
have the high rise of about eight story building and they have all these bagelos,
you know, you know, can you can walk up one two stories
one another for first ground and then you woke up to the second ground.
And he threw a hooker from the railing from out from the second right into
the top of a car. And the police came and and I didn't even
take a report. They just I knew, yes, something. Yeah,
they really connected these guys like with law and order and so nobody could fallow.
Do you have any interaction with Spilatro at all? No, but I
I I heard by the time he was murdered, I was I had my
own pizza place because he I think they caught him with it was a submarine
sandwich or something. He had sub marine sandwich. He was coming out of
a sub place or something when he got shot. Yeah. Well, no,
Spilato they found about him and his brother's bodies in Indiana. No,
No, it was one of the other guys who got shot coming down with
the sandwich. I think, yes, No, I never read Yeah,
I uh, and but I did get to know Frank h Roll because I
was interested in the movie business. I was interested in the TV business.
And then he had his help. He became the entertainment director of the hotel.
They would give him different he was the food and beverage manager. He
was, you know, so when then he had his own show. So
when I delivered this Battle of Champagne, he would always order published champagne first
before he gets food. And then I said, you know, mister Resenthaler,
you know really you know, and I saw him, you know,
tailing a show. I said, I'm really interested in the film business and
that really is there's anything I can do to help with the production. And
he said, yeah, let me introduce you to this guy. Maybe he
can help them, you know. And they were shooting on video videos you
know new you know, so so you know, I said that anything can
help. I said, yeah, there's not for you to do, but
I will watch. I will watch them take the show. You know.
It was very interested in So now I bought a house on Charleston and Sunrise,
which is like Charleston Boulder Highway, for twenty seven five hundred dollars.
I put twenty five hundred dollars down and my payment was one hundred and seventy
dollars. I got a brand new Pontiac from Sahara and Sahara that Pontiac actually
we own piece art. Now you know that dealership that my brother bought the
cab like dealership. Now, so anyway, to make a long story short,
now I'm really flying high. I have a couple of jobs, have
a housely bedroom, too bad, living the American dream practically. And then
I went to my girlfriend was from you know, Maryland. We went for
Christmas to see her parents. It was snowing, six feet of snow everywhere.
It was horrible winter. They have. The only thing was open.
It was a pizzeria and I used to go to that pizzeria every day.
We stayed there for five six days and after the first day, I said,
you know, it's nothing, very quiet. You don't hear anything,
no street, no no streets, noise, no cars, snow, just
everybody can just walk in and get a pizza. And I started, I
said, can I help you making the door? He was making the dough.
Then I started picking the door with this guy that I started cooking with
him a little bit I had nothing to do. After three or four days,
five days, I thought, I'm opening a pizza Vegas. I went
back home, went to Vegas, sold my house, quit my job,
and opened a pizzeri. Okay, well you needed the money, but from
selling the house in order to open it? Is that why you sold the
house? Yes, I sold the house. Yeah, and again a big
risk. Did you did you think, like, what if it doesn't work,
I'll go broke? Or did that enter your mind at all? Of
course it did. First of all, when I gave my notice at the
hotel, two of the guys who were room service wait or one is don
He was Donnie. He's an Italian guy. Another one is totally American.
His name is Keith, both of which around fifty fifty five sixty years old.
Whatever they said, Ken, are you crazy? This is this is
the union job. You're making good money. What do you know about opening
a business? Are you nuts? Are you crazy? And I'm looking at
these guys and like, okay, they've been here twenty years. That's not
what I want to be, you know. No, it was the reason
for me to keep going forward. Of course, the mission center is Melon
Parkway and Fladida. Well you get into my pizzeria. Oh yeah, yeah,
I love your Lasagnia there all the time. So they gave me that
the worst location, you know, because I didn't have any credit to know
any any better. It was the last one on the shop et c the
worst. Across the street from it is a better bank with the drive through
and so you know, you can't see it from the street. Practically you
can see it look, you know. So so I didn't know anything.
I didn't know anything about opening a business, owning a business. Nothing.
All I knew is I want to make money. The only way to do
it is you need to go on your own you can. And the plan
was always I want to make money so that I can save enough money to
go to la and be in the movie business. Exactly that plan. It
is one day I want to make movies. And there's you know. Now
I was comfortable. I owned the house, and I also I got lucky.
That's the only time the cycle of real estate and in Las Vegas,
you know when I you know, when I caught it in the right time.
Two three years. The house is worth twenty twenty five thousand dollars more
So I sold it for fifty five thousand from twenty seven five to fifty thousand,
but I had spent two three thousand dollars on it. I did the
backyard, I did some you know, some tiling. I did some work
on it. So now I took the money from there and put it in
the business. About a week before it opened, at three o'clock in the
morning, I went in there and they just had to put the sign.
I want to see the sign there. And I saw the sign, and
you know that the pizzeria, you know, the parking lot. And I
sat there and literally start crying and thinking, what the fuck did you do?
Your idiot? Everybody knows where to go to lunch every day. They
already know they have their places. Where am I going to get a hundred
people to break even every day? Is that what you felt like you needed?
