WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940 Welcome. Welcome to today's deep dive. We are 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:06.200 exploring the life of a man who managed to perfectly 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:11.759 surf the incredibly chaotic waves of 20th century 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:14.039 American pop culture. Yeah. A journey that stretches 00:00:14.039 --> 00:00:17.260 from the coon skin cap craze of the 1950s all 00:00:17.260 --> 00:00:20.800 the way to the glitzy, you know, celebrity soaked 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.620 nights of Palm Springs. Exactly. We are diving 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:25.640 into the life of Mel Haber. We've pulled together 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:28.519 excerpts from his Wikipedia biography. And our 00:00:28.519 --> 00:00:30.839 mission for this deep dive is to extract what 00:00:30.839 --> 00:00:33.560 I consider the ultimate lesson in adaptability. 00:00:33.700 --> 00:00:36.159 And reinvention, really. Right. We want to figure 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:39.159 out how a kid selling peanuts in Brooklyn eventually 00:00:39.159 --> 00:00:41.640 becomes the... Well, the ultimate gatekeeper 00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:44.200 to Hollywood's elite. To really ground us in 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:46.000 where this story begins, I want you to picture 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:49.640 the sound of a bustling 1950s New York City streetscape. 00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:52.719 Oh, yeah. Just the horns, the rapid fire conversations 00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:55.359 on the sidewalk, the sheer density of commerce. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:58.280 What's fascinating here is Haber's overarching 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:00.700 pattern. Yeah. When you study his life, you realize 00:01:00.700 --> 00:01:02.700 he wasn't just a businessman. He was a cultural 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:05.180 thermometer. He instinctively knew how to read 00:01:05.180 --> 00:01:07.519 the room of American culture. And more importantly, 00:01:07.739 --> 00:01:10.260 he knew the exact mechanics of pivoting when 00:01:10.260 --> 00:01:12.599 the temperature changed. So let's look at the 00:01:12.599 --> 00:01:16.459 environment that forged that instinct. The Brooklyn 00:01:16.459 --> 00:01:18.879 roots. Right, Brooklyn. Haber was born on October 00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:22.680 24, 1936. He was the youngest of four children, 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:25.019 growing up in an apartment overlooking Ocean 00:01:25.019 --> 00:01:27.340 Parkway in Flatbush. And just to give you a sense 00:01:27.340 --> 00:01:29.200 of the cultural pressure cooker he was swimming 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:32.579 in. Look at his high school. Erasmus Hall. Yes. 00:01:33.219 --> 00:01:36.680 Erasmus Hall churned out a completely wild mix 00:01:36.680 --> 00:01:39.959 of intense ambition. I mean, you have Barbra 00:01:39.959 --> 00:01:42.299 Streisand walking those halls. Bobby Fischer, 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:44.719 the chess prodigy. Right. And crime author Mickey 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:48.030 Spillane. all in that same ecosystem. That kind 00:01:48.030 --> 00:01:50.709 of environment normalizes Divergent's success. 00:01:50.950 --> 00:01:53.129 It really does. It shows a young person that 00:01:53.129 --> 00:01:54.790 there isn't just one path out of the neighborhood. 00:01:55.010 --> 00:01:57.049 You know, there are dozens, provided you have 00:01:57.049 --> 00:01:59.030 the drive. And Haber certainly had the drive. 00:01:59.250 --> 00:02:01.329 Okay, let's unpack this, because his drive was 00:02:01.329 --> 00:02:03.569 essentially forced upon him by tragedy. Yeah, 00:02:03.629 --> 00:02:05.849 that's a crucial point. Haber's father was a 00:02:05.849 --> 00:02:08.189 garment district salesman, and he died of a heart 00:02:08.189 --> 00:02:11.229 attack at just 52 years old. Leaving Mel as the 00:02:11.229 --> 00:02:13.849 primary breadwinner at 12 years old. 12 years 00:02:13.849 --> 00:02:16.689 old. He immediately starts his hustle. He's delivering 00:02:16.689 --> 00:02:19.530 groceries. He's selling peanuts and beer to the 00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:22.150 massive crowds at Ebbets Field. And during his 00:02:22.150 --> 00:02:24.590 summers, he's working as a busboy up in the Catskills. 