#193 - Debora Masterson - Author

Unknown Speaker (0:05): It's still relevant today lyrically, which is crazy.

Unknown Speaker (0:08): Chris, Chris, are you a drummer?

Unknown Speaker (0:10): No. I was a singer.

Unknown Speaker (0:12): Singer? Okay.

Unknown Speaker (0:13): I'm a singer.

Unknown Speaker (0:13): I'm a guitar player, obviously.

Unknown Speaker (0:15): Mike? He's guitar player. What do you play, Mike? Guitar?

Unknown Speaker (0:18): I play guitar.

Unknown Speaker (0:19): Do you guys listen to the Freedomcrest music at all?

Unknown Speaker (0:23): No. But I'm going to now on your recommendation.

Unknown Speaker (0:34): My brother had a band like this. I remember back in the day.

Unknown Speaker (0:37): Yeah. Nice. It's a lot of it was a lot of fun.

Unknown Speaker (0:41): He was the lead singer. And

Unknown Speaker (0:43): Yeah. That was this guy.

Unknown Speaker (0:45): Yeah. It was a lot of fun swinging from raptors and getting the crowd riled up. You know? Where my extrovert in this shined. Yeah.

Chris Heesmicha (0:59): Hey, boys and girls, welcome to the Chris and Mike Show. I'm Chris Heesmicha. With us today is Deborah Masterson. She's super cool. She has an amazing life resume.

Chris Heesmicha (1:07): But before we get to their portion of the show is brought to you by Riverside FN, the one and only choice for your podcasting platforms. Remember, are streaming live right now on Twitch, YouTube, and christandmikeshow.com. And hey, Philip, can you see us? Philip connected us with Debra, so he came. We got to say hi to Philip because he's supposed right to be on now watching us live and in person.

Chris Heesmicha (1:31): And we're also now almost, I think so, over 80 countries around the world.

Unknown Speaker (1:36): Over 80 countries.

Chris Heesmicha (1:38): Growing, growing like wildfire And for sure

Mike (1:42): welcome Vietnam because they are now over 10% of our listenership.

Unknown Speaker (1:46): That's awesome.

Chris Heesmicha (1:48): Right? We only speak Vietnamese. I don't know how

Unknown Speaker (1:53): to say that. Vietnamese.

Unknown Speaker (1:57): No, thank you.

Unknown Speaker (1:57): Welcome So to

Chris Heesmicha (1:58): we're on an elevator, 30 floors up with Deborah Masterson. She's going to tell us why she's here, what she's all about. And then we're going dive into just a fantastic conversation with this woman who has just an absolute amazing life resume. You ready, Deborah?

Unknown Speaker (2:10): Yeah, I'm ready.

Unknown Speaker (2:11): Go! Alright.

Unknown Speaker (2:13): Oh my gosh. Well the reason I'm here is because I wrote a book. I never thought I would do. Awesome. But I did.

Unknown Speaker (2:20): And so

Unknown Speaker (2:20): it's called

Unknown Speaker (2:21): Freedom Quest. There it is.

Unknown Speaker (2:22): Woo hoo!

Deborah Masterson (2:23): Nice. Freedom Quest, a love story. And yeah, I mean, I don't know how much you want me to talk about my career. I mean, I've done a lot of things.

Chris Heesmicha (2:34): You could talk, know you have. That's why when I kind of gave Mike the summary because you really have a really cool life resume. So this conversation goes however you want to go with it. So you want to talk about your book? We'll talk about your book.

Unknown Speaker (2:47): You want to talk about going from LA to Chicago? We can talk about that. We can talk about your music. Can talk about the new book you're writing. You want, Debra.

Chris Heesmicha (2:54): Anything.

Unknown Speaker (2:55): The world is your oyster.

Deborah Masterson (2:58): Yeah, so I, you know, everybody asks me, Oh, you know, was writing a book like something you had, you know, on your, wanted to do for your whole life and this is, you know, like that. And actually, no, I never thought I would write a book. Kind of looking at my background, it makes sense. I loved to read my whole life.

Unknown Speaker (3:22): I

Deborah Masterson (3:24): was a dancer and French major. So I had a double major all the way through school. Started studying French when I was 12.

Unknown Speaker (3:34): What kind of dance? And

Unknown Speaker (3:36): all kinds of dance. Mean, I started when I was seven with tap and ballet. I took ballet my whole time. You know, when I was dancing, I don't dance anymore. But, always loved to sing.

Deborah Masterson (3:52): I grew up in a very musical family. My dad played classical piano and also all of the standards, you know, the pop songs. And my mom was a singer. She wanted to be a singer, but end of World War II, her mom ended up getting divorced and her only brother died in Iwo Jima. So she had to go to work and help her mom out.

Deborah Masterson (4:19): It was just the two of them at that point. So, you know, she wasn't able to pursue this musical career she wanted to do. But you know what? My dad had all these records because he was a radio announcer after the war. Was in New Caledonia.

Deborah Masterson (4:35): That's awesome. And then he came back to Hollywood and he started out as a radio announcer. And he, back in the day, they used to like, they were able to cut records at the studio. Really? Yeah.

Deborah Masterson (4:49): So my brother and I inherited a bunch of records from my dad and some of them were just records that he used on his shows and stuff. But we found, my brother was listening to them one day and he goes, Oh my God, we have a record of mom singing with a big band in Oh, Long

Unknown Speaker (5:05): right on!

Deborah Masterson (5:07): Was so great, and the only way we knew it was her was because at the end of the song, the announcer goes, and that was Adele Masterson singing and Mighty Fine, Mighty Fine. I mean, we're talking 1930, '35, '35 maybe.

Unknown Speaker (5:23): Wow. That's 1930 so five. Cool. That is

Unknown Speaker (5:28): so cool.

Deborah Masterson (5:28): Came up, grew up with a, in a musical family. You know, I remember we'd all hang out around the piano and, we'd sing, you know, my dad would play and we'd all sing. Then my mom, God rest her soul, she would sing the harmony in my ear. And she would sing the hard parts, the hard, And you know, like three part harmony with she would sing it in my ear. And so I became really good, really good at harmony singing it, which is my favorite.

Deborah Masterson (5:58): I love singing with other people in groups, know, like three or four part harmony. Yeah. So, yeah. So, you know, I started dancing. Well, I started dancing when I was young.

Deborah Masterson (6:12): Yeah. Basically, you know, my parents gave me dance lessons so that I would be graceful enough to get a husband.

Unknown Speaker (6:22): That's totally I was the sign of the times back then, right? Because that was absolutley.

Unknown Speaker (6:29): I was born in 1950. My

Unknown Speaker (6:33): god. You had a, that's a great twenty, first twenty years of a life to live. Right? That's a great season. Cause that's the year my parents were Wow.

Unknown Speaker (6:41): Yeah. Wow. That's awesome.

Deborah Masterson (6:43): So my, my brothers got guitar lessons, got music lessons, but I, they would, they didn't want their only daughter hanging out with musicians.

Unknown Speaker (6:51): Of not. Yeah. Course not. So

Deborah Masterson (6:52): I had to become graceful to get a husband. Unfortunately I didn't get music lessons, but I, so I went into dancing, I realized I had, I love to sing, so I couldn't just dance. So I thought musical theater is the place for me where I could dance and sing. I went into musical theater that's how I ended up on the road with Sammy Davis Jr. Right.

