My favorite Michael Childers story is one about a blind date, when he met the man who would become the love of his life. At the time, Childers was a film student at UCLA. He also worked to support himself and his burgeoning photography career by shooting head shots. A publicist who’d been referring clients to Childers was a friend of actress Kaye Ballard. Ballard had a close friend, a director named John Schlesinger, who was coming in from London. She asked the publicist if he knew a nice young man who wanted to go on a date with her friend.
“[He was] the man who directed ‘Darling,’ one of my favorite films of all time,” Childers recalled as we sipped ginger ales one recent morning in the cozy living room of his new digs, which overlook a duck pond. “Of course, I said yes. Then, I read an article about him that said he was known to be mercurial. That can also be code for difficult. I thought, ‘Shit, this might be a nightmare.’
“We were to meet at the bar of the Beverly Hills Hotel, so I asked a young actor friend to come with me. I told him, ‘If I kick you once under the table, we’re leaving. If I kick you twice, you can leave without me.’ Well, John was charming and sweet, so I gave my friend two kicks and he left. Not long after, [actress] Lee Remick joined us. She told us she was meeting the man who was going to be the leading man in her next movie. Before John could ask who it was, Frank Sinatra appeared at our table. I thought to myself, ‘This could be a great life!’”
Childers and Schlesinger had more than a great life together for 38 years; they led extraordinary lives. Schlesinger made some of his finest films while the two were together: “Midnight Cowboy,” “The Day of the Locust,” “Marathon Man,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “The Falcon and the Snowman,” and “Madame Sousatzka.”
Schlesinger was supportive of Childers’ budding career as a photographer. Through a friend who founded a powerhouse publicity firm (PMK), Childers found steady work as a still photographer on film sets. His training in taking head shots translated into portrait photography. He recalls being chased off film sets at times by directors who didn’t appreciate the importance of still photography in the movie industry. But, Childers forged strong and lasting friendships with a Who’s Who of great actors, authors, and artists.
You can’t teach someone how to be a great photographer. Sure, you can teach lighting, framing, and camera operation. But, certain intangibles can’t be taught – like an “eye” for photography, a sensitivity to light, and an instinct for the moment. Luckily for Childers, he possessed all the right stuff in abundance. Still, that doesn’t account for the dizzying number of past and present celebrities on his golden Rolodex. Many incredibly talented photographers have shot a slew of international luminaries; but, how many of those could pick up the phone and have a quick chat with Andy Warhol, Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Mel Gibson, Sir Laurence Olivier, Richard Gere, Bette Midler, Ali McGraw, David Hockney, Tennessee Williams, or Groucho Marx?
I’d call that extra, indefinable quality in Childers a mix of charm and curiosity. In his absorbing, yet-to-be-published photo-memoir, And I’ve Got the Pictures to Prove It, he recounts how he became friends with a man named Jimmy Pendleton. Stifled by life at a UCLA fraternity, Childers jumped at the chance to rent a guesthouse at Pendleton’s estate. He met many members of old-guard Hollywood royalty at Pendleton’s house, including Norma Shearer, Claudette Colbert, Rosalind Russell, and Edward G. Robinson.
At one of Pendleton’s dinner parties, Childers was seated next to Shearer. She wanted to know what he did. When he told her that he was studying film at UCLA, she expressed amazement at the idea that one could study film in a school. She wanted to know exactly what he was studying. “I replied, ‘I’ve been studying with one of your old directors, and yesterday we watch a Metro print of ‘Marie Antoinette,’” Childers said. “‘Can you tell me how you did the dialogue on that staircase tracking shot?’ She was flabbergasted that someone so young would know about her old films. Jimmy told me later, ‘You know, Michael, all these old dames want to do is talk about themselves and their old movies. Kid, you’re a hit.’”
I can personally attest to the fact that Childers’ eye, wit, charm, and curiosity are intact. I moved to the desert from New Mexico over 10 years ago to head up another publication. Inevitably, I crossed paths with Childers. One of the first times we chatted about “Michael Childers Presents: A Night At The Movies,” we discovered that the late Steve Lowe (who renovated the John Lautner motel in Desert Hot Springs) was a mutual friend. Lowe sold me a converted church in New Mexico.
wood.tif
As we delved further into the topic, we discovered that our lives had overlapped in Santa Fe. In fact, my first week there, I took my car in for servicing at the Volvo dealership. The counterperson said that since I was new in town, I should attend a variety show at the Lensic Theater that night. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the theater, the show was sold out. Childers and I figured that “variety” show was the first iteration of “Michael Childers Presents: A Night At The Movies.”
Pacino.tif
Ever since that first show (which featured Lauren Bacall and Carol Burnett), Childers used his golden Rolodex to call in entertainers to donate their talents to “Michael Childers Presents: A Night At The Movies.” The show benefits worthy charities throughout the Valley. The March 2026 production (which will be a salute to old Hollywood) will take place at the Palm Springs Plaza Theatre.
Subsequently, every time Childers and I get together, we find another path we both crossed (like working on the film “Hammett”) or another mutual friend (most recently, Tim Curry came up). For the longest time, I alternated between thinking it was kind of spooky or maybe we had some sort of magical connection.
Then, the obvious struck me. Childers simply knows everyone. Maybe you’ll find yourself at a hotel bar in, say, Bucharest, Romania, one day. And maybe you’ll start talking to the stranger on your left. After a while, you might discover that you both met Lily Tomlin. Inevitably, you’d ask him how he met Ms. Tomlin. And 10-to-one, he would reply, “Michael Childers introduced us.”
My second favorite Michael Childers has to do with some private rooms in the Palace of Versailles. But I’ve promised never to repeat that one.