00:02:24.849 --> 00:02:26.330 Which is where things get really interesting 00:02:26.330 --> 00:02:28.409 from a business perspective. Absolutely. The 00:02:28.409 --> 00:02:30.750 time in the Catskills is the absolute bedrock 00:02:30.750 --> 00:02:34.090 of his later empire. It's there that Haber developed 00:02:34.090 --> 00:02:37.430 a crucial operational philosophy he called motion 00:02:37.430 --> 00:02:41.159 efficiency. Motion efficiency. It sounds very 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:44.180 corporate. It does, but on the surface, it's 00:02:44.180 --> 00:02:46.360 just a simple hospitality trick. As a busboy, 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:48.580 if you take empty glasses back to the kitchen, 00:02:48.659 --> 00:02:50.680 you never walk back out to the dining room empty 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:52.419 -handed. Right, you bring a fresh pitcher of 00:02:52.419 --> 00:02:54.939 water. Or a new stack of napkins, exactly. Yeah. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.379 You never make a trip without a purpose. I mean, 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:00.379 it sounds like common sense. It does, but applying 00:03:00.379 --> 00:03:02.900 it relentlessly at scale is what separates a 00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:06.000 busboy from a mogul. Haber internalized this 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.879 idea of eliminating wasted movement. Working 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:11.840 smart, basically. Working smart. And decades 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:15.039 later, this foundational skill of hyper efficiency 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:18.400 is exactly what allowed him to juggle operating 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:20.860 six different massive restaurants and venues 00:03:20.860 --> 00:03:23.039 at the exact same time. Without the overhead 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:25.300 or the logistics just completely crushing him. 00:03:25.379 --> 00:03:28.360 Precisely. It became a systemic approach to management. 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:30.580 And that systemic approach kicked in quickly. 00:03:31.150 --> 00:03:33.430 Haber actually enrolled in the Fashion Institute 00:03:33.430 --> 00:03:36.610 of Technology in Manhattan in the fall of 1954. 00:03:37.030 --> 00:03:39.409 But he doesn't stay long. No, he drops out just 00:03:39.409 --> 00:03:42.129 two months later. A businessman named Artie Schifrin 00:03:42.439 --> 00:03:45.539 Offers him a job making $85 a week working for 00:03:45.539 --> 00:03:47.680 a company called Wallfront Industries. Which, 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:51.159 for an 18 -year -old in 1954, $85 a week was 00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:53.419 serious capital. It was definitely enough to 00:03:53.419 --> 00:03:55.719 justify walking away from formal education. Oh, 00:03:55.740 --> 00:03:57.439 for sure. And he walks right into a cultural 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:00.479 hurricane. The Davy Crockett craze. Yes. In December 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:04.020 1954, ABC airs a television series called Davy 00:04:04.020 --> 00:04:06.060 Crockett, Indian Fighter, starring Fess Parker. 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:08.259 And Parker wears this highly distinctive coon 00:04:08.259 --> 00:04:12.050 skin cap on screen. Almost overnight. That cap 00:04:12.050 --> 00:04:15.289 sets off an absolute craze. Walfren Industries 00:04:15.289 --> 00:04:18.029 instantly pivots their manufacturing to produce 00:04:18.029 --> 00:04:20.949 coonskin items. They wanted to feed this multimillion 00:04:20.949 --> 00:04:23.509 dollar business bandwagon. We talk about the 00:04:23.509 --> 00:04:25.769 fat economy today with viral Internet products, 00:04:25.970 --> 00:04:28.269 but the mechanics were the exact same back then. 00:04:28.389 --> 00:04:31.360 The demand spikes so violently. that the supply 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:34.220 chain completely fractures. That is exactly what 00:04:34.220 --> 00:04:36.439 happened here. The craze lasted longer than the 00:04:36.439 --> 00:04:38.720 initial projections, but the raw materials just 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:42.339 couldn't keep up. Right. By May 1955, the demand 00:04:42.339 --> 00:04:44.959 had driven the wholesale price of raccoon tails 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:48.600 from 25 cents each to a staggering $5 a pound. 