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Speaker 1: Pushkin Hey, Lost Tails listeners, it's Dana. I wanted to

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Speaker 1: let you know that you can hear the entire new

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Speaker 1: season of Lost Hills ad free, along with other great

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Speaker 1: binge listens by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Find Pushkin

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Speaker 1: Plus on the Lost Hills show page in Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or at pushkin dot fm slash Plus.

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Speaker 2: I first saw him in fifty six. I went out

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Speaker 2: there and he was very dark, you know, dark tan,

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Speaker 2: you know, he's just dark figure, a swarthy kind of guy.

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Speaker 2: And I saw him out there on this board and

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Speaker 2: he was all by himself. My brother Tom, Mickey Chapin,

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Speaker 2: and that's what they called him back then. It wasn't

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Speaker 2: Mickey do it was Mickey Chapin. Oh, that's Japin.

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Speaker 1: This is Danny Auburg again. He's talking about the first

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Speaker 1: time he laid eyes on Mickey Dora. This was three

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Speaker 1: years before he had his run in with Mickey in

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Speaker 1: the water when Mickey refused to kick out of the

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Speaker 1: wave and Danny nearly drowned. Danny used to hang out

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Speaker 1: at the beach with his older brother Kemp, and Kemp

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Speaker 1: was friends.

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Speaker 2: With Mickey for the first few years. I only knew

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Speaker 2: him as Chapin, and that's because his stepdad was Guard Chapin,

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Speaker 2: who was a very well known early surfer from the forties.

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Speaker 2: For many years, my brother, they'd always talked about Chapin.

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Speaker 2: I mean, Chapin did this, Chapin did that. And then

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Speaker 2: all of a sudden, I remember distinctly. Oh no, his

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Speaker 2: name's Dora. Now he's called himself Dora. Don't use Chapin,

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Speaker 2: you know. And the story is that Guard Chapin got murdered,

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Speaker 2: you know, down in baj Or something like that, and

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Speaker 2: so Mickey got kind of paranoid using that name. It

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Speaker 2: was like the story. So he said, I'm going to

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Speaker 2: call myself Dora for no on and they can't find me.

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Speaker 2: That's the way he thought. But so from then on

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Speaker 2: he was Nicky Dora.

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Speaker 1: This was something Mickey would do again and again, ease

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Speaker 1: out of one identity into another, like a snake shedding

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Speaker 1: its skin. He liked to keep everyone guessing, especially the cops.

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Speaker 1: They couldn't catch him if they couldn't figure out who

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Speaker 1: he was. When his stepfather, Guard was alive, Mickey had

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Speaker 1: called himself Mickey Chapin spelled m I c K E

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Speaker 1: Y like the mouse. The name was pure California surfer boy,

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Speaker 1: almost wholesome. Then overnight when Guard died, Because Guard died,

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Speaker 1: he became Mickey m I K I Dora. Mickey Dora

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Speaker 1: was mysterious. Mickey Dora was secretive and paranoid and shifty.

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Speaker 1: Mickey Dora was Malibu's dark prince. I'm Dana Goodyear and

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Speaker 1: this is Lost Hills, Episode two, Death in Mexico.

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Speaker 3: The thing about Mickey and the facts of his life

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Speaker 3: is that no one knows the truth.

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Speaker 1: This is David Renson. He wrote the definitive oral history

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Speaker 1: of Mickey Dora. It's called All for a Few Perfect Waves.

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Speaker 3: And as I will tell you, I'm sure this will

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Speaker 3: be a great podcast, but you will never find out

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Speaker 3: the truth.

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Speaker 1: Even after doing hundreds of interviews about Mickey, David says

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Speaker 1: he still finds Mickey unknowable.

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Speaker 3: And I need to read the part in my book

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Speaker 3: where John Millius is saying, it's like Citizen Kane. You

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Speaker 3: know just as much about Cain at the beginning as

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Speaker 3: you do at the end. But it's a fabulous ride.

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Speaker 3: It's a fabulous ride.

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Speaker 1: Mickey's contradictions start right at the moment of his birth.

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Speaker 1: The ultimate Southern California beach god, was born in Budapest, Hungary,

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Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty four. His mother, Ramona Stancliffe, was from California.

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Speaker 1: She had just graduated from Beverly Hills High and was

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Speaker 1: traveling around Europe with her mother and younger siblings. Seventeen

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Speaker 1: years old and strikingly attractive, she was on a riverboat

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Speaker 1: on the Danube when she met Miklo Stora, a law

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Speaker 1: student and second lieutenant in the Hungarian cavalry, and he thought, I'll.

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Speaker 3: Talk to this girl. Then they started flirting and she

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Speaker 3: was enchanted. And Miklos has told me, he said, you know,

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Speaker 3: you can't get with a girl in Hungary because they're

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Speaker 3: too proper. But maybe I get lucky. And anyway, they

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Speaker 3: spent a few months there and he I guess she

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Speaker 3: did get pregnant, but hit it.

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Speaker 1: Ramona wrote a letter to her best friend back home,

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Speaker 1: boasting about her adventures without mentioning her pregnancy.

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Speaker 3: She says, you'll never guess I'm married. I missus Miklostor,

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Speaker 3: she's pregnant. He does the right thing, he marries her.

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Speaker 1: Ramona and Miklos Senor decided to bring young Mickey to California,

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Speaker 1: a few months after he was born. Miklosch said it

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Speaker 1: was because Ramona was sick of Europe and missed the

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Speaker 1: malted milks at the drugstore counters in La. He really

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Speaker 1: did not understand his new bride, but he agreed to emigrate.

