By 1974 we were settled in the Topanga Center, and were starting to establish a retail presence there. And by establish a retail presence, I mean piss away some $20,000 (a whole hell of a lot of money in 1974) building a beautifully appointed showroom that nobody with any money ever set foot in. On the plus side, our trade salesmen had very successful, and we began to win acclaim in the industry as well. We got invited to trade shows, got on magazine covers, won awards. We made a lot of money.
But things were starting to come unraveled. Warren, the general partner, and pretty much the heartbeat of the company, got cancer. He was in a lot of pain, and began taking a lot of drugs for the pain, and drinking heavily. His right hand man of many years finally had enough, and took off, leaving me in charge. By that time, Warren had pretty much gone nuts, and it was getting impossible to keep the business going. By 1978, I gave up, and just moved back to Venice and went to work in a jewelry store in Westwood, and warren took what was left of the company to Sacramento, where he died a short time later. After ten years, it was over. All that time we had mostly lived together, seen each other have kids, divorce, have troubles, and now we scattered to the winds. Somehow, it was all right.
I could never say I have any regrets about that time in my life. We had accomplished some amazing things, despite the fact that we stacked the deck against ourselves every chance we got.