00:04:48.819 --> 00:04:51.519 Which is just insane inflation. The profit margins 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:55.100 instantly vanished. The bubble burst. And suddenly, 00:04:55.180 --> 00:04:58.699 at age 19, Mel Haber is out of work for the first 00:04:58.699 --> 00:05:01.009 time in his life. Think about the massive cultural 00:05:01.009 --> 00:05:03.329 fads you've seen come and go in your own lifetime. 00:05:03.569 --> 00:05:05.870 Yeah, there are so many. Haber's first big lesson 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:07.910 in the business world was realizing that cultural 00:05:07.910 --> 00:05:11.209 manias are incredibly profitable but highly volatile 00:05:11.209 --> 00:05:14.269 because of supply inelasticity. Because when 00:05:14.269 --> 00:05:16.949 everyone wants the exact same physical object 00:05:16.949 --> 00:05:20.110 at the same time, the cost of producing that 00:05:20.110 --> 00:05:22.829 object skyrockets. Until it cannibalizes the 00:05:22.829 --> 00:05:25.389 profit. Right. You can ride the wave, but you 00:05:25.389 --> 00:05:27.350 cannot anchor your ship to it. That's a great 00:05:27.350 --> 00:05:31.019 way to put it. So out of work, Haber tries selling 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:34.120 shoes. Then he tries selling stocks. Neither 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:36.699 of which really stick. Right. But Schifrin eventually 00:05:36.699 --> 00:05:38.920 calls him back to Wolfen Industries for another 00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:41.879 pivot. This is a brilliant pivot, too. They move 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:43.579 away from their original bicycle accessories 00:05:43.579 --> 00:05:46.980 and the defunct Koonskine caps, and they go all 00:05:46.980 --> 00:05:50.420 in on automotive novelties. They recognized that 00:05:50.420 --> 00:05:53.560 the massive post -World War II economic boom 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:56.079 had created a completely new demographic with 00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:59.220 disposable income. The car -obsessed baby boomer 00:05:59.220 --> 00:06:02.060 teenagers. Yes. The teenage demographic essentially 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:04.319 lived in their cars during the late 50s and early 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:06.759 60s. The vehicle wasn't just transportation for 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:09.259 them? No, it was their social hub and their primary 00:06:09.259 --> 00:06:12.079 canvas for personal identity. And Wolfern flooded 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:16.379 that canvas. Between 1961 and 1968, they produced 00:06:16.379 --> 00:06:20.959 750 different novelty items. 750. That is staggering 00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:24.019 volume. They tapped into the absolute peak of 00:06:24.019 --> 00:06:26.800 automotive kitsch. They manufactured hula dolls 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.240 that gyrated in the rear windows. Oh, I love 00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:31.699 those. Religious statues for the dashboards, 00:06:31.819 --> 00:06:35.259 self -adhesive pinstriping, and those iconic 00:06:35.259 --> 00:06:37.759 tiger tails designed to hang out of the gas tank. 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:40.180 And of course, the fuzzy dice for the rearview 00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:42.300 mirror. Of course. What they were actually selling 00:06:42.300 --> 00:06:45.000 was cheap customization. They provided a generation 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.699 desperate to stand out with an affordable way 00:06:47.699 --> 00:06:50.279 to signal their individuality. Without paying 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:52.899 for a custom paint job or expensive engine modifications. 