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Speaker 1: They arrived in La in January nineteen thirty five. Miklos

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Speaker 1: Senior later credited the unplanned birth of his son Micky

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Speaker 1: was saving his life. During World War Two, the Nazis

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Speaker 1: took over Hungary and Miklosch's regiment was sent to the

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Speaker 1: Russian Front, where most of them died. In La Miklosch

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Speaker 1: reinvented himself in the hospitality business. With some money from

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Speaker 1: Ramona's family, he started a Hungarian restaurant called Little Hungary.

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Speaker 1: Was that kind of his first venture when he came

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Speaker 1: to La.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he'd sold some wines. I believe he worked at

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Speaker 3: Victor Hugo's restaurant, But then you know it started his

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Speaker 3: own little place, and it was on Sunset West, on

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Speaker 3: the same side of the street as a Whiskey a

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Speaker 3: Goo Goo up a few stores.

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Speaker 1: Little Hungary sat at the center of Golden Age Hollywood

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Speaker 1: and was in particular a gathering place for European emigres.

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Speaker 1: People like the actress and singer Marlena Dietrich and the

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Speaker 1: director Billy Wilder hung out there. Ramona loved the glamour,

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Speaker 1: maybe more than she loved the daily grind of parent I.

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Speaker 3: Guess, you know. She adored Mickey, but really was what's

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Speaker 3: the word self indulgent, you know, wanted to connect with

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Speaker 3: all the famous people that came into a little hungry.

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Speaker 1: There's a picture I've seen of Mickey with Ramona. He's

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Speaker 1: about two years old and is wearing a little military

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Speaker 1: type suit. She's ravishing, head tilted back, eyes closed like

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Speaker 1: a starlet on a movie poster. He's kissing her cheek intently,

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Speaker 1: holding onto her chin as if for dear life, and

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Speaker 1: she looks like she's a million miles away.

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Speaker 3: So, you know, micklas was working all the time and

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Speaker 3: Ramona was sleeping until the afternoon. I don't know if

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Speaker 3: she was drinking. I mean, that's what happened to her

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Speaker 3: later in life. She drank and ended up just tithing

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Speaker 3: money to an I'm a TV evangelist, Mickey. I think

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Speaker 3: it was a complex relationship for Mickey, you know, and

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Speaker 3: carried on through all of his relationships with women, they

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Speaker 3: want to nest, but he didn't want to nest.

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Speaker 1: Ramona definitely wasn't the nesting type. In nineteen thirty nine,

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Speaker 1: she went to Las Vegas and filed for divorce from Miklosch.

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Speaker 4: Mickey.

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Speaker 5: Dora was definitely, unquestionably robbed of having a secure, comfortable childhood.

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Speaker 5: There's a zero question about that.

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Speaker 1: This is the surf historian Matt Warshaw.

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Speaker 5: Mickey was born to this gorgeous alcoholic mother who married

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Speaker 5: a Hungarian sort of gentleman, and the marriage I think

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Speaker 5: was unhappy almost from the jump.

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Speaker 1: Mickey's parents just basically had nothing in common. Ramona was

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Speaker 1: on a path to self destruction. Miklosch was an old

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Speaker 1: world athlete, a wine connoisseur, an art lover, the epitome

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Speaker 1: of the European gentleman. After the divorce, Ramona moved on quickly,

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Speaker 1: and the person she found, Guard Chapin, was nothing like Miklosch.

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Speaker 1: Guard was six foot one, buff a carpenter. People who

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Speaker 1: knew him described him as a quote aryan blonde.

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Speaker 5: And Ramona almost right away started dating the hottest, the

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Speaker 5: best surfer in California and possibly the world. Which didn't

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Speaker 5: mean a whole lot in the nineteen forties because there

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Speaker 5: weren't a whole.

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Speaker 4: Lot of us.

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Speaker 1: The problem with Guard Chapin was that he was a bully.

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Speaker 1: According to his contemporaries, he was aggressive and narrow minded

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Speaker 1: and always going on about who was or was not

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Speaker 1: a jew. Miklos Senior thought he was a disaster. Miklos said.

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Speaker 1: Guard thought laws were for his own protection, but didn't

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Speaker 1: believe he had to abide by them as a grown man.

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Speaker 1: Guard would steal from the ice cream vendor at the

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Speaker 1: beach and think it funny. He was that guy. Guard

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Speaker 1: took to fathering Mickey in an erratic, eccentric way. Mickey

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Speaker 1: revered him and feared him. Mickey's stepdad. Guard Chapin was

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Speaker 1: a surf pioneer, part of the first generation of Californians

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Speaker 1: to try the ancient Polynesian pastime of riding waves in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties. When Guard started surfing, it was largely

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Speaker 1: unknown on the California coast, just a few extreme guys

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Speaker 1: doing a very offbeat thing. The early California surfers rode

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Speaker 1: heavy homemade redwood planks. They could weigh over one hundred pounds.

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Speaker 1: That's like riding a dining room table, especially when compared

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Speaker 1: to the fiberglass potato chips people ride today. Here's Matt

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Speaker 1: warshaw surface story in again.

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Speaker 5: Before the war, surfboards were mostly all wood. They were

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Speaker 5: either hollow or solid wood, and they were mostly finless,

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Speaker 5: and so there.

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Speaker 4: Wasn't much control.

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Speaker 1: Most of the early surfers didn't move around on the wave.