Chris Heesmicha (7:15): So let's talk about that. Let's talk about Sammy because Sammy picks you specifically, right?

Deborah Masterson (7:22): Yeah. Well, was hired, you know, the production company, you know, Sammy and Hilard Elkins, and they had this show called Sammy Stops the World. Was in 1978. And I was the least prepared for that audition of any audition I had been to. That's what I did.

Unknown Speaker (7:44): Mean, went to auditions and then I, you know, did the show and then the show would end and I think, Oh my God, I'm never going to work again. I'm going to get cut. And, you know,

Unknown Speaker (7:53): I would go

Unknown Speaker (7:54): through all

Unknown Speaker (7:54): these, you know?

Deborah Masterson (7:56): Yeah. And, and, so anyway, was, I was, I would go up to on Hollywood Boulevard. I grew up in LA, Hollywood Boulevard, pick up the magazine, casting call magazine every week. And I go through and I jot down all the auditions. So, you know, I think it was a Monday morning and I go up there and get the casting call.

Deborah Masterson (8:15): I get back at my car and I'm kind of leafing through it and I'm seeing Sammy Davis Jr. Audition for Sammy Stops the World in two hours. I'm like, my God, I got to be there. So I ran home, showered real quick, went back and truly I was the least prepared for that audition of any auditions I had ever been to. And I got the job.

Unknown Speaker (8:35): I think that's, that's a good lesson to learn. You know, it's like, I went in there casually, you know, it's like,

Unknown Speaker (8:42): How old are you I'm at this point, Deborah?

Deborah Masterson (8:44): I was 27.

Unknown Speaker (8:45): Okay. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (8:46): I was towards the end of my career. I finally, after, after that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, dancers, you know, doesn't

Unknown Speaker (8:54): last Oh yeah. Yeah. That's definitely so hard on the body.

Unknown Speaker (8:57): Yeah. Yeah.

Deborah Masterson (9:00): And you know, it's like, you can't do what you used to do. I mean, by the time you're 30, 35 years old, you usually dancers are like, oh, okay, what am I going to do now? Same thing with gymnasts and athletes, high end athletes. Anyway, so I walked in and I'm like, they go, What do you want to sing? I'm like, Oh, I don't know.

Deborah Masterson (9:22): Summertime in the QC. You know, and I was so casual about it. I think that helped too.

Unknown Speaker (9:27): Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure.

Deborah Masterson (9:29): They didn't do this, you know? Anyway, it was a very heady experience on the road. We were on the road for four months in, San Diego, LA, Chicago, my first time in Chicago, 1970

Chris Heesmicha (9:45): then, So how was Chicago back in the seventies?

Deborah Masterson (9:49): Well, was, I was only there, you know, what, couple of weeks or something like that. I remember I stayed in a hotel I used to jog on the lake. Now you guys are in Arizona. Is that right?

Chris Heesmicha (10:02): I'm in Illinois. Yeah. Mike's in Illinois.

Unknown Speaker (10:05): In where?

Unknown Speaker (10:06): I'm in Central Illinois.

Unknown Speaker (10:07): Oh, you are in Illinois. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (10:10): And I'm

Unknown Speaker (10:11): in Arizona.

Unknown Speaker (10:11): I'm in Arizona. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (10:13): Okay. Yeah. I knew.

Chris Heesmicha (10:14): That's the desert behind me.

Unknown Speaker (10:17): About an hour east of Peoria.

Unknown Speaker (10:19): You're an hour east of what? Peoria. Peoria. Okay. I'm kind of, I'm starting to get my bearings, you know, I I've been here.

Deborah Masterson (10:26): It'll be three years, May 30. I'm in Rogers Park.

Unknown Speaker (10:30): So I'm about two hours south of you.

Unknown Speaker (10:33): South. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (10:34): Straight down 55.

Unknown Speaker (10:35): Okay. Okay. Great. Got it.

Unknown Speaker (10:38): Yeah. You guys could go have lunch together sometime.

Unknown Speaker (10:42): Sure. If I'm ever around Chicago, we're going to do that.

Deborah Masterson (10:44): Please do. I'm, I'm up in Rogers Park. I love it up here. It's great. A lot of, a lot of music, a lot of artists.

Deborah Masterson (10:51): It's writers, you know, it's great. Yeah. I ended up on the Sammy Davis Jr. Tour and we were at Lincoln Center. Are you kidding me?

Deborah Masterson (11:01): Got to downtown It Lincoln was amazing. Yeah, it was amazing. And then, I should back up and talk a little bit about prior to that. So that happened towards the end of my career, but the Freedom Quest book is really the story. Like I said, it's a love story and it's about me and my first boyfriend.

Deborah Masterson (11:24): I met him when I was 15. Really his story because he was such unusual, he had such an unconventional, crazy, crazy life that his story really had to be told.

Unknown Speaker (11:37): At 15, he had a crazy life?

Deborah Masterson (11:39): No, I met him when I was 15.

Unknown Speaker (11:41): Right. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (11:43): But his, this is the story of his life, but it happens to be I'm in it too because we're we're so Sure

Unknown Speaker (11:49): part of his life. Right. All right.

Unknown Speaker (11:51): I got you.

Deborah Masterson (11:52): I, I'm calling it a novel based on a true story though. Right.

Unknown Speaker (11:56): Because I

Deborah Masterson (11:56): changed all the names, except for some people that, I mean, pop, what would you say, well known figures that need But to have their names other than that, everybody's seen. But I met him when I was 15. He was my brother's guitar teacher.

Unknown Speaker (12:18): This How is was he? You were 15. How old was he?

Unknown Speaker (12:23): He was 18. Okay. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (12:25): Let's see why I went A

Unknown Speaker (12:26): little bit of a problem

Unknown Speaker (12:28): for both Well, see back then, but back then, went down that road, really wasn't Deborah. Right?

Unknown Speaker (12:33): You're right. That's right. Yeah. Back then, it wasn't that big

Unknown Speaker (12:37): a deal.

Unknown Speaker (12:38): Now you go to jail. Oh, I mean, it's really different now. Really different.

Unknown Speaker (12:43): Absolutely.

Deborah Masterson (12:44): In fact, that was one of the notes I kept getting on this, on this book was like, I'm, I'm, I'm afraid for grace. What's happening? He's you know she's with this older man and I'm like I didn't get it but anyway I fixed it. I fixed the problem. So we met he was my brother's guitar teacher so the way that happened was my brother on the way home from school one day, he was in junior high, middle school, stopped in at the local music store and was introduced to Craig Ingram, who's the Michael in the book.

Deborah Masterson (13:20): He's got a big giant, bandage on his arm. And Michael says, Woah, man, what happened to your arm? And he goes, Oh, my big sister did it. So he decided he had to give lessons over at the house instead of at the music store, he wanted to meet me. I found out about this later, of course.

Unknown Speaker (13:41): Anyway- So booth operator.

Deborah Masterson (13:42): It was love at first sight. I fell in love with him. He was extremely talented. I mean, an incredible guitar player knew all the words to all the songs. I think I, he had, he had what's called hypophonesia.

Deborah Masterson (13:59): He was able to remember anything he heard. Wow. Which was interesting.

Unknown Speaker (14:07): Yeah. That's crazy.