00:06:53.220 --> 00:06:55.920 Exactly. But their biggest hit wasn't even a 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:58.339 physical toy. It was a chemical product called 00:06:58.339 --> 00:07:01.480 Amberland's dye. Right, which is so simple but 00:07:01.480 --> 00:07:04.699 so clever. It sold over a million units simply 00:07:04.699 --> 00:07:07.399 because it allowed kids to quickly alter the 00:07:07.399 --> 00:07:09.620 look of their headlights. This deep understanding 00:07:09.620 --> 00:07:13.220 of teen psychology paid off brilliantly. In 1968, 00:07:13.779 --> 00:07:17.120 Automatic Radio buys Walfren Industries for $3 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:20.899 million. And Haber, thanks to his position in 00:07:20.899 --> 00:07:24.339 the company, pockets 10 % of that sale. He walks 00:07:24.339 --> 00:07:26.879 away with $300 ,000. Which was an enormous amount 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:30.180 of liquid capital in 1968. Massive. But it gave 00:07:30.180 --> 00:07:33.079 him the illusion of invincibility. Here's where 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:36.699 it gets really interesting. Flush with this massive 00:07:36.699 --> 00:07:39.800 windfall, Haber decides he has the golden touch. 00:07:40.060 --> 00:07:42.819 The classic trap. He starts a string of absolute 00:07:42.819 --> 00:07:46.439 disasters. Let me just list these for you. He 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:49.300 launches a boiler cleaning business. Okay. He 00:07:49.300 --> 00:07:51.120 opens a front -end wheel alignment franchise. 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:53.420 Right. He starts a company factoring medical 00:07:53.420 --> 00:07:55.860 centers. Right. Which means he was buying up 00:07:55.860 --> 00:07:58.980 unpaid health care invoices at a discount, hoping 00:07:58.980 --> 00:08:01.459 to collect the full amount later. A huge leap 00:08:01.459 --> 00:08:04.180 from fuzzy dice. He tries an import business, 00:08:04.379 --> 00:08:06.939 a vacuum -forming business specializing in plastic 00:08:06.939 --> 00:08:09.540 molding, and an automotive chemical manufacturing 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:11.959 business. And how did those go? Every single 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:14.220 one of them bleeds cash. he is forced to shut 00:08:14.220 --> 00:08:16.680 them all down. To capture the mood of this era 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:19.680 in his life, imagine sitting in a gloomy room 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.300 with rain streaking down the window. Yeah, just 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:25.180 totally bleak. This is a brutal textbook midlife 00:08:25.180 --> 00:08:29.000 crisis. He faces a total financial and ego reckoning. 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:31.279 He has to trade in his sprawling Long Island 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:34.500 mansion and his Rolls Royce for a used Fiat and 00:08:34.500 --> 00:08:36.399 a modestly furnished apartment in Marina del 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:39.639 Rey, California. It is a stunning fall from grace. 00:08:39.860 --> 00:08:42.159 True. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:45.519 it is a profoundly humbling lesson regarding 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:48.620 domain expertise. Because success in one area 00:08:48.620 --> 00:08:51.120 doesn't guarantee success in another. Exactly. 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:55.220 Success in a highly specific, culturally attuned 00:08:55.220 --> 00:08:58.870 field like novelty manufacturing, does not automatically 00:08:58.870 --> 00:09:01.750 translate into success in entirely unrelated, 00:09:02.169 --> 00:09:04.769 highly technical fields like boiler cleaning. 00:09:05.070 --> 00:09:07.070 Or medical debt factoring. I mean, factoring 00:09:07.070 --> 00:09:09.710 requires deep actuarial risk assessment. And 00:09:09.710 --> 00:09:12.090 vacuum forming requires advanced engineering 00:09:12.090 --> 00:09:14.889 knowledge. Haber assumed that his hustle and 00:09:14.889 --> 00:09:17.169 capital could bypass his lack of foundational 00:09:17.169 --> 00:09:19.590 knowledge. And the market violently corrected 00:09:19.590 --> 00:09:21.909 that assumption. Violently. But Haber's story 00:09:21.909 --> 00:09:23.710 doesn't end in that Marina Del Rey apartment. 00:09:24.659 --> 00:09:27.440 Let's fast forward to 1975. The turning point. 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:29.799 Haber is invited by a friend to visit Palm Springs. 