11/16/22
Newletter160
The Crack of Dawn
Child actor Jack Wild became famous for playing the Artful Dodger in the movie, Oliver! (Best Picture, 1968), then went on to star in the kid’s show, H.R. Pufnstuf. Jack Wild had tried out for the part of the Artful Dodger in the original London production of the play before the movie, but didn’t get it. Wild was cast as one of Fagin’s gang. The kid actor who got the part of the Artful Dodger in the play was Phil Collins. The part of Oliver was played by Davy Jones, who later went on to become a member of the band The Monkees.
Personally, I don’t listen to commentary tracks on movies since I generally find them boring. I have done three commentary tracks for three of my movies – Thou Shalt Not Kill…Except (1985), Running Time (1997) and Alien Apocalypse (2005) – all with Bruce Campbell. Many filmmakers kind of bumble their way through the track, stopping and starting and redoing sections. When Bruce and I arrived at the studio to do the commentary for TSNKE, Werner Herzog was just finishing the commentary for his film, Fitzcarraldo (1982). This was one of the most grueling, difficult productions in history – literally carrying a boat over a mountain near the Amazon River – and Werner was doing his usual, great, perfectionist commentary. Werner speaks English better than me, and I’ll bet it’s not even his second language. So, Bruce and I watched Werner go at least an hour overtime to make sure his commentary track was perfect.
Bruce and I have our own wonderful, far less difficult, technique for doing commentaries: we smoke a big joint before coming into the studio, then, having known each other for over 50 years, we kibitz our way straight through the whole film without stopping. If either one of us sees something in the film that the other can comment on, we switch off being the interviewer and the interviewee. “Didn’t something strange happen while shooting that scene?” I’d ask. Bruce would reply, “You know, something strange did happen during that scene, and this is what occurred . . .”
I have never listened to any of these commentary tracks, except Herzog’s, that is. Anyway, I’ve been told on a number of occasions that Bruce’s and my technique is somewhat unique, and comes off well. I can assure you that we had fun doing it.
Getting back to my hero, Thomas Edison, for one more moment. A comment on yesterday’s newsletter was, “Edison electrocuted an elephant!?!” Yes, he did, and quite a few dogs, too, but in a good cause. Edison was trying to show the world that alternating current, AC, was deadly, and should not be the predominant form of electricity. He was a proponent of direct current, DC, that is harmless, but can’t be sent for long distances. Edison had already wired and electrified New York City with DC in 1882, making it the first electrified city in history, but there were problems. Edison ran the power lines underground, since above ground would be unattractive. The unexpected result of this was that anything metal that touched the ground, like the thousands of horseshoes clip-clopping all over the city, gave off sparks. Underground DC proved to be a failure for powering cities.
The purveyor of AC was the Croatian genius, Nikola Tesla, who began his career working for Edison. Tesla’s observation of Edison was, “If he was looking for a needle in a haystack, he’d inspect every single piece of hay to make sure it wasn’t a needle.” In 1896 Tesla used Niagara Falls to power the first commercial AC generator, and it’s still in use. There’s a cool statue of Tesla with a cane at the falls. There’s also a metal plaque from 1896 listing the ten patents responsible for the generator and eight of them are Tesla’s.
But the upshot of the giant AC – DC debate of the 1890s was: we use both of them. AC powers our houses, and DC powers our appliances. Every item with that little block of stuff on the power cord, which is pretty much every small appliance, that’s a DC converter. Therefore, both Edison and Tesla won.
It’s a bitch about that elephant, but I don’t hold it against Edison. A. it was 1890, B. he wasn’t doing it for fun, like say hunting, this was progress moving forward, and C. the elephant had it coming.
I jest. The elephant died in the name of science. My avatar is the elephant, and I have a shelf of carved elephants. I love elephants. But I still like Thomas Edison too.
Good on y’all.