Having grown up in Hollywood and aspiring to be a film director, I am now a licensed Real Estate Broker working out of a 4 unit property I've remodeled and developed in Silverlake. (Between Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles).
How I got from 'there' to 'here' might be of interest.
From my point of view I worked in "show business" from 1946 until retiring in 1989. I did, in fact, do a bit of directing but most of my day jobs during those first years was in a variety of jobs such as a stenographic messenger for Columbia Pictures that would later evolve into film editing. Being a Stenographic Messenger definitely had it's perks. Every morning, I'd pick up pages from Virginia Van Upp (check spelling). Virginia was the one and only writer on a film called GILDA, which starred Rita Hayworth. Harry Cohen would start a picture with an outline and a few pages script and then rely on ONE writer to finish the rest. Typically, a writer would not have even finished the script when the director began shooting. What a huge difference from today's style of writing which commonly showcases multiple writers and months, if not years with teams of writers on a project.
Being creative and curious, I usually hid myself in the Men's room and read the 3 or 4 pages of new script before taking them to the Steno pool where the girls typed it onto paper with a blue backing and ran the off 20 or so copies on a cylinder type machine (check what this was ). I and a couple guys (twin brothers, one of whom later became a successful set designer) would head across the Gower lot and distribute the pages to the many departments that received these daly updates to prepare for the coming day's shot.
Editing Film was my primary role during most of the years from 1954 to 1986 and I loved every second of it.
At the time of my retirement, I was a voting member of the Academy (Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences) as A Film Editor as well as a voting member of the Directors Guild, as a Director. I had some second unit Directing gigs at Fox for a TV show called SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. They did not grant you membership of the Guild for shooting ' Independent films with "short ends", but I was able to 'acquired' credit from whatever day job I was doing at the time and was happy to make it into the best of the worlds Directing organizations.
I'm also a retired member of ACE, (American Cinema Editors) and of the Fillm Editors union.
Most of the work toward becoming the Orison Wells of my generation was done in Little Theatres, in Hollywood, Long Beach, and Memphis Tenn. I directed a couple Operas in Pasadena, and one in Honolulu. In the Roger Corman type "independent films", I worked on, and later directed mostly motorcycle films, and one attempt at a porno. The porno film, a daring bit on my part, ended up playing in drive-ins in the med west. It seemed I knewa little more than my "Producer" about what was hot in the porno field. Part of this was due to the fact that I was in the "Mr Peepers" *frame of mind for what was considered naughty, and at the time, the public was eating up (please pardon the expression) the recently released DEEP THROAT and BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR.
More to come next time.
Recent Sales - Valley Village July 22, 2011 8:36AM
After selling this couple's home in the valley, I sold them this home, and later when their family situation changed I sold this home for them. A five year relationship.
My new Tri-plex finished in 2008 July 21, 2011 11:42AM
