Speaking of the "Theys", she says of her neophyte days, "They wanted to make me a glamour type, when I first got to Hollywood. I got in this movie, "The Girl Can't Help It" (with Jayne Mansfield…Little Richard sand the title song). I sang something called "Spread the Word". No, Nothing happened with that. They weren't interested in what I was singing. They were just interested in me wearing that Marilyn Monroe dress. The one she wore in "Gentleman Prefer Blondes". Roach saved me from all that. One aspect of Abbey's narrative is a consistent and genuine gratitude for the role Max Roach played in her musical development as a singer and as a conscious artist.
     "But before that I'd wear this dress, it was orange chiffon and my breasts would be bouncing around. It actually had cotton in the bra. That's all they were interested in, me wearing Marilyn Monroe's dress. They were creating some rep for me as some breasty sexy woman. But I wasn't never really that. I can't stand some man looking at me and just thinking about sex.
     "I was never driven by ideas of 'Success and Stardom'. I thought I was that to start with. My family gave me that. I was given this." She is laughing openly now." I think my ancestors liked me a lot."
     "I really didn't know much about the music then. But I began to meet people." Talking about how and what she learned and from whom. "I met Duke coming from Hawaii. He used to stay in a suite in one of the two Black hotels in LA, The Watkins. That's when it was all segregated. So when Duke was in town, he always stayed at the Watkins.
     "So I decided I wanted to sing with Duke. He hadn't asked for a singer. But I just went up to see him, and hit on him, telling him I wanted to sing with the band. Duke didn't say much, he just began to undress and walk toward the bedroom. Then he rolled the bed down, and I walked out of there. " Abbey is having much fun running this down, "I never told that to any writers before… I guess he was letting me know …up front….so I got right out of there.
     "I met a lot of people in LA and Honolulu. I met Billie Holiday, Cozy Cole, Louis Armstrong. I never got close to Billie. Actually, I was afraid of her. I mean I respected her so much. I wasn't going to walk up to her like some of these singers do to me and start talking about myself, give me their latest record. " So it is that Abbey describes her relationship with Billie as "kind of standoffish".
     "Louis was wonderful man. He didn't look at a woman's behind, he looked right into your eyes and he was a great friend. Dinah Washington and Sassy liked me. Actually, they treated me as a mascot. Cause I was still learning the music. I already had a career, as a glamour queen. I didn't have to be there" she means, not only Honolulu or the LA music scene, "But I had to be there. I had to be in the music."

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