October 30, 2024 • 26 mins
In 1964, Hollywood came to Sharon. That's when Brandon deWIlde and his wife Susan bought a small Vermont farmhouse that had been left in disrepair. Brandon made his name on Broadway when he was eight years old. From there he carved out a career in film and TV, even garnering award nominations. At the time he was a star, but he grew tired of acting and wanted to make a career in music. That's when he met Gram Parsons who would become one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. In 1966, Brandon, Gram and some friends visited Sharon and stayed at the house I'd grow up in 20 years later. Learn more about deWilde, Parsons and their time in Sharon in episode three!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Before we get started with episode three, I want to let you know about some of the sources I used
(00:04):
for research in this episode. The first is Brandon DeWilde's biography, All Fall Down, written by
Patrisha McLean. Next is the book Breakfast and Nudie Suits by Ian Dunlop, who you will hear more
from in an interview in this episode. Finally, I'll read an excerpt of an article about DeWilda
titled DeWilde Disney's Tenderfoot by Harvey Pak from the October 14th, 1964 edition of the Rockland
(00:28):
County Journal News. When you find yourself traveling along an old dirt road in your town,
or even in a place you've never been, try to imagine the things that have happened there
and who might have lived there. The dirt road you're thinking of might be tree line bordered
(00:52):
by thick forests and hills with swamps on either side, or maybe it stretches off forever in a
straight line through a dusty desert. Your imagination probably doesn't take you to actors,
rock stars, and even drug traffickers, but there's a reason they say truth is stranger than fiction.
My name is Anthony Cerdelli. I'm a journalist, well, a sports journalist living in Southern
(01:15):
California. I'm about to tell you a story about the dirt road in Vermont that I grew up on.
When I found out the truth behind the urban legends about this small part of Sherin, Vermont,
the place where I spent a lot of my childhood, my mind was blown.
This is True Stories from an Old Dirt Road.
(01:48):
When you think about the places where Hollywood stars live or vacation, what immediately comes
to mind? Palatial estates in Beverly Hills or the Hollywood Hills, or fancy penthouse apartments in
New York City, right? How about where they vacation? It's probably a private beach somewhere in the
tropics, or a ritzy hotel in Greece or Tahiti. Maybe it's a mountain retreat in Sun Valley,
Idaho, or Park City, Utah, or the French Alps. You'd be right, but surprisingly, you'd also
(02:14):
be right if you said Vermont. Susan Sarandon is building a house there. Until recently,
Aerosmith's Joe Perry owned Sleepy Hollow Farm in Palmford, Vermont. You might also know it as the
farm that made news for being overrun by leaf-peeping TikTokers. Actor Luis Guzman makes his home in
Vermont. So does Bond girl Ana de Armas. Even writer and Russian dissident, Alexandra Solzhenitsyn,
(02:36):
lived in Vermont for a while. Vermont has been a country hideout for actors and musicians and other
celebrities going back a long time. You'd never think they actually lived at your house, though.
That was the case for me, because in 1964, more than two decades before my parents bought the house,
a young actor named Brandon DeWilda bought it with his young wife, Susan.
(02:59):
Before we go into more detail, it would help to know just how big of a deal DeWilda was. His breakout
role in the Broadway play, The Member of the Wedding, at just eight years old, set him up for
a successful TV and film career. At age 11, he'd been nominated for an Academy Award for his role
as Joey Starrett in the 1953 western Shane.
(03:45):
He lost out to none other than the chairman of the board, Frank Sinatra, for his portrayal
(04:06):
of Private Angelo Maggio in the classic war film From Here to Eternity. In 1956, at age 14,
he co-starred in the film Goodbye My Lady, which also featured Sidney Poitier. He made guest
appearances on TV, including a guest role on the legendary show Wagon Train in 1959. He co-starred
in the film Blue Denim in 1959 as well, alongside Carol Lindley. Blue Denim was one of the first
(04:30):
films in America to deal with teen pregnancy and was based on a Broadway play about two teens who
seek an abortion. His career continued to flourish. In 1962, he co-starred in the film All Fall Down
as Clinton Willard, alongside Warren Beatty, who played his older brother. It also starred Eva Marie
St., Karl Malden, and Angela Lansbury. In 1963, he portrayed Lonnie Bannon in the film HUD,
(04:53):
which was a resounding success. HUD garnered seven Academy Award nominations, winning three.
DeWilda's co-star Patricia Neal won for Best Actress, Melvin Douglas won for Best Supporting
Actor, and James Wong Howe won for Best Black and White Cinematography.
