If it’s the first Saturday in May, to horse racing fans all over the world, it’s all about tradition and the Kentucky Derby.
To get a preview of the horses you’ll see on Saturday go to 2008 Kentucky Derby Contenders and Triple Crown prospects. Click here.
Don’t get too hung up on the favorites because long shots win their share of Kentucky Derby races.
Here’s an excerpt from ‘The Goring Collection’ that will give you some idea about long shot betting and the big win. Don Bowman an FGI operative meets his informant Georgie Bertuccio at the Circus Circus race book and they talk about betting.
A cacophony of sounds floated into the restaurant from the casino and slot machine area. Don Bowman and Georgie Bertuccio ate their hamburgers and enthused about the race they had just won…Georgie was almost giddy with excitement over the win and said, “I don’t know how in hell you do it, Don.”
Don smiled. “A little racing savvy and a lot of luck.”
“What’s the biggest win you ever had betting a combination?” Georgie asked.
Don thought for a minute and said, “I expect it was at Caesars a few years ago when I bet The Flower Drum Handicap, for filly’s and mares, back at Belmont. I took a four-horse combination and in that mix was a well-bred filly that got in with light weight named Gaily Gaily. The morning line listed her at sixty- to-one.” Then Don shook his head. “I can see it now. The race was on the grass and there was a Cavalry charge down the stretch that ended with a photo finish. My picks came in one two three and five. Gaily Gaily with Julie Krone aboard was the winner and paid $157.80 for a two dollar ticket to win.”
(Don Bowman never told Georgie how much the combination paid, but I can tell you it was in the thousands.)
Let’s go to the Movies Part IV
HOLLYWOODLAND and The Yellow Barn
As the Model T chugged along they could see something white on a distant hillside. When they drew closer DeMille could see the huge white sign that read HOLLYWOODLAND. A land developer had purchased thousands of acres of land and put that monster sign up as part of a sales campaign to attract buyers and sell lots. Well that huge gaudy sign couldn't have been more appropriate for the hyperbole that would later be spewed out the motion picture industry to promote their sales campaigns. Industry ads would be cliché riddled, wild, extravagant, and larger than life stories about their stars and films.
Well it may not be the Promised Land, but it was the place Burns and Revier had described. The possible studio building was a yellow barn in the middle of an orange grove, which DeMille rented. That old barn was the first Hollywood address of the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. The exact location was at the corner of Selma and
Vine Street just one block south of what later became the most famous and publicly known street crossing in the world -- Hollywood and Vine.
‘The Squaw Man’ finally had a home, a place where that little band of fledgling moviemakers could go to work and try their wings.
In the early days the production company had to share stall space with the owner Mr. Stern's horses. But despite that fact Hollywood was born. However, it would be many years from that early beginning before Cecil B. DeMille would step to the microphone and, by way of the Lux Radio Theatre, announce to America, ‘Greetings From Hollywood.’
During December of 1913 there was plenty of work to be done in that old sun baked yellow barn. It would be stretching a bit to call it a studio, but who cares about semantics when history is being made. Starting with their small group, people had to be hired, office personnel, cast and crew, they also had to firm up a deal with Burns and Revier to use their lab for film developing, buy more film along with a thousand other decisions and purchases. Fortunately, there were good people available in all categories, cast, crew and administrative personnel.
DeMille was busy with interviewing and hiring as well as working with Oscar Apfel on their shooting script. Perhaps a feeling of being behind schedule, the director-general was determined to begin filming before the year played out. As it happened, all the pieces fell into place and director Oscar Apfel yelled, "Action" as cameraman Alfred Gandolfi viewed through the camera and hand cranked film past the lens. The first scene of ‘The Squaw Man’ was shot on the morning of December 29, 1913. The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company was in business and its first production was in the works. The Hollywood movie industry was stretching and yawning it's way to life. It only took the ‘Squawman’ crew three weeks to complete major photography, and that was quite an accomplishment, considering the fact that the monopoly trust had spotted their operation and tried to ruin their undeveloped film.
The making of that first movie took on the tone of a western melodrama when rifle shots rang out in the Cahuenga Pass, just missing DeMille and the horse he was riding home
from work. The director-general improved his chances of survival by adding a gun and holster to his everyday wardrobe. He also put out the word that he knew how to use
his pistol and wouldn't hesitate to shoot back if fired on again. It didn’t happen, but DeMille wore his armament for many months following that episode. Even with the shooting and film sabotage a daily threat the major part of the picture was completed in January of 1914, a near miracle.
