Jon Peters: The Hairdresser Who Ran Hollywood Part 1 "Making the Cut"

Technically Creative by KoobrikLabs Podcast Transcript

Title:The Hairdresser Who Ran Hollywood

Orlando Wood (00:00)
Hi and welcome to a special bonus episode of Technically Creative. Today’s a really fun one, because I get to speak to a modern living legend. Some stories, you know, they grow so tall they start to feel like fiction. But weirdly, as incredible as it is, John’s story isn’t one of those. It’s too specific, too improbable, and too stitched into the fabric of Hollywood history to be anything else but real.

But just like anything in Hollywood, understanding the true story from the story is all just part of the game. He’s been called a hustler and a tough guy, but Michael Jackson called him brilliant, original, and a visionary. Prince is said to have called him one of the most talented white guys he’s ever met. And Barbra Streisand called him a genius. So which of these is it? Hustler or genius? People love to say that John started as a hairdresser and somehow, somehow, became one of the most powerful producers in the world.

But that somehow covers a lot of sins. It’s an apocryphal story that people love and it’s come to epitomize the way that anyone, even a hairdresser, can make it in Hollywood. But that version skips a lot of the good stuff. It skips the fact that John wasn’t just cutting hair for somebody else. He built the John Peters Salon in the 1970s with three locations, turning them into cultural hubs at one of the coolest, wildest times in Hollywood history. He wasn’t just holding a blow dryer, he was running a creative business

Around the time that everyone even thought hair could even begin to be creative. It’s been said that he was the inspiration for Warren Beatty’s character in Shampoo, a film about a Hollywood Lothario hairdresser. But as with so much of John’s story, it’s impossible to know where the truth ends and the legend begins. But undoubtedly, it was from this world of hairdressing that he met Barbara Streisand and he designed a wig which she may or may not have needed or asked for and fell in

love and started a love story that would launch his film career and revitalize her career with A Star is Born. And from that moment, the fuse was laid on what would become an incredibly impossible and improbable career. What followed feels like a superhero origin story with one hit after another. We’re talking Flashdance and Caddyshack, American Werewolf in London and Rain Man, and then Batman. And then after doing Batman, which arguably began the superhero genre in the modern era as we know it,

He made a deal that shook the entire industry. John and his producing partner, Peter Goober, orchestrated the buyout of Columbia Pictures and TriStar by became the inaugural co-chairman of Sony Pictures. It was a triumphant, chaotic, and famously volcanic relationship and crazy time period for Hollywood. And they had big plans, big plans that didn’t exactly pan out.

So John left in 1991 and he did what only John Peters could do, would do, or would even think was possible. When he got a lot deal at Warner Brothers, he started looking for what project to take up next and saw that the Superman rights were coming up for renegotiation. So John waited until the day after they lapsed and called up and said, this is John Peters from Warner Brothers calling to renegotiate the option.

And just like that, John bought the film rights to one of the most iconic American characters of the last century and kept them for nearly 25 years. This is the first of many conversations with John that we’ve got about six parts to this. ⁓ know, he’s a man whose life has been mythologized and criticized and dramatized and whispered about, written about and misunderstood for decades. And my goal in these sessions is pretty simple.

I just want to contextualize his career and pull apart the legend and the myth of a producer who has undeniably done some of the biggest things in Hollywood history, but has also been considered a fluke by many Hollywood insiders. And I want to pull that part, that legend, but I also want to understand what kind of personality survives all that and causes all that and keeps going. And still to this day, he’s maybe one of the most optimistic people I’ve ever met in my life.

John’s story is aspirational and I think we’re drawn to it because it breaks every rule. It’s the archetype of the Hollywood leap, the reminder that anyone can make it into the room, but then you have to have enough instinct and nerve and vision and willingness to swing for the fences every single day. And whether you admire him or question him or just are curious about how a kid from Griffith Park ended up rewriting Hollywood history a little bit, you’ll hear things that undeniably could only come from John.

It’s the beginning of John talking about himself and his career and we’ll be talking over the successive parts about various parts of his career. So stick around. This is just part one. It’s a bonus episode because I’m not entirely sure where it fits in all this. But when an opportunity to sit down with a modern living legend and somebody who’s produced some of the greatest films of all time, when you have that opportunity, you take it. And so.

Although I’m not entirely sure editorial where this fits. really hope you enjoy it. I think you will. ⁓ I look forward to hearing what you.

JON Mic (05:07)
your stories.

