One of the first things I plan to do when I get back from Barcelona on July 1 is to go see the Chicago/Brian Wilson & Al Jardine concert. I can only think of one dual concert that Chicago has done on their summer tours that wasn’t excellent. Earth, Wind & Fire was a natural match and The Doobie Brothers were excellent too.
Like Chicago, I did quite a bit of work for members of The Beach Boys when I was practicing. The first divorce I ever worked on for a musician was Robert Lamm’s divorce from his first wife, Karen Lamm, and that tied in with The Beach Boys because she later married Dennis Wilson. Twice. And, I was Dennis’ lawyer. Twice. Previously, I was co-counsel for Brian in his divorce from his first wife, Marilyn.
I believe Karen Lamm still was in high school, or had just graduated, when she married Robert. The first time I saw her, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She still would’ve been in the top ten when she married Dennis.
Brian was the genius behind The Beach Boys, but Dennis was my favorite, by far. He was high or drunk or both every single time I ever saw him; but he was totally charming. And it wasn’t a put-on. It was the real Dennis. One time we were in court walking down a hall and a woman came running up to Dennis. She was about 30, 6 years younger than him. She called out “Dennis” and he almost immediately responded “Laurie.”
It turned out that when she was 9, she and other young girls would hang out where the surfers were and Dennis would ask her to go to the local hamburger joint and get him a hamburger and coke. And, he would always give her money to get herself one too. Dennis had pretty much no money back in those days, but as Laurie explained to me, unlike the richer surfers who were mainly Manhattan Beach kids, Dennis, the blue collar kid from Hawthorne, always gave her money to buy herself a burger too.
I was always able to get the financial and other info I needed for his cases from business managers and the band manager so I didn’t need Dennis for that. Mainly I just needed to have him show up in court, presentably dressed, on time and, hopefully, sober. For that, I relied on Chris, his female assistant.
She came through all but once. We had made a motion to bifurcate the second divorce from Karen which she didn’t oppose. At that time in California, it meant that Dennis would have to testify to prove-up the divorce.
Simple stuff: Are you the Petitioner in this Action? Did you read and sign the Petition? Are all of the factual statements in the Petition true and Correct? Have irreconcilable differences between you and Respondent arisen in your marriage? Have they caused an irredeemable breakdown of your marriage. Is there any way your marriage can be saved?
Lets stop right there. Six questions. All Yes or No. Five Yes. One No . Easy. Well, most of the time.
Chris got Dennis to court on time. He looked presentable. He was wearing sandals, a t-shirt and long pants. No socks. But, he wasn’t sober.
In the hall, I took Dennis through the 6 questions. Five times. I told him that he would be on the witness stand and I would be examining him. I said to look at my head. When I asked him the questions he should be answering Yes, I would be nodding my head up and down. When we got to the question he should answer No, I would be shaking my head the other way. Yes, it’s leading the witness but courts ignore that in these uncontested proceedings. Karen wasn’t opposing it. Their first divorce also had been bifurcated.
We go into court and although we were number 9 on the calendar, we are called first (an accommodation often given to celebrity cases). Dennis heads toward the witness chair. The judge stops him and tells me I can examine him from the chair next to mine. No problem for 99.9% of witnesses. Big problem for Dennis. We practiced with him looking at me from 15 feet away. Now he is going to be 1 foot away.
I ask the first question. Dennis starts relentlessly kicking me under the table. On the shin. Thank god he was wearing sandals. He gets every answer right, but he never stops kicking. My shin turned black and blue later.
I say No More Questions. No more witnesses. The Judge, Hugh McBeth, starts to read his findings and decision
“The Court finds that all of the procedural requirements for a bifurcation of the issue of the status of the marriage have been met. The Court further finds that irreconcilable….
At that point, Dennis jumps out of his chair, shouts out “This is bullshit” and rushes out of the courtroom. Without his sandals on. I think the Judge was too shocked to cite him for contempt, so after Dennis was gone, the judge finished his ruling.
That cost Chris and I what proved to be precious time in the subsequent search for Dennis. How far could he get walking barefoot? The courtroom was on the 6th floor. We searched on every floor. Then out the front door and up and down Hill Street. Then we started driving in my car looking for him. Chris called his cell phone repeatedly but no answer.
Finally, Chris got her car and started looking for him. She never found him.
