Damn cool stuff man!
Q: What would be the typical bander taking place at a table like that?
A: Pretty standard, The-booze-is-flowing-lets'-drink-more type stuff. Arnold always liked talking about cars... he owned one of the 1st civilian Hummers and that was always a point of conversation. Ralph newest Mercedes. Food... good deserts. Booze... favorite 'real beers' aka heavy German stuff. Favorite cigars, it was "Cigar Night" after all. Lots of joke telling. I still remember very clearly telling the entire table my 'Hitler & three Acrobats' joke
Once Arnold started busting a gut, the whole place fell apart.
Also keep in mind, that during the early & mid 90's, Arnold was at his office (Oak Productions) Main St.& Navy St. almost every day, so it was not the least bit unusual to see him or interact with him. He was totally approachable and pretty much just a regular B+/A- celebrity in Los Angeles.
I do remember one night about 1am, Maria showed up, clearly not happy to be out of the house at that hour and she was walking around trying to get Arnold to split and he was having a good time and wasn't crazy about leaving. The body language was standard; Girl is mad... "You're drunk, let's go home!" Guy is having a blast... "Oh come on honey, lighten up!"
Maria stood by Arnold with her arms folded across her chest until he slowly made his way towards the exit.. Ralph & Swen had a mighty laugh at Arnold's plight. I think we started chanting; "Arnold's in trooooouble, Arnold's in trooooouble."
It was not hard to be invited and placed on the list and once you were on the list, you could bring all the friends you wanted. Plus we always knew all the guys working security (LaCombe Security) anyway... they trained at Golds.