Well miracle or no they were not home free, because after editing was complete and the company gathered to see the results; that showing took on the form of a nightmare.
The projector started and following the title, images began dancing all over the screen, a real fowl up. DeMille was thinking, not only of his immediate embarrassment, but he’d
spent all the company's money. Well it turned out to be a technical glitch; non-uniform sprocket holes in a batch of English film DeMille had purchased to save money. It took
the director-general and his can of film on a long train ride to Philadelphia and then a wily old film technician by the name of Pop Lubin to find a solution. Mr. DeMille said
years later that at the time, he felt like kissing Mr. Lubin and had he been French instead of Dutch, I expect he would have done just that.
Once the long train ride from Los Angeles to Philadelphia was in the past the short trip to New York was like a dream sequence replacing an awful nightmare.
The showing in Manhattan to theatre owners and managers went well. That group of buyers gave a standing ovation at the end of the screening, and even better than the applause they wrote checks and rented show dates.
‘The Squaw Man’ officially opened on February 15, 1914 to an enthusiastic paying audience -- and the film made a good profit.
(To be continued)
Writers Corner:
You have committed to a project, finished the basic research and character prep work and you’re all set to begin writing. Suddenly you’re overcome with anxiety – you’ve got a knot the size of a baseball in your stomach. Stop!
You are not alone. It might give you some comfort to know that John Steinbeck experienced some of those same anxious moments. In one of his letters written in February 1936, which was included in his ‘A Life in Letters’ Steinbeck said, ‘I have to start [writing] and am scared to death as usual – miserable sick feeling of inadequacy.’ Then in the very next sentence he said, ‘I’ll love it once I get down to work.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Two Western Museums and the Movies
I did a book signing for Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone at the Leonis Adobe Museum in Calabasas, California this past Saturday. Wild West was the theme of the day and the feature attraction was a reenactment of ‘The Shootout at the OK Corral.’
Kudos to the actors.
The museum depicts ranch life in the 1800’s and is a working ranch with cattle sheep and a goat. The experience will give you a great sense of heritage and history.
Look for the Adobe website click
phone 818 222-6511
The Gene Autry Museum is in a class by its self. The Autry National Center uses photos, paintings, giant murals, statues, movies, displays, demonstrations and movie clips of Gene Autry, ‘The Singing Cowboy.’ And I think you’ll agree they do it well. It’s an experience you won’t soon forget.
For more information click here 323 667-2000
Let’s go to the Movies Part III
And the Rains Came to Flagstaff
Hot, dry and dusty they arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona. Not much of a town and not much choice of lodging but that didn't matter much. What did matter were those dark
clouds that greeted their arrival. Not only did the sun shine less the rains came. The locals said not to fret; the rains will quit pretty soon. But the rain didn't quit. It rained and rained and rained. Days turned into weeks and still no sun. DeMille let Sam, Jesse and Arthur, back in New York; know how the relentless rain was washing their investment away.
However, the locals kept up the litany, it's going to quit, it’s going to quit.
Back east, Goldwyn and the others had been gathering information to back an alternate location. By the middle of the sixth week with the thick black cloud bellies still
hanging low over Flagstaff it was time to make a move. The New York office had heard of a few films, of the nickelodeon variety, being made in southern California. They weren't much in the way of classy pictures but at least they got made.
DeMille eventually made the decision and told his people to pack up, we're going to Los Angeles, California.
Now some of you may be thinking that's not the way the story goes, and you might be right. DeMille's autobiography tells the rain part another way. Mr. DeMille said the story plot dictated the change from Flagstaff to Los Angeles. The Squaw Man had Wyoming as its locale. As he tells it, when their train pulled into the Flagstaff station, they had a quick discussion and concluded that this place just didn't remind them of Wyoming. Now this was done while the train took on water and by the time she was ready to head down the mountain toward the west coast, they jumped back onboard, paid the conductor and continued their trip.
I'm not going to tell you which version to believe perhaps neither is true. As a writer and researcher, of historical fact, I know enough to be a skeptic. You try to develop a nose for the truth then take a look at several sources and try to come to a plausible conclusion.