Unknown Speaker (14:08): And so we used to call him Mr. Jukebox. I mean, he could play for three hours, you know, he could play all the way through from the fifties to the eighties and it was like,

Unknown Speaker (14:17): holy It

Unknown Speaker (14:19): was amazing. A rain man.

Deborah Masterson (14:21): Yeah. Yeah. So I fell in love with his talent. I mean, he was just amazing to me. And so we went together for seven years.

Unknown Speaker (14:32): Wow.

Deborah Masterson (14:32): And it was such a crazy time, know, it was the Vietnam War and you know, sex, drugs, rock and roll. They say sex, drugs, rock and roll, know, well, I want to break that down because we've already, we've always had sex, right? I mean, that's not

Unknown Speaker (14:49): going play.

Unknown Speaker (14:50): That's how we all got here.

Deborah Masterson (14:51): What happened was women got birth control for the first time. I remember I took one of the first birth control pills in 1968. And, they were super strong, by the way, I could, it was crazy, but, they, you know, now they're better, but, women got birth control for the first time so they could actually have sex without fear of getting pregnant. Right,

Unknown Speaker (15:18): right.

Unknown Speaker (15:18): So that's kind of really opened it up, know, the hippie era and the free sex and all Sure. Of

Unknown Speaker (15:23): It's great As well

Unknown Speaker (15:23): women could,

Unknown Speaker (15:25): you know,

Unknown Speaker (15:26): enjoy For themselves

Unknown Speaker (15:27): on a better

Unknown Speaker (15:29): Yeah. On

Unknown Speaker (15:30): their terms.

Unknown Speaker (15:32): Right. On their terms. Yes.

Unknown Speaker (15:34): Their terms. Yes. Hopefully. Right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (15:37): Yeah. Right.

Deborah Masterson (15:38): And, and then psychedelic drugs.

Unknown Speaker (15:43): Oh yeah.

Deborah Masterson (15:44): Right? So I just finished a book by Michael Pollan called How to Change Your Mind. It's the history of psychedelic drugs.

Unknown Speaker (15:53): I've read it.

Unknown Speaker (15:54): Well, I didn't realize they were invented in 1952.

Chris Heesmicha (15:58): Talking Mike's language, Deborah.

Unknown Speaker (16:01): Been there, done Okay.

Deborah Masterson (16:04): Yeah, me too. And I think you only

Unknown Speaker (16:07): need maybe one.

Deborah Masterson (16:09): I don't think you need more than one or two trips, you know, if you're in the right environment, it really opens up your mind. But what happened, you know, is it got, it was being used very successfully and is now starting to be used again, successfully with PTSD, veterans, alcoholism, depression.

Unknown Speaker (16:32): Save me from addiction.

Deborah Masterson (16:33): Right. It works really well. But what happened was it got out of the laboratory and doctor's offices and into everybody was taking it and everybody was taking too much of it. The street stuff, nobody knew what you were really getting. And then everybody clamped down on it and the good things that could come from it lost, literally lost.

Unknown Speaker (17:08): Yeah. For Richard. That's mostly right. Yeah.

Deborah Masterson (17:15): So sex, drugs, rock and roll, then the Vietnam War. You know, all of us, we had the draft, brothers were afraid they were going in, Michael Craig Ingram in the book, he ends up getting his draft notice and one of his best friends died. Yeah, so that part of the story too. So his best friend, went scuba diving together. They did everything together.

Deborah Masterson (17:48): Just before he left for bootcamp, Michael and this guy, Bill Perkins, they've gotten a fight over a girl. Oh. It was a fist fight. It was a bad fight. Was a bad Then Bill Perkins left for Camp Pendleton bootcamp.

Unknown Speaker (18:09): Right.

Unknown Speaker (18:10): And they never got to say they make amends. And he died in Vietnam.

Unknown Speaker (18:15): That is sad.

Deborah Masterson (18:15): And he's the only combat photographer in our nation's history to receive the Medal of Honor. He was a combat photographer.

Unknown Speaker (18:23): Oh.

Deborah Masterson (18:24): He went to high school. So I need to move from that. Okay. So then, you know, Craig and I

Unknown Speaker (18:33): go And just and understand, I don't want you giving up too much of the book because we want people to read it.

Unknown Speaker (18:39): Right.

Unknown Speaker (18:39): So don't go deep into the whole concept of the book, but I mean, obviously you can brush it over because we don't want, we want people to go buy your book. We're kind of banging and dangled the carrot a little bit. Yeah.

Deborah Masterson (18:49): Yeah. So, so then, his friend dies in Vietnam and Craig or Michael in the book goes from a short haired, Catholic boy. He was so angry over Bill's death. In fact, didn't get to say he was sorry over this He ended up a radical writing protest songs here down to

Unknown Speaker (19:16): the

Deborah Masterson (19:17): yeah. Oh, gosh. It just really, really changed him.

Unknown Speaker (19:22): That's too bad.

Deborah Masterson (19:22): So then in 1973, we were living in San Diego together and he started this band, Freedom Quest, and that's the name of the book. And it was arguably, looking back at his career, probably the best music he ever made. He was 27 years old. He was at the pinnacle, you know, of his, of his musicality, And it was unbelievable. I can't wait for you guys to hear this music.

Deborah Masterson (19:56): And, some of the band members, you may recognize the names David Benoit. David Benoit is a jazz recording artist. He also has a jazz show on the jazz station in LA. KJASS, called KJASSONIO.

Unknown Speaker (20:15): Oh yeah.

Deborah Masterson (20:16): And so you know he was the keyboard player and keyboards and he also played Hammond B3 through Leslie Wow. It was so good. And then Brian McNess was on bass and he's a killer. I'm in touch with David. I can't find Brian, the bass player.

Deborah Masterson (20:38): I'm dying to, to talk to him, but I hope

Chris Heesmicha (20:41): he'll maybe he'll find this. Maybe he'll stumble on Like, like hope Philip did.

Deborah Masterson (20:47): I get and, to talk to and, and celebrate, You know, he was such an integral part of this band. And then I was singing background and Bill Richardson, we had, it was a nine piece band, violin, flute, percussion and rhythm section and three background vocals. Was just killer, killer band. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (21:12): Must have sounded amazing.

Unknown Speaker (21:13): Thor lived because Craig got busted for pot.

Unknown Speaker (21:19): Oh, that damn devil's limit!

Unknown Speaker (21:21): Yeah. It was never

Deborah Masterson (21:25): an alcohol drinker, you know? He didn't drink alcohol at all, ever. But he loved his cannabis. What happened was they were recording Craig wanted to get a record deal, they were in the studio recording and he ran out of money. Craig ran out of money, or Michael in the book.

Deborah Masterson (21:46): He ran out of money and the roadie overheard that he needed to get some more money and he goes, Hey man. He goes, I got a connection. We can turn around a couple of kilos of pot and you can have the money to finish the album. And he said yes. And the roadie was working

Unknown Speaker (22:05): With a the cop.

Unknown Speaker (22:06): Damn it man! No!

Deborah Masterson (22:08): Sent them up. Was on probation. Wow! A lot of that happened back then. A lot Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (22:15): Of that

Unknown Speaker (22:16): That's such a drag, Yeah.

Deborah Masterson (22:17): So he ended up in jail. I mean, minute the marijuana passed hands.

Unknown Speaker (22:23): Yeah, that was it.

Deborah Masterson (22:25): Swarm of police cars got thrown in jail, he was there for three days. He said three of the scariest days of his life.