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:32.500 While he's out in the desert, he stumbles upon 00:09:32.500 --> 00:09:35.519 a property at 200 Ramon Road called the Ingleside 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:37.820 Inn. And thanks to an absentee owner, the place 00:09:37.820 --> 00:09:39.799 is practically falling apart at this point. But 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:41.960 the history of this place. The contrast between 00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:44.399 the physical decay he saw and the historical 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:47.639 weight of the property is just striking. Tell 00:09:47.639 --> 00:09:50.080 us about the history. So the inn was built in 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:53.279 1925 by the widow of Humphrey Burge, the man 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:55.299 who manufactured the Pierce Arrow motor car. 00:09:55.460 --> 00:09:58.340 Real old money. Real old money. It was designed 00:09:58.340 --> 00:10:01.279 as an ultra luxurious private estate at the foot 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:03.960 of the San Jacinto Mountains. Ten years later, 00:10:04.100 --> 00:10:06.419 a Palm Springs councilwoman named Ruth Hardy. 00:10:06.909 --> 00:10:10.110 bought it. And she ran it for 30 years as an 00:10:10.110 --> 00:10:12.529 invitation only private club. Right. And when 00:10:12.529 --> 00:10:14.750 we say invitation only, we really mean it. You 00:10:14.750 --> 00:10:16.669 couldn't just walk in off the street with cash. 00:10:16.889 --> 00:10:19.370 Not at all. Hardy curated a sanctuary for the 00:10:19.370 --> 00:10:21.690 elite. Her guestbook included Howard Hughes, 00:10:22.029 --> 00:10:25.629 Salvador Dali, Greta Garbo, John Wayne and Elizabeth 00:10:25.629 --> 00:10:27.889 Taylor. It was a shielded environment where the 00:10:27.889 --> 00:10:30.289 intensely famous could operate without public 00:10:30.289 --> 00:10:33.649 scrutiny. But by 1965, Ruth Hardy had died. And 00:10:33.649 --> 00:10:36.659 by the time Haber sees it in 1975, the The stardust 00:10:36.659 --> 00:10:39.019 was totally gone. And keep in mind, Haber knows 00:10:39.019 --> 00:10:41.059 absolutely nothing about operating a resort. 00:10:41.299 --> 00:10:44.080 He has never run a hotel in his life. Yet, driven 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:47.460 purely by gut instinct, he makes a spontaneous 00:10:47.460 --> 00:10:51.539 $300 ,000 handshake deal to buy the property 00:10:51.539 --> 00:10:54.879 on April 15th. A handshake deal. It is a massive 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:56.919 gamble, especially coming off the heels of his 00:10:56.919 --> 00:10:59.179 previous business failures. But notice what he 00:10:59.179 --> 00:11:02.070 does differently this time. He doesn't just buy 00:11:02.070 --> 00:11:04.450 it and expect it to run itself like he did with 00:11:04.450 --> 00:11:06.750 the boiler business. Right. He applies that motion 00:11:06.750 --> 00:11:08.669 efficiency he learned back in the Catskills. 00:11:08.850 --> 00:11:11.690 He shuts the inn down entirely for the summer. 00:11:12.049 --> 00:11:14.970 He pours half a million dollars into a painstaking 00:11:14.970 --> 00:11:18.070 restoration, which includes completely reviving 00:11:18.070 --> 00:11:20.429 the property's restaurant, Melvin's. And when 00:11:20.429 --> 00:11:22.889 the Ingleside Inn reopens on September 15th, 00:11:22.889 --> 00:11:26.370 1975, it isn't just a success. No, it is an explosive 00:11:26.370 --> 00:11:29.840 cultural reset for the city. He essentially commercialized 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:32.460 the velvet rope illusion. I like that phrase. 00:11:32.740 --> 00:11:35.139 Haber recognized that a new generation of Hollywood 00:11:35.139 --> 00:11:37.659 elite still desperately wanted that secluded, 00:11:37.759 --> 00:11:41.159 exclusive desert sanctuary that Ruth Hardy had 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:43.799 pioneered. So he recreated the feeling of an 00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:46.700 invitation only club. Exactly. But he ran the 00:11:46.700 --> 00:11:48.919 back of house operations with ruthless modern 00:11:48.919 --> 00:11:52.139 efficiency to maximize profit. And the star power 00:11:52.139 --> 00:11:55.419 he attracted proves your point entirely. Melvins 00:11:55.419 --> 00:11:58.820 instantly became the absolute magnet for Hollywood 00:11:58.820 --> 00:12:00.899 heavyweights. Who was going there? Oh, everyone. 00:12:01.299 --> 00:12:03.779 Frank Sinatra and Barbara Marks held their pre 00:12:03.779 --> 00:12:07.240 -wedding party at Melvins in July 1976. Wow, 00:12:07.460 --> 00:12:10.220 Sinatra. That's the ultimate endorsement in Palm 00:12:10.220 --> 00:12:12.539 Springs. That alone signaled to the rest of the 00:12:12.539 --> 00:12:14.799 entertainment industry that Haber's place was 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:18.019 the designated inner sanctum. He hosted Marlon 00:12:18.019 --> 00:12:21.340 Brando, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liza Minnelli. 