This was my dilemma as a writer; I had read several versions over the years and have also been to Flagstaff. I can tell you for sure that there are plenty of locations around Flagstaff, including ones you can see from a train, that resemble Wyoming. So why on that one point would DeMille have made that quick policy decision? If the version in DeMille’s autobiography is true perhaps he never intended to stop in Flagstaff in the first place. Of course another possibility is memory or even one of those typical Hollywood battles of words that were always cropping up. It could have simply been some publicity or public relations person’s slant on the story. But looking back at all the material I'm convinced the true reason was casting. After all they didn't have the leading lady with them and could they find the other major cast members in that small Arizona town? This is of course conjecture and your guess may be just as good as mine. However, I think we will all agree that they finally did make it to Los Angeles.
For that small band of film makers Los Angeles was sprawling, gaudy, and like the song says, "not much to look at," but it was dry and the beautiful sun was a welcomed sight. They found a nice hotel, the Alexandria, and recognized a number of film people from the east.
DeMille's first job was to find the best location and rent some kind of studio space. He made inquires and listened to talk around the hotel. Two enterprising young men by the
names of Burns and Revier got his attention by offering to show him around the area, hoping that the Lasky Feature Play Company would throw some business their way. These two gentlemen owned a small film developing laboratory and the good part, so they said, was its location, outside the downtown high rent district. It was also mentioned that a building near their lab might be suitable as studio space.
DeMille asked, "Is the building for rent?"
Burns said, "Don't know. Why don't we go and take a first hand look."
Burns and Revier escorted the director-general to their model T Ford and after a few spins of the hand crank, the vehicle sprang to life and they were on their way. It was a
gorgeous day as they headed out in a north west direction from downtown Los Angeles. They drove past the outskirts of the city and past numbers of eucalyptus trees and orange
groves. The smell of pungent eucalyptus bark and leaves mixed with orange blossoms must have given life to positive thoughts of a promised land of make believe.
Writers Corner:
Great artist’s and writer’s plumb experience from their subconscious. Mark Twain confided to the world on many occasions that he never worked a day in his life. All his humor and writings were due to the fact that he tapped the inexhaustible reservoir of his subconscious mind.
Shakespeare might not have been aware of the subconscious, but he put it this way. ‘Your thoughts write on the inside, which performs experience on the outside.’
Hemingway goes a step farther in his little book ‘A Moveable Feast’ as he writes about his life in Paris during the 1920’s. ‘… It was in that room that I learned not to think about anything that I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious mind would be working on it.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
For Tom's Website click here
Kudos to the actors.
The museum depicts ranch life in the 1800’s and is a working ranch with cattle sheep and a goat. The experience will give you a great sense of heritage and history.
Look for the Adobe website click
phone 818 222-6511
The Gene Autry Museum is in a class by its self. The Autry National Center uses photos, paintings, giant murals, statues, movies, displays, demonstrations and movie clips of Gene Autry, ‘The Singing Cowboy.’ And I think you’ll agree they do it well. It’s an experience you won’t soon forget.
For more information click here 323 667-2000
Let’s go to the Movies Part III
And the Rains Came to Flagstaff
Hot, dry and dusty they arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona. Not much of a town and not much choice of lodging but that didn't matter much. What did matter were those dark
clouds that greeted their arrival. Not only did the sun shine less the rains came. The locals said not to fret; the rains will quit pretty soon. But the rain didn't quit. It rained and rained and rained. Days turned into weeks and still no sun. DeMille let Sam, Jesse and Arthur, back in New York; know how the relentless rain was washing their investment away.
However, the locals kept up the litany, it's going to quit, it’s going to quit.
Back east, Goldwyn and the others had been gathering information to back an alternate location. By the middle of the sixth week with the thick black cloud bellies still
hanging low over Flagstaff it was time to make a move. The New York office had heard of a few films, of the nickelodeon variety, being made in southern California. They weren't much in the way of classy pictures but at least they got made.
DeMille eventually made the decision and told his people to pack up, we're going to Los Angeles, California.
Now some of you may be thinking that's not the way the story goes, and you might be right. DeMille's autobiography tells the rain part another way. Mr. DeMille said the story plot dictated the change from Flagstaff to Los Angeles. The Squaw Man had Wyoming as its locale. As he tells it, when their train pulled into the Flagstaff station, they had a quick discussion and concluded that this place just didn't remind them of Wyoming. Now this was done while the train took on water and by the time she was ready to head down the mountain toward the west coast, they jumped back onboard, paid the conductor and continued their trip.