Unknown Speaker (22:33): Oh, yeah.

Unknown Speaker (22:34): And then he went before the judge and, and you know, now I was going with him at the time. I mean, I had to find the bail and, you know, at the bale.

Unknown Speaker (22:42): What was the bale? What was the bale back then?

Unknown Speaker (22:44): Oh God, I don't even remember that.

Unknown Speaker (22:46): For two kilos of pot.

Deborah Masterson (22:47): I mean, rent was $50 for alcohol.

Unknown Speaker (22:50): That's what

Unknown Speaker (22:50): I'm saying. It was probably a $100. It was probably a $100.

Unknown Speaker (22:53): Why am I going get a $100, man?

Unknown Speaker (22:55): That was a lot of money back then.

Deborah Masterson (22:57): Trying to find that money, you know? And, and yeah, so, you know, I go pick him up and he stands in front of the judge and the judge is like, Son, I can see you're not a pardoned criminal. And I'm going to give you six weeks in Honor Camp and I don't want to see you back here again.

Chris Heesmicha (23:16): What was, hold on, hold on, what was Honor Camp?

Deborah Masterson (23:20): Honor Camp was out in East San Diego, way out, beautiful. I mean, beautiful. He was out there with oak trees and the squirrels and basically, it was low security. They cut fire trails for the firemen and you know it wasn't at all.

Unknown Speaker (23:46): The band

Unknown Speaker (23:46): broke out.

Unknown Speaker (23:48): Well yeah, he's an honor camp. The band's not going stick around back then because it's free love. Let's go to this, They let's go travel the, you

Deborah Masterson (23:57): had other jobs and stuff and, they, you know, the band broke up and, I left him at that point. Yeah. Oh, okay. I broke up with him. Was I got scared.

Deborah Masterson (24:11): Scared. I mean it was just there were so many groupies, so much, you know, so many drugs. I mean I remember there was like a bowl of chocolate mescaline on our kitchen table.

Unknown Speaker (24:23): Chocolate mescaline?

Deborah Masterson (24:24): Yeah. I mean, I just got scared, you know? Yeah. And I loved him. I still loved him, but I was like, I think, you know, a typical woman, I was sort of like, so what, where are we going?

Deborah Masterson (24:38): What's the plan? Yeah. Where's our future? And he would just look at me and go, we're playing music and having a good time. That was it, right?

Deborah Masterson (24:51): Him. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I mean, I'm sure you've been in that situation.

Unknown Speaker (24:57): Oh yeah, we're Yeah,

Deborah Masterson (24:59): so anyway, I broke up with him. The band broke, disbanded and the record deal of course fell away.

Unknown Speaker (25:07): Faded away, yeah.

Deborah Masterson (25:08): But there were seven songs recorded with her streaming. Can find them everywhere.

Unknown Speaker (25:14): Nice.

Deborah Masterson (25:15): And so he took those seven songs and the only person that stayed with him was the percussionist, Soty Arcia, who by the way just passed away February 1, God rested. Yeah. He just passed away, which is kind of sad because he helped me. I interviewed him. He helped me with band stories and things, but he didn't get to see the final book.

Mike (25:36): It's funny because drummers latch onto people. It's almost like a marriage. Don't always latch onto the same member, but the bass player and the drummer are usually attached at the hip or sometimes it's the guitar player. It's weird because they have to have an instrument. You know, the drums are not really an instrument.

Unknown Speaker (25:53): I always say it takes a certain kind of personality to want to beat the shit out of something for hours on end, you know? I agree. Drummers

Unknown Speaker (26:01): have

Deborah Masterson (26:01): always been the craziest ones in the band, you know?

Unknown Speaker (26:03): I know they're all yelling at me right now, 'We're musicians!' I didn't say that. Said, 'You're just making beats, right?' Oh, well, it's

Deborah Masterson (26:11): joke. The old joke, why do drummers hang out with musicians? No, why do drummers join bands? So they can hang out with musicians?

Unknown Speaker (26:19): Musicians, yes.

Deborah Masterson (26:21): Yeah. But I finally I was just in touch with the drummer, Elvio Ditta. Just in touch a couple of days ago for the first time.

Unknown Speaker (26:31): Nice. Yeah.

Deborah Masterson (26:31): I tracked him down. Cool. And he finally called me back. He was like I told him, I said, Well, I changed all the names. Said, Oh, and then he told me, he goes, Well, you know, when I joined the band, he said, I was really I didn't feel comfortable.

Deborah Masterson (26:50): He said, Craig was just too crazy. He was too wild. And he said, I grew up in a very strict family. My father was like, you know, very strict. He said I was an immigrant from Algeria or no, Tunisia.

Deborah Masterson (27:05): And so, you know, very strict family. He said, Craig, he rubbed me the wrong way. And didn't know any of this, right? So, anyway, in the book, because in my experience, the drummer's always kind of the craziest one, you know? He's

Unknown Speaker (27:23): full. Usually.

Unknown Speaker (27:24): Right? Yeah. So, the book, I don't know, this just came out when I was writing, it was like, what am I going to call the drummer? Ah, Neon, because he has pink hair. I called him Neon because he's got pink So I told Elvio this on the phone three days ago and he went, What?

Unknown Speaker (27:40): He was like, Oh my God! I said, you know,

Unknown Speaker (27:44): look, don't worry, It's, it's not a big deal, know.

Unknown Speaker (27:47): Take Were some you the bass player in this band?

Unknown Speaker (27:49): No. You were singing? Played bass until fourteen fourteen years

Unknown Speaker (27:54): years you started

Unknown Speaker (27:56): Yeah. Playing

Unknown Speaker (27:58): no, I just was a singer. Yeah. Okay. Gotcha.

Chris Heesmicha (28:01): Okay. So I want to, I want to rewind a bit because, because we cannot not touch on the fact that she went on tour with Sammy Davis Jr. Oh, Like you just breezed, you just breezed over like, like you were driving through an In N Out burger, got a burger and fries and went home and ate it. So we got to kind of back that up talk about, you know, Sammy Davis Jr. Did you get to hang out with him?

Chris Heesmicha (28:21): Did you, I mean, you guys kind of form a friendship in that short amount of time? You know, what were the performances like? All that kind of stuff because I know him, Mike knows him, you as the The rat original rat pack, right? And back then it was so uncommon for someone of his, what do what do I don't want to say black, but it was so uncommon have, to have, you know, a non white guy in the, in, in the group that he was with, because it was him, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (28:54): Did you Lewis in the rat pack? You're sitting here.

Unknown Speaker (28:59): Sami Dean Martin.

Chris Heesmicha (29:01): Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra. That's right. Frank Sinatra.

Deborah Masterson (29:06): And there's one more we're missing.

Unknown Speaker (29:07): Yeah. Is.

Deborah Masterson (29:08): Doy Bishop. I don't know. Anyway, yeah, talk, talk. Yeah. You know, was, there was a lot of, prejudice, you know.

Unknown Speaker (29:16): Right, there you go, yeah.

Deborah Masterson (29:17): A lot of racism. And I remember stories about how the guys in the wrap pack stood up for him, you know, and made sure that he could you know, go to the restaurants and hang out with them. Sure.