Though DeWilda was not nominated for an Oscar for HUD, he did accept the award on behalf of Melvin
(05:14):
Douglas. You can go look at the rest of DeWilda's IMDb page. It's pretty impressive. By 1964,
DeWilda was a young man and ready to start a life on his own, out from under the careful financial
and career management of his parents, Jeannie and Fritz. On July 1, 1964, Brandon and his wife Susan
purchased the Vermont farmhouse from Dorothy Brooks, who owned the home with her husband for
(05:36):
10 years. On the deed, Dorothy Brooks and her husband are listed as purchasing the house,
but when they sold it to DeWilda, it's just Dorothy Brooks' name on the deed, which makes me think her
husband passed away. DeWilda bought the house when his life was at a crossroads. He was tired of
being typecast for the same roles, which he found uninteresting. He also wanted to start a music
(05:57):
career, something that would steer his life in a new, much more volatile direction. DeWilda started
playing music and making friends with musicians, some very famous. Some would become famous. He
palled around with the Beatles as an acting consultant on the set of their film Help. He
(06:19):
befriended members of the popular 60s bands The Blues Magoos, including frontman Ralph Scala and
guitarist Joey Steck. He became very close with one-time member of the Birds and country rock
legend Graham Parsons, when Parsons was still making a name for himself. At the time, Parsons
was in the international submarine band, which I'll call ISB for short, along with Ian Dunlap,
(06:41):
ISB's bassist, who was a close friend of both Parsons and DeWilda. When DeWilda bought the
house and Sharon in 1964, it was in rough shape. That same year, he told Harvey Pack of the Rockland
County Journal News,
(07:23):
As soon as it got dark, the noises began. It's a strange thing, a fellow who's used to city life
can sleep through screaming fire engines, other people's radios going full blast, and construction
work, but put him in the country and every snapping twig is a cannon shot. The old place creaked,
the windows rattled, owls hooted, and I remembered every ghost story I'd ever read. The next thing I
(07:44):
knew, it was morning, and I was staring into the face of a deer, who had poked his nose through a
broken window. Near the end of the article, DeWilda says one more interesting thing, quote,
There's an old barn near the house in which I'm having a protection booth installed, but we'll
still keep some horses in the barn, which will make it the first ride in movie theater. Unfortunately,
(08:05):
I don't think DeWilda succeeded in that attempt. After reading Breakfast in Nudy Suits, I interviewed
Ian Dunlap about his trip with DeWilda and Parsons to the house in the summer of 1966.
I remember, of course, it was a beautiful time in the summer.
Probably it was a heat wave in New York, and it was definitely earliest summer when we were there.
(08:29):
I don't remember exactly if it was June or July or, you know, something like that. We played
probably every night almost, and we were just rehearsing our own stuff, and Graham was running
through a couple of songs that he had written that were semi-finished, or he was trying to finish
(08:53):
them, or we would try to all learn them, or how to deliver them, how to play them. And then we also did
like other acoustic playing with Brandon playing along as well, you know, because he
he played acoustic and sang. This is fascinating to me. ISB was one of Parsons' early bands,
(09:17):
and although they didn't hit it big and broke up soon after the trip to Vermont,
it served as an early form of experimentation for all the members of the band.
For those who don't know who Graham Parsons was, back in the late 1960s, until he died tragically
of an overdose at Joshua Tree National Park in 1973, he was a rising star. In 1968, he started
(09:38):
performing with the Byrdes. He stopped performing with the Byrdes in less than a year and started
his own band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, along with Dunlop, who left the band in 1969.
In 1969, the Flying Burrito Brothers released their album, The Gilded Place of Sin. Although the album
wasn't commercially successful at the time, its impact on country music, rock, and all country
(10:00):
have been huge. The album has been said to have heavily influenced the Eagles, Vince Gill, Alan
Jackson, Wilco, Emmylou Harris, and even Elvis Costello, and a lot more. In 2003, Rolling Stone
magazine named Gilded Place of Sin the 192nd best album of all time. Speaking of the legendary
Emmylou Harris, it was Parsons who was credited with discovering her and launching her career.
(10:25):
It was also very close with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, so much so that Richards wrote
his entry in Rolling Stone magazine's 2010 version of their 100 Greatest Artist lists.
Saying about Parsons, quote, I think he was just getting into his stride when he died.
His actual output, the number of records he made and sold was pretty minimal, but his effect on
country music is enormous. This is why we're talking about him now, but we can't know what his full
(10:50):
impact could have been. If Buddy Holly hadn't gotten on that plane or Eddie Cochran hadn't
turned the wrong corner, think of what stuff we could have looked forward to and be hearing now.
It would be phenomenal. It's fascinating to me that these jam sessions surely played a small part
in helping Parsons refine a sound he would later use to influence generations of successful
(11:12):
musicians, and that he and DeWilda played together at the house. Those guys hung out at my house,
the same place I thought was so boring when I was starting to listen to my favorite rock bands
at the start of my adolescence. There were other fascinating moments on the trip as well,
like Brandon expressing his disappointment with where his career had taken him.
(11:36):
I do remember when we were in the dining room in the house there in Vermont, that he was
talking about some of the scripts that he had been offered and how unadventurous and uninteresting
they were to him, but he couldn't break away from this sort of role that was always projected on him.
(12:02):
DeWilda was usually cast as the impressionable, baby-faced, innocent young man,
which stemmed from his success in roles as the innocent boy.
That bugged him a lot. I remember once we went down to New York, when we were living in New York,
so that would be in 66, and that trip to Vermont was later in 66. So this was in 66, and we went
(12:29):
down because some cinema was showing old westerns and they had Shane on. That was his big Hollywood
breakthrough. I remember we were sitting there watching it and everything like that, and then
Brandon pops up on the screen as a little blonde young 10 year old or whatever he was at the time,
(12:52):
and of course we started giggling about it. Oh look at how cute he is, you know, and Brandon said,
look, if anybody's gonna be like that, we can walk out of here right now.
