Louisa Ermelino

James Ellroy and Joseph Wambaugh get down and dirty in L.A.

"L.A. Come out on vacation, leave on probation," Ellroy tells a standing room only crowd on Saturday at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, where he introduced Joseph Wambaugh, the writer, who like Ellroy, has put L.A. cops and robbers on the literary map. Wambaugh (Hollywood Station) handsome in a suit and tie looking every bit the detective he once was, is the perfect foil for the flamboyant Ellroy, who appears stage left promising anyone buying a thousand copies of his books "sex with every person on the planet you desire." Two thousand gets you more of the same with the added "every night and a free pass into heaven." Three thousand.. well, you get the idea... the crowd's in love. Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia, White Jazz), who's back living in his hometown, credits reading Wambaugh in the 70's (The Onion Field, The Choirboys) with his redemption. "I was drinking, doing drugs, breaking into houses hoping someday I would write M-F-ing great books.. and I did!" Wambaugh, meanwhile, tells stories about joining the LAPD in 1960 "the year Carl Chessman went to the gas chamber" and his run in with Robert Blake on The Tonight Show. Blake as Baretta was the highest paid TV actor at the time, sitting on the famous couch with Fred the cockatoo on his shoulder and posturing as a tough kid who had made his way on the mean streets of New York City when Wambaugh outed the actor as the child star Little Beaver in the Red Ryder movies. When Blake stormed off, the cockatoo flipped over. "Screw him," Carson told Wambaugh. "This is show biz."

Posted by Louisa Ermelino on May 4, 2007 | Comments (1)