Unknown Speaker (29:31): Right. But,

Unknown Speaker (29:35): so yeah, did I hang

Deborah Masterson (29:35): out with him? You know what? I was so like insecure at that point. Right. And so blown away by the fact that I had gotten this job that, I probably didn't, you know, take advantage of, of, of the time as well as I should have.

Deborah Masterson (29:57): Okay. But yeah, I mean, were only 11 of us in the cast. Okay. So it's a small group and

Unknown Speaker (30:03): I Did you drew treat it you guys well?

Unknown Speaker (30:05): Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was a real sweetheart.

Unknown Speaker (30:08): What kind of band leader was he? How did he talk to you?

Deborah Masterson (30:13): He was just, he was very quiet. Was a very quiet man. You know, he, I remember when we, we were on stage at the end

Unknown Speaker (30:23): of a

Deborah Masterson (30:23): rehearsal in Chicago and all of a sudden some of his, entourage showed up with big giant boxes, cardboard boxes, and they pulled them out. They started opening them up. And we were getting like all these presents. We got each got a watch and a radio, know, one of those like boombox radio. Yeah.

Deborah Masterson (30:50): Alarm, you know, the alarm radio. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, it's just all these, all these presents. Was interesting.

Unknown Speaker (31:01): That was all from him

Unknown Speaker (31:02): He too, you cooked for us in Chicago.

Unknown Speaker (31:05): Oh wow. Right He

Deborah Masterson (31:07): invited us over to his apartment downtown. It was right by the water tower and you know, high rise. And he was in the kitchen with his entourage. He cooked pasta for us that night. I remember Jesse Jackson was there.

Chris Heesmicha (31:20): Nice. Glad So to everything I looked at, everything I looked at from Rat Pack wise, there's five people, but the most three image, the most images are just of Sammy, Frank and, Dean Yeah. Are the most three. Those are the three that kind of because that's what I think of when I think of Rat Pack or just those three. Didn't know Joy Bishop and Peter Lawford were those are the other two.

Unknown Speaker (31:42): Those are the other two, but, but the most of the photos are just of the three. Well, which makes sense. Makes

Unknown Speaker (31:47): sense. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (31:48): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was towards the end of his career too, know, 1978. He died Four or five years later, maybe something like that.

Chris Heesmicha (31:58): Yeah. I remember him and Dean Martin and Cannonball Run. Were hilarious.

Unknown Speaker (32:02): Yep. Oh yeah.

Chris Heesmicha (32:03): They were the, the, the, the priests, the alcoholic priests, you know, and all the stories from that movie from Burt Reynolds and stuff is, I mean, all that stuff was real. They were hammered the whole time, just having fun improv and everything, you know.

Unknown Speaker (32:19): Have you ever seen I'm sorry to interrupt.

Unknown Speaker (32:21): No, you're good. No, you're good. Have you ever seen what?

Deborah Masterson (32:23): Sammy, when he was a kid, tap dancing?

Chris Heesmicha (32:27): Yeah. Oh yeah. I've seen all that old reels. Yeah. Talented.

Chris Heesmicha (32:31): Very talented.

Deborah Masterson (32:32): Incredibly talented. Yeah. Full threat, you know?

Unknown Speaker (32:37): Totally. Yeah. Right?

Unknown Speaker (32:37): You know?

Chris Heesmicha (32:38): Well, it's, yeah. And see, back then you had to have the full thing. To be a star you had to be able to do everything.

Unknown Speaker (32:44): Yeah. You had

Unknown Speaker (32:45): to be able to sing and dance in the charisma and don't the know friends what's on

Unknown Speaker (32:48): was all life.

Unknown Speaker (32:49): You know?

Unknown Speaker (32:50): Yeah. There was no second takes. Couldn't get away with lip synching. Right.

Unknown Speaker (32:55): Backing tracks.

Unknown Speaker (32:56): Nope. Where the period I come from, you know.

Unknown Speaker (33:00): Amen.

Deborah Masterson (33:00): Here's a funny story. So my dad, like I said, he was an announcer, you know, he was over in New Caledonia, during the war. They were running the, Armed Forces Radio Network down at South Pacific. And then he came back to Hollywood and, it was radio and then he got into television and he had his own local television show on ABC in Los Angeles. Nice.

Deborah Masterson (33:26): So I'm about six or seven years old and he invited me and a couple of my friends from the dance class to go on the show.

Unknown Speaker (33:35): Okay.

Deborah Masterson (33:35): And it's live. Right? So I, you know, he's, we, we show up with our little costumes and everything and, I'm nervous, right? I'm six, seven years old. We get on the soundstage and I don't know if you've ever been on a soundstage, but it's, it's black.

Deborah Masterson (33:55): I mean, the whole place is so dark, except for the one place where they're filming, which is really bright lights. And then back in the day, the cameras were huge. I mean, just huge. The eye on the camera was huge.

Unknown Speaker (34:11): Kinds that fall, they fall, you're going to die. Those kinds of things.

Deborah Masterson (34:14): Yeah. So, you know, my dance teacher,

Unknown Speaker (34:18): okay, come on little girls, know.

Deborah Masterson (34:20): So they get pushed, she pushes us onto the stage and the music starts and we start dancing. Yeah. We're dancing. And the music stops and my dad and I'm scared half to death with this big giant eye, this camera.

Unknown Speaker (34:36): Sure.

Deborah Masterson (34:38): It's all black. The music ends and my dad walks over to me with this big giant microphone. I mean, was big back in the day, big. What's bends over, puts it down in front of my face and says, And what's your name, girl? And I burst into tears.

Unknown Speaker (34:58): Cause I thought, what? My dad doesn't know who I

Unknown Speaker (35:02): am all of a sudden?

Unknown Speaker (35:03): Yeah. Yeah. I freaked it.

Unknown Speaker (35:05): And it was live and everybody, you know, everybody was like, Katakamaru, Katakamaru!

Unknown Speaker (35:10): Well, you think your dad would have said, Hey, honey, I'm going come up to you and say, what's your

Unknown Speaker (35:15): name Yeah, little blew it. He really blew

Unknown Speaker (35:16): it. Yeah. Wow.

Unknown Speaker (35:18): What's your name little girl? Oh my God. I felt so bad, but it was like, I was nervous anyway, right? Know, it's like.

Unknown Speaker (35:25): Right. Yeah. I mean, what are you going to do? You know? Anyway.

Chris Heesmicha (35:29): So what, what, so, so you, you, you got the book. What made you leave LA and come to Chicago?

Deborah Masterson (35:36): Yeah. Well, Craig Ingram passed away. You know, the lead

Chris Heesmicha (35:41): Oh, Okay. Yeah. Right. The lead in in the the So

Deborah Masterson (35:46): we break up. He loses everything, right? Loses me, loses the band, loses the record deal, and he gives up and sells his equipment. And a friend of his is moving to Hawaii. So he moves over to Hawaii with his friends.

Chris Heesmicha (36:01): Yeah. Cause that makes sense. Let's just hop the pond and go live in a, in an island, surrounded by water.

Deborah Masterson (36:06): Yeah. Yeah. He was like, I mean, and they were like, come on, bring your guitar. You know, you'll lie on the beach and play guitar. Lots of beautiful women play tennis all day and sounds great.

Unknown Speaker (36:18): Right. So he gets over there and they were playing a lot of tennis. They were playing tennis all day long at Diamond Head Tennis Center. And Craig had nothing. He had one guitar, no car.