DeWilda wasn't afraid to impart some career advice. Having been in show business since he was
in elementary school, he knew his way around managers and agents, and he was not a fan.
(13:16):
Especially while his friends in the international submarine band were getting updates on the
production of their new record while they were visiting him and Sharon. I think Graham was
speaking to him, and after the phone call, he was all like, what did he say? What did they say?
What's the news? What's happening? You know, everybody was keen to know, and then Brandon
(13:37):
would always have an opinion, well, I don't think he's being careful about that deal. I don't think
he can go. Brandon had much more experience. It wasn't all music and business. They got up to
some other shenanigans, especially with an old tractor left at the house from a previous owner.
Here's a short excerpt from Dunlop's book, Breakfast in Nudie Suits. Brandon had bought
(14:01):
several cans of spray paint. Instead of Farmall Red or John Deere Green, the colors were fluorescent
orange, headache pink, and acid puce. We had removed the caps and began shaking the cans when
Brandon said, hold on, wait a minute, I want to get my camera. I have to film this. After vibrant
tiger stripes were zigzagged across the hood, the joker's grin displayed on the radiator and swirling
(14:23):
spirals sprayed on the wheels. Brandon started up the embarrassed tractor and backed it spluttering
out of the barn. Dunlop goes on to describe the confusion of some locals they crossed paths with.
Coincidentally, one of the few cars that ever used the minor road approached. Uh oh, who's this out
there? Oh well, everyone wave, Brandon suggested. Might as well let them know we're friendly. As
(14:45):
the Ford Falcon passed, I saw only one hand respond to our greeting, a kid in the backseat.
The gaunt guy behind the wheel just stared open mouthed. Dunlop doesn't explicitly say they
dropped acid or LSD before painting the tractor. Odds are they didn't considering driving a truck
in that state of mind would have been pretty risky, but DeWilda was no stranger to hallucinogens,
(15:07):
especially in the coming years. So it's not out of the question. There were also other fascinating
moments you can read about in Dunlop's book. They flew kites, they tried to hunt deer with a 22
rifle and they played the Beatles revolver album so much Dunlop almost pulled his hair out. He told
Parsons of one unidentified song on the album, quote, it sounds like an all night robot factory
(15:28):
hammering and sawing up metal. I saw blue jolt of electricity and sparks flying everywhere.
Unfortunately for DeWilda, his marriage to Susan ended in divorce in 1969. His ownership of the
house and Sharon ended around that same time as well in 1968. According to the deed, DeWilda moved
(15:50):
to LA around the end of 1966 or the start of 1967. From there, according to Dunlop, he was
not able to come back east much and it's unclear whether he ever visited Sharon again. Either way,
by 1968 he had sold the house, but it's unclear whether he was forced to or not as part of his
divorce from Susan, which was finalized in 1969. In his book, Dunlop remembered the trip fondly.
(16:13):
He said, quote, I wonder what's happening at that old farm now. I think Brandon put it up for sale
after they moved to California. Someone's going to get a surprise when they open up the barn doors
and see a psychedelic tractor. It was a great week up there playing around like kids, getting away
from the city heat and being cool in Vermont. I hope for Dunlop our conversation brought things
(16:34):
full circle. I sent him some pictures of what the place looks like now. And in case you're
wondering, we never found a rusting psychedelic tractor out in the woods or anything, but Brandon
and friends almost certainly painted that door frame my mom mentioned last episode. I tried to
find out why exactly DeWilda sold the house and what happened to his home movies with the tractor,
but I failed. I couldn't find anyone else who had visited him at the house. I wasn't able to find his
(16:59):
ex-wife Susan. And when I tried to contact his son, Jesse, he didn't respond to my requests for an
interview. There is one more story from Dennis Mason, who claims to have met DeWilda at one point
at the house.
I met him one cold November day. I had my 39 Ford coupe and I came over in the dark to go deer
(17:22):
hunting. And because I wanted to go hunting up and back here, everything was wild on Tufsin. So I
parked my car right there by the side of the garage, went up in the woods, came out three hours later.
So Brandon, he was a very nice guy. He was a very nice guy. He was a very nice guy. He was a very
nice guy. So Brandon saw me coming across, coming out of the woods with my red colored clothes,
(17:48):
and he had a bodyguard with him. I had my pistol, which I always carried. I've had it since I was
18. I still use this, a.22 Ruger. I had it on my belt when I get into my car. It wasn't loaded or
anything like that. I just, I put my rifle over here. Like I say, it was an old Ford coupe. I put
my rifle over here and I turned around and they were here by the, not far from the car. And I
(18:14):
reached and I pulled around the pistol and that guy's eyes got... Oh wow. And we had a brief
conversation. I told him I was his neighbor and I didn't realize that he was here or I wouldn't have
come. And we just had a quick, quick little visit. Yeah. And I departed.
