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These were only preliminary sketches, as it were. Last year Graham prowled Los Angeles in search of actors willing to help him recreate, more or less, the exploits of a gangster mob of the 1920s. Valenti is modeled on "Big Jim" Colosimo, who actually died in 1920 when he was shot in a Chicago café. After considerable research and meticulous preparation, Graham invited a few guests to his first caper: an attempted rub-out of Big Jim at the posh Beverly Wilshire Hotel. As police alerted by Graham controlled traffic, unwitting pedestrians and hotel employees cringed while Charley Ice blasted two of Big Jim's henchmen, who slumped to the sidewalk, oozing cosmetic blood. Graham has staged six other canvases since then in Los Angeles, including "Shootout at Century Plaza" and "Incident at the Brown Derby."
Graham's Los Angeles headquarters is the Doo Dah Planning Center, where a staff of ten carefully choreographs each incident. The actors use no scripts, however, improvising all dialogue as the incident develops. For their substantial salaries, plus expenses, Graham has extracted a promise from his actors to remain in character at all times. None will even reveal his real name. Such role playing has gone to some strange extremes. Earlier this year Graham invited his cast to move in with him at his newly purchased Benedict Canyon hideaway, and the actor playing Big Jim took such a liking to the digs that he told Graham to move out or he'd "break his kneecaps." Graham promptly rented an apartment; Big Jim christened his new pad "Valenti's Villa."
Paddy Wagons. The Las Vegas caper will cost Graham a lot more. He has leased the main showroom at the Flamingo Hilton for six months and paid to have it redone to match Colosimo's Chicago speakeasy. Flamingo executives, who get a share of the take from any audiences at Big Jim's floor show, had some doubts about Boo Boo's revue, and they expressed a desire for more bare skin on the chorus line. "Would you want your wife to sing on the stage with a bunch of naked bimbos?" yelled Valenti. When Hotel Manager Henry Lewin paid a courtesy call on Valenti in his suite, Big Jim plucked Lewin's cigar from his mouth and said, "How can you smoke such garbage?" At a meeting with the entire hotel staff, Valenti promised them a little extra something in their paychecks. Says Graham: "I guess I'm gonna have to make it good."
Boo Boo's debut last week was a smash. Popping out of an oyster shell, she crooned Have You Ever Been Alone with an Abalone? while guests sipped Prohibition booze from coffee cups. Big Jim contributed his rendition of Ja Da and a twinkletoes tap dance, but the Las Vegas "police" put a crimp on the evening with a raid. "I'll have your badge in the morning," Valenti yelled at one cop while being led away. Big Jim and his cronies were packed into a pair of vintage paddy wagons, then later released and returned to the hotel.