Deborah Masterson (36:33): They found a little apartment and they're playing tennis all day, having a good time. He meets this guy on the tennis courts and really incredible player, very enigmatic, charismatic and all that. And the guy starts learning all about him, and Craig was an open book, told him everything. He goes, my girlfriend left me, my band broke up, I was close to getting a record deal, it all fell apart, and gave up and blah, blah, blah. It turns out the guy was a cult leader.

Chris Heesmicha (37:09): Oh, right on. That's awesome. If you know anything about us, we're all into that kind of stuff. Like I have a shirt, I have the Jim Jones shirt that says drink up nobody's recognized. Nobody's recognized what that is yet.

Unknown Speaker (37:23): Seriously?

Unknown Speaker (37:23): We have Mike nose. Oh my gosh.

Unknown Speaker (37:24): Yeah. Mike nose, my

Unknown Speaker (37:25): wife nose. When I say we have a gallow sense of humor, Deborah, that's a that's a whole nother level.

Unknown Speaker (37:32): Yeah. I did, I did have a friend when I took a picture of it. He's like, is that who I think it is? I was like, yeah. He's like, you're a sick bastard, but it was a funny, it was comical.

Chris Heesmicha (37:39): But yeah, think

Unknown Speaker (37:40): you remember how we started this. We are of no threat to anyone. We just have a great sense of humor. We would never encourage someone to do that for real. You're that stupid, we can't help you.

Unknown Speaker (37:54): It's beyond our reach. Beyond our We

Unknown Speaker (37:57): would advise you don't do that, but don't drink

Unknown Speaker (38:00): the green Kool Aid.

Unknown Speaker (38:02): Yes. If at

Unknown Speaker (38:03): all possible.

Deborah Masterson (38:04): And so he, you know, and meanwhile, so in the book, it's really interesting because meanwhile, I move on and I meet a man and we ended up getting married and I was married for twenty six years, raised two beautiful sons.

Unknown Speaker (38:20): Nice.

Deborah Masterson (38:21): And he's over there in the cult. So a couple, you know, there's like three or four chapters in the middle of the book where-

Unknown Speaker (38:28): Don't give it away. Don't give it away. Don't give Don't give it away. We want people to read your book. Touch on the fact there's some cult conversations in the book.

Unknown Speaker (38:37): Have to hear the Leave it cult there. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta read about the cult story. Comes with the new reason about the book.

Unknown Speaker (38:44): I wanna hear the story, but now I have to buy Right. The book

Chris Heesmicha (38:47): That's why you gotta stop that. Let's divert. Let's talk about PBS and Bravo, because in your life resume, did some stuff with PBS and Bravo, right?

Unknown Speaker (38:55): Here's one deal I'm gonna start making authors. If you wanna come back in a year and tell the whole story, you are more than welcome to do that. But I am 100% with Chris. We want people in the 81 countries that are listening to this. Go buy Deborah's book because she's an amazing human being and the story, When you get to a cult story, that's why Chris stops you dead in Stop.

Unknown Speaker (39:14): The

Unknown Speaker (39:16): Who did it

Unknown Speaker (39:17): was it? And it just came out this month, right?

Unknown Speaker (39:23): Yeah. Today!

Unknown Speaker (39:24): Yeah, well, this is the debut, the irony The of On the Chris and Mike show we

Unknown Speaker (39:32): have at debut Philip someone's

Unknown Speaker (39:35): just sent me, I wish you guys were here, he sent me a dozen cookies for the book release day. Today is the day.

Unknown Speaker (39:45): Cool. That's awesome. Congratulations, Philip. Good job.

Unknown Speaker (39:48): Thank you. Now, what is Philip to you? Cause I need to understand the duration. Okay. That's my thought.

Chris Heesmicha (39:57): So that's my thought because because I saw PR in his tagline, but then he was also talking about, I'll I'll I'll see you in the concession stands line and I haven't seen him yet. And I told him that. So if you could see the screen, boys and girls, there's her book, Freedom Quest. It's a love story by Deborah Masterson. Today is the day.

Chris Heesmicha (40:15): It just released today. She came on our show just to taunt her book, which just, you know, that's amazing. Thank you for that. We love that. So go to atmospherepress.com or just type in like I did, Freedom Quest, book and this came up.

Chris Heesmicha (40:32): But there's a little synopsis for it because we don't want to give it away. And this is obviously Philip's page. This is what Philip is.

Deborah Masterson (40:38): This the publisher's page. Go to my website deborahmasterson.com. Man, it's And Debora without an H. Yeah. D E B O R A.

Unknown Speaker (40:53): Yep. Yep. Yep. I saw that.

Unknown Speaker (40:54): That. I will tag that in your episode too, Debora.

Unknown Speaker (40:56): Debora. That's how I'll say it. Debora. Debora. That's I'm talking to Deborah.

Unknown Speaker (41:04): Deborah Maastrichsen. Wrote to Deborah? Yeah. There it is. Oh, look at that.

Chris Heesmicha (41:09): Two young lovers torn apart by sex, drugs, rock and roll, the Vietnam War get a second chance?

Unknown Speaker (41:14): That's awesome. Coming April 21, which is today. Today.

Unknown Speaker (41:19): Today.

Unknown Speaker (41:21): Go get it. Right?

Chris Heesmicha (41:22): So here's Freedom Quest on Spotify. There's the music. Deborahmasterson.com without the H. There's Deborah right there. Little information about her.

Chris Heesmicha (41:33): Okay. But I do want to know what you did with Bravo and PBS because that was referenced. Oh, look, there's Shammy. I was going to ask you about what is this over here? What is this over here?

Chris Heesmicha (41:45): Is that an Oscar?

Deborah Masterson (41:46): That is an Oscar. I had the great honor of being at the Oscars

Unknown Speaker (41:52): for- Shut the front door. Seriously.

Deborah Masterson (41:56): And that was my client, Gail Ryan. Was actually, I was running a talent agency for a while in Los Angeles while I was married. And

Chris Heesmicha (42:06): this is the band? Yes. This is the nine piece band. See how I figured that out. There's nine people there I think.

Unknown Speaker (42:12): Well, there's more than

Unknown Speaker (42:13): There's okay. But know, just visually counted wrong. You. And we're just keeping secrets. Okay.

Chris Heesmicha (42:21): But we're not going to go there yet. We're still focused on this freedom quest. Okay. Alive and well on Amazon Prime right now. Go to Amazon and order the book.

Unknown Speaker (42:30): 81 countries. If you get everybody in Vietnam ordered the book because it talks about Vietnam in the Okay.

Deborah Masterson (42:37): Yeah. So let me share a share. Okay, so remember I talked about how Craig and Bill were best friends and then they got in a fight and he went to Vietnam. Right. Okay, so then I'm married and I'm running a talent agency and day I'm in the car, I pick my kids up from school and they're like 15 and 13 or something like that.

Deborah Masterson (43:06): We're singing in the car and I'm like, You know guys, we should get some music lessons. You guys want to take guitar? Because I'd remembered that they were at my brother's house and they picked up the guitar. You want some guitar lessons? And they were like, Yeah!

Deborah Masterson (43:23): While I was married, I was not around live musicians at all. So,

Unknown Speaker (43:28): I reached

Unknown Speaker (43:28): out Thank to a

Unknown Speaker (43:31): you. Yeah, back in the day.