When I asked Dunlop about this, he didn't think DeWilda had ever had a bodyguard, but maybe it
(18:38):
was a buddy he brought up to Sharon. I did find out a lot more about DeWilda and his life from a
couple of his old friends, Joey Steck and Ralph Scala. Here's Joey Steck talking about what his
life was like after he moved to California full time. Yeah, I was saying that he moved to Bangor
Canyon with Susan and they were getting divorced. Susan and Jerd, Jerd was Jesse's name. They called
(19:02):
him Jerd. They lived upstairs at the Panga and then we, Brandon and I and Chris Elman, we all sat
around this fucking table for about four months. Oh wow. Just playing country songs, you know,
you know, wallowing about our women and stuff. Yeah, his woman was living upstairs. Yeah. So
(19:24):
it was, you know, it was pretty good, but Brandon was a wreck, you know, he was, he was like me,
he's really a hyper, you know, something like that. The divorce did a number on DeWilda.
He lost everything. But, you know, he, you know, Brandon had a bunch of money and stuff,
I believe under the direction of Fritz, his mother and his father. And then when Brandon
(19:46):
started going on his own, he started, you know, getting divorced, this and that. Susan was a
debutant and she kicked ass. She was a good chick, but, you know, she was just, she was another
Aries and it's like you put three Aries in a room and it was like boiling water. Here's DeWilda's
other friend, Ralph Scala. I remember, I read all about that. Do you, do you remember if he ever
(20:08):
said anything about the Vermont house, like that he liked it, that he regretted having to sell it,
that he was happy he had to sell it or anything? Do you have any lingering memories about what he
said about it? Lingering in the sense that I remember him talking about a Vermont house,
but I couldn't use two flyers. Well, it was worth a try, but Scala, like Dunlap,
(20:29):
noticed DeWilda's frustration with where his acting career had gone. His portrait was very upside
because you know how I'm trying to think along the terms of acting, how you get Brandon, that
ain't the right one. Typecast. He got typecast and he was adamant about not showing everybody how
(20:50):
pissed off she was, but it affected him a lot. It affected his income and he managed to, you know,
to make money. He was a good enough actor. He got calls all the time. I remember one time
he came back from Italy after doing a Western, spaghetti Western with $50,000 in his wallet.
(21:15):
Wow. He continued.
I didn't know what divorce was for him. I didn't know anything about divorces.
And actually I know he's got a house in what you call it Malibu.
You know what Malibu is? Yeah. Yeah. He had a house up there that he was getting attacked from
(21:42):
from his wife Susan. She was, he was attacking that ownership and the best part of the divorce.
He, and for what I can remember, he'd be coming around, you know, and we'd all be jamming and
whatnot. He's at this stage of his divorce. Eventually he had to leave the house and he rented
a house out in the valley. I forgot what town out in the valley, but it was pretty far out there.
(22:05):
He started living in this house out there and of course we all went out there and jammed,
brought the instruments, you know, when we were in town. That's how I got three friends with Brandon.
He would jam with us, you know, sitting. We, he got us, he got involved with writing songs.
Then he goes, take this album called The Dependable and Brandon got really involved with that, you
(22:26):
know, writing lyrics and playing guitar parts, going in the studio with us. As the 1960s came
to a close, DeWilda wasn't really able to make it big with his music and quit acting for a few years.
He palled around with Peter Fonda and David Crosby and as Joey Steck and Ralph Scala told me,
he struggled with the fallout from his 1969 divorce. He also fell more heavily into substance abuse,
(22:52):
but then he met Janis Garrow who would help him get clean and become his second wife. After he met
Garrow, his acting career started to gain more momentum, both on stage and screen. His final two
films, a spaghetti western titled The Devil's Backbone and an action comedy titled Wild in the
Sky, premiered in 1970 and 1972 respectively. Unfortunately, on July 6th, 1972, just after
(23:21):
finishing a string of stage performances in Denver, DeWilda died in a horrific car crash.
He was only 30 years old. Tragically, his friend Graham Parsons died 14 months later in Joshua Tree
National Park due to a drug overdose. He was 26. For Ian Dunlop, having both his friends die
was devastating. First DeWilda. He was a good pal. We spent a lot of time together. We did a lot of
(23:48):
stuff together. We played a lot of music together and also went on these rather crazy
improv ramblings that we would tape record some of them. And then Parsons. I was quite shocked.
(24:10):
The Grim Reaper hadn't come around knocking on the door so close to me before. One of my friends,
one of the people I spent intimate times with and being creative or being or laughing or hanging out
and we went through all sorts of stuff together about, you know, life's experiences and so on.
(24:39):
Yeah, real shock that that had been that faucet had been switched off, you know.
We had great times together, a bunch of us. Yeah. You know, Brandon and Graham.
Well, now you know. And if you lived or live in a small town, I hope this is just one reason
(25:00):
you might be motivated to dig into one of those myths you heard about. Whether it be looking on
your deed or reading a book by a local author about your town, you never know what or who you
might find. But there's more to come. In episode four, you'll hear about a recording studio next
door and how the band Fog Hat recorded one of the biggest classic rock hits of all time there.
(25:22):
If you want to hear more about Brandon DeWilda's life, please buy All Fall Down, the Brandon DeWilda
story by Patricia McClain. If you want to hear more about Ian Dunlap's long drive across America
and he and ISB's pursuit of music stardom and the early days of the Flying Bredo Brothers, please
read his memoirs Breakfast in Nudy Suits. You can find this podcast on every major hosting site,
(25:45):
like Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more. If you like it, please share it with others. It's a story I'm
passionate about telling and I'd love as many people to hear it as possible. Finally, if you
can, please give it a good rating so more people can discover it. Till next time.
