Chapter Thirty-Three Every-other-weekend

Thirty-Three
Every-other-weekend

My study with Charles went well and in about a year I made my dedication to Jehovah and symbolized it by getting baptized. I was baptized at the Woodland Hills Assembly Hall on Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) 1979. So, just this past May I had my 30th anniversary of my baptism.

Charles Clark and his family moved to Yerington, Nevada. Brad and I drove up to visit them. On the way up we took a dirt road over to Bodie, California. Bodie is a ghost town high up in the Sierra Mountains. We had to drive quite a way on that dirt road. Bodie is a State Park but it’s been left pretty much in its original state. It’s not like the ghost town in Calico, California which is on the way to Barstow. Both are interesting, but Calico has been renovated and made into a tourist attraction. I know I enjoyed our wondering around freely in Bodie and I think Brad did too. There are strict rules about defacing or trying to take souvenirs. You just walk around and enjoy the history.

Our visit in Yerington was nice and relaxed. Brad, Paul, Charles and I went trout fishing near Yerington. I think Charles and I did most of the fishing. Brad and Paul just explored around. I don’t remember catching a lot of fish, but we had a good time. While there Brad and I accompanied Charles and his family to the local Kingdom Hall for meeting and we went out in service with them on Saturday. I think it was the first time for me to do rural witnessing which was quite different from our local field service.

After Brad got his driver’s license, we took a trip up through Salt Lake and into Idaho. We stayed over in Pocatello in the Southeast part of Idaho. The motel we stayed overnight in had a mirror on the ceiling, not by request, and a waterbed. Pocatello was one of the isolated areas in which prostitution was still legal. A holdover from the old Wild West days. A little West of Pocatello was American Falls at which a large dam had been built and was pretty impressive. It was near American Falls that we went to the Crystal Ice Caves. We didn’t go down too deep but in the caves it was right around freezing temperatures. The Native Americans and early frontiersmen use it to store food and furs.

We kept heading further West along the Snake river passing near where Evil Knievel made his motorcycle jump across a Snake River canyon. On our way West we drove up into the Sawtooth Mountains. My memory is a little hazy here, but I think we drove up through Ketchum and Sun Valley on our way up to town of Stanley which was located on a large lake. All the country up there in Idaho is beautiful. We eventually ended up in Boise the Capital of Idaho. In Boise we visited the old Idaho State Penitentiary. The accommodations were pretty harsh. I think somewhere I have a picture of Brad in one of the cells. We went to Sunday meeting there in a Boise Kingdom Hall and met some nice friends.

From Idaho we headed back towards home going through Reno and staying over night at one of the Casino. Reno is a lot like Las Vegas but not as big and less flamboyant. I don’t remember if it was before or after Reno, we stopped in a small town to pay a visit on Ben’s mother. Ben was Brad’s stepfather. We next stopped in Sacramento and visited a historic fort but didn’t get by the capitol nor to Sutter’s Mill. From Sacramento we made our way back home to Pasadena. It was a nice long father-son trip and Brad got to put his new driver’s license to use.

Not too long after Brad had concluded his year or so living with me and returning to live with Sue, I moved from the apartment on N. Allen to a one bedroom apartment with a pool on Washington Blvd. just west of Hill. On Brad’s weekend visits we go swimming, play games or just mess around.

It was during this time while I lived in the apartment on Washington that another major change occurred in my life. For three years during that time I regularly auxiliary pioneered which means that I’d perform a minimum of sixty hours of field service each month. Part of that time I would do magazine witnessing by a donut shop at Washington and Hill. On somewhat of a regular basis I would see this foxy looking lady in a Datsun 280Z stop at the donut shop. I thought she was really an attractive woman, but driving that sporty Z I thought she was a “fast lane girl”. One day she says “hello, brother”. Whoops, she’s a spiritual sister. That was good news. I later found out that when she stopped at the donut shop, she had her three kids in the Z with her and she was on her way to San Diego to visit relatives. I also found out her name was Ann Miller and she was in the Alta Vista Congregation which was nearby.

