Story by Gareth Kelly ~
Photos courtesy of American Made
Cliff Branch has done and seen it all.
As a teen he travelled to Asia during the Vietnam war, wrote a novel against the war to submit in his college writing class and then went on to start a successful mail order Hi Fi equipment company right here in San Luis Obispo.
Many parties later, Branch was selling hot tubs all over the U.S. under the auspices that buying a hot tub would lead to scantily clad women appearing everywhere. More parties, appearances in Rolling Stone magazine and the Today show followed, and before he knew it he found himself surrounded by cocaine. At the point where he had almost lost it all, he wrote a cocaine addiction self-help book under a pen name and it became a best seller.
Kids, a wife, properties and more companies followed before Branch found himself as an anti-war activist again–this time the second Iraq war. After spending around $40,000 of his own money on a fullpage anti-war ad in USA Today, Branch was now political and even helped get Obama elected rallying against Republicans in YouTube videos and a DVD.
Finally, about a year and a half ago Branch sat down and wrote a book, American Made, A Boomers Reflection. A memoir chronicling not only his incredible life but also the life of America all told through his eyes as part of the baby boomer generation.
“My mom died a few years ago and I came across all these old boxes of stuff simply labeled ‘Family Stuff’” Branch said. “It was full of newspaper cuttings, postcards, pictures, all sorts of stuff. My dad was a writer and editor. He wrote some classic pulp fiction and both he and my mom always said they wish they had written something. Luckily these boxes of memories my mom had saved provided the perfect inspiration for my story.”
A serial entrepreneur Branch was in his mid sixties and like many boomers started to realize getting old was very real and that one’s body starts to deteriorate. Coupled with the recent recession in which he saw many friends lose all their retirement funds overnight, Branch got some devastating news.
“I got diagnosed with a serious disease,” Branch said. “It made me very reflective. As is going on right now with boomers one starts to assess ones morality. People, friends, start dying. I really started to look back at my life and what it all meant. I had been lucky. Born to a relatively affluent family in Coastal California in the fifties, life was good. We travelled, we had adventures and life seemed easy. Turns out the doctors were wrong about the disease, I didn’t have it but the scare had been enough to make me want to sit down and write this book.”
Branch was not new to writing. There was that anti-Vietnam novel he wrote while attending college at Cal Poly after travelling to Asia that he submitted it to his professor only to be told it was “sloppily written” and contained “totally inappropriate subject matter.” Then in the late seventies Branch had had a fling with that era’s drug of choice, cocaine. Managing to finally kick its addictive lure he wrote the best selling self-help book The All American Cocaine Story in 1983 under the pen name David Britt.
“Life was wild back then,” said Branch. “I was selling redwood hot tubs under the California Cooperage name and I was doing really well. Life was good. There were girls, money and then cocaine. It was a part of my life, but I realized I needed to stop. When I saw there were no books out there to help, I decided to write one. I used a pen name so as not to cause distress for both my personal and professional life. These days with the internet I would have been found out very quickly.”
Many businesses followed, as did real estate deals and developments and in the early nineties, Branch reconnected with an old friend Tom Spalding and the two of them were off to Asia, this time to launch a high tech computer company Ergo Computers.
Today Branch owns buildings all up the California Coast including the Morgan Stanley building in SLO where his office is located. American Made, his book, speaks to the millions of baby boomers starting to reflect on life in a different time. The 1950s America of yesterday seems rosy through tinted glasses but Branch pulls no punches with critiquing its many flaws. In fact towards the end of the book Branch is scathing about many issues from the corruption on Wall Street, the abject failure of the Iraq War, Americas obsession with guns, religion and politics and many more issues.
Clearly a man not afraid to speak his mind and clearly a man who has used his success for good, American Made is not only a fascinating look back at a period of American history but also illustrates how some things never change. The issues Branch discusses are as timely today as they were in the fifties. His wit and visceral descriptions on life provide for a most entertaining read. More than simply just a book, Branch is always looking for the next thing or issue or project to get involved with. Perhaps that next project will be working with millennials, a group Branch touches on towards the end of the book.
Talking with Branch one can see he still has that twinkle in his eye and is fascinated by humanity and the world around us.
For more information on American Made, A Boomers Reflection or the author visit www.americanmadestory.com
This brief newspaper article could never do this great man justice, his book and his own prose does. Having now become a new personal hero of this writer I highly recommend everyone goes and reads American Made.
Gareth would love to travel back to the 50s especially if he could take all the sports results with him. What period in time would you love to visit? Email him at [email protected] and follow all his ramblings at www.garethckelly.com