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Speaker 1: They just went straight locked into a rigid statuesque stance.

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Speaker 4: A lot of it was.

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Speaker 5: Just standing up and looking good, just sort of holding

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Speaker 5: your arms or your shoulders a certain way and just

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Speaker 5: trying to look like you were in control.

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Speaker 1: Guard didn't do that. Guard was a charger. You do

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Speaker 1: this move where he would drop to one knee and

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Speaker 1: cut back toward the breaking part of the wave to

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Speaker 1: pick up speed and momentum, then turn back toward the

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Speaker 1: unbroken wave and fly.

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Speaker 5: If you're riding the right kind of wave and you're

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Speaker 5: coming in at an angle and the wave's barely breaking,

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Speaker 5: and you do a big swooping turn kind of back

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Speaker 5: towards breaking a little bit more.

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Speaker 4: It's a cutback.

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Speaker 1: Ving to Matt, Guard invented the cutback. That's like in

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Speaker 1: skiing being the person who invented the pole plant, and.

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Speaker 5: The surfers who were all around in the forties, there

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Speaker 5: were the surfers that everyone sort of heard of, much

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Speaker 5: more famous than Guard to a man, and it's all

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Speaker 5: men say that Guard was the guy.

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Speaker 4: He was the high performance guy.

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Speaker 1: Guard surfed just like he lived on the edge of aggression,

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Speaker 1: spoiling for a fight.

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Speaker 5: Guard Chapin knew how to turn his board ride high.

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Speaker 5: He could literally surf past surfers, and as he was

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Speaker 5: doing that, he'd beat, you know, yelling.

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Speaker 4: Abuse at everybody.

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Speaker 5: He just get out of here, coop coming through. And

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Speaker 5: that was Guard Chapin.

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Speaker 4: He was.

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Speaker 5: He was the best surfer. He was the most aggressive surfer.

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Speaker 1: Guard was a regular at Santa Nofre, a long stretch

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Speaker 1: of beach in Orange County where the waves are soft

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Speaker 1: and crumbly and roll in one after the next. It

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Speaker 1: was a community. The surfers made big bonfires and brought

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Speaker 1: their ukuleles and slept on the beach. After Guard got

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Speaker 1: together with Mickey's mom, Ramona, he started taking Mickey there

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Speaker 1: and sometimes he just left him there to fend for himself.

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Speaker 1: Mickey's nickname at Sano was Meatball. He was a sandy,

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Speaker 1: sunburned version of a Victorian street urchin. He had a

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Speaker 1: reputation as a petty thief, and Mickey was.

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Speaker 5: Just this, I mean, middle school age kid hanging around

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Speaker 5: these older guys and going up the point to go

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Speaker 5: serve a place called Trestles and stealing food to sort

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Speaker 5: of he was hungry, and he was just sort of

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Speaker 5: semi abandoned, having a great time, I think, having a

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Speaker 5: huge adventure. But you know, then Guard would show up

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Speaker 5: later on and say where's Mickey, and somebody would find

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Speaker 5: him and off they'd go back up to La.

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Speaker 1: Over time, miklosch Mickey's father began to lose influence over

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Speaker 1: his son. Miklos was busy at his restaurant Little Hungary,

217
00:14:12,676 --> 00:14:15,236
Speaker 1: a reality that Guard seemed to make a mockery of.

218
00:14:16,116 --> 00:14:18,436
Speaker 1: He would come into the restaurant, hot off the beach,

219
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Speaker 1: Mickey in toe, shouting that his wife owned the place.

220
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Speaker 1: Guard and his sidekick Mickey would storm into the kitchen

221
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Speaker 1: and grab whatever food they wanted.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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00:14:29,076 --> 00:14:31,356
Speaker 5: For his part, Miklos, who I get the feeling, was

224
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Speaker 5: just sort of in over his head because again he's

225
00:14:33,956 --> 00:14:36,676
Speaker 5: the one coming over from far away, and he was

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Speaker 5: very handsome, sophisticated. He also loved the beach. But with

227
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Speaker 5: Guard and with Ramona, Miklos still had the thick accent.

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Speaker 4: He can only be so sort of so cool.

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Speaker 1: Guard seemed determined to turn Mickey into an American boy.

230
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Speaker 1: Over Miklos's objections, he forced Micky to get circumcised at

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Speaker 1: the age of twelve. I wonder what kind of mockery Guard,

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Speaker 1: a quote unquote arian and a xenophobe, subjected Mickey too.

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Speaker 1: This dark, complexed child from Budapest whose father spoke heavily

234
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Speaker 1: accented English. God was a carpenter and worked with a

235
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Speaker 1: legendary surfboard shaper named Bob Simmons. Micky hung around the

236
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Speaker 1: shop and learned a lot from them, but as an adult,

237
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Speaker 1: he really didn't talk that much about God and his influence.

238
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Speaker 1: Occasionally he dropped cryptic hints about God's odd disciplinary programs. Once,

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Speaker 1: toward the end of his life, Mickey made the offhand

240
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Speaker 1: remark that God was a dangerous psychopath. When Nicky did

241
00:15:45,556 --> 00:15:49,916
Speaker 1: open up about God, the stories were alcohol soaked and violent.

