TRAVOLTA - ALI - THE BEACH BOYS - DONNA SUMMER - CARROLL SHELBY - CHUCK WILLIAMS AKA BB1

On New years Eve, 1980, Gene, Georgia and I drove to

Santa Barbara to visit my cousin Chuck for the weekend.  Chuck was well known around Montecito..... not just because he was from the Maybelline family, but because he managed the Santa Barbara bowl and was personal friends with the Beach Boys.  He also had a charisma that gravitated celebrities and always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.  Here is one of my favorite memories of him in action.

This is what  John Travolta looked like on New Years Eve, 1980.
Seen here with Catherine Deneuve and Gerard  Depardieu.

We met Chuck at The Old World Cafe, in Santa Barbara for a quick burger, before heading to his house to bring in 1981.  After dinner Chuck got up to go to the bathroom while we finished up and got ready to leave.  When he returned he was with this really cute guy, who I thought was one of his buddies, by the way they were joking around.  But It turns out the cute guy was no other than..... 
John Travolta, who was starring in
Urban Cowboy that year and having dinner with
Muhammad Ali and his family in a private room,
 right next to us. 

John Travolta, in Urban Cowboy, 1980.

Chuck introduced him to us, saying they just met for the first time in the bathroom. Travolta seemed taken with three year old Georgia and said, "what a beautiful child," than asked if he could take her to meet Ali, (who just happened to be Chuck's all time idol.)

Muhammad Ali in 1980.

Travolta took Georgia's hand and led her into the private room, where Ali and his wife and children were dining.  We didn't go in, but stood at the door and watched as Ali said,  "My My, what a purtty little girl you are" and asked her if he could pick her up.  She shook her head yes and he lifted her up onto his lap and looked at her big blue eyes up close.  It was a thrill for Gene, Chuck and me to see the world's greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, 
make over our baby girl. 

Another time, at a Beach Boy concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Chuck introduced Georgia to Brian Wilson and he posed for a picture with his arm on her shoulder.  Chuck still has the picture hanging in his office 30 years later. 

Chuck with his fan club.

My cousin Chuck aka BB1, or Beach Boy 1.....meaning number one Beach Boy Fan, according to his friend Mike Love, lead singer of the Beach Boys, is still a celebrity in Montecito..... but when he bought his Factory 5, Cobra in 2009 his status shot to the moon.

Chuck Williams Factory 5 Cobra.

There is no other car that can rival the King Cobra or turn heads, give double takes or draw chicks like Carroll Shelby's blue and white striped convertible racing car.  The Cobra will go down in history.....Like Muhammad Ali and the Beach Boys.....as "the greatest" car ever!!!!

Carroll Shelby's personal $5,500,000.00

427 Cobra, at Barrett Jackson classic car auction.  

The Beach Boy's 2012, 50th Anniversary tour. If you're at the Santa Barbara Bowl, May 28th for the 6:00 Beach Boy concert look for Chuck and his entourage near the front row and say hi.....

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                          Carroll Shelby, RIP you will be missed!!!

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   DONNA SUMMER YOU WILL BE MISSED!!!

                         QUEEN OF THE 1970'S DISCO, 
              DONNA SUMMER, PASSED AWAY TODAY.
                                        "LAST DANCE."