Unknown Speaker (43:34): Keep talking. I'm just going

Unknown Speaker (43:36): through your photos.

Deborah Masterson (43:36): I reached out to a friend of a friend's and I said, I'm looking for a guitar teacher. It has to be close by in the area because my sons are not driving yet and I'm working full time.

Unknown Speaker (43:46): Okay.

Deborah Masterson (43:47): And he's like, oh, there's only one person I would I would I could recommend. He's the best. Craig Ingram.

Unknown Speaker (43:54): I'm

Unknown Speaker (43:57): like, because I never knew where he was.

Unknown Speaker (43:59): Now is Craig in this picture?

Unknown Speaker (44:01): Yes. He's in the yellow shirt.

Chris Heesmicha (44:02): I was gonna say yellow shirt. Cool.

Deborah Masterson (44:06): So the guy on the left, if you go back, the

Unknown Speaker (44:10): guy on

Deborah Masterson (44:11): left the with the hat, Bill Richardson, he was in the original band and me in the black. Then also the far right, Sotia Garcia was the percussionist and he was in this last band that we were in. Was called the Craig Ingram band.

Unknown Speaker (44:25): Yeah. Okay. Awesome. And who's the guy with the glasses and the mustache?

Deborah Masterson (44:32): Find out Craig Ingram has been living less than four miles away from me for ten years while I was raising my children.

Unknown Speaker (44:40): Crazy. Are you in this picture with Sammy?

Unknown Speaker (44:43): Out right

Unknown Speaker (44:44): directly behind his head.

Chris Heesmicha (44:46): Right there. There. Yep. Okay. That's awesome.

Unknown Speaker (44:50): Who's this guy? Is that Ike Turner?

Unknown Speaker (44:51): He's the choreographer.

Unknown Speaker (44:53): Okay. He kind looks like Ike Turner. Ike Turner. Yeah. Does, doesn't he?

Unknown Speaker (44:57): Kind of looks like Ike Turner. I'm just saying. No, you're I

Unknown Speaker (44:59): can't think. I can't remember his name right now.

Unknown Speaker (45:01): That's Well, you don't have to. Don't have to. It's okay.

Deborah Masterson (45:03): Oh, that's me with a group before Sammy Davis Jr. This was a group I was in, very Las Vegas style.

Unknown Speaker (45:11): Yeah. Fun.

Unknown Speaker (45:13): I was in Los Angeles though.

Unknown Speaker (45:15): Cool. Yeah. Keep telling your story. I just scroll through photos when I find him.

Deborah Masterson (45:20): So, I find out he's been living, you know, a couple of miles away from me and his family home. He came back from Hawaii and I immediately called my brother. It's like, Oh my God, I found Craig Ingram. And he's like, Well, you're not going to talk to him, right? I'm like, No, no, no, I'm not going to talk to him.

Unknown Speaker (45:37): I'm married. Well, that lasted about ten days.

Unknown Speaker (45:41): I him.

Deborah Masterson (45:43): And I told my husband, I said, I'm going to go have lunch with Craig. And he's like, No, you're not. Cause he knew about him. I said, Yeah, I am. And I was hoping it would just be a lunch and kind of catch up.

Deborah Masterson (45:59): I found out I was still in love with him and he was still in love with me. It was so powerful.

Chris Heesmicha (46:05): That's why your husband was like, no, you're not.

Deborah Masterson (46:09): Yeah. And, you know, they say that if you're in a happy marriage and everything's going well, that you can see an old boyfriend. It's not going to be a big deal, But our marriage was not in a good place at And that I still loved him. There was no doubt about it. And he had never gotten married, never had kids, always talked about me.

Deborah Masterson (46:33): And so, I went through a divorce. Luckily, everything is good now. We're all good. Kids are good. My former husband's good.

Deborah Masterson (46:41): So, got back together again. And one of the first things he told me is, I want to make a documentary about Bill. Okay. Now, I'm a talent agent I'm representing Crew, so I was in a position to help him. I truly told him, I said, Look, you don't understand.

Deborah Masterson (47:02): You're a musician. You don't understand how expensive it is, how difficult it is to make a film. Forget about it. I tried to dissuade him and he said, No, I got to do this. I got to do this.

Chris Heesmicha (47:14): So was was this on PVS or Bravo?

Deborah Masterson (47:16): Well, me, let me finish the story. So he goes, I told him one day, I said, look, and I don't want to think about war. I just want to think about peace. And he said to me, You can't know peace unless you know war. And I went, touche.

Deborah Masterson (47:35): All right. I'll do this. And so we immediately, reached out to Okay. So Bill Perkins is a combat photographer. He goes over to Vietnam.

Deborah Masterson (47:49): They get into this horrible battle. Was assigned to this group, Company C, First of the First Marines. He was a Marine. He was assigned to this group and they took off. They were told to go out, you know, helicoptered out into the Hai Lang Forest and they ended up in this horrible battle.

Deborah Masterson (48:12): And Bill Perkins crawled forward and jumped on a hand grenade and saved the lives of

Unknown Speaker (48:17): the Oh, wow. Way to go,

Unknown Speaker (48:21): Bill. Absolutely. And so it was a powerful story.

Unknown Speaker (48:26): And so

Deborah Masterson (48:27): reached out to the survivors that were around him and were invited us to their reunion in Washington DC. I produced this thing all by myself. I got all the releases. I got all the, you

Unknown Speaker (48:44): know, everything needed.

Deborah Masterson (48:46): Everything we needed. We hired a cinematographer in LA, so it was Craig, me, and the cinematographer, John Matysak. He in turn hired some of his friends that were still at Emerson College in Boston. We rented a van. They brought all the equipment down to DC, Washington DC.

Deborah Masterson (49:08): And we filmed for three days in Washington DC and it's a wonderful, wonderful documentary. Rod on. Did a fantastic job. It was his vision. I just helped him with his vision.

Unknown Speaker (49:22): What's it called?

Deborah Masterson (49:23): It's called Above and Beyond the Story of Corporal William T. Perkins Jr. And he's a huge hero. Corporal William T. Perkins Jr.

Deborah Masterson (49:36): And so PBS. Okay. So Bravo was something else. PBS.

Chris Heesmicha (49:44): We probably don't have time for Bravo because we were at the ten minute mark I just want at least share this part of it.

Deborah Masterson (49:51): Yeah, this is the important part. Once we had the documentary done, it's thirty minutes by the way, it's not a long documentary- but it's It's perfect length I think. So we reached out to all the production companies, everything. We're trying to get a distribution. Never happened.

Unknown Speaker (50:08): Fast forward

Unknown Speaker (50:09): last

Deborah Masterson (50:10): year, seventeen years later, Craig is I'm in Chicago and PBS picks it

Unknown Speaker (50:19): up. Right on.

Deborah Masterson (50:21): So that was amazing.

Unknown Speaker (50:23): So what is Dennis Franz's role in it?

Deborah Masterson (50:28): He recites the Medal of Honor citation.

Chris Heesmicha (50:31): Okay, cool. Yeah. Dennis Franz is one of my all time favorite cop actors. He's awesome. From the Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue.

Chris Heesmicha (50:38): Like you talk about an actor, but he was kind of like James Gandolfini before James Gandolfini hit the scene that burly, tough out But for sure then you just have this amazing vulnerability about him. And it doesn't matter what he's doing, you just felt everything that Dennis Franz did on screen. Yeah, he fell into that character.