I'm not going to tell you which version to believe perhaps neither is true. As a writer and researcher, of historical fact, I know enough to be a skeptic. You try to develop a nose for the truth then take a look at several sources and try to come to a plausible conclusion.
This was my dilemma as a writer; I had read several versions over the years and have also been to Flagstaff. I can tell you for sure that there are plenty of locations around Flagstaff, including ones you can see from a train, that resemble Wyoming. So why on that one point would DeMille have made that quick policy decision? If the version in DeMille’s autobiography is true perhaps he never intended to stop in Flagstaff in the first place. Of course another possibility is memory or even one of those typical Hollywood battles of words that were always cropping up. It could have simply been some publicity or public relations person’s slant on the story. But looking back at all the material I'm convinced the true reason was casting. After all they didn't have the leading lady with them and could they find the other major cast members in that small Arizona town? This is of course conjecture and your guess may be just as good as mine. However, I think we will all agree that they finally did make it to Los Angeles.
For that small band of film makers Los Angeles was sprawling, gaudy, and like the song says, "not much to look at," but it was dry and the beautiful sun was a welcomed sight. They found a nice hotel, the Alexandria, and recognized a number of film people from the east.
DeMille's first job was to find the best location and rent some kind of studio space. He made inquires and listened to talk around the hotel. Two enterprising young men by the
names of Burns and Revier got his attention by offering to show him around the area, hoping that the Lasky Feature Play Company would throw some business their way. These two gentlemen owned a small film developing laboratory and the good part, so they said, was its location, outside the downtown high rent district. It was also mentioned that a building near their lab might be suitable as studio space.
DeMille asked, "Is the building for rent?"
Burns said, "Don't know. Why don't we go and take a first hand look."
Burns and Revier escorted the director-general to their model T Ford and after a few spins of the hand crank, the vehicle sprang to life and they were on their way. It was a
gorgeous day as they headed out in a north west direction from downtown Los Angeles. They drove past the outskirts of the city and past numbers of eucalyptus trees and orange
groves. The smell of pungent eucalyptus bark and leaves mixed with orange blossoms must have given life to positive thoughts of a promised land of make believe.
Writers Corner:
Great artist’s and writer’s plumb experience from their subconscious. Mark Twain confided to the world on many occasions that he never worked a day in his life. All his humor and writings were due to the fact that he tapped the inexhaustible reservoir of his subconscious mind.
Shakespeare might not have been aware of the subconscious, but he put it this way. ‘Your thoughts write on the inside, which performs experience on the outside.’
Hemingway goes a step farther in his little book ‘A Moveable Feast’ as he writes about his life in Paris during the 1920’s. ‘… It was in that room that I learned not to think about anything that I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious mind would be working on it.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
For Tom's Website click here
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Horses, Hurricanes and the Film Monopoly
Looking forward to the next couple of months could be a great way to cure the mid April tax time blues. Cheer up. You’ve got horses and hurricanes on the horizon.
You racing fans or even those that simply like the pageantry, tradition, Southern hospitality and mint juleps that are all part of the Kentucky Derby, get ready for a big day on the first Saturday in May.
Take a look at this story about the prep races and the three-year-old thoroughbreds getting set for the run of their life.
Kentucky Derby preps provide few clues.
http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=horse/news/BJN4144852.htm
I guess it’s a little early to be talking about hurricanes in April, but the weather experts are at it again. They’re making predictions for the coming season. So if you have a copy of my Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle keep it handy and do some comparisons between our 1945 hurricane season and the 2008 season as it unfolds. (June 1 through November 30)
Forecaster raises Atlantic hurricane number
The team founded by forecasting pioneer Bill Gray increased its outlook by two tropical storms to 15, and by one hurricane to eight, compared with a long-term average of around 10 and six, respectively, for a storm season. ...
Let’s go to the Movies Part II
Film Monopoly end run – Independents go west
It was just after the turn of the 20th Century when the streets of New York became crowded with small film crews using the city’s people and places as background settings for their one and two reel films.
There were two main contributing factors that shaped producers and directors thinking toward the great outdoors and the west. Rain, snow and cloudy weather was one, the other was man's own greed. The Motion Picture Patents Company was a monopoly andreferred to as The Trust. This organization controlled production by holding onto Thomas Edison's Patents. (Edison invented the American version of the motion picture camera.) These few people, the monopoly, either owned or had control of film theatres, and nickelodeons. Their scheme was to limit the size of a picture to one reel.
