On the scent of a new fragrance
Coming back to Malibu for a few weeks is always the best way to keep up with what old friends are doing. This time I got a heads-up about a new venture from a long-time member of the entertainment industry who has managed to reinvent herself once again.
Susan McCray was for many years a successful casting director, most notably for Michael Landon’s long-running television shows, and a talent scout credited with discovering Melissa Gilbert and Shannen Doherty, among others.
Her first business venture outside the television and film industry was based on a deceptively simple concept: the perfect, reasonably priced gourmet gift: Malibu Nutcorn. The shop of the same name was open on Malibu Road for five years. Now she has designed a gift of an entirely different sort: her own fragrance line.
My initial response was muted, since I gave up wearing perfume when I discovered it attracted unwanted attention: No, not of the human kind, but actually everything else from bees to bears. This complicated my work as a wildlife photographer in a somewhat frightening way. My wildlife biologist friends in Yellowstone warned, “Ditch the perfume before you get us all killed.”
But McCray’s “Nightfall,” named for an Academy Award-winning musical composition by her father Harry Sukman, is a scent of a totally different order. It is unusual among high-grade fragrances as it is made from 100 percent natural ingredients with absolutely no chemicals. Since that’s my criteria for eating, it would seem to be the perfect scent for me.
It has been described as based on petal-soft white florals, with a hint of fresh citrus “reminiscent of that clean smell you often recall from the first crystals of dew drops. Refreshing yet sophisticated.” Whether this will deter or attract bears I haven’t been brave enough to find out yet.
Creating Nightfall was not just a lark for McCray, who was mixing scents at the age of eight under the guidance of her mother Francesca Paley, an accomplished fashion designer, musician and painter. Now that some of her previous careers have wound down, she has the time and encouragement from her husband Kent McCray, who was Michael Landon’s partner in Michael Landon Productions.
“After his death in 1991, we produced a TV special for NBC,” Susan McCray said. “It was a two-hour Movie of the Week titled “Michael Landon: Memories with Laughter and Love.” It was also released on video with all proceeds to go to Michael Landon Children’s Cancer Research Fund based at the University of Arizona.
“After that we did two two-hour “Bonanza” specials for NBC,” McCray said. “One in 1992 and the other in 1994.”
McCray said she stuck with casting until they did the pilot for a show to be called “Us” for CBS. “It was sold in 1991, but then Michael became ill and it never was made.”
Switching from TV to radio, five years ago McCray began hosting a show called “Getting to Know You,” which airs on Internet radio station KSAV Tuesday evenings. “I interview people from all walks of life,” she said. “Musicians, actors, sports personalities, everyone, and I get e-mails from all over the world.”
Then three months ago, she added “Orchestra Hall,” a classical concert program Sundays at noon. “It’s the kind of show that I think has been missing on radio,” she said. “We play the classics and I share the background of the music and the composer. Classical music is an integral part of our quality of life. I grew up with it.”
As if she didn’t have enough to do, McCray also authored a children’s book titled “Harry’s Piano” and produced a CD, “Warm Heart, Cool Hands.”
When the Malibu Nutcorn store was open, it was always full of stuffed bears, her trademark, each with custom clothes and horn-rimmed glasses. McCray said she became a bear collector when she was casting “Little House on the Prairie.”
“One of the kids’ mothers gave me a stuffed bear and I just started to dress them. Then I included them in gift packages of Nutcorn.”
It will be next spring before I know whether Nightfall attracts real bears.
Nightfall is available online in an etched 2 oz. eau de parfum crystal bottle, a soy based candle and a 0.5 oz. purse spray (www.nightfallbysusanmccray.com). Soon it may also be found in fine boutiques nationwide.
“We’re starting to work on that now,” she said. “But it will just be in small boutiques, not in large department stores.”
Once again McCray has come up with a perfect reasonably priced gift. And even without the fashionably clad bears, the fragrance will bear her trademark.