During those early days of circuit assemblies at Woodland Hills we use to serve food at lunchtime. You could get the food at either stands inside the hall or at the cafeteria next to the hall. I worked in the audit department for our circuit and I was assigned to supervise the sisters we used as cashiers. Who showed up on my list of cashiers? Yep, Ann Miller of the Alta Vista congregation.

One day just before a circuit assembly, I had to distribute to all the sisters an information handout on new cashiering procedures. I decided to deliver Ann’s handout to her at her home; after all she only lived a few blocks from where I lived. I think she was surprised to see me at her door, but we hit it off pretty well. However, she informed me that she would be shortly moving back to San Diego.

Well, I wasn’t going to let this foxy lady, er ... I mean charming sister get away from me. In the next chapter I’ll cover commuting to San Diego for love.

Chapter Thirty-Two Change in Personal and Career Paths

Chapter Thirty-Two
Change in Personal and Career Paths

Pat Miller, Art Romans and I left White Productions and formed our own audio visual company. We had a fourth partner Cal Currens who was an integral part of our company. He was an ex-Playhouse student also like the three of us. I don’t think Pat was ever a student but he had performed there and had association with the Playhouse. Cal had a full time job in sales for McCulloch chain saw company. He was our source for contracts to produce sales and PR films for McCulloch which turned out to be our only client. I ended up doing some more traveling to produce these films. On one film which was a sales type film we went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts and Bar Harbor, Maine. In Baton Rouge we filmed in a large Sporting Goods store and the owner invited us to his home for dinner. After dinner we went out to his backyard which was a large lawn leading down to a stream running across the back of his yard. He warned us not to go too close to the stream because there were alligators. While in Massachusetts we went to Plymouth Rock where they had recreated a pilgrim’s village complete with people in costumes. That was cool. Also, we flew in and out of Boston; so, I had an opportunity to meet up with my schoolmate from Topeka Carter Umbarger. He was the friend I campaigned with for Sophomore Rep. He lived in a tall multi-floor house in which his home was on three floors. The tall narrow homes were quite common in Boston. I also remember in the older parts of Boston the streets go back to the colonial days and are very narrow, just room enough for carriages. I Googled Carter’s name the other day and found that he is a published author of books on Psychology and a co-founder of the Family Institute of Cambridge. It doesn't surprise me that he has done well, his father was the business manager of a medical clinic in Topeka and his mother was prominent in the field of education. He has good genes.

A safety training film for McCulloch took us to Bellingham, Washington north of Seattle. The footage we were shooting there was cutting down of the big trees with the McCulloch chain saws. Working there among the big trees was very impressive.

Unfortunately Pat, Art and I did not engage actively enough in marketing our company but relied too much on the work that Cal brought in. We made some good films but were not clearing enough money after expenses to live on. We eventually had to close up the company and go our separate ways. One last thing to say on Art. Gary, Art and I would play golf at the Altadena public course. Gary and I would go to the driving range and the putting green preparing to go out and shoot a great round of golf. Art would just sit under a tree smoking in his bare feet. He didn’t use golf shoes. Then when we would play our round he would always beat us bad. It just didn’t seem fair to us.

After dissolving our company I went to work at Bank of America’s Real Estate Loan Service center in Pasadena. I believe by that time Sue had been working at the telephone company for awhile. When Brad reached the age of about twelve the relationship between Sue and I had become strained and we divorced.
Divorce is never a good thing. The only contention that came up in the divorce proceedings was who would get custody of Brad. As far as the breakup of our marriage I believe we both shared responsibilities for it failing. To our credit I think we both did well in not putting Brad into the divorce proceedings; however, in the custody dispute it was not possible to not involve him. If I remember right he had to make an appearance in court. In the end Sue was granted custody. There was some irony in the matter though. Due to some issues in Sue’s new living arrangements, she asked me if Brad could stay with me for about a year. That was fine with me. My memories are a little confused here because it seems like Brad was in his pre-teens and yet I remember he went to Muir High school in Pasadena for at least a year. He did pretty well at Muir except for a math class. I went to the Open House there and sat in on his teacher’s open meeting with the parents. I could see that the teacher knew his subject well, but his teaching skills were lacking. He got me confused. I believe Brad ended up with a “C” in that class.