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:24.500 Liberace, and even President Gerald Ford. He 00:12:24.500 --> 00:12:26.519 had finally found the perfect intersection of 00:12:26.519 --> 00:12:28.940 his skills, his understanding of what the culture 00:12:28.940 --> 00:12:31.440 craved, combined with the hospitality logistics 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:33.899 he learned in his youth. The property was eventually 00:12:33.899 --> 00:12:36.320 named one of the world's premier hotel and dining 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:38.919 venues by Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:42.200 That is the peak of 1980s validation. But true 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:44.620 to form, Haber wasn't content to just sit still. 00:12:45.149 --> 00:12:47.649 By the late 1970s, he felt the cultural tide 00:12:47.649 --> 00:12:50.269 shifting again, and he saw a new wave cresting. 00:12:50.330 --> 00:12:53.769 Disco. Disco. In October 1979, he takes a massive 00:12:53.769 --> 00:12:56.889 swing. He opens Cecil's, a 9 ,000 square foot 00:12:56.889 --> 00:12:59.230 Chinese restaurant and discotheque that cost 00:12:59.230 --> 00:13:02.389 $1 .2 million to build. A Chinese restaurant 00:13:02.389 --> 00:13:05.129 combined with a massive disco sounds like an 00:13:05.129 --> 00:13:07.470 absurd concept on paper. It really does. But 00:13:07.470 --> 00:13:09.610 it perfectly matched the aesthetic excess of 00:13:09.610 --> 00:13:13.490 the late 70s. It rivaled Studio 54 in sheer popularity. 00:13:14.420 --> 00:13:17.480 Cecil's pulled in a bizarrely eclectic crowd. 00:13:17.779 --> 00:13:21.019 We're talking everyone from Ale Neville to Joan 00:13:21.019 --> 00:13:23.379 Collins to John Travolta. Haber was operating 00:13:23.379 --> 00:13:25.860 on another level now. It really was. He followed 00:13:25.860 --> 00:13:27.879 up Cecil's by opening two more dining ventures 00:13:27.879 --> 00:13:30.100 in the early 80s. Yeah. He opened Saturday's, 00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:32.639 which capitalized on the casual dining boom similar 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:35.600 to TGI Friday's. And Doubles, right? Yeah, Doubles, 00:13:35.659 --> 00:13:38.220 a massive operation inside the famed tennis club. 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:40.879 Suddenly, Haber is the second largest employer 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:43.700 in all of Palm Springs, managing around 200 people 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:46.539 on his payroll. Managing 200 people across multiple 00:13:46.539 --> 00:13:49.340 high -volume venues is exactly where motion efficiency 00:13:49.340 --> 00:13:52.379 makes or breaks you. Absolutely. But his real 00:13:52.379 --> 00:13:55.860 genius here was his exit strategy. Pop culture 00:13:55.860 --> 00:13:59.259 historians widely mark 1980 as the death of disco 00:13:59.259 --> 00:14:01.820 across mainstream America. Right, the disco backlash. 00:14:02.490 --> 00:14:04.809 But Haber recognized that Palm Springs operated 00:14:04.809 --> 00:14:08.110 on a slight cultural lag. He rode the wave while 00:14:08.110 --> 00:14:10.629 it was still profitable locally, but he didn't 00:14:10.629 --> 00:14:13.509 let his ego trap him in a dying trend. So what 00:14:13.509 --> 00:14:17.070 does he do? In 1985, he sold Cecil's, Saturday's, 00:14:17.070 --> 00:14:19.809 and Doubles. He catched out at the absolute peak 00:14:19.809 --> 00:14:22.210 of their valuation. That timing is just incredible. 00:14:22.429 --> 00:14:25.549 But let's jump forward a decade to 1994, because 00:14:25.549 --> 00:14:27.610 Haber tries to catch lightning in a bottle one 00:14:27.610 --> 00:14:29.830 more time, and the results are very different. 00:14:29.970 --> 00:14:32.470 The two -share -a. The two -share -a. The city 00:14:32.470 --> 00:14:34.669 of Palm Springs had been aggressively courting 00:14:34.669 --> 00:14:37.750 him to return to the nightlife scene. So he opens 00:14:37.750 --> 00:14:41.669 Touche, a $1 .3 million Moroccan themed bar, 00:14:41.870 --> 00:14:44.509 nightclub, and restaurant. A massive investment. 00:14:44.710 --> 00:14:47.309 Huge. And the opening night is a spectacular 00:14:47.309 --> 00:14:50.970 return to form. Over 500 people show up. He gets 00:14:50.970 --> 00:14:53.169 an international television plug from Robin Leach. 