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Observations of An Ex-Cop in La La Land |
 ANDY MURCIA |
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No Flake |
 Robert Blake as Baretta |
Sure, Blake is a little quirky
--but is he a murderer?
of TheColumnists.com
About 1984 I had signed Ann Jillian into a development deal with Columbia Pictures to produce television shows. Perks of the deal were that Columbia would pick up all expenses for an office on their Burbank Studios lot, complete with a secretary, parking space and a free lunch tab at their Blue Room restaurant. This meant we could invite anyone to lunch there if we felt like meeting with them about creating television shows.
It was in the Blue Room
where Ann and I first met Bobby Blake. We were passing each other
one day, each with different guests in tow, when Bobby said hello
and told us he had an idea that he wanted to pitch. We agreed
to meet the very next day for lunch.
As we talked and ordered lunch, I was sizing Bobby up, I found
him to be a most interesting character. Sure, I had enjoyed his
“Our Gang” comedies when he was a kid, and his hit
TV series “Baretta.” I also enjoyed his acting in movies
like “In Cold Blood” and was duly impressed with his
acting chops to say the least.
But it was Bobby Blake the person that I found far more interesting
than any of the characters he had portrayed. Bobby was quirky.
He had this way of holding an unlit cigarette. He had an offbeat
speech pattern. And he dressed real casual with jeans and thick
heeled boots. But he had this warm, friendly smile if he liked
you. I know he liked Ann, that was easy to see, and I think he
liked me, too. We liked him right away.
Bobby’s idea was to remake “Love Me Or Leave Me,” the terrific movie that Doris Day and Jimmy Cagney made back in 1955. The movie was about the old Chicago torch singer, Ruth Etting, and her agent/lover, an underworld guy named Moe "The Gimp” Snyder.
Bobby had seen Ann Jillian as the torch singer some years before, co-starring in composer Sammy Cahn’s Broadway show “Words & Music.” He thought Ann would be great in the Doris Day role and he, of course, would play the Cagney part. Well, long story short, a movie studio still held the rights and Bobby could not get them, so that was the end of that idea. But we met on several other occasions, mainly because we enjoyed each other’s company. We’d lunch or visit in Ann’s office or just take a walk around the studio lot and talk.
We talked about everything, from child actors, (both he and Ann were child actors) to his many wacky appearances with Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show." Bobby related how he felt Carson did him wrong in allowing him to come on the show, when any idiot could see Bobby was not well.
“John could see I
wasn’t thinking right," he told me. "Every time
I put my foot in my mouth about one big shot suit or another,
he could just hear the doors closing for me, but yet he kept
inviting me back.”
Bobby further related that while he didn’t know it at the
time, he was having a nervous breakdown on national television,
and Carson was giving him a place in the spotlight to do it.
Bobby spoke of the rowdy biker crowd he met while riding his motorcycle in the canyons, about his high regard for police officers, and other former child actors. He had a way of making you feel good. We were thrilled to be talking with this very talented actor.
As a former cop, I could not help but study Bobby Blake. It’s just a routine habit for most cops. The best cops always have an innate ability to figure a guy out before he figures you out. I like to think I had that ability inbred in me by my father, who was a cop all his life. There’s certain things cops pick up on. I won’t list them here, just in case there’s a wrong guy reading this. I mean, why should I tip the bum off?
I will tell you the conclusions I came to about Bobby Blake, and why I say he’s no murderer. Maybe he’s a bit of a loveable head case, and he might have even terrorized a few “suits” in the entertainment industry. And some may have deserved it! But Bobby is not a killer. Bobby is a man who got kicked around pretty good in life, from the time they robbed him as a kid actor, to having a nervous breakdown for all to see, to marrying a bad woman. But he does not deserve “to do the time,” as Baretta used to say, because, in my opinion, “he didn’t do the crime.”
I found Bobby to be a very sensitive guy who wanted people that he admired to simply like him back. He had little respect for those who took advantage of actors or anyone else for that matter, and he loved kids. Make no mistake about it, if he said he loves his little girl, ‘Rosie,” you can “take it to the bank,” as Baretta would say.
I know the Vitale’s restaurant where Bobby and his wife had dinner on the now infamous night that she died. I’d not have it for my last supper. It’s a place we’ve been to on rare occasions. They have a room in the back where anyone can get up and sing, and a priest pal of ours, who enjoys a song as he bends the old elbow, likes to go there. The food is fair, nothing to rave about, but if you like to listen to some good singers and some not so good singers, then this is the place to go.
I see the case shaping up in the media same as all of you do, I hear they have Bobby’s gun, and I hear it might be the one that fired the killing shot, but they do not have anyone saying they witnessed Bobby shoot her, to my knowledge.
I’m not surprised that he carried a gun. Lots of high profile actors carry guns out here, as they are aware they can attract nut heads on occasion. Bobby carried his additionally because of those nut heads who also rode motorcycles where he rode. I’d pack, too, if I was in their area.
But when all is said and done, and Bobby has had his day in court, I’m betting he will walk because he’s innocent, not because he merely “beat the rap” like an O.J. Simpson. I know I’m going way out on a limb here and that it looks bleak for Bobby Blake right now, but I’ve got to follow my cop intuition, and tell you, Bobby Blake didn’t pull the trigger and kill his wife.
If I were a betting man, somebody should give me great odds on taking this side of the long shot. I will say this,though: There is a guy who is a Bobby Blake fan, who knew of bobby’s unhappiness with his wife’s doings, and I “think” he did it, without Bobby even knowing it. He’s one of those “nut heads” who just wants to say “thanks” to Bobby for a past favor and to hopefully get on his good side for the future. But what a jam he made for Bobby instead.
What do you think?
© 2002 by Andy Murcia. The Robert Blake photo is ©1975 by ABC.
TO READ
RON MILLER'S COLUMN ABOUT HIS TIME WITH ROBERT BLAKE, CLICK HERE:
THE
DARK LEGACY OF ROBERT BLAKE
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