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Speaker 5: Every now and then Micky would get in sort of

243
00:15:52,956 --> 00:15:56,516
Speaker 5: a confessional mode and say, yeah, you know. Guard used

244
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Speaker 5: to come home drunk, wake me up, and beat the

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Speaker 5: shit out of me. There was a lot of famous

246
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Speaker 5: surfers from that period in the forties and fifties who

247
00:16:04,556 --> 00:16:07,276
Speaker 5: said all seemed to say the same thing, which was

248
00:16:07,276 --> 00:16:10,316
Speaker 5: that they thought he was, you know, in their words,

249
00:16:10,316 --> 00:16:13,556
Speaker 5: the living in when it came to surfing. But he

250
00:16:13,716 --> 00:16:16,196
Speaker 5: was just someone that you want to do keep a

251
00:16:16,396 --> 00:16:18,836
Speaker 5: distance from at a party, you know, especially as it

252
00:16:18,876 --> 00:16:20,636
Speaker 5: got later. He just wanted to sort of stay away

253
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Speaker 5: from him. The story that I've been told a few times,

254
00:16:23,236 --> 00:16:26,076
Speaker 5: and I think Mickey tells the story, is that one

255
00:16:26,156 --> 00:16:30,996
Speaker 5: night Guard came home drunk, woke up, Mickey said, come

256
00:16:30,996 --> 00:16:35,076
Speaker 5: with me, and they drove somewhere in LA. I don't

257
00:16:35,116 --> 00:16:37,316
Speaker 5: know what street it was, but it was the first

258
00:16:37,316 --> 00:16:41,956
Speaker 5: street where La had just put in parking meters and

259
00:16:42,036 --> 00:16:45,196
Speaker 5: Guard got out of the car drunk. He grabbed a

260
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Speaker 5: baseball bat and just went down the block and just

261
00:16:48,516 --> 00:16:51,996
Speaker 5: smashed the head off every meter and said something like,

262
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Speaker 5: this is what they're trying to do to us. Mickey,

263
00:16:53,556 --> 00:16:55,796
Speaker 5: look at what they're trying to do. And then, you know,

264
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Speaker 5: I don't even know why he had to have Mickey there,

265
00:16:58,036 --> 00:17:00,236
Speaker 5: but he wanted Nicky to see him doing this, committing

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Speaker 5: this act of violence because you know, the city of

267
00:17:02,196 --> 00:17:05,996
Speaker 5: la or you know the county was you know, screwing them,

268
00:17:06,276 --> 00:17:09,756
Speaker 5: screwing everybody over by putting in parking meters, put Mickey

269
00:17:09,836 --> 00:17:11,876
Speaker 5: back in the car and drove home and passed out.

270
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Speaker 5: I do think Mickey later realized that Guard.

271
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Speaker 4: Was a monster.

272
00:17:18,916 --> 00:17:22,116
Speaker 1: Miklos Senior grew concerned that Mickey might be in danger

273
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Speaker 1: and did the best thing he could think of at

274
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Speaker 1: the time.

275
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Speaker 5: At one point, when Guard and Ramona were both being

276
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Speaker 5: you know, sort of particularly bad parents, Miklos sent Mickey

277
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Speaker 5: to a boarding school, and Mickey hated.

278
00:17:40,156 --> 00:17:44,396
Speaker 1: That Mickey was sent to Saint John's Military Academy, which

279
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Speaker 1: was run by the Sisters of Mercy Nuns.

280
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Speaker 5: I do think that Miklos did that not as punishment.

281
00:17:50,036 --> 00:17:52,076
Speaker 5: I think that he felt that Mickey, living with Guard

282
00:17:52,236 --> 00:17:54,756
Speaker 5: and Ramona was in a situation that Mickey needed to

283
00:17:54,796 --> 00:17:55,556
Speaker 5: be removed from.

284
00:17:56,676 --> 00:18:00,996
Speaker 1: Mickey wasn't cut out for military boarding school if a domineering,

285
00:18:01,196 --> 00:18:05,156
Speaker 1: unpredictable stepfather had given him an uneasy relationship to authority

286
00:18:05,996 --> 00:18:11,676
Speaker 1: a bunch of drill sergeants and nuns only intensive. Mickey

287
00:18:12,076 --> 00:18:15,676
Speaker 1: was not a good boy at school. There's even a

288
00:18:15,716 --> 00:18:19,436
Speaker 1: story of him putting fiberglass shavings from shaping a surfboard

289
00:18:19,916 --> 00:18:24,996
Speaker 1: in the head nuns Cotex. Micky was about fourteen when

290
00:18:25,036 --> 00:18:29,596
Speaker 1: Miklosch sold Little Hungary. Miklosch, who had remarried and fathered

291
00:18:29,596 --> 00:18:32,876
Speaker 1: a daughter, moved to South America to get into shrimp farming.

292
00:18:34,476 --> 00:18:40,676
Speaker 1: Micky was set adrift, but on the beach he was someone.

293
00:18:41,596 --> 00:18:47,356
Speaker 1: He was Mickey Chapin Guard's kid. He wasn't abandoned. He

294
00:18:47,476 --> 00:19:06,156
Speaker 1: decided he was free. When Mickey Dora became a famous

295
00:19:06,156 --> 00:19:09,316
Speaker 1: surfer in the nineteen sixties, an interviewer for so For

296
00:19:09,436 --> 00:19:11,996
Speaker 1: magazine asked him why he had dropped the name Chapin.

