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"Hollywood Be Thy Name"Cynthia's Column August 2002 Last week was the 20th anniversary of my play "Looking Glass" opening in New York. I have written about this before, so those of you who have been with me awhile know that it was also the 20th anniversary of my play closing in New York. I used to say it was the best month of my life followed by the worst day. And that may still be true. It happened to be the same day that E. T. opened. After being up all night at the opening party, then waiting up to the wee hours in the Carnegie Deli to read the last of the dailies, (then stomping on them and kicking them around the floor of the Carnegie Deli,) the next day we went to a matinee of E. T. in Times Square. When I went into the movie theatre I had a play running Off Broadway. By the time E. T. had phoned home and I stumbled out into glaring light of day to find an available pay phone in Rockefeller Center , the play had closed. Another life changing event took place that same week that I was unaware of at the time. But about three weeks later I started losing my lunch and several other meals a day. That's right. Nick, my first born and only son was conceived during that remarkable month of theatre dreams. I actually found this out in Paris. I started losing my lunch in California, but it was too soon to show up on a pregnancy test so I took the little plastic kit with me as we fled the country. It took six years to get Looking Glass from written to produced. A lot of work and hope went down in flames. It was a little hard to come back from that and I lost my heart for jumping right back into writing television. So with young husband in one hand and little plastic test tube in the other, I ran away for a month. And horked in many of the most beautiful places in Europe. (My children actually know about twenty words for regurgitation. I don't particularly care for any of them but "horked" is the most onomatopoetically accurate I think. And this may be the first time in my life that I have ever used a nine-syllable word. ) I also fell asleep in some pretty fabulous restaurants. This paragraph is for the benefit of anyone reading who may one day find herself in the City of Lights in the first trimester of pregnancy. I have done the research and I can tell you that there is only one spot in Paris where you can breathe without smelling cigarettes, car exhaust or normally delicious but temporarily nauseating food being prepared. Go to the Tuilleries Gardens , place one of those iron chairs (which rent for 2 francs) in the center near the sailing pond, face into the wind, sip a McDonalds coke and you'll be fine. In a lovely Paris hotel bathroom, I took the little test one more time and confirmed my rather overwhelming suspicion that I was pregnant. And I was thrilled. I was 31 and had been trying to achieve this very thing for some time. And with this news came a decision to put life in the theatre on hold. Remember when we went through that time of believing we could do it all? I think it was in the 1980's. When women were trying to have stellar careers and raise perfect families and jog and cook and look great and have it all. Remember that? The Super Mom phase, just prior to Soccer Moms. I still believe that we can have it all. And do it all. Just not all at the same time. Certain things will work in conjunction with raising kids and others really won't. For me a writing career is the most wonderful career one could possibly have. And only one of the reasons being that you can do it full out while raising a family. You may have to change your sleeping schedule somewhat drastically and learn to tune out certain things (like loud discussions of synonyms for tossing ones cookies) but it can be done. I have done it. But there are some things, of course, that don't mesh with motherhood. And playwriting was one of those things, along with directing movies. Have you wondered why there aren't more women directors? In feature films you have about three months pre-production, three or four months of shooting and then another three months post-production. If you're a mother that is about nine months when you would only see your children angelically asleep, or being trotted out on the set for brief visits. Playwriting is similar, but it's only for six weeks, being gone nights. I tried to figure out any six week period in which a child could do without a mother and I still haven't been able to find one. So I decided to take a hiatus from theatre and raise some children. I can imagine getting to the end of my life and being fine with never having had a career in the theatre. But never having had a career in motherhood was and is unthinkable to me. So I paused and for the last twenty years have loved juggling raising kids with writing screenplays, books and this Column . And now, yes, you guessed it. Nick is in college and Molly is 16 and I have been magically invited to cross over the footlights one more time. To come home to the theatre. David Bell directed Looking Glass in New York and we bonded in the trenches so to speak. He is Nick's Godfather and a dear friend. He has spent the last 25 years directing and choreographing musicals. And has done well over a hundred. Several of which he has also written. He asked me if I would like to write the libretto for a musical about Harold Lloyd. Some of you