Not too long after the divorce one of my co-workers at Bank of America, Pat Arnold, noticed that I was often upset. So, she and another co-worker, Ellen Pratt, started witnessing to me. At first I resisted. I remember accepting either a Watchtower or Awake article and writing a rebuttal, but my argument didn’t hold water. They invited me to an assembly in Woodland Hills and I was quite impressed with it. I could see a group of people who really believed in living a clean and moral life. I liked that.

I developed a close friendship with Pat and Ellen. Pat had four kids – Barry, Elizabeth, Greg and Eric. Brad and Barry were close to the same age. I became more interested in Jehovah’s Witnesses and started studying with Charles Clark. He had a son and a daughter named Paul and Rachel. Paul was about Brad’s age and Rachel a year or two younger. So Brad and I enjoyed a lot of activities with Pat and her kids, Ellen and her husband Gerry. Also, we did things with Charles and his family. In the next chapter I’ll spend a little time on my every-other-weekend with Brad and our two trips before he reached his senior year in high school.

Chapter Thirty-One Do your homework first.

Chapter Thirty-One
Do your homework first.

These memories of N. Allen I’m sure are out of chronological order. Burbank Elementary was only about five houses north of us on Allen and Brad went there for a couple of years. Dad liked to tell a story about when visiting with us he would look after Brad when he got out of school. Brad would come home from school and start to watch TV. Dad would say, “Your parents said you were to do your homework before you could watch TV. Brad would then go do his homework.” He told that story many times.

Throughout childhood and adult family life we’ve had different pets, but the one that stands out the most to me was our black cat Barney. Like a typical cat he would come to you when he wanted to come to you. And of course when you wanted to do something that was when he wanted to come to you and get right in the middle of it. We had a floor to ceiling tree house pole which he did like to use. We all had affection for Barney and at times he would display affection towards us. As I remember after Sue and I divorced Barney went with them and one day he got out and never came back. I’m sure if I’ve got that wrong Brad will correct me.

Brad and I did a few typical father and son type things while living on Allen. We joined some kind of Indian group that met in the neighborhood where the boys would wear a headband with a feather and we did pseudo Indian activities. I don’t think it click with Brad nor me. We didn’t stay in the group very long. We also tried the Cubs or Boy Scouts (I don’t remember which level it was). I think what really turned me off about the group was the psychology of the day to award kids for anything. They would give them awards for just showing up. It just didn’t live up to my memories of scouting. We didn’t stay in that group very long either.

One activity that we both anticipated with great excitement was when we got a gas engine model airplane and went up to the playground at the Burbank school to try it out. But try as we may we could never get the engine to work and it never got off the ground. That was a huge disappointment for both of us.

One year Joe, Ginger, Sue, Brad and I all wore homemade Elizabethan costumes to go to The Renaissance Faire when it was located by Agoura. We looked pretty good and had a ball. A real crowd favorite was a physical balancing game where you tried to climb up a rope ladder and ring a bell at the top. The challenge was that the rope ladder was attached at the bottom and top by just a single rope and thus if you didn’t equalize your weight properly you would flip over very easily. The guys working the game made it look so easy. Later while the faire was still in the Agoura area Ann and I took Eric, Jennisha and Eddie to the faire and had a great time. Recently Brad and Tina took Aidan , Tristan and visiting grandparents to the faire at its new location east of LA at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area.

Once we got inspired and held a casino night at our apartment on Allen. We invited about ten friends over including by brother. We had a roulette wheel, poker table and/or black jack and I believe we had a crap table. We made up play money and everybody started the evening with a certain amount of money. At the end of the evening I think we had some prizes for those who had the most remaining money. I think everyone had a good time.