297
00:19:12,876 --> 00:19:19,436
Speaker 1: Mickey's answer quote, Guard's untimely, premeditated murder in Mexico can

298
00:19:19,556 --> 00:19:23,796
Speaker 1: only be linked with his individualistic personality. For my own

299
00:19:23,796 --> 00:19:26,076
Speaker 1: peace of mind, I felt it would be safer to

300
00:19:26,196 --> 00:19:29,996
Speaker 1: use my given name. The events that led up to

301
00:19:30,036 --> 00:19:34,276
Speaker 1: Gard's death in the late fifties were depressing, a noirresh

302
00:19:34,356 --> 00:19:38,156
Speaker 1: downward spiral for the beautiful Ramona and her surfing stud

303
00:19:39,236 --> 00:19:41,036
Speaker 1: surf historian Matt Warshaw.

304
00:19:42,396 --> 00:19:45,676
Speaker 5: Guard was rear ended while waiting in a traffic light

305
00:19:46,116 --> 00:19:49,996
Speaker 5: and broke his neck and he couldn't work and he

306
00:19:49,996 --> 00:19:52,596
Speaker 5: couldn't surf for something like a year. He was in

307
00:19:52,676 --> 00:19:55,956
Speaker 5: a lot of pain for the rest of his life,

308
00:19:56,516 --> 00:19:59,676
Speaker 5: and that didn't help with his drinking, so he became

309
00:19:59,716 --> 00:20:03,316
Speaker 5: a worse drunk and he would dry out and then

310
00:20:03,436 --> 00:20:04,356
Speaker 5: go back to drinking.

311
00:20:05,556 --> 00:20:09,076
Speaker 1: Ramona and Guard broke up, and Ramona became a secretary downtown,

312
00:20:09,716 --> 00:20:14,036
Speaker 1: living in hotels with various boyfriends. According to Mickey's half

313
00:20:14,076 --> 00:20:17,916
Speaker 1: brother God and Ramona's son, Guard got addicted to codine,

314
00:20:18,156 --> 00:20:21,596
Speaker 1: an absinthe that he smuggled in from Mexico. He was

315
00:20:21,636 --> 00:20:25,996
Speaker 1: already a liability. Now he came fully unglued.

316
00:20:27,076 --> 00:20:29,036
Speaker 5: At some point he was down in Mexico, I think,

317
00:20:29,076 --> 00:20:32,996
Speaker 5: fishing and trying to not drink, and then he was

318
00:20:33,036 --> 00:20:35,836
Speaker 5: going to row a dinghy out to a friend's boat.

319
00:20:36,156 --> 00:20:38,396
Speaker 5: And the dingy turned up the next day, and Guard's

320
00:20:38,436 --> 00:20:41,036
Speaker 5: body turned up five days later. And it looks like

321
00:20:41,116 --> 00:20:43,836
Speaker 5: he just had been drinking or something and fell off

322
00:20:43,836 --> 00:20:49,076
Speaker 5: the boat or some kind of late night one man accident.

323
00:20:50,076 --> 00:20:53,076
Speaker 5: Micky talked about it as if Guard knew too much

324
00:20:53,116 --> 00:20:55,596
Speaker 5: about too many people and he was killed, you know,

325
00:20:55,836 --> 00:21:00,596
Speaker 5: And again you're just cutting through layers of weirdness. Micky

326
00:21:00,676 --> 00:21:03,436
Speaker 5: tried to make it sound like Guard was murdered, which

327
00:21:03,476 --> 00:21:04,156
Speaker 5: I don't think is.

328
00:21:04,116 --> 00:21:09,036
Speaker 1: True, but Mickey believed it, or said he did. He

329
00:21:09,196 --> 00:21:14,316
Speaker 1: hinted at dark conspiracies. Micky told his friends that Guard

330
00:21:14,596 --> 00:21:20,476
Speaker 1: knew too much about what he said. The state was

331
00:21:20,516 --> 00:21:25,756
Speaker 1: somehow after him. It was all very mysterious. What's clear

332
00:21:26,556 --> 00:21:29,356
Speaker 1: is that Mickey was not the same after Guard's death.

333
00:21:30,196 --> 00:21:35,356
Speaker 1: He became more enigmatic, more paranoid, but he also started

334
00:21:35,356 --> 00:21:38,716
Speaker 1: to seem much less like a California kid and more

335
00:21:38,796 --> 00:21:44,836
Speaker 1: like a European dandy. Mickey was back in touch with

336
00:21:44,876 --> 00:21:48,156
Speaker 1: his birth father, Miklosch, who had returned from South America

337
00:21:48,316 --> 00:21:52,196
Speaker 1: and was working in the wine business. Eventually, Mikloch would

338
00:21:52,196 --> 00:21:55,716
Speaker 1: work for the eminent winemaker Baron de Rothschild, representing his

339
00:21:55,796 --> 00:22:00,236
Speaker 1: wines in the United States and frequently traveling back to Europe.

340
00:22:00,516 --> 00:22:03,436
Speaker 1: He got Mickey a job working for a distributor, but

341
00:22:03,516 --> 00:22:07,556
Speaker 1: it didn't last. Micky slept with the boss's wife. That

342
00:22:07,676 --> 00:22:11,916
Speaker 1: was okay. Didn't want to work, he wanted to surf.

