The Starlight Motel

Nobody believed in me. That was their first mistake. When you have an ambitious goal and you say you’re going to do this, people will think you’re crazy until you actually do it. When I moved out to L.A. to pursue a career in what we call show business, I had no idea where to start. No credits, no agent, no connections whatsoever. I barely had $5 in my pocket. So how did I do it?

I remember my first day that I was in tinsel town, which by the way is by no means shiny especially when you stay in a cheap motel in a bad area of Los Angeles. I arrived at the Starlight Motel in my 2002 Volkswagen Jetta with 100,000 miles on it and 100,000 different fantasies of how I was going to be the next Harrison Ford.

I walked into the front door of the motel to find a very small and janky looking place. Wallpapers with palm trees and flowers stained with small and big brown spots, maroon shag carpeting, and ceiling fan with only one blade and barely making one revolution. A place stuck in time. I go to the window of the front desk to book a room for the night. I tap on the window and the motel manager wakes up from his stupor. He wore a wife beater underneath the Hawaiian shirt and hadn’t changed out of it since god knows when. He had a name tag on the left shirt pocket of that said STU.

“How can I help you?” asked Stu and I said “I would like a room for the night please”. And he grabs the clipboard with paperwork “How many nights will you be staying?" he asked “For one night” I responded. “$10 dollars”. I reached into my pocket to muster up the $5 to my name. I put it on the counter and the manager says “I’m sorry but this isn’t enough. Do you have a debit or credit card perhaps?” So I reach into my other pants pocket and find my debit card and I give it to him. He swipes the card and what felt like forever the card terminal CARD DECLINED. “Is there anything else that you can do?” I asked “Nope, I’m afraid I can’t. Sorry I can’t do anything for you ” And before Stu could close the window for the night I said “Wait, wait what if I work for you? Are you guys hiring?” I asked.

Stu chuckles and says “Nice try kid, but we aren’t looking for anyone”. As he continued to close the window I pointed to the broken fan and said “Your fan, it's broken. My dad used to be a maintenance guy and he taught me how to fix things. I can fix your fan for free if you let me stay for the night”. I exclaimed to him. And with a pensive look on his face with the potential prospect of free labor, Stu agreed and gave me a key to one of the vacant rooms.

Room 25. Which was the number I wore when I played Baseball and also the day that I was born. Serendipitous. As I settled in for the night I thought about how I was going to fix the fan. My dad didn’t work in maintenance and I had no fucking idea how to fix a fan. So I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out how I was going to fix the fan. But after all that worrying I passed out on the bed and fell asleep in my outdoor clothes.

I wake up the next day to a knock on my door and I look through a tiny peep-hole with a golden outline to see non-other than Stu himself. “So, are you ready to fix the fan?” “Um, yeah!! I just have to get the tools from my car” I replied reluctantly. “No worries, I have some tools in the back that you can use ” replied Stu. “Great” I replied again reluctantly.

I went to the backroom of the motel with Stu to the tools and supplies kept to renovate the motel. But as mentioned earlier, I don’t think he has renovated the motel since it first opened. “How long have you worked here at the starlight?” I asked “Oh, I have worked here since my dad opened it. I used to be the bellboy and I worked my way up to motel manager”. He replied. “Interesting, interesting. You were a bellboy?” I asked Stu.

“Yes I was, my father felt bad for me for not having many friends or anything to do. So he created an honorary position so he could spend more time with me” Stu replied. “So how did you become motel manager?” I asked. “Well after my father showed me the ropes , he eventually handed me the keys to the kingdom”. I kept the dialogue going as much as I could so I could lay the inevitable truth about me. “So you have been a motel manager ever since?”

I asked Stu “That’s correct. Have been running this baby since god knows when, all because someone took a chance on me when no else believed I could” As the motel manager finished embellishing his sentiment he finally found the old ceiling fan guide and put it on the work table along with the tool kit he brought out and the fan itself. “Here you go. This should help get you started. If you need anything, don’t be afraid to holler”. And Stu exited through the curtain.

After he left I just sat there on the brown barstool and stared at the fan with no inkling on how to fix it. As time passed the manager would peek in occasionally to see my progress and I would pretend to be doing something and use terminology like “The hydraulic speedometer needs replacing in order for the motor to run properly” and “the fan needs new industrial blades”. As the end of the day came upon me, the fan was not fixed. So I went back to my room and packed my things. But before I could make my escape with my belongings the motel manager stopped me as I walked to my car.

“So did you fix my ceiling fan?” asked Stu as if I was being interrogated by a police officer. After a moment of pressure I finally took off my armor of protection and said “Sir, unfortunately I do not know how to fix a fan. I’m an actor and I just moved into town”. “I figured,” he replied. “Here are the keys. sorry to have bothered”. And then I walked away and before I could get to my car he stopped me in my tracks and said “Not a bad kid. Not bad at all”. I replied “What do you mean? I just lied to you”. The manager then says “ I know, I have had plenty of actors and wanna be dreamers come through here and very few have made it or at the very least had me convinced”.

Astonished, I replied “Wow, thank you”. Stu says “I’ll tell you what. You can still go if you want, but if you need a place to stay and want to do a couple repair jobs. I can work something out. It's up to you”. “Why are you doing this?” I asked “Well sometimes it just takes one person believing in you, to make a true difference” and he tosses the room key and I catch it.

From that day on was not only the beginning of my journey, but a reminder of how a simple act of kindness can go a very long way. “So as I stand up here accepting this award from the academy, I would like to dedicate this award to Stu. My friend who believed in me when nobody else did. Thank you”.