I had Brad in all the major sports at one time or another. He played football, softball, basketball and hockey. I think I even tried him at tennis but not as an organized sport. The only sport he really took a liking to was Hockey. To be a part of hockey at a young age (I think Brad played from about 5 to 7 years old) you really had to be dedicated because the only time you get the ice for practice was early in the morning. I think Brad has fond memories of playing hockey. He played goalie a lot and his memory of his level of expertise at that position and my memory aren’t quite the same. But he insists that his memories are right. I unfortunately began to shows traits of becoming one of those hockey dads who forget that the boys are out there to have fun not to be pro’s. I think I got it under control before it got too bad.

I started Brad out on the path of being a gamer at a very young age. I’ve always been a proponent of the idea that playing games helps develop thinking logic and following rules while having fun. We were into card games, board games and miniatures. At one point I made a table for our miniatures. We would make hills from styrofoam and use pieces of cloth to represent bodies of water. We played medieval knights era and some times World War II miniatures. We spent a lot hours painting lead miniatures. Early on I think Brad would play primarily because I wanted him to play. We went to conventions for gaming. I remember Sue going with us at least once. She liked to play a game called “Kingmaker”. When Brad was a young adult, we went to a gaming convention in San Jose and one of the highlights for us was playing a board game called “Civilization” by Avalon Hill. I guess all that gaming took affect on Brad because he’s now raising a new generation of gamers, his sons Aidan and Tristan. Also, recently Brad and I have started designing board games together.

In the next chapter I’ll move on to a major change in both my personal life and career path.

Chapter Thirty Family on Kenmore

Chapter Thirty
Family on Kenmore

We fixed up an alcove between the bedroom and the front room in our apartment on Kenmore in Hollywood for our soon to arrive son, Brad. We put planet and star decals that glowed in the dark on the ceiling of the alcove. At the time when Brad was born they allowed husband/fathers to be in the preparation room but not in the delivery room. So, I spent the traditional time in the waiting room. As I remember, Sue’s time in labor was of average length and delivery during the daytime on November 14th, 1967. He was born in Cedars Hospital in Hollywood. I don’t know if Brad’s birth had anything to do with it, but it wasn’t too long after that they closed the hospital. It’s now the Scientology headquarters in Hollywood. The Alenco Cranes & Windows film liaison who had become a friend sent us a Texas A&M t-shirt for Brad. We had some pictures of him proudly wearing his t-shirt.

Not too long after Brad was born my brother Gary came for a visit. By then his marriage with Pat had ended and Gary was looking to start a new path. We invited Karen, Sue’s neighbor friend to join us on some of activities. We hadn’t intended to be matchmakers, but they really hit it off. Gary decided to make the move to California and stayed with us for a while before he got his own place about four or five blocks away. While he was staying with us we played a lot of cards and Gary had a lot of little sayings he’d use while playing cards. One of them was “Up jumped Jonah!” whenever he’d play what he felt was a great card. So, Sue and I put together a little booklet with his different sayings.

The time line of some events becomes a little hazy in my memory, but I believe after Gary moved to California Dad made a trip to California for a visit. As I recall, Ginger and Gary’s five kids (Gary Lee, Brad, Becky, Mike and Cindy) came with Dad. Later Gary Lee (he just goes by Gary but he’s always been Gary Lee to me) moved to California. He met Nilda and they got married. I don’t remember how old my Brad was at the time of the wedding but he was their ring bearer. I think at the time Brad thought he was the “ring barrel”. Gary has stayed in the Southern California area. He has two sons and now has grand kids. Gary and Nilda live in Orange County near the beach I believe in the Mission Viejo area.

Gary and Karen got married and lived in the Palos Verde area for a couple of years and then they went their separate ways. Gary met Lynn in the apartment complex that he and Karen were living in and later after the divorce Gary and Lynn got married. They moved to a mobile home park in Camarillo. Jumping ahead a little back in Topeka Dad met Mary and they got married. They decided to move to California. Gary and Lynn helped them to get a place in the same mobile home park that they were in. They were only four or five homes apart.