(26:27):
you
Before we get started with episode three, I want to let you know about some of the sources I used
(00:04):
for research in this episode. The first is Brandon DeWilde's biography, All Fall Down, written by
Patrisha McLean. Next is the book Breakfast and Nudie Suits by Ian Dunlop, who you will hear more
from in an interview in this episode. Finally, I'll read an excerpt of an article about DeWilda
titled DeWilde Disney's Tenderfoot by Harvey Pak from the October 14th, 1964 edition of the Rockland
(00:28):
County Journal News. When you find yourself traveling along an old dirt road in your town,
or even in a place you've never been, try to imagine the things that have happened there
and who might have lived there. The dirt road you're thinking of might be tree line bordered
(00:52):
by thick forests and hills with swamps on either side, or maybe it stretches off forever in a
straight line through a dusty desert. Your imagination probably doesn't take you to actors,
rock stars, and even drug traffickers, but there's a reason they say truth is stranger than fiction.
My name is Anthony Cerdelli. I'm a journalist, well, a sports journalist living in Southern
(01:15):
California. I'm about to tell you a story about the dirt road in Vermont that I grew up on.
When I found out the truth behind the urban legends about this small part of Sherin, Vermont,
the place where I spent a lot of my childhood, my mind was blown.
This is True Stories from an Old Dirt Road.
(01:48):
When you think about the places where Hollywood stars live or vacation, what immediately comes
to mind? Palatial estates in Beverly Hills or the Hollywood Hills, or fancy penthouse apartments in
New York City, right? How about where they vacation? It's probably a private beach somewhere in the
tropics, or a ritzy hotel in Greece or Tahiti. Maybe it's a mountain retreat in Sun Valley,
Idaho, or Park City, Utah, or the French Alps. You'd be right, but surprisingly, you'd also
(02:14):
be right if you said Vermont. Susan Sarandon is building a house there. Until recently,
Aerosmith's Joe Perry owned Sleepy Hollow Farm in Palmford, Vermont. You might also know it as the
farm that made news for being overrun by leaf-peeping TikTokers. Actor Luis Guzman makes his home in
Vermont. So does Bond girl Ana de Armas. Even writer and Russian dissident, Alexandra Solzhenitsyn,
(02:36):
lived in Vermont for a while. Vermont has been a country hideout for actors and musicians and other
celebrities going back a long time. You'd never think they actually lived at your house, though.
That was the case for me, because in 1964, more than two decades before my parents bought the house,
a young actor named Brandon DeWilda bought it with his young wife, Susan.
(02:59):
Before we go into more detail, it would help to know just how big of a deal DeWilda was. His breakout
role in the Broadway play, The Member of the Wedding, at just eight years old, set him up for
a successful TV and film career. At age 11, he'd been nominated for an Academy Award for his role
as Joey Starrett in the 1953 western Shane.
(03:45):
He lost out to none other than the chairman of the board, Frank Sinatra, for his portrayal
(04:06):
of Private Angelo Maggio in the classic war film From Here to Eternity. In 1956, at age 14,
he co-starred in the film Goodbye My Lady, which also featured Sidney Poitier. He made guest
appearances on TV, including a guest role on the legendary show Wagon Train in 1959. He co-starred
in the film Blue Denim in 1959 as well, alongside Carol Lindley. Blue Denim was one of the first
(04:30):
films in America to deal with teen pregnancy and was based on a Broadway play about two teens who
seek an abortion. His career continued to flourish. In 1962, he co-starred in the film All Fall Down
as Clinton Willard, alongside Warren Beatty, who played his older brother. It also starred Eva Marie
St., Karl Malden, and Angela Lansbury. In 1963, he portrayed Lonnie Bannon in the film HUD,
(04:53):
which was a resounding success. HUD garnered seven Academy Award nominations, winning three.
DeWilda's co-star Patricia Neal won for Best Actress, Melvin Douglas won for Best Supporting
Actor, and James Wong Howe won for Best Black and White Cinematography.