Orlando Mic (05:07)
your story’s a

modern legend. and this podcast really is about kind of creativity and creative industries. you started in hairdressing at a very interesting time, you know, just to kind of look at some of the things that were going on around the time that you were really like hitting your stride in hairdressing

JON Mic (05:10)
And this podcast really is about kind of creativity and creative industries. you started in hairdressing at a very interesting time, you know, just to kind of look at some of the things that were going on around the time that you were really like hitting your stride in hairdressing

In the 60s and 70s, hairdressing was finally becoming creative. Up until that went and you got one of five different haircuts. And then you and Paul Mitchell at the Vidal Sassoon were really doing some interesting things at the time. And when people talk about your story, they talk about you being a hairdresser, but they kind of forget that you ran a franchise of hairdressing salons around in LA, arguably at one of the coolest times for LA.

Orlando Mic (05:25)
In the sixties and seventies, hairdressing was finally kind of becoming creative up until that point. you went and you got one of five different haircuts and then you and Paul Mitchell and Vidal Sassoon were kind of really doing some interesting things at the time. ⁓ and when people talk about your story, they talk about you being a hairdresser, but they kind of forget that you ran a franchise of hairdressing salons around LA arguably, you know, at one of the coolest times for LA.

And

JON Mic (05:53)
And

Orlando Mic (05:53)
I was just wondering, you know, what are your memories of that time

JON Mic (05:53)
I was just wondering, know, what are your memories of that time? of all, I went to beauty school because it was the way I got out of going to jail. And I had to go, I was being, for being locked up for, my dad died and my mother married some guy who was a bum and they.

Anyhow, they locked me up. But they put me in beauty school. And I…

I learned very quickly what it’s like to be on your own and do people’s hair. But it was a very exciting time for me because I ended up going to Paris. I ended up going to London. I always had an eye for a beautiful woman. that’s because

if you have a beautiful client, a lot of women want to come in and look like that person. They have no idea that they can’t.

Yeah, Vidal Sassoon was a good friend of mine. And absolutely, know, when you think back to my whole life, I’ve always been a dreamer.

Orlando Mic (06:55)
in the sixties.

JON Mic (07:09)
Hairdressing for me was just a stop on the way. I had no intention to stand there.

but it was, I was a storyteller. And hairdressing was fun, but I was a storyteller.

Orlando Mic (07:21)
it seems like Paul Mitchell and Vidal Sassoon were pushing into fashion. And whereas you you attracted to that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

JON Mic (07:28)
Movie stars. Movie stars. I didn’t give a shit about that. I wanted to make movies. I wanted to work with stars.

I was a kid, 10 Commandments. I was seven years old. I was riding horses out in Griffith Park where they used to keep lions and tigers and elephants and everything for those, big kind of Tarzan movies and stuff. They kept them all there out in Burbank.

I stood there with 100 kids in front of the Paramount gate. was like, whoa, what the hell, man? They had some kind of power over me, magic power.

They picked me as one of the 15 kids and I remember standing in that thing and I look back today like this room and all the movies and all this stuff. It’s a lifetime of commitment and you kids that are producing this thing that we’re doing, you’re taking the next generation of all my work and taking it to your own generation.

Orlando Mic (08:09)
day.

difference.

taking it to a hard turn.

JON Mic (08:30)
It’s like my ex-partner once said that I had a Picasso life, meaning many choices.

Orlando Mic (08:34)
Yeah.

And I mean, speaking of choices, that’s actually a perfect segue.

JON Mic (08:42)
See how your structure’s working? Get a bobby weave, man! You can’t jump straight in, Jack! You gotta come here, here, and… Let’s get it on!

Orlando Mic (08:44)
Yeah, exactly. Well, listen, you, you, you actually.

You

JON Mic (08:59)
Okay, okay, okay. I’m sorry. Okay.

Orlando Mic (09:01)
Could you just tweak

the mic back to his mouth? Yeah. Thank you. because surprisingly, JP, you landed the plane.

JON Mic (09:12)
I I forgot.

Orlando Mic (09:15)
⁓

but no, you landed the plane perfectly. Cause I was going to say like, you know, when you said that you had a lot of choices, a lot of opportunities. ⁓ obviously the opportunity that came around you as you were working with a lot of stars at your salon, three franchises, you were starting to sell products and then obviously you started doing wigs and haircuts for films. ⁓ and then you found yourself kind of grad gravitating towards, ⁓ working in film. ⁓

JON Mic (09:18)
like you said.

Obviously, the opportunity that came around to you is you were working with lot of stuff at your salon, three franchises. You were starting to sell products. And then obviously you started doing wigs and haircuts for films. And then you found yourself in a private gravitating tool, working in film.

And obviously you met Barbara through hairdressing and she did a wig for one of her films. I won’t go into that. Nothing has been spilled about your time with Barbara. You can talk about Barbara. You can talk about her. I love Barbara. I love her. She’s crazy as a hoot-owl, but I love her to death. We made a lot of money together. We did lot of good things together. It’s all good, you know, because at the end of the day,

Orlando Mic (09:44)
And obviously you met Barbara through hairdressing and you did a wig for one of her films. I won’t go into that. There’s enough ink has been spilled about your time with Barbara, but for you, okay.

JON Mic (10:14)
I’m very grateful for everything in my life. I couldn’t be happier. I think that I always just wanted to make, I didn’t want to necessarily make movies, but I wanted to make movies, yeah I did. And I wanted to, and then as time went on, I wanted to be a financial guy.

I wanted to be able to build America’s great fortune, which all of these kids are helping me do and we’re all doing it together. And because it allows me to be of service of other people, of helping people, of giving the people, of making arrangements for people to have opportunities that they may not have. That’s power and that’s beauty.

You know, just, Dr. Joe Dispenza, who’s a fellow that my lady introduced me to, is a brilliant guy and he talks about if you’re not actively participating in the future, you’re actually living in the past or making decisions from the past.

so much of this podcast is about creativity and…

Orlando Mic (11:24)
so much of this podcast is about creativity and really

a lot of the soul of creativity is in confidence. And I think that one of the things that’s been.

JON Mic (11:28)
soul of creativity is

you have to have a vision.

If you have a good vision, you will get confidence.

Orlando Mic (11:44)
And people

have written a lot about your confidence. are one of the most confident people I’ve ever met. And Barbara, even in her book, said, John, when we had a director drop out on Star is Born, John turned around and immediately said, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna direct it. That’s me, I’m gonna do it. And she looked at you and she was so impressed by you and impressed by your confidence that she said it would kind of gave her the seed.

JON Mic (11:53)
said, know, John, when we had a director drop out on Starz Board, John turned around and immediately said, I’m going to do it. I’m going to direct it. That’s that’s me. I’m going to do it. And she looked at you and she was so impressed by you and impressed by your confidence that she said it would kind of gave her the seed

to eventually go and direct. She said that in her book. If this I never read her book. I never have. Right. Well, she was, you know,

Orlando Mic (12:11)
to eventually go and direct herself. Yeah, she said, you know, if this guy who had… right. Well, she was, you know,

very complimentary of you. But yeah, she said that…

JON Mic (12:22)
Yeah. was

Barbara was for me, like Julia is to me, she was a street chick with a beautiful soul. One day we were driving in the car and we were on our way to Warner Brothers.

And on the way there, we got into a big argument about something, and I grabbed her, and as I grabbed her, she pulled away and her shirt ripped. And when her shirt ripped, her boobs stuck out, and we’re driving on the freeway, and people are going, look, there’s Barbara Streisand with her tits sticking out, my God, my God. So then she, she, what she does,

If she leans back, she’s got high heels on, sticks the heel in my neck and starts grinding my neck as I’m trying to drive the car. yeah, no, Barbara was a great, great lady. And I can’t wait to do my own podcast so that I can really get into and let people know what a wonderful woman she is. yeah, yeah, she is great.

Orlando Mic (13:07)
back

Yeah, I know.

So following

such a huge part of your success is being able to get really impossible things done. I mean, that is, you know, if there’s any one trait that defines a producer, it’s being able to talk people into understanding their vision and getting them to buy into, you know, and just some of the impossible things, you know, are obviously getting the rights to Batman, producing Batman, you know, just

JON Mic (13:32)
such a huge part of your success is being able to get really impossible things done. mean that is, you know, if there’s any one trait that defines a producer, it’s being able to talk people into understanding their vision and getting them to buy into, you know, just some of the impossible things, you know, are obviously getting the rights to Batman, producing Batman, you know, just

getting Star is Born made as your first ever film.

Orlando Mic (13:57)
getting Star is Born made as your first ever film,

talking Jack Nicholson into being the Joker when you guys have been turned down five times and you said, let me have a weekend away with Jack and I’ll talk him into doing it. Barbara was trying to get out of a movie to do Star is Born and you said, she was really fretting about it and you said, let me take Steve Ross for a drive and I’ll talk to him and I’ll help.

JON Mic (14:02)
talking Jack Nicholson into being the Joker when you guys have been turned down five times and you said, let me have a weekend away with Jack and I’ll talk him into doing it. Barbara was trying to get out of a movie to do Star is Born and you said, she was really fretting about it and you said, let me take Steve Ross for a drive and I’ll talk to him and I’ll… Steve Ross

for a drive, you remember that? Where’d you find that?

Orlando Mic (14:29)
I researched you. I’ve been researching you.

JON Mic (14:31)
Yes,

on the way to the airport, we drove in the car. And I made her a deal that saved her, I think, a couple million bucks in the car ride. Oh, God. You found that in the newspaper somewhere? Wow.

Orlando Mic (14:34)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And you know, you and Steve Ross had a great relationship.

JON Mic (14:49)
You’re good detail man, really good detail.

So very impressed.

Orlando Mic (14:54)
Yeah, thanks.

JON Mic (14:54)
You’re welcome. Yeah, that’s everybody’s got to win. Both parties have

Orlando Mic (14:55)
But you and Steve Ross then had an incredibly good working relationship past that. And something that initially Barbara was very worried about and Warner Brothers was very angry at her, you turned into a great opportunity for her, a great opportunity for the studio. exactly.

JON Mic (15:12)
to win. That’s the key to business. You got to come up with good ideas that people recognize a good idea and B, you have to be able to everybody’s got to win. You can’t.

Be a bull, be a bear, don’t be a pig. You can’t be a pig. You gotta be enough food for everybody. Then eat forever, you see. Eat forever, not just for one night.

And that’s the key. I look at it long-term. I’m doing business with Ronnie Meyer and all kinds of friends of mine down in Ronnie Houston, run CAA, or was it CAA, yeah. One of the biggest agents in the world, one of the smartest guys on the planet. Great charm. He could charm the pants right off anybody. And a great guy and been a friend a long time and I love the guy and he’s gone through some tough times and everybody’s completely, I can’t, I wanted to work with him. He doesn’t want to work, he’s retired.

but I like to work with them.

Orlando Mic (16:06)
Yeah. It’s funny, of the, you know, one of the words that’s come up a lot in researching you is the term hustler. Hustler. And Barbara Walters even pretty much opened with it. In your interview with you and Barbara Streisand, and Barbara Walters was interviewing you, she said, are you a hustler? And what struck me is your immediate answer was, yeah, of course I’m a hustler. I’ve been hustling my whole life. And it’s funny, back then it seemed to be a pejorative, whereas now, I think,

JON Mic (16:15)
Hustler? Hustler.

in your interview, you are harboring a strike.

that are you a hustler? struck me as your initial, your immediate answer was, yeah, of course I’m a hustler. I’ve been hustling my whole life. And it’s funny, back then it seemed to be a pejorative, whereas now I think

Orlando Mic (16:36)
people call each other a hustler as a positive term. know, I think what they tried to, I think, mean was scam artist, but in fact, you, yeah, yeah.

JON Mic (16:36)
people call each other a hustler as a positive term. they tried to, I think, mean was scam artist. in fact- I was very early in the ability, I don’t know, it’s-

I don’t know how I got my kids. I don’t know how it all came. I’ve been the luckiest man in the world, made more money than I ever thought I could make in my lifetime. And I think that honestly, it’s a gift from God. Everybody says the same thing. Will Smith said, I talked to God today. Everybody talks to God, but we all do in our own way. We all talk to that inner God inside ourselves.

And I try to do the right thing. And by trying to do the right thing, the right thing finds me. And like Julia, my lady, I almost died from, couldn’t, life was hard for me and I was taking pills to calm myself down and I almost ended up in Cedars in the hospital, Sealside Ward. And that was not my intention. So yeah, no, I think that

It’s instincts. I swing for the fences, too. I try to get involved with things that, if I get it done, makes a big difference.

Does that help you naturally? Yeah, it does.

Orlando Mic (17:58)
And does that just come naturally to you? Do you feel like you just

are in tune with your instincts in a way that other people potentially aren’t? Do you have, is there a way to articulate that

JON Mic (18:05)
Yeah. Pretty much, yeah.

I had 40 women every day cutting a good morning, cutting her hair. And your brain gets bigger and bigger and bigger because everybody tells you what they do. Everybody’s got a Yes, taught me everything. Everything, the street, people and out in the world. I assimilated, I created, I manifested and I executed.

Orlando Mic (18:23)
so you’re literally saying that the social aspect of being in a hair, yeah.

JON Mic (18:38)
what I saw.

Orlando Mic (18:41)
That’s fascinating.

JON Mic (18:43)
Can we put a stop right here? We’ll do it again later. No. You want to do it more? I’m tired. didn’t we do a lot? How much more do we got? I have to save some for my own show, Well, these are questions. This is business life. No, they’re not. I can’t tell you about business. I don’t know nothing.

Orlando Mic (18:46)
You want to?

Yeah.

All

right, can I ask two questions and then we’ll do the rest next time. One is.

JON Mic (19:12)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, can we do it again?

Yeah, more time.

Orlando Mic (19:26)
So you’ve made a movie in every decade for 50 years, which is a phenomenal achievement. Your first one, Star is Born, in the 70s. Obviously, you were in Ten Commandments before that. That was back in the of 50s. But last one is actually it’s bookended by Star is Born. Your first one and your last one are both Star is Born. In between, there’s obviously Batman, Superman, Color Purple, Rain Man.

JON Mic (19:26)
the

Yes.

Orlando Mic (19:57)
unbelievable classics. Do you think storytelling has changed when it comes to the movies?

JON Mic (19:58)
Do you think storytelling has changed when it comes to the police?

Yes and no. No, because if it’s not a good story, it a good movie. Yes, because of this whole technological aspects of using this and that, and you know, it’s like it’s not just scenes where you’re talking or fighting or doing, yeah, so it’s the same, but basically, look, it’s everything, anything you do.

You have to have a good story for people who want to participate in it. You have to have a good story for people who want to be a part of it. I start laying the groundwork for my stuff sometimes ten years in advance. I know it’s going to take a long time, but I drop seeds about things.

One of the things that I love about Julie is that we talk every day for two or three hours about everything. She’s so smart. And if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t do any of this because it’s too anxiety provoking for me. You realize when you ask a question, it’s a great thing, but I’ve got to go back in time into that space to answer it. And usually it’s painful.

Orlando Mic (21:11)
That’s phenomenal because for somebody who’s a life that is so that other people want to know about other people want to tell your story whatever their spin is on it it’s interesting enough that they want to tell it and it’s it’s surprising to hear that it it’s painful for you all along the way. Why is that?

JON Mic (21:25)
It’s surprising.

It is, it’s not

devastating, but it is painful. The couple of times today I almost stopped, because I was getting like, you know, it’s a lot of, you know, my life is Barbara, for instance, was amazing for a lot of these girls, few of these girls, these women that I have been with that don’t talk to me anymore.

Orlando Mic (21:33)
Right.

JON Mic (21:57)
is because they feel like I left them, but we never really had a chance to talk about what didn’t work, you know what I mean? In other words, marriage is a partnership for many reasons, and my reason was stay sober, which is what Julia taught me.

and have a creative partner like now, holding my hand and being able to have ideas and be able to tell me things That’s what I want. I love having a partner. I love Peter Guber Peter Guber was the greatest partner any man could ever have. That was unfortunate. That’s another chapter.

Orlando Mic (22:24)
things

JON Mic (22:35)
But there’s a lot of my experience in juvie, going to jail as a young kid. That was horrifying. And at the same time, once you get through the each day But once you make it through, it’s just another notch on your gun.

Orlando Mic (22:39)
Yeah.

Amazing. Well, JP, I have many more questions, if you’re time. Yeah, exactly. Super. Thank you.

JON Mic (22:54)
I don’t Many more. But instead of section two, chapter two, see if anybody likes what we wrote,

and if people like it, we’ll do another one.

Orlando Mic (23:05)
Thank you for doing this. really appreciate it. Because yeah, mean, apart from anything else, like researching you is just fun for me. Like I’m a fan of yours as much as I’m happy to call you a friend.

JON Mic (23:07)
You’re Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you, man.

Yeah, well, I’m your father, I’m your father-in-law. you know, we’re like, that’s it. I’m lucky that I don’t have to compromise myself in order to love my kids.

I gotta take that gas hex again, see? What did I say? gotta take that gas hex again. Yeah, that’s it, yeah. That cut. Cut, yeah, that’s right. yeah, good. Perfect cut. We were still running.

Orlando Mic (23:40)
And we’ll return for part two after the gas ex.

JP, that was awesome. Perfect.