They wanted quick turnover, get the nickel and dime customer in and out in a hurry, then do it again. Quality didn't mean a thing. These little films consisted of travel scenes, chases of one kind or another, fights, fires or a damsel in distress.
Those Trust people were about as short sighted as your current corner porno house operator. Men with true vision wanted to tell the big story, expand theatre to the great outdoors, widen the horizon with scope, color and background. That monopoly was the dilemma facing every company wanting to do the longer format, feature film.
The year was 1913 when Sam Goldwyn, Cecil B. De Mille, Jesse L. Lasky and Arthur Friend under the banner of Lasky's Feature Play Company set out to make an end run around the big guns of the Trust and make a feature film. They chose to base their film on the Broadway hit titled "The Squaw Man." The decision was made to do this western out among the cactus in it's natural setting. This selection had the added bonus of getting far away from the Trust and their harassment minded goons. Well, they put a group of five key people together with baggage, camera, and Cecil B. De Mille with his fancy title of director-general heading the group. Dustin Farnum, a good actor and Broadway star, would be the picture’s leading man. Oscar Apfel, a well-established film director, would do the directing with DeMille looking over his shoulder, and learning some of the techniques that would eventually make him famous.
Alfred Gandolfi cameraman and Fred Kley, Farnum's dresser, rounded out the group whose destination was Flagstaff, Arizona. Flagstaff situated just south of the Grand Canyon seemed like the ideal location. Filled with excitement this little band of would be moviemakers boarded a westbound train, prepared to make film history. It would be a routine trip with the regular transfer in Chicago, then came the sights of farms and crops of wheat and green corn giving way to shades of brown as the wide expanse of dry plains stretched as far as the eye could see. Small dusty towns, train-watering stops, peopled with folks of different skin from sun-dried tans to reds. Indian moccasins, rings, trinkets and blankets for barter or for sale. Splashes of color filled the frame. It's not just a painting now. Cecil B. DeMille is seeing the real thing, cowboys, Indians, bankers and merchants of the west. It's another world with a different way to walk, talk and dress. Stories, characters and camera angles were mixed with the true pictures spinning in his inventive mind. No time to be wasted. DeMille and Oscar Apfel were working hard at writing their scenario, the basic blueprint for The Squaw Man.
(To be continued)
Writers corner:
Check the archives for my Quick Fix for Writers Block.
Once you get set to go to work and look at the blank screen or clean empty page and need a nudge you might call on these two famous men’s admonitions to move you into action.
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get
run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Goethe
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
You racing fans or even those that simply like the pageantry, tradition, Southern hospitality and mint juleps that are all part of the Kentucky Derby, get ready for a big day on the first Saturday in May.
Take a look at this story about the prep races and the three-year-old thoroughbreds getting set for the run of their life.
Kentucky Derby preps provide few clues.
http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=horse/news/BJN4144852.htm
I guess it’s a little early to be talking about hurricanes in April, but the weather experts are at it again. They’re making predictions for the coming season. So if you have a copy of my Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle keep it handy and do some comparisons between our 1945 hurricane season and the 2008 season as it unfolds. (June 1 through November 30)
Forecaster raises Atlantic hurricane number
The team founded by forecasting pioneer Bill Gray increased its outlook by two tropical storms to 15, and by one hurricane to eight, compared with a long-term average of around 10 and six, respectively, for a storm season. ...
Let’s go to the Movies Part II
Film Monopoly end run – Independents go west
It was just after the turn of the 20th Century when the streets of New York became crowded with small film crews using the city’s people and places as background settings for their one and two reel films.
There were two main contributing factors that shaped producers and directors thinking toward the great outdoors and the west. Rain, snow and cloudy weather was one, the other was man's own greed. The Motion Picture Patents Company was a monopoly andreferred to as The Trust. This organization controlled production by holding onto Thomas Edison's Patents. (Edison invented the American version of the motion picture camera.) These few people, the monopoly, either owned or had control of film theatres, and nickelodeons. Their scheme was to limit the size of a picture to one reel.
They wanted quick turnover, get the nickel and dime customer in and out in a hurry, then do it again. Quality didn't mean a thing. These little films consisted of travel scenes, chases of one kind or another, fights, fires or a damsel in distress.
Those Trust people were about as short sighted as your current corner porno house operator. Men with true vision wanted to tell the big story, expand theatre to the great outdoors, widen the horizon with scope, color and background. That monopoly was the dilemma facing every company wanting to do the longer format, feature film.