343
00:22:13,796 --> 00:22:18,036
Speaker 1: Rerent wasn't an issue. Micky crashed with Mieklosch's mother, Nadina

344
00:22:18,076 --> 00:22:21,716
Speaker 1: at her place in West Hollywood. Nadina, who was born

345
00:22:21,756 --> 00:22:24,196
Speaker 1: in Russian spent most of her adult life in Vienna,

346
00:22:24,596 --> 00:22:27,276
Speaker 1: was a voice coach, known to her students as Madame

347
00:22:27,356 --> 00:22:31,956
Speaker 1: de Sanctis. Now Mickey started talking with an accent and

348
00:22:32,036 --> 00:22:36,316
Speaker 1: using quirky Eastern European hand gestures. It was like he

349
00:22:36,436 --> 00:22:42,596
Speaker 1: was becoming some impressionistic air quotes version of Miklosch. When

350
00:22:42,636 --> 00:22:46,556
Speaker 1: Guard died, Mickey Chapin died with him. From then on,

351
00:22:46,756 --> 00:22:50,156
Speaker 1: in most circumstances, he would be known as Mickey Dora.

352
00:22:50,916 --> 00:22:56,996
Speaker 1: The name and the mannerisms would stick. Matt Warshaw again, Mickey.

353
00:22:56,676 --> 00:23:00,316
Speaker 5: Dora did have this way of talking that apparently everybody

354
00:23:00,316 --> 00:23:02,876
Speaker 5: at maliveryone else where would started emulating where you know,

355
00:23:02,996 --> 00:23:04,956
Speaker 5: a lot of sort of hand gestures and a lot

356
00:23:04,956 --> 00:23:06,796
Speaker 5: of there was sort of a pause in the way,

357
00:23:06,956 --> 00:23:09,836
Speaker 5: and it wasn't He didn't talk like other surfers at all.

358
00:23:09,876 --> 00:23:12,796
Speaker 5: There was none of that kind of California nasally thing

359
00:23:13,196 --> 00:23:15,476
Speaker 5: that surfers do. You know. He talked in a sort

360
00:23:15,476 --> 00:23:18,436
Speaker 5: of a precise way. Or if you see people in conversation,

361
00:23:18,556 --> 00:23:22,596
Speaker 5: you'd see people doing these kind of gestures that Mickey did,

362
00:23:23,676 --> 00:23:25,676
Speaker 5: and it was all kind of old world. Somehow it

363
00:23:26,076 --> 00:23:30,156
Speaker 5: wasn't southern California surfy stuff. That's all coming from Miklos

364
00:23:30,356 --> 00:23:30,836
Speaker 5: the father.

365
00:23:35,556 --> 00:23:40,716
Speaker 6: He was this really uneasy split between two very different fathers.

366
00:23:41,636 --> 00:23:41,876
Speaker 5: DV.

367
00:23:41,996 --> 00:23:45,956
Speaker 1: Divasentis, the film writer was fascinated by Mickey's two dads

368
00:23:46,276 --> 00:23:47,236
Speaker 1: and how they shaped him.

369
00:23:47,956 --> 00:23:53,036
Speaker 6: He had Michlas as his birth father, who was this erudite, aristocratic,

370
00:23:53,956 --> 00:23:57,756
Speaker 6: accomplished businessman, lover of the arts, expert of fine wine,

371
00:23:58,036 --> 00:24:01,236
Speaker 6: and by all accounts, a real gentleman and a lovely man.

372
00:24:01,516 --> 00:24:05,796
Speaker 6: And then you had Guard his stepfather, who is, you know,

373
00:24:06,116 --> 00:24:10,236
Speaker 6: widely recognized to be a very very difficult, problematic person,

374
00:24:10,596 --> 00:24:13,956
Speaker 6: and he was paranoid, He fought a lot, loved guns.

375
00:24:14,116 --> 00:24:18,396
Speaker 6: He was a very angry man by all accounts. And

376
00:24:18,636 --> 00:24:21,276
Speaker 6: you can see both of these things in Mickey. You

377
00:24:21,316 --> 00:24:26,676
Speaker 6: can see all of the appreciation of art and imagination

378
00:24:27,156 --> 00:24:31,996
Speaker 6: and curiosity about culture and seeing culture where others might not.

379
00:24:32,436 --> 00:24:38,676
Speaker 6: And then you also see the fierce, almost violent protectionism

380
00:24:38,716 --> 00:24:43,796
Speaker 6: about territory and paranoia, thinking people want to know what

381
00:24:43,796 --> 00:24:46,516
Speaker 6: you're doing, thinking people want to break into your house.

382
00:24:46,516 --> 00:24:48,196
Speaker 6: I mean, Mickey had a bear trap inside of his

383
00:24:48,196 --> 00:24:51,236
Speaker 6: front door. There's nobody trying to break into Mickey's house.

384
00:24:51,276 --> 00:24:52,876
Speaker 6: Nobody cares for Mikula, you know what I mean, Like

385
00:24:53,236 --> 00:24:57,956
Speaker 6: it's paranoid, and you see these very distinct fathers very

386
00:24:57,996 --> 00:24:59,556
Speaker 6: much alive in him.

387
00:24:59,956 --> 00:25:03,676
Speaker 1: As a child, Mickey had been more or less abandoned.

388
00:25:04,796 --> 00:25:09,436
Speaker 1: Ramona hadn't taken care of him, Miklosch hadn't either. Guard

389
00:25:09,556 --> 00:25:14,836
Speaker 1: seemed to mostly nurture Mickey's weaknesses. I get the sense

390
00:25:14,876 --> 00:25:17,316
Speaker 1: that Mickey grew up with this feeling of having been

391
00:25:17,356 --> 00:25:21,556
Speaker 1: denied his birthright, the elegance and sophistication and air of

392
00:25:21,636 --> 00:25:25,596
Speaker 1: wealth that clung to his father, and he was pissed.