Though DeWilda was not nominated for an Oscar for HUD, he did accept the award on behalf of Melvin
(05:14):
Douglas. You can go look at the rest of DeWilda's IMDb page. It's pretty impressive. By 1964,
DeWilda was a young man and ready to start a life on his own, out from under the careful financial
and career management of his parents, Jeannie and Fritz. On July 1, 1964, Brandon and his wife Susan
purchased the Vermont farmhouse from Dorothy Brooks, who owned the home with her husband for
(05:36):
10 years. On the deed, Dorothy Brooks and her husband are listed as purchasing the house,
but when they sold it to DeWilda, it's just Dorothy Brooks' name on the deed, which makes me think her
husband passed away. DeWilda bought the house when his life was at a crossroads. He was tired of
being typecast for the same roles, which he found uninteresting. He also wanted to start a music
(05:57):
career, something that would steer his life in a new, much more volatile direction. DeWilda started
playing music and making friends with musicians, some very famous. Some would become famous. He
palled around with the Beatles as an acting consultant on the set of their film Help. He
(06:19):
befriended members of the popular 60s bands The Blues Magoos, including frontman Ralph Scala and
guitarist Joey Steck. He became very close with one-time member of the Birds and country rock
legend Graham Parsons, when Parsons was still making a name for himself. At the time, Parsons
was in the international submarine band, which I'll call ISB for short, along with Ian Dunlap,
(06:41):
ISB's bassist, who was a close friend of both Parsons and DeWilda. When DeWilda bought the
house and Sharon in 1964, it was in rough shape. That same year, he told Harvey Pack of the Rockland
County Journal News,
(07:23):
As soon as it got dark, the noises began. It's a strange thing, a fellow who's used to city life
can sleep through screaming fire engines, other people's radios going full blast, and construction
work, but put him in the country and every snapping twig is a cannon shot. The old place creaked,
the windows rattled, owls hooted, and I remembered every ghost story I'd ever read. The next thing I
(07:44):
knew, it was morning, and I was staring into the face of a deer, who had poked his nose through a
broken window. Near the end of the article, DeWilda says one more interesting thing, quote,
There's an old barn near the house in which I'm having a protection booth installed, but we'll
still keep some horses in the barn, which will make it the first ride in movie theater. Unfortunately,
(08:05):
I don't think DeWilda succeeded in that attempt. After reading Breakfast in Nudy Suits, I interviewed
Ian Dunlap about his trip with DeWilda and Parsons to the house in the summer of 1966.
I remember, of course, it was a beautiful time in the summer.
Probably it was a heat wave in New York, and it was definitely earliest summer when we were there.
(08:29):
I don't remember exactly if it was June or July or, you know, something like that. We played
probably every night almost, and we were just rehearsing our own stuff, and Graham was running
through a couple of songs that he had written that were semi-finished, or he was trying to finish
(08:53):
them, or we would try to all learn them, or how to deliver them, how to play them. And then we also did
like other acoustic playing with Brandon playing along as well, you know, because he
he played acoustic and sang. This is fascinating to me. ISB was one of Parsons' early bands,
(09:17):
and although they didn't hit it big and broke up soon after the trip to Vermont,
it served as an early form of experimentation for all the members of the band.
For those who don't know who Graham Parsons was, back in the late 1960s, until he died tragically
of an overdose at Joshua Tree National Park in 1973, he was a rising star. In 1968, he started
(09:38):
performing with the Byrdes. He stopped performing with the Byrdes in less than a year and started
his own band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, along with Dunlop, who left the band in 1969.
In 1969, the Flying Burrito Brothers released their album, The Gilded Place of Sin. Although the album
wasn't commercially successful at the time, its impact on country music, rock, and all country
(10:00):
have been huge. The album has been said to have heavily influenced the Eagles, Vince Gill, Alan
Jackson, Wilco, Emmylou Harris, and even Elvis Costello, and a lot more. In 2003, Rolling Stone
magazine named Gilded Place of Sin the 192nd best album of all time. Speaking of the legendary
Emmylou Harris, it was Parsons who was credited with discovering her and launching her career.
(10:25):
It was also very close with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, so much so that Richards wrote
his entry in Rolling Stone magazine's 2010 version of their 100 Greatest Artist lists.
Saying about Parsons, quote, I think he was just getting into his stride when he died.
His actual output, the number of records he made and sold was pretty minimal, but his effect on
country music is enormous. This is why we're talking about him now, but we can't know what his full
(10:50):
impact could have been. If Buddy Holly hadn't gotten on that plane or Eddie Cochran hadn't
turned the wrong corner, think of what stuff we could have looked forward to and be hearing now.
It would be phenomenal. It's fascinating to me that these jam sessions surely played a small part
in helping Parsons refine a sound he would later use to influence generations of successful
(11:12):
musicians, and that he and DeWilda played together at the house. Those guys hung out at my house,
the same place I thought was so boring when I was starting to listen to my favorite rock bands
at the start of my adolescence. There were other fascinating moments on the trip as well,
like Brandon expressing his disappointment with where his career had taken him.
(11:36):
I do remember when we were in the dining room in the house there in Vermont, that he was
talking about some of the scripts that he had been offered and how unadventurous and uninteresting
they were to him, but he couldn't break away from this sort of role that was always projected on him.
(12:02):
DeWilda was usually cast as the impressionable, baby-faced, innocent young man,
which stemmed from his success in roles as the innocent boy.
That bugged him a lot. I remember once we went down to New York, when we were living in New York,
so that would be in 66, and that trip to Vermont was later in 66. So this was in 66, and we went
(12:29):
down because some cinema was showing old westerns and they had Shane on. That was his big Hollywood
breakthrough. I remember we were sitting there watching it and everything like that, and then
Brandon pops up on the screen as a little blonde young 10 year old or whatever he was at the time,
(12:52):
and of course we started giggling about it. Oh look at how cute he is, you know, and Brandon said,
look, if anybody's gonna be like that, we can walk out of here right now.
DeWilda wasn't afraid to impart some career advice. Having been in show business since he was
in elementary school, he knew his way around managers and agents, and he was not a fan.