He showed up the next afternoon at (Fleetwood Mac) Christie McVie’s house in Beverly Hills. They had been in a romantic relationship for a few months. Dennis walked all the way there shoeless. When he was walking through Silverlake, a family recognized him and invited him to dinner. He ended up staying the night. Because of circumventing freeways and going through hills, it’s gotta be a 30 mile-plus walk. Up a lot of big hills. Barefoot.
Dennis always blamed Karen Lamm for getting him to try heroin. I don’t know if it’s true. She claimed before her own death that he got her hooked on it and she tried to get him off it.
Assuming it is true, I’m glad the two divorces ftom her turned out the way they did: She got no community property from either marriage. Everything Dennis owned was confirmed as his separate property. This was due to a colossal error by her divorce lawyer, Marvin Mitchelson, in the first divorce and his failure to conduct any financial discovery in the second, 22-day marriage.
What property could possibly be generated in a 22 day marriage, he said in explanation to why he didn’t do any discovery. Had he done it, he would have found that The Beach Boys had played the huge Washington Mall concert, fueled by James Watt forbidding them to play there and Nancy Reagan getting her husband to override the Parks Secretary. A week later, they were the headline act in a Detroit concert to celebrate the Downtown Detroit Renaissance. But, he didn’t find out, so she got no interest in Dennis’ share of those funds.
Shortly after all of this, Dennis was kicked out of The Beach Boys for the second and last time. His life and finances were both a mess.
When he lived with Christie McVie, they alternated between her house and Dennis’ beloved sailboat “Harmony” docked in Marina del Rey. After they broke up, Dennis lost the boat to foreclosure and spent the rest of his days staying in motels, or with friends either at their houses or on their boats.
He died when he was staying temporarily on a boat docked next to where Harmony had been docked. He was diving trying to retrieve things he had thrown off Harmony years earlier when he apparently hit his head on a concrete piling and drown.
The Beach Boys were gifted with incredible talent but also terrible tragedy. Brian’s life has been well documented. Carl, the “normal” one, died of cancer before he turned 52. Dennis died the earliest of all. As he once told me “If I die an old man, I did something very wrong.”
He obviously had many things wrong with him. But, it was almost impossible not to like him. I liked him a lot. I go years without thinking about him at all , and then go through periods like this where I think about him all the time.
Like Chicago, I did quite a bit of work for members of The Beach Boys when I was practicing. The first divorce I ever worked on for a musician was Robert Lamm’s divorce from his first wife, Karen Lamm, and that tied in with The Beach Boys because she later married Dennis Wilson. Twice. And, I was Dennis’ lawyer. Twice. Previously, I was co-counsel for Brian in his divorce from his first wife, Marilyn.
I believe Karen Lamm still was in high school, or had just graduated, when she married Robert. The first time I saw her, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She still would’ve been in the top ten when she married Dennis.
Brian was the genius behind The Beach Boys, but Dennis was my favorite, by far. He was high or drunk or both every single time I ever saw him; but he was totally charming. And it wasn’t a put-on. It was the real Dennis. One time we were in court walking down a hall and a woman came running up to Dennis. She was about 30, 6 years younger than him. She called out “Dennis” and he almost immediately responded “Laurie.”
It turned out that when she was 9, she and other young girls would hang out where the surfers were and Dennis would ask her to go to the local hamburger joint and get him a hamburger and coke. And, he would always give her money to get herself one too. Dennis had pretty much no money back in those days, but as Laurie explained to me, unlike the richer surfers who were mainly Manhattan Beach kids, Dennis, the blue collar kid from Hawthorne, always gave her money to buy herself a burger too.
I was always able to get the financial and other info I needed for his cases from business managers and the band manager so I didn’t need Dennis for that. Mainly I just needed to have him show up in court, presentably dressed, on time and, hopefully, sober. For that, I relied on Chris, his female assistant.
She came through all but once. We had made a motion to bifurcate the second divorce from Karen which she didn’t oppose. At that time in California, it meant that Dennis would have to testify to prove-up the divorce.
Simple stuff: Are you the Petitioner in this Action? Did you read and sign the Petition? Are all of the factual statements in the Petition true and Correct? Have irreconcilable differences between you and Respondent arisen in your marriage? Have they caused an irredeemable breakdown of your marriage. Is there any way your marriage can be saved?