The year was 1913 when Sam Goldwyn, Cecil B. De Mille, Jesse L. Lasky and Arthur Friend under the banner of Lasky's Feature Play Company set out to make an end run around the big guns of the Trust and make a feature film. They chose to base their film on the Broadway hit titled "The Squaw Man." The decision was made to do this western out among the cactus in it's natural setting. This selection had the added bonus of getting far away from the Trust and their harassment minded goons. Well, they put a group of five key people together with baggage, camera, and Cecil B. De Mille with his fancy title of director-general heading the group. Dustin Farnum, a good actor and Broadway star, would be the picture’s leading man. Oscar Apfel, a well-established film director, would do the directing with DeMille looking over his shoulder, and learning some of the techniques that would eventually make him famous.
Alfred Gandolfi cameraman and Fred Kley, Farnum's dresser, rounded out the group whose destination was Flagstaff, Arizona. Flagstaff situated just south of the Grand Canyon seemed like the ideal location. Filled with excitement this little band of would be moviemakers boarded a westbound train, prepared to make film history. It would be a routine trip with the regular transfer in Chicago, then came the sights of farms and crops of wheat and green corn giving way to shades of brown as the wide expanse of dry plains stretched as far as the eye could see. Small dusty towns, train-watering stops, peopled with folks of different skin from sun-dried tans to reds. Indian moccasins, rings, trinkets and blankets for barter or for sale. Splashes of color filled the frame. It's not just a painting now. Cecil B. DeMille is seeing the real thing, cowboys, Indians, bankers and merchants of the west. It's another world with a different way to walk, talk and dress. Stories, characters and camera angles were mixed with the true pictures spinning in his inventive mind. No time to be wasted. DeMille and Oscar Apfel were working hard at writing their scenario, the basic blueprint for The Squaw Man.
(To be continued)
Writers corner:
Check the archives for my Quick Fix for Writers Block.
Once you get set to go to work and look at the blank screen or clean empty page and need a nudge you might call on these two famous men’s admonitions to move you into action.
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get
run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Goethe
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Let's Go To The Movies
Let’s go to the Movies
The Movies – Opening Credits
In the years prior to the turn of the 20th Century masses of emigrants, on their way to Ellis Island, had their hopes and dreams of a better life renewed as they looked at the outstretched arms of Lady Liberty standing tall in New York Harbor.
There were pioneers among those emigrants that would later become moguls of an infant movie industry. Among those masses were future motion picture executives Sam Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, Carl Laemmle and Adolph Zuckor. Many emigrants changed their names to fit into their newfound land and conditions. Sam Goldwyn was Sammy Goldfish when he arrived in America. Sammy progressed through the glove industry, first working in the factory, making gloves, then graduating 'to the sales department before deciding to have a go at the new and growing motion picture industry.
Sammy went into the film business and eventually became the partner of a man named Selwyn; in time they decided to combine their names, Selwyn and Goldfish, for industry identification. It was a simple task, take the best of the four syllables and discard the rest. The obvious to throw out was Sel-fish. Take the other two and you've got a natural, Gold-wyn. That was the consensus and it turned out to be a pretty good choice.
Carl Laemmle, the man that would later be the force behind Universal pictures, got into the business quite by accident. Garson Kanin tells about it in his book Hollywood. Seems Mr. Laemmle had opened a dry goods store in Chicago and as it turned out it happened to be in the right place, the right shape and the right time. Reflecting years later Mr. Laemmle called it the long store. Late one afternoon a man approached Mr. Laemmle and asked him how he’d like to make ten dollars that evening.
"I'd like to make ten dollars any evening."
The man told him he’d like to put up a sheet at the end of this long store, project some pictures on it and let people pay to watch. It was a pretty simple way to get introduced to a million dollar business.
Adolph Zuckor was an active member of the film business longer and probably respected more than anyone. Zuckor had a large hand in shaping the careers of two super stars of the silents, Mary Pickford and Rudolph Valentino. Mr. Zuckor was a top executive with Paramount Pictures longer than most people’s life span. He was still active into his nineties and lived to be more than a hundred years old.
The movie mogul that wielded the most power was long time president of MGM, Louis B. Mayer. Mayer was loved and hated by more people than any of the tycoons. His Jekyll and Hyde personality could surface at any time, and often did, over subject matter or personalities.
