Being a part of the Yankees there are so many perks that come with the territory. For me, it was being around George Steinbrenner and all his Hollywood buddies who loved to hang out in his suite at the Stadium during Championship games.
It was also the fact that I was Reggie Jackson’s aide decamp which in layman’s terms means special assistant or in the Bronx means gopher.
I guess I can say I was a gopher for most of the players of that era, not to mention the Boss and the Manager.
When the season ended I was fortunate enough to work as an extra in most of Reggie Jackson’s television commercials which included Panasonic, Volkswagen, OldSpice, etc.
I even got to do an episode of Saturday Night Live during the Chico Escuela Series with Garrett Morris.
One thing led to another and I would win a co-starring role in the Warner Brothers movie Blue Skies Again with Andy Garcia and Joey Gian.
After that, I accepted a role as a glorified extra in Academy Award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Cotton Club.
This was truly a wonderful experience and opportunity because I would get to work with some of the best actors of that time including Richard Gere and Diane Lane and Nicholas Cage.
Gere would become a great friend that 40 years later is still very close to my heart.
Two wonderful talents in the film was the incredible dancers Gregory and Maurice Hines. They had been a part of the great show called Hines Hines and Dad. It was a great dance routine show that they did together with their father Maurice Hines Sr.
The film was a period piece about the famous Harlem club that was owned by the mob during the 20s and 30s.
It was so much fun just watching the great talent doing their routines. It was like being at a 4 month never-ending show and we were getting paid for it. I actually learned how to be a waiter because of this film.
I also learned how to dance because Gregory and Maurice were always teaching me.
Maurice was actually very close friends with a guy named Stanley Kay who was a show business manager and good friends with Yanks owner George Steinbrenner. Maurice took it upon himself to look out for me once Stanley told Maurice that I had a Yanks affiliation.
He acted like a big brother on the set. Gregory was also great but always reminded me that he was a Mets fan. When I would tell him that I would get him tickets to a Yankee game and try to convert his allegiance he would laugh and say, to late I already paid for my season tickets at Shea Stadium.
I never got him to go to Yankee Stadium.
I will never forget that during a lunch break Chaka Khan had just come out with her new single called.. Ain’t nobody… Gregory kept playing it over and the cast was dancing to it. Maurice went over to me and dragged me on the floor and made me dance with them. I knew I had no choice even though I was a shitty dancer. However here I was, dancing with a couple of the greatest dancers in the world. That was absolutely amazing. I was thinking to myself how blessed I was. How the magic of the Yankees could get me where I was at that time.
I would go on to work in probably another dozen films and have beautiful experiences but nothing would ever top that great time filming the Cotton Club.
Today an actor friend from that time (James Warden Jr. ) called me and told me that Maurice Hines had died. He was 80 years old. I was very saddened by the news. I didn’t see Maurice often but when I did it was always a party with great laughs. It was hard enough at the fact that we lost his brother Gregory at the age of 57 due to Cancer.
It seems that we are losing so many of our people at a faster pace lately. One day we see them and the next day they are gone.
If you have family and friends that you care about then don’t be afraid to give them a hug and possibly throw them a little… I Love You… it might be our last chance to do it.
Goodbye Maurice… Thanks for the dance!
