7/26/22
Newsletter53
The Crack of Dawn
It is night.
When I was 18 and living across the street from Paramount, there was an empty lot on the corner that was often used to stage productions, meaning as a place to set up. One morning the lot was full of black and white police cars and a production crew preparing to shoot a short-lived TV series called Future Cop, starring Ernest Borgnine. I went over to check it out, and there was Ernest Borgnine dressed as a cop, sitting on the bumper of a police car by himself and drinking a cup of coffee. Thank goodness I had the wherewithal at 18 to say to him, “Hey, Marty, what’dya want to do tonight?” Borgnine looked up at me with his wonderful gap-toothed smile and replied, “I don’t know, what do you want to do tonight?”
Darryl Zanuck was born in Wahoo, Nebraska (I’ve driven past the sign that says, “Wahoo, Nebraska, Birthplace of Darryl Zanuck”), and was the only non-Jewish studio mogul. He founded and ran 20th Century-Fox from 1935 to 1956, but didn’t own the company. In 1956 controlling interest 20th was purchased by millionaire, Spyros Skouras, who didn’t have a clue how to run a movie studio, and promptly fired Zanuck, who got a production deal for two movies a year in his buy-out package. Zanuck moved to Europe and made a series of really shitty movies that all starred beautiful, dark-haired women, like Juliette Greco, who were all Zanuck’s girlfriends. Spyros Skouras not only managed to run 20th into the dirt, but got himself entangled in the film, Cleopatra, which was so out of control that it became the most expensive movie ever. Meanwhile, Zanuck finally made a good film in Europe, The Longest Day, which was a huge success. The board at 20th fired Spyros Skouras and rehired Darryl Zanuck, who made his son Richard vice-president. In 1969 Darryl got fired again, and Richard was made president. Darryl got his position back the next year, and the first thing he did was fire his son. Richard Zanuck formed a company with his friend, David Brown, and right out of the gate they produced The Sting for Universal, an enormous hit and winner of Best Picture for 1973. Darryl was maneuvered out of 20th for good, and Zanuck/Brown then produced Jaws, the biggest moneymaker in history up to that point.
Late one night I went into a liquor store on Sunset and Fairfax, turned the corner of the aisle and came face to face with Soupy Sales, who started his career in Detroit. I blurted, “Soupy, I’m from Detroit.” He smiled, shook my hand and left.
Late another night I went into a 7-11 on Santa Monica Blvd. and Highland and there was Jeffery Jones. He was a big-shot at that moment having recently played the Austrian Emperor in Amadeus, and would later play the principal in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I said, “You were great in Amadeus. Will you do the emperor’s big line for me?” He smiled happily and said, “Certainly.” He composed himself, got into character, waved his hand and said, “There are too many notes. And there it is.”
When I got to Hollywood in 1976 Columbia Pictures had two black marble bas-reliefs on either side of the front door: one for Harry Cohen, the president of the company, the other for his brother, co-founder, and co-owner, Joe Cohen. Soon thereafter, Coca-Cola bought Columbia. As I walked past the studio on Gower St. I saw that the plaques were gone. I went inside and asked the security guard, “What happened to the plaques outside the front door to Harry and Joe Cohen?” The guard looked up from a magazine and said, “Those? They threw them out.”
And a new day has dawned.