393
00:25:26,876 --> 00:25:30,236
Speaker 1: He used to doodle the word retribution on his drawings.

394
00:25:31,836 --> 00:25:35,996
Speaker 1: Mickey wanted that mister Dora suave, but he'd grown up

395
00:25:36,036 --> 00:25:39,436
Speaker 1: with Guard and Guard's questionable ethics.

396
00:25:40,636 --> 00:25:42,356
Speaker 6: I think when it came to the criminal stuff, it's

397
00:25:42,356 --> 00:25:43,436
Speaker 6: a synthesis.

398
00:25:42,956 --> 00:25:43,676
Speaker 4: Of the two.

399
00:25:43,876 --> 00:25:49,356
Speaker 6: It's the willingness to take a sucker from Guard, and

400
00:25:49,356 --> 00:25:52,876
Speaker 6: it's the sophisticated way of doing it is for Michlas.

401
00:25:56,476 --> 00:25:59,356
Speaker 1: A few years before Gard's death, Mickey had stopped going

402
00:25:59,356 --> 00:26:04,596
Speaker 1: down to Santa No Frey. He'd found a new spot, Malibu,

403
00:26:04,716 --> 00:26:07,716
Speaker 1: a long right breaking wave that ran from the Malibu

404
00:26:07,796 --> 00:26:10,716
Speaker 1: movie colony or the movie stores had their hideaways to

405
00:26:10,796 --> 00:26:17,436
Speaker 1: Malibu pier a wave with no one on it. This

406
00:26:17,556 --> 00:26:20,796
Speaker 1: is almost incomprehensible today when there can be fifty people

407
00:26:20,796 --> 00:26:24,356
Speaker 1: in the water even on a mediocre day. Malibu is

408
00:26:24,356 --> 00:26:27,036
Speaker 1: the most discovered of the discovered waves.

409
00:26:27,516 --> 00:26:30,756
Speaker 2: It was a wild beach. It was like actually out

410
00:26:30,796 --> 00:26:33,356
Speaker 2: in the country. It was kind of like going to

411
00:26:33,436 --> 00:26:36,956
Speaker 2: the outskirts, out into the country. You know, you go

412
00:26:37,076 --> 00:26:39,596
Speaker 2: up and there's empty lots where the beach houses are now,

413
00:26:40,156 --> 00:26:42,916
Speaker 2: and you wind up this road. It was just like

414
00:26:42,956 --> 00:26:45,436
Speaker 2: an adventure. You know, you're going way out to Malibu.

415
00:26:45,516 --> 00:26:50,116
Speaker 1: You know, this is Danny Auburg again in the early fifties.

416
00:26:50,116 --> 00:26:53,236
Speaker 1: He said, almost no one knew what surfing even was.

417
00:26:54,076 --> 00:26:55,396
Speaker 1: He was just there to go fishing.

418
00:26:56,276 --> 00:26:57,916
Speaker 2: I had to sit there with a drop line and

419
00:26:57,956 --> 00:27:01,956
Speaker 2: look across the cove and see these strange long things

420
00:27:02,116 --> 00:27:05,356
Speaker 2: leaning against this fence, you know, this old bombed wire fence.

421
00:27:05,996 --> 00:27:07,796
Speaker 2: I thought there are some kind of boats. I had

422
00:27:07,796 --> 00:27:10,716
Speaker 2: no idea what they were. I wondered, what is that?

423
00:27:11,676 --> 00:27:14,636
Speaker 2: And later I found out there were surf boards. By

424
00:27:14,676 --> 00:27:17,796
Speaker 2: fifty six, it was a relatively unknown sport that came

425
00:27:17,836 --> 00:27:21,196
Speaker 2: from Hawaii and people did it, but it wasn't generally

426
00:27:21,436 --> 00:27:22,196
Speaker 2: non surfing.

427
00:27:22,356 --> 00:27:22,916
Speaker 4: What is that?

428
00:27:23,076 --> 00:27:25,236
Speaker 2: See people bobbing around out at see? Why are they

429
00:27:25,276 --> 00:27:26,956
Speaker 2: doing that? And what are they waiting out there?

430
00:27:30,076 --> 00:27:33,396
Speaker 1: Here? At Malibu? Mickey would perfect what came to be

431
00:27:33,476 --> 00:27:37,796
Speaker 1: known as the Malibu style, a laid backstance with knees

432
00:27:37,836 --> 00:27:42,076
Speaker 1: slightly bent and shoulders loose. The graceful, and Mickey was

433
00:27:42,076 --> 00:27:44,996
Speaker 1: the most graceful, could keep foot to the front of

434
00:27:44,996 --> 00:27:48,516
Speaker 1: the board and ride the nose. It was the golden

435
00:27:48,516 --> 00:27:51,996
Speaker 1: era of Malibu, a period Mickey would call the Vintage

436
00:27:52,076 --> 00:27:54,796
Speaker 1: years or the Genesis period.

437
00:27:55,756 --> 00:27:58,676
Speaker 5: There was two guys that were sort of the kings

438
00:27:58,716 --> 00:28:02,036
Speaker 5: of Malibu in this one really golden sort of period

439
00:28:02,036 --> 00:28:03,756
Speaker 5: that Mickey thought of as the sort of the golden

440
00:28:03,796 --> 00:28:05,436
Speaker 5: period in the nineteen.

441
00:28:05,116 --> 00:28:08,756
Speaker 1: Fifties, Matt Warshaw again and.

442
00:28:08,676 --> 00:28:10,956
Speaker 5: Mickey, the guy that kind of ruled in the water.