Deborah Masterson (50:59): Yeah, to do the narration, he invited us to the 20th Century Fox Lot in LA. Nice. And so we show up and they take us to his, his, trailer, which is like just this little trailer and we knock on the door it's like you know he's like you know trailer trailer pictures of his family all over the place and then he goes okay we're walking over to the studio. We walk over and would you believe we were in the Simpsons studio where he recorded That's the We were just by going, Oh, this is amazing.

Unknown Speaker (51:36): That's cool. That was huge.

Unknown Speaker (51:39): That's really cool.

Deborah Masterson (51:40): So yeah, so, you know, what I do now is I show the documentary and then I have local veterans on a Q and A. So we do a thirty minute film and then we do a Q and A, know, questions from the and all of that and let

Unknown Speaker (51:55): the And this is Chicago?

Deborah Masterson (51:58): Yeah, I've done it in Chicago. Did it in LA. We've done it in a lot of different places. It's going to play locally here in my neighborhood for Memorial Day. It's also going to play Downtown Chicago at the center.

Chris Heesmicha (52:12): Okay. So let us drop, drop, share that right now.

Unknown Speaker (52:15): Where did you sign

Deborah Masterson (52:16): to be played? Events are also on my website.

Unknown Speaker (52:19): Okay. Okay.

Deborah Masterson (52:20): May 27 event for the film.

Unknown Speaker (52:23): Oh, events. Okay. I gotcha.

Unknown Speaker (52:24): Yeah. There's an events Okay.

Unknown Speaker (52:26): See it now. I see it now.

Unknown Speaker (52:29): I'm very,

Deborah Masterson (52:30): I'm very honored to be the steward of this film. I'm one of the few people that you know left. The bill perkins family there is no one left unfortunately. It's a very sad very tragic story. Bill Perkins Sr.

Deborah Masterson (52:49): And his wife lost their second son and only son. They had two sons. Their youngest son died four years after Bill died in Vietnam.

Unknown Speaker (53:00): Gotcha.

Deborah Masterson (53:01): So they lost both their children. That's true. And, you know, there was no, there was no, nobody left. It's very sad. That

Chris Heesmicha (53:12): is unfortunate. Yeah. And you know, so this, because it kind of ties in, even though it shouldn't really tie in, if you're feeling, you're feeling sad and suicidal depressed, don't do it. Go, go scream in a pillow, go outside and go for a run, go work out, go find somebody to talk to. If you can't find someone to talk to text 988, someone is standing by to help you talk you off that ledge.

Chris Heesmicha (53:32): We talk about it all the time. Don't leave a hole in somebody else's heart because you choose not to be here tomorrow because tomorrow is always a better day with you in it. So just do that text 988. For more information about Deborah Masterson, again, the website is Deborah with no H masterson dot com. There's, there's her site right there.

Chris Heesmicha (53:52): You can look, you can find out more about the book. You can read about her. There's book clubs, there's events, which we'll talk about the different things that she has upcoming. So later this week, she's three to 6PM at the Folk Art Rare Records. You can go meet her by her book.

Chris Heesmicha (54:08): That's in San Diego, California. On May 2, she's in Hollywood. May 3, she's in Chicago. May 17, she's in Evanston. And then May 30 is what we were talking about before with the thirty minute documentary she made about the story of Corporal William T.

Chris Heesmicha (54:24): Perkins Junior. So check those things out. She's definitely somebody that is going to come back on our show because Mike's already alluded to that. You're to come back in a year and you can tell us all about the show. We'll have you on a Friday because Friday we'd have we have more time to to to have conversations and we can really dive deep into your life because I feel like we only touched a little piece of it.

Unknown Speaker (54:42): Yeah. You.

Chris Heesmicha (54:43): And, and, and we would love to obviously learn more about you and more about what you've done in your lifetime. Cause really, I didn't know about Dennis Franz. So you mentioned the, the documentary. Then I looked up the documentary and there he was. So I have a, I have a suspicion there's a lot more little innuendos of people that you've met along your, your lifetime nuggets that would really be really fun to talk about because again-

Unknown Speaker (55:05): Yeah, you've been fascinating, Deborah. Thank you so much for Oh, doing

Unknown Speaker (55:08): you.

Unknown Speaker (55:09): Absolutely. It's so cool.

Unknown Speaker (55:10): This is the day your book came out.

Unknown Speaker (55:12): That's a first It's really cool. We're honored. Really cool. And how, and, and before we let you go, how old are your, how old are your sons now? What are they doing with their lives?

Unknown Speaker (55:21): Oh, now you're, yeah. They're 44 and 42. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (55:27): Congratulations. Nice.

Unknown Speaker (55:28): So one son is here in Chicago. One son is in LA.

Unknown Speaker (55:32): Okay.

Deborah Masterson (55:32): So, you know, you asked why did I end up in Chicago? Decided to downsize and I, you know, am I going to stay in LA or come to Chicago? I just, I fell in love with Chicago. I kept coming back to visit.

Unknown Speaker (55:43): It is an awesome city.

Deborah Masterson (55:45): Got public transportation. You got water.

Unknown Speaker (55:48): It's just an awesome city. You got great food.

Unknown Speaker (55:51): Great food. Yeah.

Chris Heesmicha (55:53): Yeah. California is not the place to live anymore. I mean, I'm, you know, I live in Arizona and I sell houses for a living. You know, they turned our state blue one election because so many of them came over here because they're just tired of California, which I don't blame them with the chaos that's going on there. Just from a political standpoint, I don't blame people from jumping ship from that state.

Chris Heesmicha (56:11): It's just, it's a

Unknown Speaker (56:12): Believe matter of it or not, when I grew up in the valley, the San Fernando Valley, it was rural.

Unknown Speaker (56:17): Well, yeah, but that was '56

Unknown Speaker (56:19): We were riding horses. Well, in my lifetime and now, you know, you'd never, you know.

Unknown Speaker (56:25): Yeah, So many. Yeah, you're awesome. Thank you Philip for connecting Thank you Philip. Shout out to Philip. We'll get you back on.

Chris Heesmicha (56:34): I'll put you in my calendar to reach out to you. But anytime you want to come back and I'll talk about something, have Philip or you shoot me an email. We'll get you back on. We always kind of book a month ahead of time. But definitely next time it's a Friday.

Chris Heesmicha (56:44): So we have more time to chat with you and dive deeper into your life resume because it's much more fascinating than I think that we even touched on.

Unknown Speaker (56:52): Oh, thanks. Thanks guys.

Unknown Speaker (56:53): You're welcome. Absolutely. Best of

Deborah Masterson (56:55): luck It on was a your pleasure meeting you. Thank you so much

Speaker 3 (56:58): And, for having

Chris Heesmicha (56:59): and don't leave when Mike shuts us down. Don't leave because we got to make sure you're all uploaded and everything's good to go. For Chris and Mike Show, I'm Chris, he's Mike, and this is Deborah Masterson. Thank you very much. We appreciate your time.

Chris Heesmicha (57:09): It's the most valuable commodity in the world. So we thank you for spending an hour with us. Not only you Deborah, but everybody in those 81 countries. Love you, brother. Love you too, man.

Chris Heesmicha (57:18): Thanks again, Deborah. Have a great day.

Unknown Speaker (57:20): Peace. Peace.