Now jumping back a little; before Dad and Mary got married Ginger and Joe got married. I don’t remember if Joe was in the army when they got married or he joined after their marriage. He served as a medic in Viet Nam. After he got out of the army they moved to the Los Angeles area and so, after Dad and Mary moved here all my immediate family lived in Southern California. Ginger and Joe lived in the Santa Monica area I believe. Joe had a job at a hospital in that area and Ginger got on at CBS Television City in the Fairfax area. At one time Ginger had a tough job of monitoring the line feed of CBS shows originating in New York and being fed to LA for broadcast. She had to watch the shows. Sounds hard, right? Of course if something went wrong she had to alert the technicians. So, it was a pretty responsible job and she couldn’t go to sleep on the job.

I remember they had a pachinko machine which we had a lot of fun with. A pachinko machine is kind of an upright pinball machine. Small metal balls are shot up to the top to fall down through a series of pegs to end up in slots at the bottom with different score values. It’s a simple game but very additive. Also, we used to play “Simon” which was an early electronic game where you try to repeat a series of flashing colored lights. It would start with a simple pattern and progressively get harder. Again, it was very addictive.

Getting back to Sue, Brad and I, we lived on Kenmore for a year or two and then moved to Pasadena. We found a nice little duplex in back a house just East of Hill and South of Villa. I remember Brad had a tricycle which he was able to ride outside in the driveway, but I don’t know if he was old enough to remember that place or not. We really like the place and tried to fix it up a little. We had a painting party where we invited Gary, Karen and I think there was another couple but I don’t remember who to join us in painting a couple of rooms. We had a pretty good time and did a pretty good job on the rooms. Unfortunately we didn’t live there very long when the property was take by the government as public domain. They ended up building an access road which ran along the 210 freeway that they built. So we moved up to a nice two bedroom apartment on N. Allen above New York Dr. in Altadena. We lived next door to the landlord. They were a nice couple. We had some good memories there. Next chapter I cover more of our time on N. Allen.

Chapter Twenty-Nine Equinox

Chapter Twenty-Nine
Equinox

I first met Dennis Muren when he was a student at Pasadena City College. He and a couple of his friends were putting together a movie in 16mm. They had already shot most of the film both live action and animation with models of monsters. The special effects with the monsters was Dennis’ focus, but as far as I could see he was the driving force behind making the film. He came to White Productions because they had shot the live action footage without sound and Dale had a rudimentary film/sound sync system. So we helped Dennis and his actors to lay down a sound track. Dennis also made a deal with a music instructor at PCC to compose and orchestrate a music track. The way I remember this coming about Truman Fisher had a summer music camp up near Carmel and he had a full orchestra play for the track. White Productions’ film/sound sync system was used for recording the music. I went up to run the sync system which took a couple of days. Sue was able to go along with me and as I remember Brad had seen the light of day by then coming along with us. So, we were able to make it a bit of a vacation at the same time.

After we had finished our work on Dennis’ film, he started his marketing of the film. I remember meeting Dennis in Hollywood once during this period at a studio where he was working on educational films and commercials. One of the commercials he worked on was an early version of the Pillsbury Doughboy. It took awhile before he sold an indie producer, Jack Harris, on the film. Jack Harris had a reputation of buying into small budget films, shooting some additional footage and then putting the biggest part of the budget into marketing the film. This is what he did with Equinox. In the new version the film starts off with one of the male lead actors in a mental asylum. Well, the interior of White Productions studio had these stone, block-like walls which they thought would work well for the mental asylum interior. Dale asked me to sort of baby-sit the film group while they shot in our studio. They had a scene where the character was to be rolled down the asylum corridor to a padded cell. They only had one person lined up to be a hospital orderly and needed a second orderly. So they asked me to do it. I said “sure!” We had to restrain him on the gurney. They also used our padded sound booth to be a padded cell. So, we had a scene in there restraining him. There were a couple of add-lib lines and that was that.

Once they got it ready for release to the theatres, they had a showing of the film in a theatre in Hollywood. So the family and I (Dad, Sue and Ginger – at least that’s what I remember) went to see it. Much to my surprise shortly into the opening credits there was my name. I had no idea I was going to get screen credits.

