While my great uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, was negotiating the sale of the Maybellne Company in 1967..... which can only be described as..... "the calm before the storm,"..... there was a special guy in my life, who helped me survive the changes, in one piece, while having fun, fun, fun.....
I met Al Hall, in January, 1967, shortly after he returned from active duty in the Marines - at the famous hot spot in West LA called The RF - Soon I was dancing to Al's band.... The U.S. Males.... at another wild bar and dance place called The Bluebook, in Manhattan Beach.
Al's band eventually got the gig in Westwood Village at "MOM's," the number one, most popular dance place in town, where UCLA students hung out.....
Mom's was the place to be seen!!
and I was seen there every night, dancing,
while Al played his guitar.
It was the most fun ever!!!
Al became a positive force in my life, before and after the sale of the Maybelline Company, and kept me focused on having fun and not stressing over the changes going on in my family. This picture of us was taken in Las Vegas, late 1967, during my Ursula Andress
look alike days.
Al always challenged me to go beyond my comfort zone, which drove me crazy, but I never said no. He took this picture of me in a cave near Santa Barbara, and though I don't look too happy, I was proud I climbed up the rocks and posed, during my Doris Day period, before the sale of the Maybelline Company.
Al took this picture of me during my Daisy Mae - Sandra Dee Period, at my grandmother, Evelyn Williams, penthouse in Marina Del Rey - Summer of 1968, after the sale of the Maybelline Company ....
While the country was going through one of the most tumultuous periods in history, I struggled as well, adjusting to my parents overnight wealth.
Here I am not too happy with Al, snapping my picture on my grandmothers deck, during one of my dinner parties given at her penthouse in the Marina. I was in my Nancy Sinatra period, still trying to figure out who I was on the outside, but it would take years before I developed the real me inside.
Again looking slightly reluctant as Al, once again, made me pose for the camera. I was decked out for another fun night dancing at Mom's, to The U.S. Males!!!
Here we are right before I moved out of Culver City, to Lido Isle, in Newport Beach, California, in 1969. I'm now in my Mia Farrow period, ready to embrace a new lifestyle, after my parents built a home on the water, with a 50 ft yacht moored outside in the bay.
 |
Al and Sharrie in 1970,....at my parents 25th mock Wedding, in our new home on Lido Isle, Newport Beach. A nightmare experience. Details in my book, The Maybelline Story.
|
From that point on my life changed so quickly it made my head spin. But during those four wonderful, innocent, transitional years, with Al Hall, I felt safe and protected as my handsome Marine walked me to the threshold of my new life - and we said goodbye.
Read all about it in my memoir, The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. You won't be able to put it down, so don't read it in bed!
More about Al and Sharrie:
DANCING TO LIVE BANDS IN THE 1960s.
By the late 1960's, a new venue for dancing to live bands, came in the form of..... neighborhood Beer Halls.
