The Maggarts of Venice

The Maggarts ... Venice's Performing Family

Move over Lennons! A new family of Venice entertainers is making their mark. Venice is home to two generations of Maggarts ... family members blessed with the special talents that give pleasure to so many. Patriarch Brandon has enjoyed a forty+ year career in stage, film and television and now his children ... Spencer, Garett, Maude and Fiona ... are taking their own place in the limelight.

Character actor Olin Holland was visiting a friend in Carthage Tennessee and saw Brandon in a school play. "He praised me way too much," says Brandon, but it got him started. He won an operatic scholarship to the University of Tennessee and a Grace Moore Award (named after a 20's and 30's actress and singer who was born in Tennessee and died at the age of 46 in a plane crash) brought him to study in New York.

Brandon performed in New York for 25 years mainly on stage with some television and film work. His featured role in "Applause" garnered a Tony nomination. He stayed with the show through its three leading ladies ... Lauren Bacall, Anne Baxter and Arlene Dahl. He appeared in films such as "The World According to Garp", "Dressed to Kill" and the cult film "Christmas Evil". In addition, he was in the original cast of "Sesame Street", "New Faces of 68" with Madelyn Kahn and Robert Klein, performed and wrote songs and sketches for Upstairs at the Downstairs and played the famous Latin Quarter with stripper Sherry Britton. These are only a few of his many, many early credits.

It was in 1983 while Brandon was doing a play with Georgia Engel, a farce called "Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii", that the casting director's parents discovered both of them for Hollywood television. Brandon, along with Georgia, was cast in "Jennifer Slept Here" featuring Ann Jillian as Jennifer. The show didn't last long but, "I did quite well and went on to other TV work," he says. His next series was "Brothers" on Showtime. "It was very cutting edge at the time," he says. The show was about three brothers, the youngest who was gay. "It was not welcomed in a lot of cities," he adds. During this time Brandon also performed in "South Pacific" at the Pantages with Howard Keel and Jane Powell and in "Lorelei" at the Shubert with Carol Channing.

When Brandon first moved to Los Angeles he stayed at the Magic Hotel next to the Magic Castle in Hollywood and then at the Oakwood in Burbank. "That's where all the divorced people lived," he says. However, this presented a problem. It has been a tradition that his children visit him every summer. "I kept complaining," he says. "I had all these people coming out. I'd have to drive to the airport and then back and then they'd all want to go to the beach. It seemed like all I was doing was driving to the airport and the beach." Then he thought to himself, "Wait a minute. I think I'll find a house between the airport and the beach."

A friend told Brandon about Venice and the boardwalk. "I fell it love with it," he says. "When I'd get home from the studio I'd go and look at the sunset and think 'I live here'." In the morning he would meditate on the beach. "That's how I got to meet people," he adds. Brandon bought his home in 1985 from Randy Gardner, Olympic skating partner of Tai Babilonia. "I've been living in the same house since then," he says.

In the ensuing years Brandon has carved out a successful career as a character actor. He has appeared in top TV shows including "ER", "Murphy Brown", "Chicago Hope", "Married ... With Children", "LA Law" and "Ellen". More recently, a lot of his attention has been spent being supportive of the careers of his four children who are in show business. He is enormously proud and fiercely protective of them.

... Spencer

Spencer, aka Brandon Jr., is mainly interested in writing screenplays. He also just made a short film, based on a personal relationship, that he wrote and directed and acted in along with family members and friends. He has played a nurturing role to his younger sister Maude. "He has been a terrific big brother to everybody," says Brandon.

... Garett

You've seen Garett if you've watched "The Sentinel" formerly on UPN and now on the SciFi Channel. He is one of two leading characters in the series playing Blair Sandburg, a college professor expert in tribal cultures who teams up with Detective Jim Ellison both to monitor the detective's supersensitive abilities and to assist in solving crimes. I've seen the show and I can attest that Garett is a wonderful actor. He was discovered when the show's producers saw him working at the Sidewalk Café at his night job so he could audition during the day.

Garett has also guest starred on "ER" and "Frasier" and was a featured performer on "Days of Our Lives" and "Brothers", his father's series in addition to hosting "House of Blues" on TBS.

The public has recognized a certain quality in Garett. He was voted into 8th place in People Magazine online poll "The 97 Most Intriguing People of 1997", 19th place in People Magazine online poll "Third Annual 50 Most Beautiful People in the World" in May of 1998 and 1st place along with Sarah Michelle Gellar in UPN's online poll "Who Do You Imagine To Be The Ultimate Love Boat Couple" in May of 1998.