may not know the name, but he's that wonderful silent film comedian in round glasses dangling from the big clock. I was thrilled. Said "Absolutely! Great! Love to!"And scheduled a trip to Chicago in January to begin meetings and meet the composer, a lovely Englishman named Henry Marsh. Then I started doing the research and got worried. I have made one big mistake twice in my career and was heading for a third. With Grace Kelly and Roy Orbison I took writing assignments to dramatize lives of two people who were remarkably blessed. I teach my screenwriting students first and foremost, if you don't have a problem, you don't have a story. Conflict is the engine that makes the story work. Grace Kelly is the only TV movie I have written that I am embarrassed to have done and I apologize to you if you have seen it. Grace was a gorgeous, wealthy girl who went to New York, became an actress, immediately got the lead in High Noon with Gary Cooper. Became a movie star. Won the Oscar for Best Actress. Met a Prince, fell in love, married him and lived happily ever after. (Our movie ended with the wedding so this was pretty undisputed. )So what's the problem, right? And not a good movie because of this. Several years later I was hired to write a feature film about Roy Orbison. (If you're under 30, "Pretty Woman" was the biggest of his many hits. )I traveled across Texas and Tennessee with Roy's widow Barbara and met his parents, siblings, sons, driver, band members, buddies, even his friends from high school. And you know what they all said? Every single one of them?"We love Roy." It was a wonderful experience, but thankfully, no movie came out of it. If it had I'd probably be apologizing for it as well. So now I am older and wiser and I start reading up on Harold Lloyd. And, you guessed it. Everybody loved Harold. He was an overnight success. Stayed on top as long as silent movies lasted. Was married to the same lovely woman all his life. Never lost his fortune or got arrested or had a scandal. Lovely children. Biggest, most gorgeous mansion in Hollywood. When he died he was the National president of the Shriners for Godsake!That may be a wonderful life, but a good story it is not. So I flew to Chicago in January with Molly and reservations, not all of which were for travel arrangements. David and Henry were just about to open a lavish, Russian-style production of As You Like It at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on the Navy Pier. Molly and I got to sit in on rehearsals, go to the cast party and had house seats for the opening which was a huge success. And it was a thrill to be welcomed back. But when we sat down to talk about the Hollywood musical, I had to be honest and say I didn't get Harold Lloyd, the musical. But I trusted David's vision and was ready to be won over. What is it about Lloyd that makes you want to do a musical about him? And David lit up and started going on about the musical in his imagination. Young men barnstorming across America, broke, shooting silent movies and showing them as they worked their way across the country to Hollywood. I loved this, too, but had to say, "But Harold Lloyd didn't do that. Now let me tell you a story."I proceeded to tell them about the Warner Brothers. Four young men who literally hocked their father's pocket watch to buy their first, busted movie projector and barnstormed their way into Hollywood history. Harry, Abe, Sam and Jack. The guys loved this and we immediately changed horses. I knew the Warner Brothers story because Harry's granddaughter Cass Warner Sperling had written a book about them called "Hollywood Be Thy Name" and had wanted me to do a TV movie based on it, which I would have loved to do, but it was last year when the bottom fell out of the TV movie business. Also it would have been a two- hour commercial for Warners Brothers and hard to sell to any other company in the best of times. I called Cass to see how she'd feel about the Warner boys singing and dancing and she loved it. So we had the subject. And we picked a time we would all be available to go to work. Mid-July. It is harder for Henry to travel, so England was decided on as the place to work. I went on the internet and found a big old manor house called The Moretons not far from Stratford. It sleeps ten and has a music room with a grand piano, an indoor pool, ten acres of gardens and, splitting the rent, costs $100 per day. I am bringing Nick and Molly with me, so it's a great deal as well as a great adventure. As I write this I am packing to leave on this next thrilling adventure. My favorite kind of packing. Research books and writing supplies. Passports, English pounds and theatre tickets. I have raised my children. It's time to get on a plane and fly home. Cynthia will be teaching her popular class on Pitching Saturday August 3. Call the office to enroll. (503) 452-1592. At the W. W. conference Friday August 9, she will be teaching a seminar on "Selling Your Screenplay," also the title of her new book that will be published in late September. She is also the President of Willamette Writers. Cynthia Whitcomb is president of Willamette Writers, and has had 29 of her screenplays produced. She is author of The Writers' Guide to Writing Your Screenplay and The Writers' Guide to Selling Your Screenplay. She teaches screenwriting classes at Portland State University.and through Willamette Writers. |