00:14:53.230 --> 00:14:56.610 But it doesn't last. No. Within weeks, a troubling 00:14:56.610 --> 00:14:59.129 operational pattern emerges. On the weekends, 00:14:59.330 --> 00:15:01.330 Haber is turning hundreds of people away at the 00:15:01.330 --> 00:15:05.309 door. But midweek, the sprawling venue is completely 00:15:05.309 --> 00:15:08.470 empty. Let's shift the atmosphere to a quiet, 00:15:08.509 --> 00:15:12.149 modern coffee shop to analyze this. This raises 00:15:12.149 --> 00:15:15.350 an important question. Why did Touche fail when 00:15:15.350 --> 00:15:18.190 Cecil's was such a dominant force just a decade 00:15:18.190 --> 00:15:21.070 earlier? What changed? It wasn't the venue, and 00:15:21.070 --> 00:15:23.470 it wasn't the management. Haber realized that 00:15:23.470 --> 00:15:25.490 the culture had fundamentally shifted underneath 00:15:25.490 --> 00:15:27.929 him. The 90s were very different from the 70s. 00:15:27.950 --> 00:15:30.490 Exactly. He analyzed the data and discovered 00:15:30.490 --> 00:15:32.970 that corporate work habits had drastically changed. 00:15:33.190 --> 00:15:35.830 Furthermore, the media had fostered a much higher 00:15:35.830 --> 00:15:37.970 level of enlightenment regarding alcohol and 00:15:37.970 --> 00:15:40.889 substance abuse. So the era of the three martini 00:15:40.889 --> 00:15:43.750 Tuesday lunch and partying until 2 a .m. on a 00:15:43.750 --> 00:15:47.200 Wednesday was... just over over the baseline 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:49.360 social habits of his demographic had completely 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:52.259 evolved but again look at how he reacts he doesn't 00:15:52.259 --> 00:15:54.700 double down on a bad bet no instead of pouring 00:15:54.700 --> 00:15:56.940 more marketing money into a sinking ship or letting 00:15:56.940 --> 00:16:00.120 his ego dictate his business strategy he acknowledges 00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:02.830 the cultural shift He cuts his losses and sells 00:16:02.830 --> 00:16:07.389 Touche in 1996 for $250 ,000. And he redirects 00:16:07.389 --> 00:16:09.330 all his energy back to the Ingleside Inn and 00:16:09.330 --> 00:16:11.450 Melvin's. Which were insulated from nightclub 00:16:11.450 --> 00:16:13.970 trends. It really echoes his experience with 00:16:13.970 --> 00:16:16.870 the Coonskin Caps. He knew when the raw materials 00:16:16.870 --> 00:16:20.629 of the fad, in this case midweek partying, had 00:16:20.629 --> 00:16:22.909 dried up. He knew how to read the room. He did. 00:16:23.629 --> 00:16:26.690 But if we stop the story here, we would be missing 00:16:26.690 --> 00:16:30.039 the profound heart of Mel Haber. Beyond the velvet 00:16:30.039 --> 00:16:32.700 ropes and the Hollywood excess, there was a deeply 00:16:32.700 --> 00:16:35.340 committed philanthropist. The other side of men. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:38.279 Haber spent more than 25 years intensely involved 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:40.500 with the Angel View Crippled Children's Foundation. 00:16:41.129 --> 00:16:43.629 Angel View is a fascinating organization. It 00:16:43.629 --> 00:16:46.070 originally formed in the Coachella Valley to 00:16:46.070 --> 00:16:48.990 utilize natural hot springs to rehabilitate children 00:16:48.990 --> 00:16:51.309 suffering from polio. But then the vaccine came 00:16:51.309 --> 00:16:54.009 out. Right. And as the polio vaccine eradicated 00:16:54.009 --> 00:16:56.990 that specific need, the organization broadened 00:16:56.990 --> 00:16:59.330 its mission to support children facing a wide 00:16:59.330 --> 00:17:02.029 spectrum of severe physical challenges. And Haber 00:17:02.029 --> 00:17:04.269 applied his relentless energy to this cause. 00:17:04.490 --> 00:17:07.950 He joined the board in 1983 and became the foundation's 00:17:07.950 --> 00:17:10.799 president in 1993. His organizational impact 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:13.559 was so profound that when they opened their 17th 00:17:13.559 --> 00:17:16.299 specialized care home in 2002, they officially 00:17:16.299 --> 00:17:19.640 named it the Mel Haber House. That's a huge legacy. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:22.920 And later in his life, in 2014, he joined the 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:25.269 board of Operation Safe House. What do they do? 00:17:25.529 --> 00:17:27.690 This organization provides emergency shelter 00:17:27.690 --> 00:17:30.109 for runaways, abandoned and trafficked children. 