We’d go up on the roofs of buildings and wrap up sheets and pillows with string and wire. We would just throw those dummies off the fourth-floor walk-up buildings—those were always the easiest ones to get up on the roof. As the dummy went down, we would scream. And then people would flip. And drop their groceries. The guys in the car would stop short.
My grandfather was a chef at the Copacabana, and he ended up being a chef at the 21 Club—a master chef in both places. 21 was mainly like bankers, really, really, really upscale. Copacabana was basically entertainment: Bobby Darin, Sam Cooke, The Four Seasons, Frank Sinatra. He cooked for Jackie Gleason—Jackie Gleason liked his steak an inch and a half thick.