You needed one hundred a day to break even, one hundred people to
to to you know piece, I needed to do two three hundred dollars a
day. You know too, because the pizza was a dollar seventy five at
the time. When I first of it's a dollar? Is that a slice?
Or that the old pizza? Pizza? The whole pizza. It's a
buck seventy five for ten inch, one seventy five for ten inch, medium
was two seventy five, and large was three seventy five. And how did
you even know how to cook everything? I mean, I mean you would
help that guy for a couple of days. And again when you were helping
that guy, you didn't know him or anything. You were just like,
hey, I'm board, can I help you? I was the only one
in the pizza yeh, I was the only one. I started talking to
him, where you're from, dad, and start talking talking, talking,
said yeah, I'm bored. Can I help you do this? He said,
okay, So I worked in the restaurant before, you know, and
he started talking and he said showing me, and all of a sudden,
I know, you know, you know how to do it. But when
I went back, the only pizza it was. It was in Las Vegas
at the time I munch, it was Pizza Hut, it was what's the
other chain? It wasn't that many small little pizzaias except for Billa Pizza in
the commercial center and Tower of Pizza on the Strip, Pizza on a Strip,
Billa Pizza. I went, I had that pizza, and I said,
wow, this is a really good pizza. So so I you know,
I went there at the end of the day, at the end of
the night, and this guy was, you know, the guy who made
the pizza. And I said, listen, I said, how many a
week you work here? So he told me. I said, I said
how much you make in an hour? It's a while. I said,
well, I'm opening pizzeria. I need somebody to help you. He said,
I make I think one sixty five an hour. He told me.
I said, if I pay you two thars an hour, will you come
and work for me a couple of days a week. He said okay.
So I went in there and he said, okay, so what's your rest
I said, well, you know my recipe. How do you want to
make the dough? You know you have your room, so I said,
yeah, I do, but I want to see your recipe first, just
because I like you. So I said, well, the way we do
it in bill a pizza. But there's there's there's this, and he said,
okay, this is great. Well what about the sauce? What do
you put in the sauce? I said, what do you guys do?
So he taught me how to make pizzas. He opened the pizza for He
opened the pizza for me. You know, I was paying in two hours,
and I stuck in two twenty five dollars in an hour. Then I
learned it very quickly, and I was, you know, really good at
with the customers, you know, you know, I worked the register and
and we decorated it with movie posters, and you remember, you know,
I remember I loved the movies and so on. Now I bought my house.
I sold my house, of course, open a pizza. I bought
sixty five thousand dollars home by the airport, you know, right off easter,
you know, four bedroom to bathpool. I got a brand new car
Antiac. You know now now took off right away, you took off immediately.
For marketing, there's another you know credit, I really want to give
myself to back. Then you can buy you know, add on TV channel
five and so on for you know, one hundred dollars a spot, fifty
dollars a spot. You can buy an add And I had one thousand dollars
for marketing. And I said, you know what we're talking about a newspaper
talking. Then I said, you know what the pizza cost me a doll
to make. I want to make a thousand. I have one thousand dollars.
I want to make a thousand pizzas and give it away, right,
you know, because I believe in the pizza. I believe. So I
made a thousand, literally a thousand pizzas, and I took it, took
them around and just give them two people, and all of a sudden,
you know, it took off, and then take them to give to people
stations. Go to the apartment building. Anybody knock on the apartment. Here's
a pizza. Knock on the apartment. Here's a pizza. Anybody who answered
me? Anybody who answered the door? You know, there's a fly.
And we just opened a pizza. Yeah, here you go, sir.
And then all of a sudden, you know, start people start, you
know coming in, you know, wow, you know, so it was
it was then we opened a second one, you know, and later on
we opened the second pizza. But anyway, that went on when I totally
forgot, you know, moving back to La for now, just sort of
from the back burner. And then I learned about the acting school. You
know, when I met you, right, I don't know who. I
think it was Pam, Pam Vixon who told me about the acting school.
I started dating Pam and and then I went to the acting school just because
I was curious about the film industry and the film business and so on.
Liked it. Met you at Jerry, Tiffy, met Niche, you know,
all these people who became friends. And then I brought my brother from
Syria, Gus, he came, and somebody from Los Angeles actually came that
I met in Los Angeles and told me he was editing a movie in Los
Angeles. And I said, sure, that's what I want to do.
And that's again when I just pack again and left everything to Gus and went
to Glendale where my apartment in Glendale. Yeah, we both moved to We
moved to LA at about the same time. I think you got there maybe
a month before me. And and yeah, yeah, we both had the
same plan. Make a bunch of money in Vegas, moved to LA and
get into the movie business. Yeah, so again went back to the movies,
you know, went to make movies and the rest is history. Well,
okay, so I'm actually, if you don't mind, I'm going to
split this episode into two parts, and then the second part will be going
to La. Okay, well, there you have it. That is the
end of part one of my interview with the incredible story of Joseph Mehrhee.
Come back next time for part two, where we will talk about Joe going
to La and getting into the movie business. If you can leave a review
rate the show. If you want to reach me, you can reach me
at Life as a Gamblepod at gmail dot com, or I'm on Twitter at
RWM twenty one. Until next time, The Bear Tiban