In the early days of the motion picture industry, film production in America, generally centered in the area of New York, Fort Lee, New Jersey, Astoria, Queens and Manhattan Island.
Short films of every description were made as grist for the nickelodeons. Nobody took these little flickering pictures seriously, but in spite of this the film business began to take root and grow.
The movie western has had good times and bad, but it was one of the first types to catch on as a feature length film.
The earliest western was made just across the Hudson River from Manhattan in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The one cited most often was made there in 1903 and called The Great Train Robbery. The earliest western personality to make a name for himself was William S. Hart by pretty much doing it all, he was producer, director and star. His Broadway background included credits in hits like Ben Hur when he played the heavy Messala in 1899. He also did stage westerns, The Squawman and the Virginian.
(To be continued)
Those early movie pioneers knew a good thing when they saw it; the outdoor films and westerns in particular were accepted by the public and have been a staple for years.
The silver mines and western legends like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson along with an event known as the shootout at the OK Corral have kept the little town of Tombstone alive.
But had it not been for a prospector named Ed Schieffelin striking a rich vein of silver in that area none of the other legends or events would have ever happened. And I would not have had a reason to write ‘Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone.’
Celebration honors founder of Tombstone
Sierra Vista Herald - Sierra Vista, AZ, USA
Austin was talking about one of those famous men that nobody ever heard of — Ed Schieffelin, prospector, whose remains were carried from Oregon to Arizona.
Triple Crown Racing Series:
For information on final prep races, Las Vegas lines and probable contenders in the Kentucky Derby click on the blue line. http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=horse/news/BJN4143444.htm
Writers Corner:
Truman Capote said, ‘Writing is not so much writing as it is rewriting.’
Among the writers that used that idea in all of his books was Sidney Sheldon. Sheldon almost never signed off on a book before he’d done a dozen or more rewrites.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
The Movies – Opening Credits
In the years prior to the turn of the 20th Century masses of emigrants, on their way to Ellis Island, had their hopes and dreams of a better life renewed as they looked at the outstretched arms of Lady Liberty standing tall in New York Harbor.
There were pioneers among those emigrants that would later become moguls of an infant movie industry. Among those masses were future motion picture executives Sam Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, Carl Laemmle and Adolph Zuckor. Many emigrants changed their names to fit into their newfound land and conditions. Sam Goldwyn was Sammy Goldfish when he arrived in America. Sammy progressed through the glove industry, first working in the factory, making gloves, then graduating 'to the sales department before deciding to have a go at the new and growing motion picture industry.
Sammy went into the film business and eventually became the partner of a man named Selwyn; in time they decided to combine their names, Selwyn and Goldfish, for industry identification. It was a simple task, take the best of the four syllables and discard the rest. The obvious to throw out was Sel-fish. Take the other two and you've got a natural, Gold-wyn. That was the consensus and it turned out to be a pretty good choice.
Carl Laemmle, the man that would later be the force behind Universal pictures, got into the business quite by accident. Garson Kanin tells about it in his book Hollywood. Seems Mr. Laemmle had opened a dry goods store in Chicago and as it turned out it happened to be in the right place, the right shape and the right time. Reflecting years later Mr. Laemmle called it the long store. Late one afternoon a man approached Mr. Laemmle and asked him how he’d like to make ten dollars that evening.
"I'd like to make ten dollars any evening."
The man told him he’d like to put up a sheet at the end of this long store, project some pictures on it and let people pay to watch. It was a pretty simple way to get introduced to a million dollar business.
Adolph Zuckor was an active member of the film business longer and probably respected more than anyone. Zuckor had a large hand in shaping the careers of two super stars of the silents, Mary Pickford and Rudolph Valentino. Mr. Zuckor was a top executive with Paramount Pictures longer than most people’s life span. He was still active into his nineties and lived to be more than a hundred years old.
The movie mogul that wielded the most power was long time president of MGM, Louis B. Mayer. Mayer was loved and hated by more people than any of the tycoons. His Jekyll and Hyde personality could surface at any time, and often did, over subject matter or personalities.
In the early days of the motion picture industry, film production in America, generally centered in the area of New York, Fort Lee, New Jersey, Astoria, Queens and Manhattan Island.
Short films of every description were made as grist for the nickelodeons. Nobody took these little flickering pictures seriously, but in spite of this the film business began to take root and grow.