443
00:28:11,716 --> 00:28:15,556
Speaker 5: And then Terry Tracy, who everyone knew was Tubesteak, ruled

444
00:28:15,956 --> 00:28:19,596
Speaker 5: the beach. The two of them got along, okay, because

445
00:28:19,596 --> 00:28:22,356
Speaker 5: they've each had their own little sort of fiefdom. But

446
00:28:23,156 --> 00:28:26,996
Speaker 5: Tubesteak built this shack on the beach and he loved

447
00:28:27,156 --> 00:28:32,116
Speaker 5: entertaining people. He was himself could be kind of cruel,

448
00:28:32,196 --> 00:28:34,556
Speaker 5: but in general seemed to have a pretty big heart,

449
00:28:34,676 --> 00:28:38,516
Speaker 5: and he was funny, and he liked a sort of

450
00:28:38,516 --> 00:28:40,036
Speaker 5: old court and just sort.

451
00:28:39,876 --> 00:28:41,036
Speaker 4: Of keep everybody laughing.

452
00:28:41,756 --> 00:28:44,036
Speaker 5: And Nicky would sort of say hid everybody on his

453
00:28:44,116 --> 00:28:47,596
Speaker 5: way out to go surf, and then usually Micky would

454
00:28:47,676 --> 00:28:48,076
Speaker 5: just leave.

455
00:28:49,316 --> 00:28:52,636
Speaker 1: This was a scene Mickey in the water tubesteak in

456
00:28:52,676 --> 00:28:55,676
Speaker 1: a shack on the beach, that a skinny, short teenager

457
00:28:55,876 --> 00:28:59,396
Speaker 1: named Kathy Kohner discovered in the summer of nineteen fifty six.

458
00:29:00,596 --> 00:29:04,276
Speaker 7: He was a great surfer. He was a great surfer.

459
00:29:04,356 --> 00:29:06,716
Speaker 7: I mean you could pick him if you looked outside,

460
00:29:06,916 --> 00:29:08,756
Speaker 7: you could pick him up in a lineup. He was

461
00:29:08,756 --> 00:29:12,716
Speaker 7: span he had hand gestures. I don't know if anybody's

462
00:29:12,716 --> 00:29:15,716
Speaker 7: gold us, Ah, my name is Miki Dora. He'd go

463
00:29:15,876 --> 00:29:16,196
Speaker 7: like that.

464
00:29:17,196 --> 00:29:19,956
Speaker 1: Kathy's arrival herald at the end of the Golden Era.

465
00:29:20,916 --> 00:29:24,636
Speaker 1: In Mickey's view, it ushered in a period of dry rot.

466
00:29:26,156 --> 00:29:28,996
Speaker 1: You may have heard about Kathy. She became the world's

467
00:29:29,036 --> 00:29:34,116
Speaker 1: most famous surfer. To nonsurfers, she's probably still the world's

468
00:29:34,116 --> 00:29:37,756
Speaker 1: most famous surfer. But you don't know her as Kathy.

469
00:29:38,396 --> 00:29:40,156
Speaker 1: You'd know her by the nickname the guys on the

470
00:29:40,156 --> 00:29:44,196
Speaker 1: beach gave her. It's a little offensive, but it was

471
00:29:44,236 --> 00:29:45,316
Speaker 1: the fifties.

472
00:29:46,116 --> 00:29:48,276
Speaker 4: Girl and midget a kitchen.

473
00:29:49,916 --> 00:29:54,316
Speaker 1: Mickey's world. The surf world would never be the same.

474
00:29:57,196 --> 00:30:00,996
Speaker 1: Next time on Lost Hills, the guys at Malibu are

475
00:30:01,036 --> 00:30:01,876
Speaker 1: in for a surprise.

476
00:30:04,196 --> 00:30:08,076
Speaker 7: The boo Malibu gets good once a summer, and it

477
00:30:08,196 --> 00:30:11,836
Speaker 7: got good. It got bitchen brother. Was I ever Jazz?

478
00:30:12,316 --> 00:30:15,156
Speaker 7: I was writing four footers and lining all the way

479
00:30:15,156 --> 00:30:18,636
Speaker 7: across into the bay. I really had a ball and

480
00:30:18,756 --> 00:30:21,796
Speaker 7: looked better. I still miss having a boyfriend, but everything

481
00:30:21,876 --> 00:30:24,716
Speaker 7: happens for the best, and I'll die being an old maid.

482
00:30:24,876 --> 00:30:27,556
Speaker 7: But it's a grand life. And I think that's a

483
00:30:27,596 --> 00:30:33,796
Speaker 7: really good, a really good piece of writing from my diary.

484
00:30:35,316 --> 00:30:39,796
Speaker 1: That's next in episode three, Gidget goes to Hollywood, Part one.

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00:30:41,556 --> 00:30:44,676
Speaker 1: Lost Tails is written and reported by Me Dana Goodyear.

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00:30:45,116 --> 00:30:48,676
Speaker 1: It's created by me and Benadere and produced by Western

487
00:30:48,756 --> 00:30:53,156
Speaker 1: Sound and Pushkin Industries. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus and you

488
00:30:53,236 --> 00:30:57,116
Speaker 1: can binge the entire season right now ad free. Find

489
00:30:57,156 --> 00:31:00,396
Speaker 1: Pushkin Plus on the Lost Tail show page in Apple Podcasts,

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00:31:00,476 --> 00:31:11,476
Speaker 1: or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus