Billy on the big screen:
We were lucky to get a seat at the recent packed premiere of “Dirty Old Town” at the Landmark Sunshine Theater. Billy Leroy of Billy’s Antiques & Props on Houston St. takes a star turn in the new “gonzo narrative” flick by a trio of young and upcoming directors, Jenner Furst, Daniel B. Levin and Julia Willoughby Nason. The filmmakers spun their tale from their previous biopic “Captured,” about Lower East Side documentarian Clayton Patterson. Former Detective Scotty Dillin, who was featured in “Captured,” gives a wrenching performance as a corrupt cop, while Patterson has not one but three cameos. The supporting cast also includes nightlife fixture Nicholas De Cegli, a.k.a. Nicky D, and Ronnie Sunshine. “Ronnie drove everyone,” Furst explained to us afterward. Oh, as in, pushed everyone to excel on the set? No, Furst said, he literally drove the Jefferson Airplane, John Lennon and tons of other rock stars, as the contract driver for the Fillmore East. Like Billy, he’s a pretty good actor, too. Indie film legend Jim Jarmusch was among the audience. “I found it oddly touching,” he said of the film, noting he knows Billy and Nicky D. Bob Holman of the Bowery Poetry Club also gave a thumbs up. “I thought it was about the change that doesn’t,” he said. “You’ve got your bohemian, your cop, your mobster — but they completely dissolve into a different truth than a movie truth.” Wow, nice review! Ed Koch, look out! The trio made the movie for under $10,000, shot it in two days and edited it in two months. “We knew we were going to make a film, it was going to be improv,” Furst told us. “The goal was to make art with nothing, no money. And that’s the message — you don’t have to have $10 million or $15 million to make an independent film.” Said Nason, “Jenner would feed them the lines. We had one read-through before. They didn’t know the lines — they knew the gist.” Nason and Levin are alumni of Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School. We had to ask Leroy about his steaming-hot sex scene — in his antiques tent, naturally — with the sultry Janell Shirtcliff. “The sex scene was looming toward the end of filming and I was feeling very anxious,” he told us. “The buildup was far more exciting than the actual scene. The directors would say, ‘Cut! Can you put your hand more on her rear?’ Janell is very beautiful and I am made of flesh and blood. I have to admit it was lots of fun. It took a while to de-steam. Both our spouses were very cool about the whole thing.” Also at the premiere were Michael Richards (“Kramer”) and Ron Kuby, who is defending Leroy against charges that he was selling hot M.T.A. signs.
Freeze on fries at Ray’s:
We stopped by Avenue A hot dog haven Ray’s Candy Store over the weekend, and there was a heaping serving of news. First of all, Ray is feeling great after his Social Security payments finally started rolling in last month. He got two-and-a-half-years back pay — $36,000 — which is as far back as the feds would go, plus, is getting his monthly payments now, too, $1,450, direct-deposited to his bank. The monthly payments are at least enough to cover his apartment rent and for him to eat. But it always seems Ray, 77, is facing some fresh challenge, and the latest is a real shocker: He has stopped selling Belgian fries. In a new twist, his property manager, Barbara Chupa, has proposed a deal: Stop selling fries and get a three-year lease; his current rent, $3,700, would increase $200 each year. So, for the moment, Ray has covered his array of Belgian fries signs with sheets of white paper — and yet Chupa still hasn’t provided a lease. “You know what I want — cheese fries,” growled a hungry voice from outside Ray’s window. “They don’t want me to sell fries,” Ray explained. Ray still wants to install an Ansul system hood over his deep fryer, which he hopes would satisfy Chupa, allowing him to fire up his golden fries once more — but he won’t spend the $10,000 to do it until he gets her O.K. “She didn’t say on the lease, ‘If you put on the hood, you can fry.’ That word is missing,” Ray noted. In addition, a new Korean shop selling ices across Avenue A has taken half his business, Ray said, vowing to buy his own ices machine and go toe-to-toe with the upstart. At least, Ray is also now receiving Medicaid, so he can get cataract surgery on his right eye, hopefully, plus a sorely needed hernia operation. “I feel like I have a pit bull hanging down,” Ray explained, holding up a stack of 15 extra-large cups to illustrate what he’s lugging around inside his trousers. In fact, he said, he might shut the shop for five weeks in the winter, when his business is usually down, and have the operation. He also wants to become a U.S. citizen, not just a permanent resident, “so I can travel,” he said, “to Turkey, China… .” As for his free Saturday night delivery service, he said, his crew of young skateboarding helpers are on summer hiatus, in China, Israel and parts elsewhere, but it might restart when they return after the summer.
Haircuts, not budget cuts:
As we were getting a trim at Astor Place Hairstylist over the weekend, we looked up at the mirror in front of us and noticed a news clipping with a photo of none other than Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Valentino Gogu, from Romania, who was expertly manning the electric shears, told us that Silver comes to Astor Place Hairstylist every three or four weeks for a cut. When the New York Post article taped up on Gogu’s mirror was written, a haircut cost $14 — now it’s $15. Silver’s law firm is just down the block, the barber explained. He said he’s tried to get the powerful pol to try a new haircut, but to no avail: “I say, ‘C’mon, change the style’ — he says, ‘No.’ ” The fast, budget barbershop is also popular with New York Times crime reporters, according to Gogu, who said Al Baker and William Rashbaum are regular customers.