** We have to digress for a minute ...** Brandon's two youngest daughters have a different mother than the oldest children. Brandon met Diane McAfee, an actress and singer, when they were both appearing in "Applause". While Brandon was the first in his family to get into show business, it was a passion for the women on Diane's side. Diane's grandmother was "a frustrated performer inside," says great granddaughter Maude. She would tell her parents that she was going to the movies and then take ballet lessons instead. "It wasn't respectable for a girl to be in the ballet then," adds Maude. "They thought it was what the cheap girls did so she never got to be a dancer which is what she wanted to be." Then when her daughter (Diane's mother and Maude's grandmother) came along she put her in all the dance classes she could. Millicent Green, later Millicent Hope and then Millicent McAfee when she married, left school in the 10th grade to join the George White Scandals at the age of 15. In addition to ballet, she did vaudeville and was a singer. She met her husband while they were both performing with the Johnny Hamp Band, she singing and he playing the saxophone. Later Millicent ran a dancing school for 25 years. Diane sang in Broadway choruses and nightclubs. She was featured in "Superman", "Flora the Red Menace" and was the original Eve Harrington in "Applause" but had to bow out due to extenuating circumstances. Both parent's vocal and acting abilities have been passed on to their daughters. Brandon's side of the family also assisted in their names. His grandmother's name was Maude Apple. Amber Maggart became Maude Maggart to fit the image of her music and Fiona Apple Maggart became Fiona Apple based on the recommendation of Sony, her recording studio.

... Maude

I've had two opportunities to see Maude perform and I've been mesmerized each time. Not only does she have a beautiful voice, there is a sophistication and poise that belies her young age.

Brandon took his young daughters to the Sunday night soirées at the Venice home of Marshall Barer (who wrote "Once Upon a Mattress") in the late 80's and early 90's. It was here that Fiona, at the age of 9, would perform her music and Maude was first introduced to Andrea Marcovicci and Michael Feinstein, the great cabaret performers. The unusual life and times of Marshall Barer as told by Brandon and Miriam More will be for a future issue. "He was quite a character," says Brandon.

It took a while before Maude settled on cabaret as her singing style. Again, when she was young, her father took her to the Gardenia in Hollywood owned by Tom Rolla who appeared with Brandon in "Applause". Andrea sang every Saturday night at midnight for several years. Maude got a chance to do her own set there on Monday nights for a while and besides getting good experience, she received a very positive response from the audience. Later on, Maude was paired with Michael Feinstein in a non-stage version of a musical written by Marshall and Hugh Martin who wrote "Meet Me in St. Louis." A friendship developed and Michael invited Maude in 2001 to perform as a guest artist for the Christmas run at his nightclub at The Regency in New York.

Maude's career is getting off the ground. She has the talent and the mentoring of two cabaret greats. Her first CD has been produced with a newspaper clipping of her grandmother from George White's Scandals on the front. Her web site, www.MaudeMaggart.com ,will be up and running soon. Check it out to hear her beautiful voice for yourself. Or, if you're in San Francisco be sure to catch her at the Plush Room in October. She will be guesting with Andrea and then remain there for a week on her own.

'... Fiona

Maude remembers the times at Marshall's when "this tiny blonde girl would start playing songs and singing these amazing lyrics. Everyone was very impressed." That was her younger sister Fiona who would make her mark at an extraordinarily early age writing all her own songs ... both music and words. "It's more important for her to do the songs," says Brandon. "She writes a song because she has to. It's the way she expresses herself. She considers herself mainly the songs' writer, but she sings too. It's a wonderful mixture of the two." Her first album "Tidal", made when she was just 18 years old went triple platinum and she won "Best New Artist" at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1997. Her second album also went platinum. "I don't think she likes to associate the expression of her art with the business of it ... things like album sales or awards," says Maude. "She appreciates them but I don't think she ever reads reviews. She likes to keep out of that so she doesn't have anything influencing her expression."

As a matter of fact, Fiona's two platinum record awards are hanging in her father's home along with his wonderful artwork. Literally floor to ceiling and one area actually two and a half stories high is covered with Brandon's paintings plus photographs of family and friends and memorabilia of his and his children's careers on other walls. "I get on jags of painting," says Brandon. They are storyboards of jokes and some are dirty jokes he tells me. "I try to capture the narrative in one frame, or one canvas," he says. "If you looked at it you would recognize the story." One of the pieces (not a dirty one) that Brandon explains to me is not a joke, but it's humorous. It's the first act curtain of "Jumbo" the Broadway musical with Jimmy Durante. He's going across the stage with the elephant and they're foreclosing on the circus. The guy from the bank and the police officer say, 'Hey, where do you think you're going with that elephant?', and Durante says, 'What elephant?' "At the time, I read in Judith Crist's column," says Brandon, "that the scene received the longest laugh in show business history." Brandon will neither sell nor show his paintings. It's too bad because they are really beautiful even if you don't know the story behind them.

Brandon painted all the artwork except for one piece that he had commissioned to honor the memory of Justine, his second oldest daughter who was killed in a car crash. Her sisters, Julienne and Jennifer, are not in show business and live on the East Coast. They continue the tradition of visiting their father every summer, now with their own children. "I'm so happy to have the beach here," says Brandon. "I don't have to drive them around. There's the door. There's the beach. They go everyday. There's a lot to see in Venice." The first night dinner and usually the last are at the Sidewalk Café. "When the tourists leave it becomes a neighborhood place," says Brandon. The adjacent bookstore is a favorite too. "We love and support Small World Books," he adds. "I'm glad to pay a little more to keep the bookstore in the neighborhood." The Collage at the corner of Windward and Pacific Avenues has also become a favorite eating spot.

Brandon enjoys the Friday morning Farmers Market. Maude appreciates the character of Venice. "If you drive outside of Venice it's almost void of character," she says. "Venice is a neighborhood. You know a lot of people." She also likes that she can walk around at night and feel safe. "We love Venice," father and daughter say in unison.