The movie western has had good times and bad, but it was one of the first types to catch on as a feature length film.
The earliest western was made just across the Hudson River from Manhattan in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The one cited most often was made there in 1903 and called The Great Train Robbery. The earliest western personality to make a name for himself was William S. Hart by pretty much doing it all, he was producer, director and star. His Broadway background included credits in hits like Ben Hur when he played the heavy Messala in 1899. He also did stage westerns, The Squawman and the Virginian.
(To be continued)
Those early movie pioneers knew a good thing when they saw it; the outdoor films and westerns in particular were accepted by the public and have been a staple for years.
The silver mines and western legends like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson along with an event known as the shootout at the OK Corral have kept the little town of Tombstone alive.
But had it not been for a prospector named Ed Schieffelin striking a rich vein of silver in that area none of the other legends or events would have ever happened. And I would not have had a reason to write ‘Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone.’
Celebration honors founder of Tombstone
Sierra Vista Herald - Sierra Vista, AZ, USA
Austin was talking about one of those famous men that nobody ever heard of — Ed Schieffelin, prospector, whose remains were carried from Oregon to Arizona.
Triple Crown Racing Series:
For information on final prep races, Las Vegas lines and probable contenders in the Kentucky Derby click on the blue line. http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=horse/news/BJN4143444.htm
Writers Corner:
Truman Capote said, ‘Writing is not so much writing as it is rewriting.’
Among the writers that used that idea in all of his books was Sidney Sheldon. Sheldon almost never signed off on a book before he’d done a dozen or more rewrites.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
So What About April?
No National holidays this month but April is not without its rewards. The Boys of Summer open the month with a new baseball season. Then not to give the only headlines to baseball, the thoroughbred horse world is working its way through the final prep races and pointing their best three year olds toward the first Saturday in May and the Kentucky Derby.
In late April Southern California will again be treated to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books held on the UCLA Campus on the weekend of the 26th and 27th. I’ll be at booth 619 Saturday morning April 26 from 10:00 am to noon and again on Sunday April 27, when I’ll be joined by Lenora Smalley, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm to talk about Books and Clubs.
Rita Schiano, author of ‘Painting the Invisible Man,’ hosts a live Internet show called “Talk To Me” on Blog Radio Tuesday’s at 4:30 pm EDT.
Rita says she has conversations with creative and unconventional people. I suspect an actor; writer and Hurricane Hunter might qualify as unconventional. I’ll be Rita’s guest on “Talk To Me” Tuesday April 15th at 4:30 pm EDT.
Tune in, call in live! 347-327-9158 and ask some of your own questions.
For more information on the show and Blog Talk Radio click here.
Writers Corner:
Several years ago Paula Zahn was interviewing Katharine Hepburn on the CBS morning show. Paula asked about the main difference in films today versus earlier motion pictures. Miss Hepburn’s answer was, “Writers, Writers, Writers. Wit… Humor… You see when I started out there was great wit and humor, there isn’t now.”
Miss Hepburn’s words are as true today as they were when she said them.
Lighten up writers and laugh at yourself once in a while.
Robert Benchley once said, “It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.”
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
In late April Southern California will again be treated to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books held on the UCLA Campus on the weekend of the 26th and 27th. I’ll be at booth 619 Saturday morning April 26 from 10:00 am to noon and again on Sunday April 27, when I’ll be joined by Lenora Smalley, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm to talk about Books and Clubs.
Rita Schiano, author of ‘Painting the Invisible Man,’ hosts a live Internet show called “Talk To Me” on Blog Radio Tuesday’s at 4:30 pm EDT.
Rita says she has conversations with creative and unconventional people. I suspect an actor; writer and Hurricane Hunter might qualify as unconventional. I’ll be Rita’s guest on “Talk To Me” Tuesday April 15th at 4:30 pm EDT.
Tune in, call in live! 347-327-9158 and ask some of your own questions.
For more information on the show and Blog Talk Radio click here.
Writers Corner:
Several years ago Paula Zahn was interviewing Katharine Hepburn on the CBS morning show. Paula asked about the main difference in films today versus earlier motion pictures. Miss Hepburn’s answer was, “Writers, Writers, Writers. Wit… Humor… You see when I started out there was great wit and humor, there isn’t now.”
Miss Hepburn’s words are as true today as they were when she said them.
Lighten up writers and laugh at yourself once in a while.
Robert Benchley once said, “It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.”
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
