From West of Eden: An American Place, an oral history of Hollywood and Los Angeles by Jean Stein, published this month by Random House. Stein is the author of Edie: An American Girl (1982) and American Journey: The Times of Robert Kennedy (1970). These recollections are by Ed Moses, a painter.
In 1957, I was a graduate student at UCLA and I needed a gig to pick up some living money, so I went over to the job office for students. They had these little card files you’d pick through. I always looked in the medical section, in the…