I sensed that John wanted this published and I am happy to oblige, In this business men like this are rare.
Subject: The death of one of my mentors Larry Rollins
Just what seams like yesterday Larry Reeves aka TANK died and it hurt so bad
and if that were not bad enough today I found out that my friend, one of my
mentors, if not THEE mentor in my life Mr. Larry Rollins died in his sleep
on Monday here in Atlanta Georgia. I don’t want this to be about how sad I
am and how as I write this tears are streaming down my face yet again, I
want it to be about Larry and what he meant to me and what he did for me and
what he taught me. As I write this I am playing Mama I’m Comin’ Home by Ozzy
Ozbourne, don’t ask me why it just fits.
Man I am so sad this man was genuinely the sweetest man I ever knew. When I
first moved to Atlanta in February 1990 I drove here from Florida with
everything I owned in a car that was about to be re-possessed. No furniture,
some clothes, my guitar, $700 to my name, in big debt and 100 pieces of
lingerie. I used that $700.00 to rent a town house on Roberts Drive which is
now part of Sandy Springs, I still drive by that town house every now and
again just to remind myself where this part of my life started.
I was determined to make it on my own without the help of my family and
friends, not to say that they didn’t help, lord knows I owe my family
everything. But back on track, I start doing these shows in bars and girls
model lingerie and swimwear in these places and the customers can win the
outfits. I’m under capitalized, I am green as could be and the biggest
company in the US at that times decides to do the same thing in Atlanta
about five weeks after I start. I stand no chance, they have the money to
advertise and lots of cloths, I am already down to about my last 20 pieces
when I am introduced to Larry Rollins a sales representative for Fantasy
Lingerie out of LA California. He lives in Atlanta, originally from Kansas
and he doesn’t know me from Adam.
I ask him if he could meet me at a bar called Rascals on Roswell Road
because I can not show him my town home that I am living in and working out
of because it has no furniture and I am sleeping on the floor. He agrees and
I meet Larry sometime in March, 1990. He brings in racks and racks of
garments in to the back area, and Mr. Lombardi thank you for letting him do
that, and I am like a kid in a candy store. But I’m that kid with no money
to buy the candy. Larry puts the stuff away and with perhaps the last
dollars to my name I say Mr. Rollins can I buy you lunch? SURE John I would
love to have lunch with you! He said and we must have talked for 5 or 6
hours. I laid it all out on the table to him, I told him the truth, every
single word of it. I said Mr. Rollins, he stopped me and said ” It’s Larry.”
I said okay I’ll make you a deal, let me call you Mr. R at least please and
I remember him saying ” Only if you allow me to call you Mr. C !” For over
17 years on the phone or in person from that day forth it was Mr. C it’s Mr.
R how are you and vice versa.
Well I say Mr. R that’s my plan, I am going to do it, I already am but I
really need some help I am not looking for a hand out or anything, I just
need some time to pay off the lingerie but I am willing to give you
collateral whatever you want, whatever I have. I took off my watch and my
one ring and I said I think these are worth about $500 bucks, you hold on to
them until I can pay you, will you do that? Larry says ” No, I can not and I
would not.” … I was crushed I thought in those 5 hours we had formed a
bond, but he was after all a business man so I understood and when my eyes
started to droop and my head lower in defeat Mr. R said to me I will never
for get… He says ” John….. JOHN… Mr. C pick your head up. You have
something much more valuable to be and worth a hell of a lot more then your
watch and ring. I see it in your eyes, I hear it in your voice, I feel your
passion, what you have that I want is your handshake and your word. That
John, from you, I already know is better and more valuable collateral then
anything in the world. Your going to make it John and I mean big. I have a
good read on people and I’m with you!” Again I am crying as I write this
because this was the first day I had met this wonderful, beautiful, so
thoughtful of men.
What I never told Mr. R until years later that I pawned those pieces of
jewelry anyway. I would go to this pawn shop on Pleasant Dale Road and sell
them my stuff on a Monday, pay Larry do shows and then go and buy it back by
Friday. I did that for about 6 months until I finally started to get my head
above water. I started to grow and get stronger and smarter. I didn’t buy a
shower curtain for over a year because I didn’t want to waste the $20 bucks
for it. I was hard core, I didn’t have anything to prove to anyone, I wanted
to make the people who loved me and the friends who supported me and bet on
me when I had nothing, people like Larry Rollins, I wanted to make them
right. I wanted to make them proud, that they were right for having that
faith in me.
Many years later when I told him this story about the pawn shop he says ”
John why? Why did you do that?” And I said that I needed to. That I wanted
him to be paid back faster and I wasn’t used to owing people money and I
wanted him to be proud of me… and he said to me all those years later ”
Mr. C like I told you that first day, I had your word and you were going to
make it and I knew it. I would have given you anything you wanted or needed
I saw it in your eyes” Mr. R and I had that conversation outside a half a
million dollar building that I owned leaning up against my brand new White
Mercedes S-500. I built that company, Simply Irresistible Lingerie, with
the help of Mr. R and many others in to a company that was by 1992 doing
over 120 YES 120 lingerie fashion shows per WEEK in the Atlanta area! Over
30 models worked for me and I sold about 1,000 pieces of lingerie per week,
almost 5,000 pieces per month. In fact I sold more lingerie every month in
Atlanta then Sears and Wal-Mart combined. That lead to Xcitement Magazine,
two trade publications, countless bars and business deals, franchises for
the Lingerie in Charlotte, Chattanooga and St. Louis, and over 12 Love Shack
/ Burn Stores in Atlanta and Mr. R sold me lingerie up until the day he
died.
It was the best business bet he had ever made he once told me saying John
you have bought millions and millions of dollars worth of clothing from me
over the years. I bet on a winner and won. We shared a friendship so
special, we even rented office space together on Sexton Woods Drive in
Chamblee and worked next door to each other every day for two years. Larry
and his wife Beth were so nice to me and to my parents. Larry even gave my
dad a much needed job back in those days. Man we were tight. I finally sold
that company, Simply Irresistible Lingerie about two years ago, I had grown
so big so fast that I could not concentrate on it as much as was needed. The
funny thing is this…………… it came full circle. I sold it to Mr. R
for his son Chris to run. Mr. R said ” I want Chris to learn some of the
lessons only a business will teach him , I will help him and I know you will
too John.” He did, I did, Chris still owns it and today it was Chris who
called me to say that his father, my mentor, my buddy, my friend, the first
person to believe in me who didn’t even know me, the person who always said
John you have what it takes, you just do, that this man, this father like
figure to me had passed away.
I love you Mr. R, I miss you so much already and I can never thank you
enough for all you did for me and my family. God how I love and miss you. I
have no regrets with our relationship other then not being able to see you
one last time. We had just seen each other about two weeks ago and had a
great conversation. I will keep that one with me for a while, in fact you
said see you round Mr. C and I said thank you Mr. R and boy oh boy did I
mean it.
Mr. R as my Italian family and friends would say, you were a Stand up Guy
and as my Jewish friends would say you were a Mench. I love you, safe
journey home. I shall see you soon…………………… just not yet,
Love your adopted son
Johnny
If anyone who knows me, even if you didn’t know Mr. Rollins would like to
pay tribute to this great man, a man who made a huge impact on my life and
stand by my side along with my wife, my mother and father and many current
and former employees who all loved him, I will be at his service this
Friday November 23, 2007 at 1 pm at :
Peachtree Baptist Church
2108 Briarcliff Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30329