(13:16):
Especially while his friends in the international submarine band were getting updates on the
production of their new record while they were visiting him and Sharon. I think Graham was
speaking to him, and after the phone call, he was all like, what did he say? What did they say?
What's the news? What's happening? You know, everybody was keen to know, and then Brandon
(13:37):
would always have an opinion, well, I don't think he's being careful about that deal. I don't think
he can go. Brandon had much more experience. It wasn't all music and business. They got up to
some other shenanigans, especially with an old tractor left at the house from a previous owner.
Here's a short excerpt from Dunlop's book, Breakfast in Nudie Suits. Brandon had bought
(14:01):
several cans of spray paint. Instead of Farmall Red or John Deere Green, the colors were fluorescent
orange, headache pink, and acid puce. We had removed the caps and began shaking the cans when
Brandon said, hold on, wait a minute, I want to get my camera. I have to film this. After vibrant
tiger stripes were zigzagged across the hood, the joker's grin displayed on the radiator and swirling
(14:23):
spirals sprayed on the wheels. Brandon started up the embarrassed tractor and backed it spluttering
out of the barn. Dunlop goes on to describe the confusion of some locals they crossed paths with.
Coincidentally, one of the few cars that ever used the minor road approached. Uh oh, who's this out
there? Oh well, everyone wave, Brandon suggested. Might as well let them know we're friendly. As
(14:45):
the Ford Falcon passed, I saw only one hand respond to our greeting, a kid in the backseat.
The gaunt guy behind the wheel just stared open mouthed. Dunlop doesn't explicitly say they
dropped acid or LSD before painting the tractor. Odds are they didn't considering driving a truck
in that state of mind would have been pretty risky, but DeWilda was no stranger to hallucinogens,
(15:07):
especially in the coming years. So it's not out of the question. There were also other fascinating
moments you can read about in Dunlop's book. They flew kites, they tried to hunt deer with a 22
rifle and they played the Beatles revolver album so much Dunlop almost pulled his hair out. He told
Parsons of one unidentified song on the album, quote, it sounds like an all night robot factory
(15:28):
hammering and sawing up metal. I saw blue jolt of electricity and sparks flying everywhere.
Unfortunately for DeWilda, his marriage to Susan ended in divorce in 1969. His ownership of the
house and Sharon ended around that same time as well in 1968. According to the deed, DeWilda moved
(15:50):
to LA around the end of 1966 or the start of 1967. From there, according to Dunlop, he was
not able to come back east much and it's unclear whether he ever visited Sharon again. Either way,
by 1968 he had sold the house, but it's unclear whether he was forced to or not as part of his
divorce from Susan, which was finalized in 1969. In his book, Dunlop remembered the trip fondly.
(16:13):
He said, quote, I wonder what's happening at that old farm now. I think Brandon put it up for sale
after they moved to California. Someone's going to get a surprise when they open up the barn doors
and see a psychedelic tractor. It was a great week up there playing around like kids, getting away
from the city heat and being cool in Vermont. I hope for Dunlop our conversation brought things
(16:34):
full circle. I sent him some pictures of what the place looks like now. And in case you're
wondering, we never found a rusting psychedelic tractor out in the woods or anything, but Brandon
and friends almost certainly painted that door frame my mom mentioned last episode. I tried to
find out why exactly DeWilda sold the house and what happened to his home movies with the tractor,
but I failed. I couldn't find anyone else who had visited him at the house. I wasn't able to find his
(16:59):
ex-wife Susan. And when I tried to contact his son, Jesse, he didn't respond to my requests for an
interview. There is one more story from Dennis Mason, who claims to have met DeWilda at one point
at the house.
I met him one cold November day. I had my 39 Ford coupe and I came over in the dark to go deer
(17:22):
hunting. And because I wanted to go hunting up and back here, everything was wild on Tufsin. So I
parked my car right there by the side of the garage, went up in the woods, came out three hours later.
So Brandon, he was a very nice guy. He was a very nice guy. He was a very nice guy. He was a very
nice guy. So Brandon saw me coming across, coming out of the woods with my red colored clothes,
(17:48):
and he had a bodyguard with him. I had my pistol, which I always carried. I've had it since I was
18. I still use this, a.22 Ruger. I had it on my belt when I get into my car. It wasn't loaded or
anything like that. I just, I put my rifle over here. Like I say, it was an old Ford coupe. I put
my rifle over here and I turned around and they were here by the, not far from the car. And I
(18:14):
reached and I pulled around the pistol and that guy's eyes got... Oh wow. And we had a brief
conversation. I told him I was his neighbor and I didn't realize that he was here or I wouldn't have
come. And we just had a quick, quick little visit. Yeah. And I departed.
When I asked Dunlop about this, he didn't think DeWilda had ever had a bodyguard, but maybe it
(18:38):
was a buddy he brought up to Sharon. I did find out a lot more about DeWilda and his life from a
couple of his old friends, Joey Steck and Ralph Scala. Here's Joey Steck talking about what his
life was like after he moved to California full time. Yeah, I was saying that he moved to Bangor
Canyon with Susan and they were getting divorced. Susan and Jerd, Jerd was Jesse's name. They called
(19:02):
him Jerd. They lived upstairs at the Panga and then we, Brandon and I and Chris Elman, we all sat
around this fucking table for about four months. Oh wow. Just playing country songs, you know,
you know, wallowing about our women and stuff. Yeah, his woman was living upstairs. Yeah. So
(19:24):
it was, you know, it was pretty good, but Brandon was a wreck, you know, he was, he was like me,
he's really a hyper, you know, something like that. The divorce did a number on DeWilda.