00:17:30.269 --> 00:17:33.069 As a founding member of the Riverside Anti -Trafficking 00:17:33.069 --> 00:17:35.910 Task Force, he helped build a system that provided 00:17:35.910 --> 00:17:38.869 critical assistance to more than 800 vulnerable 00:17:38.869 --> 00:17:42.319 children every single year. It reveals a remarkable 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:45.539 duality in his character. The man who made millions 00:17:45.539 --> 00:17:48.099 catering to the indulgences of the rich and famous 00:17:48.099 --> 00:17:50.880 utilized that exact same operational efficiency 00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:53.920 to scale a network of care for the most vulnerable 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:56.660 members of the community. He recognized a completely 00:17:56.660 --> 00:17:59.240 different kind of cultural need, and he engineered 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:01.559 a solution. And it's wonderful that he documented 00:18:01.559 --> 00:18:04.279 his wild ride along the way. Yes, the books. 00:18:04.619 --> 00:18:07.799 In 1996, he wrote a book called Bedtime Stories 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:11.059 of the Ingleside Inn. It details the bizarre 00:18:11.059 --> 00:18:13.740 logistical challenges and hilarious misadventures 00:18:13.740 --> 00:18:15.920 of running a celebrity sanctuary. I believe Arnold 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:17.640 Schwarzenegger wrote the dedication for that 00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:20.240 one. He did, and it sold around 10 ,000 copies. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:23.640 He followed it up in 2008 by co -authoring Palm 00:18:23.640 --> 00:18:26.119 Springs a la carte, which really cemented his 00:18:26.119 --> 00:18:28.200 legacy as the ultimate insider. So what does 00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:31.109 this all mean? When you zoom out and view Mel 00:18:31.109 --> 00:18:34.069 Haber's life in its entirety, from hustling raccoon 00:18:34.069 --> 00:18:37.470 tails and dashboard tiger tails to engineering 00:18:37.470 --> 00:18:40.690 Hollywood hideaways and driving massive anti 00:18:40.690 --> 00:18:43.289 -trafficking philanthropy, you see a master class 00:18:43.289 --> 00:18:45.890 in reading the room of American culture. And 00:18:45.890 --> 00:18:47.769 the city of Palm Springs certainly recognized 00:18:47.769 --> 00:18:50.849 his impact. On his 60th birthday, he received 00:18:50.849 --> 00:18:53.970 a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of 00:18:53.970 --> 00:18:56.789 Stars. And the city officially designated the 00:18:56.789 --> 00:18:59.910 Ingleside Inn as a historic site. For you listening, 00:19:00.029 --> 00:19:01.650 I think the critical takeaways are structural. 00:19:01.950 --> 00:19:04.369 Haber's greatest triumphs required three pillars, 00:19:04.609 --> 00:19:07.750 impeccable timing, a relentless work ethic rooted 00:19:07.750 --> 00:19:10.750 in systemic efficiency, and a profound understanding 00:19:10.750 --> 00:19:13.549 of consumer psychology. And his failures. His 00:19:13.549 --> 00:19:16.069 catastrophic failures, like the boiler companies 00:19:16.069 --> 00:19:18.509 and the medical debt factoring, occurred the 00:19:18.509 --> 00:19:20.630 moment he abandoned domain knowledge and relied 00:19:20.630 --> 00:19:23.789 purely on capital. Adaptability is incredibly 00:19:23.789 --> 00:19:26.430 powerful, but only when it is tethered to a deep 00:19:26.430 --> 00:19:28.349 understanding of the mechanics of the room you 00:19:28.349 --> 00:19:30.970 are trying to read. That is the ultimate lesson 00:19:30.970 --> 00:19:34.009 of his career. As we wrap up this deep dive, 00:19:34.130 --> 00:19:36.190 I want to leave you with a final lingering question 00:19:36.190 --> 00:19:39.109 to ponder on your own. Let's hear it. Mel Haber 00:19:39.109 --> 00:19:42.529 built an absolute empire by reacting to sprawling 00:19:42.529 --> 00:19:45.269 cultural fans, navigating everything from the 00:19:45.269 --> 00:19:49.299 post -war auto boom to the disco era. But in 00:19:49.299 --> 00:19:52.039 today's hyper -fast digital world, where consumer 00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:54.859 fads are born and die on platforms like TikTok 00:19:54.859 --> 00:19:57.500 in a matter of weeks instead of years. It's so 00:19:57.500 --> 00:19:59.799 much faster now. It is. So is it still possible 00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:02.579 to build a lasting brick and mortar legacy purely 00:20:02.579 --> 00:20:05.380 by catching the cultural wave? Or does surviving 00:20:05.380 --> 00:20:08.460 the modern fad economy require a completely different 00:20:08.460 --> 00:20:10.960 definition of motion efficiency? It's a complex 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:13.319 puzzle for anyone building a brand today. It 00:20:13.319 --> 00:20:15.420 really is. Thank you so much for taking this 00:20:15.420 --> 00:20:17.539 deep dive with us. Keep questioning the culture 00:20:17.539 --> 00:20:19.660 around you, keep adapting, and we'll catch you 00:20:19.660 --> 00:20:20.980 next time. Goodbye, everyone.