Or: How The Pahlavis Became "Down and Out in Beverly Hills"
| Arash Norouzi The Mossadegh Project | December 26, 2013 |
It was not for no reason that in the 1986 movie Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Richard Dreyfuss and Bette Midler’s next door neighbors were Iranian.
After the anti-Shah revolution which Islamic fundamentalists hijacked, hordes of people fled Iran, thousands of whom relocated to Los Angeles (often nicknamed “Tehrangeles”).
Ever since, Beverly Hills has spilled over with Persians, with an estimated 22% of its residents being of Iranian descent. By the time Shiraz native Jimmy Delshad was elected Mayor in 2007, the ballots were being printed in English and Farsi.
The area would become a safe haven not only for monarchist exiles, but remnants of the fallen monarchy itself. The Shah’s own brother, Mahmoud Reza, later bought a 6,000 square foot, 5 bedroom Beverly Hills mansion, and his sister Shams once occupied an opulent hillside estate there.
The back story to this Iranian exodus, of course, was the political unrest that stirred in Iran for years under the U.S.-installed military dictatorship of the Shah.
1979 was a pivotal year for Iran. At the time, singer and actress Bette Midler was riding high, having recently won her first Emmy, released a greatest hits album, and a starring movie role in The Rose. The cancerous and cancer-stricken Shah, on the other hand, was declining fast, both politically and physically.
While the monarchy was imploding, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi sent his mother and sister Ashraf Pahlavi to stay with Shams at her Beverly Hills hideaway. Yet in January 1979 they were confronted with hundreds of demonstrators outside. The angry mob reportedly torched cars, pelted the mansion with rocks and bottles and stormed the house as the royal family remained shut in inside. “We’re going to demonstrate as long as they are here”, spokesperson Mina Azad told the Associated Press. “We’re not going to let them steal from the Iranian people and then come here and live in peace.”
There were dozens of injuries in their clash with police, and several protesters were struck directly by police cars rushing to the aid of a fellow deputy in distress. Though the Shah’s mother escaped unharmed, she still looked to a future in LA. In May 1979, People reported that she was planning to build “a $25 million compound with lakes, pools and houses for members of the family” in Beverly Hills.
Of course, the full narrative of Iran’s exhausting struggle for a free and democratic society, including the unhelpful impediments of Western intervention – have traditionally been minimized in America, if not concealed altogether.
It isn’t clear whether Bette’s December 8, 2013 comment on Twitter meant that this was the first she had ever heard that the U.S. helped destroy a democratic government in Iran, or simply her delayed reaction to the news that the CIA had “finally” admitted to their hand in it four months prior (probably the latter).
Another significant early stepping stone for Zahedi was the golden opportunity to work for Andy Warhol, whom he also met through his family network. Warhol actually published his first set of photos in Interview magazine — the ones he took of Liz Taylor in Iran, and assigned him to be Interview’s Washington DC correspondent.
The iconic artist and noted fame-whore had his own Persian excursion in 1976, in response to a personal invitation to the Shah’s palace in Tehran. Warhol’s editor Bob Colacello, who accompanied him, was impressed with what he saw in Iran. “It reminded me of Beverly Hills, except that they had Persian carpets by their pools”, he observed.
Had there never been a 1953 coup in Iran, there is an excellent chance that Bette Midler would never have found herself posing for a Zahedi. But then, a lot of things would be different if America had chosen its “Friends” more wisely...
In August 2013 CIA formally admitted it was involved in planning and execution of 1953 coup against Iranian PM Mossadegh. How'd I miss that? "The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, overthrowing the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, & installing Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as SHAH was orchestrated by the UK & the US ( & the first United States covert action to overthrow a foreign government during peacetime.)"
In any case, the Hawaiian-born entertainer is not as far removed from that 60 year old episode – occurring when she was age seven – as one might assume.
On at least a couple occasions, Midler posed for celebrity photographer Firooz Zahedi, whose opportunistic Uncle, General Fazlollah Zahedi, replaced Mossadegh as Premier after the violent military coup nurtured by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Born in 1949, Firooz Zahedi was nine when his family moved to England. In 1969, he relocated to Washington, DC, and began a diplomatic career as an attaché in the Iranian Embassy. His cousin Ardeshir Zahedi, Iran’s Ambassador to the U.S., ruled the roost at the embassy, consorting with high society types, dignitaries and celebrities on a regular basis. At the embassy, Ardeshir introduced Firooz to film legend Elizabeth Taylor, whom he was romantically with involved at the time.
Liz took a liking to the young budding artist. When Ms. Taylor visited Iran in May 1976 at Ardeshir’s invitation, Firooz also accompanied her, shooting a series of photographs which would later form a 2011 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
After that crucial foot-in-the-door, and Liz Taylor’s friendly prodding that he pursue this avenue further, Firooz embarked on a career as a Hollywood photographer. Taylor, who Zahedi calls “my guardian angel”, then hired him as her personal photographer on a movie set. He moved to Los Angeles and the rest is history. “I owe my career to her”, admits Zahedi.
“Diplomacy itself is an art because you learn to be totally someone you really are not. You have to be constantly gracious and polite and know how to bulls**t. Well that training certainly helped me in Hollywood!!”
Listen: Andy Warhol in Iran
Warhol’s connections with the royal circle rivaled even that of his new Iranian underling. He was a frequent guest at their functions, and in one case, the guest of honor at a Warhol-themed party thrown by Ardeshir Zahedi, complete with Campbell’s soup decor. Warhol was very chummy with both Queen Farah, who collected his work, as well as Princess Ashraf. Another Warhol collector in the royal camp, UN Ambassador Fereydoon Hoveyda, arranged for a series of flattering Warhol portraits of the Shah, Empress Farah, and Ashraf. Association with royalty has its privileges.
Without question, all of these glamorous developments can be traced back to the Zahedi’s power grab in 1953. Firooz Zahedi’s own father, Nasrollah, was allegedly implicated in an earlier attempt to overthrow Mossadegh’s government. The charge came after the gruesome murder of Mossadegh’s loyal police chief, Mahmoud Afshartous. In 2012, The New York Times claimed Nasrollah “played a role” in the coup itself, though we cannot confirm any of these charges. [Wire reports identified him as Fazlollah Zahedi’s nephew or “nephew by marriage”, which is both chronologically impossible and nonsensical. As Firooz and Ardeshir are cousins, this makes Fazlollah Zahedi (Ardeshir’s father) his uncle].
Associated Press on May 4, 1953:
“In a communiqué Saturday, the government charged that Zahedi’s nephew, retired Brig. Gen. Nasrollah Zahedi, had been a leader in the plot. The uncle was asked to visit the police within 48 hours.”
Related links:
Iran: How The Mess Came About | The Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1980
Operation Ajax Was Always An Open Secret | A Timeline
The State Department’s ‘How-To’ Guide To Installing Dictatorship in Iran (1953)
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