He lost everything. But, you know, he, you know, Brandon had a bunch of money and stuff,
I believe under the direction of Fritz, his mother and his father. And then when Brandon
(19:46):
started going on his own, he started, you know, getting divorced, this and that. Susan was a
debutant and she kicked ass. She was a good chick, but, you know, she was just, she was another
Aries and it's like you put three Aries in a room and it was like boiling water. Here's DeWilda's
other friend, Ralph Scala. I remember, I read all about that. Do you, do you remember if he ever
(20:08):
said anything about the Vermont house, like that he liked it, that he regretted having to sell it,
that he was happy he had to sell it or anything? Do you have any lingering memories about what he
said about it? Lingering in the sense that I remember him talking about a Vermont house,
but I couldn't use two flyers. Well, it was worth a try, but Scala, like Dunlap,
(20:29):
noticed DeWilda's frustration with where his acting career had gone. His portrait was very upside
because you know how I'm trying to think along the terms of acting, how you get Brandon, that
ain't the right one. Typecast. He got typecast and he was adamant about not showing everybody how
(20:50):
pissed off she was, but it affected him a lot. It affected his income and he managed to, you know,
to make money. He was a good enough actor. He got calls all the time. I remember one time
he came back from Italy after doing a Western, spaghetti Western with $50,000 in his wallet.
(21:15):
Wow. He continued.
I didn't know what divorce was for him. I didn't know anything about divorces.
And actually I know he's got a house in what you call it Malibu.
You know what Malibu is? Yeah. Yeah. He had a house up there that he was getting attacked from
(21:42):
from his wife Susan. She was, he was attacking that ownership and the best part of the divorce.
He, and for what I can remember, he'd be coming around, you know, and we'd all be jamming and
whatnot. He's at this stage of his divorce. Eventually he had to leave the house and he rented
a house out in the valley. I forgot what town out in the valley, but it was pretty far out there.
(22:05):
He started living in this house out there and of course we all went out there and jammed,
brought the instruments, you know, when we were in town. That's how I got three friends with Brandon.
He would jam with us, you know, sitting. We, he got us, he got involved with writing songs.
Then he goes, take this album called The Dependable and Brandon got really involved with that, you
(22:26):
know, writing lyrics and playing guitar parts, going in the studio with us. As the 1960s came
to a close, DeWilda wasn't really able to make it big with his music and quit acting for a few years.
He palled around with Peter Fonda and David Crosby and as Joey Steck and Ralph Scala told me,
he struggled with the fallout from his 1969 divorce. He also fell more heavily into substance abuse,
(22:52):
but then he met Janis Garrow who would help him get clean and become his second wife. After he met
Garrow, his acting career started to gain more momentum, both on stage and screen. His final two
films, a spaghetti western titled The Devil's Backbone and an action comedy titled Wild in the
Sky, premiered in 1970 and 1972 respectively. Unfortunately, on July 6th, 1972, just after
(23:21):
finishing a string of stage performances in Denver, DeWilda died in a horrific car crash.
He was only 30 years old. Tragically, his friend Graham Parsons died 14 months later in Joshua Tree
National Park due to a drug overdose. He was 26. For Ian Dunlop, having both his friends die
was devastating. First DeWilda. He was a good pal. We spent a lot of time together. We did a lot of
(23:48):
stuff together. We played a lot of music together and also went on these rather crazy
improv ramblings that we would tape record some of them. And then Parsons. I was quite shocked.
(24:10):
The Grim Reaper hadn't come around knocking on the door so close to me before. One of my friends,
one of the people I spent intimate times with and being creative or being or laughing or hanging out
and we went through all sorts of stuff together about, you know, life's experiences and so on.
(24:39):
Yeah, real shock that that had been that faucet had been switched off, you know.
We had great times together, a bunch of us. Yeah. You know, Brandon and Graham.
Well, now you know. And if you lived or live in a small town, I hope this is just one reason
(25:00):
you might be motivated to dig into one of those myths you heard about. Whether it be looking on
your deed or reading a book by a local author about your town, you never know what or who you
might find. But there's more to come. In episode four, you'll hear about a recording studio next
door and how the band Fog Hat recorded one of the biggest classic rock hits of all time there.
(25:22):
If you want to hear more about Brandon DeWilda's life, please buy All Fall Down, the Brandon DeWilda
story by Patricia McClain. If you want to hear more about Ian Dunlap's long drive across America
and he and ISB's pursuit of music stardom and the early days of the Flying Bredo Brothers, please
read his memoirs Breakfast in Nudy Suits. You can find this podcast on every major hosting site,
(25:45):
like Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more. If you like it, please share it with others. It's a story I'm
passionate about telling and I'd love as many people to hear it as possible. Finally, if you
can, please give it a good rating so more people can discover it. Till next time.
(26:27):
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