Lets stop right there. Six questions. All Yes or No. Five Yes. One No . Easy. Well, most of the time.
Chris got Dennis to court on time. He looked presentable. He was wearing sandals, a t-shirt and long pants. No socks. But, he wasn’t sober.
In the hall, I took Dennis through the 6 questions. Five times. I told him that he would be on the witness stand and I would be examining him. I said to look at my head. When I asked him the questions he should be answering Yes, I would be nodding my head up and down. When we got to the question he should answer No, I would be shaking my head the other way. Yes, it’s leading the witness but courts ignore that in these uncontested proceedings. Karen wasn’t opposing it. Their first divorce also had been bifurcated.
We go into court and although we were number 9 on the calendar, we are called first (an accommodation often given to celebrity cases). Dennis heads toward the witness chair. The judge stops him and tells me I can examine him from the chair next to mine. No problem for 99.9% of witnesses. Big problem for Dennis. We practiced with him looking at me from 15 feet away. Now he is going to be 1 foot away.
I ask the first question. Dennis starts relentlessly kicking me under the table. On the shin. Thank god he was wearing sandals. He gets every answer right, but he never stops kicking. My shin turned black and blue later.
I say No More Questions. No more witnesses. The Judge, Hugh McBeth, starts to read his findings and decision
“The Court finds that all of the procedural requirements for a bifurcation of the issue of the status of the marriage have been met. The Court further finds that irreconcilable….
At that point, Dennis jumps out of his chair, shouts out “This is bullshit” and rushes out of the courtroom. Without his sandals on. I think the Judge was too shocked to cite him for contempt, so after Dennis was gone, the judge finished his ruling.
That cost Chris and I what proved to be precious time in the subsequent search for Dennis. How far could he get walking barefoot? The courtroom was on the 6th floor. We searched on every floor. Then out the front door and up and down Hill Street. Then we started driving in my car looking for him. Chris called his cell phone repeatedly but no answer.
Finally, Chris got her car and started looking for him. She never found him.
He showed up the next afternoon at (Fleetwood Mac) Christie McVie’s house in Beverly Hills. They had been in a romantic relationship for a few months. Dennis walked all the way there shoeless. When he was walking through Silverlake, a family recognized him and invited him to dinner. He ended up staying the night. Because of circumventing freeways and going through hills, it’s gotta be a 30 mile-plus walk. Up a lot of big hills. Barefoot.
Dennis always blamed Karen Lamm for getting him to try heroin. I don’t know if it’s true. She claimed before her own death that he got her hooked on it and she tried to get him off it.
Assuming it is true, I’m glad the two divorces ftom her turned out the way they did: She got no community property from either marriage. Everything Dennis owned was confirmed as his separate property. This was due to a colossal error by her divorce lawyer, Marvin Mitchelson, in the first divorce and his failure to conduct any financial discovery in the second, 22-day marriage.
What property could possibly be generated in a 22 day marriage, he said in explanation to why he didn’t do any discovery. Had he done it, he would have found that The Beach Boys had played the huge Washington Mall concert, fueled by James Watt forbidding them to play there and Nancy Reagan getting her husband to override the Parks Secretary. A week later, they were the headline act in a Detroit concert to celebrate the Downtown Detroit Renaissance. But, he didn’t find out, so she got no interest in Dennis’ share of those funds.
Shortly after all of this, Dennis was kicked out of The Beach Boys for the second and last time. His life and finances were both a mess.
When he lived with Christie McVie, they alternated between her house and Dennis’ beloved sailboat “Harmony” docked in Marina del Rey. After they broke up, Dennis lost the boat to foreclosure and spent the rest of his days staying in motels, or with friends either at their houses or on their boats.
He died when he was staying temporarily on a boat docked next to where Harmony had been docked. He was diving trying to retrieve things he had thrown off Harmony years earlier when he apparently hit his head on a concrete piling and drown.
The Beach Boys were gifted with incredible talent but also terrible tragedy. Brian’s life has been well documented. Carl, the “normal” one, died of cancer before he turned 52. Dennis died the earliest of all. As he once told me “If I die an old man, I did something very wrong.”
He obviously had many things wrong with him. But, it was almost impossible not to like him. I liked him a lot. I go years without thinking about him at all , and then go through periods like this where I think about him all the time.
