Sketchbook History Tour – 1976

Pete waking up Rusty after a Hard Night at the Roxy

In October, 1975 I was forced to leave Brandeis University.  My family just couldn’t afford it anymore.  Around the same time several of my best high school friends decided to take a year off from college and move to Hollywood.  Pete and I drove his Thunderbird across the country and I started this sketchbook at the beginning of the trip. We hung out at my Uncle Steve’s house in Pacific Palisades for a couple weeks until Rusty and JJ joined us. We found an apartment just north of Hollywood and Vine.

Pete and Rusty got jobs at the Roxy on Sunset Strip as doormen.  It was wild hours and wild times.  I was drawing the living room with Pete just sitting there and Rusty crashed on a small mattress we had thrown down on the floor. For some reason Pete had to wake Rusty up and kept kicking him in the head to do it.  I captured the moment.

I moved out eventually to a place that was a bit less crazy.  I got residency in California and moved up the coast to finish college at UC Santa Barbara, which I did in 1978.  

Drawing and story © 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com