Now time goes bye and Dennis wins several Oscars and other awards for his special effects work on movies like “ET”, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, “Innerspace”, “Abyss”, “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” and “Jurasic Park”. (to see more on Dennis’ awards click here) Now Brock deShane enters stage left. Brock produces a restored DVD version of “Equinox” including interviews with Dennis and other notables in the SciFi world.

At times I would wonder if I ever tried to call Dennis would he remember me? One day I receive a call from Dennis and he’s inviting me to be a part of a premiering of the DVD of “Equinox” that they were having at the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood. It gets better. He also invites Ann and I to an intimate dinner of twenty to thirty crew and cast of “Equinox” at a hotel on Sunset before the premiere. We met Dennis’ wife Zara and their daughter. Everyone at the dinner was very gracious. Later at the premiere after the showing of the movie they had a Q&A session with the audience and they had me join the others up front. So it was a night of mini-celebs for Ann and I.

Dennis was a key part of the original team when Industrial Light and Magic was formed. ILM has been a leader in special effects since its founding in 1975 and have created their magic for over two hundred films.
Dennis told me that he had withdrawn from the daily activities at ILM and works as a consultant now.

There were four main characters in “Equinox”. They were all college age and friends that go for a picnic in the nearby mountains. There was Edward Connell as David Fielding (the one who was a patient in the mental asylum), Barbara Hewitt as Susan Turner, Frank Boers, Jr. as Jim Hudson and Robin Christopher as Vicki. Barbara Hewitt was the Queen of the 78th Tournament of Roses. Only Frank, who later changed his acting name to Frank Bonner, went on to making a name for himself in TV and films. He still is working in TV and films, but his part as Herb on the TV series “WKRP in Cincinati” (1978 – 1982) was his shinning moment.

Before moving on to breaking away from White Productions to form our own industrial film company, in the next chapter I’ll talk more about the family.

Chapter Twenty-Eight White Productions and Beginning a Family

Twenty-Eight
White Productions & Beginning a Family

As I mentioned in the previous chapter I had begun to work at White Productions and Sue and I started dating and early in 1967 we got married. It was a very simple wedding in the chapel at Hollywood Congregational church. I don’t even remember who was the Best Man and Bride’s Maid. Sue’s mother was there and one or two other friends. Dale White did have a nice little reception party at his home up in Hastings Ranch.

Sue’s mother was originally from Canada and her first name was Ruth but Sue called her “Pooie”, and so Pooie it was. When she came to LA she worked for the film studios as a secretary and I believe that’s where she met Tommy who was to become Sue’s father. I only saw Tommy a few times. He worked as a Prop Master in the studios and had worked on many major movies with most of the big names of the time. I remember a couple of times when we met up with Tommy and the two times I remember dad was with us.
One time he was living in the Santa Monica area and I believe we met him at an ice rink. If my memory serves me right, Ginger was with us that time. The other time we met up with him was at Santa Anita racetrack. I think dad like and was impressed with Tommy. Later on he moved to Palm Springs where he eventually died.

Pooie had a home in Hollywood on N. Lucerne Blvd. just south of Melrose. That’s where Sue was living when I met her. Sue had a close friend who lived across the street named Karen Kamp. Karen later became involved in our family. Karen’s father also worked in the film industry in sound. Pooie lived in that home for many years and I believe she died there a short time after Brad graduated from high school.

Sue and I got a nice little one bedroom apartment on N. Kenmore just south of, yep you guessed it, Melrose. I guess I had something about Melrose. It was right by the Hollywood freeway. The freeway was literally in our backyard. If I remember correctly, Sue attended LA City College which was just four or five blocks east of us between Melrose and Santa Monica.

I don’t remember exactly how this came about but shortly after the marriage, Pat Miller and I went on quite an extensive journey to make a sales film for Alenco Cranes and Windows company headquartered in College Station/Bryan Texas the home of Texas A&M. Sue went along with us as our script girl and general assistant. Brad became a traveler before he ever saw the light of day. Sue was pregnant with him at the time. I remember one time we were shooting in the window assembly area in Alenco’s factory and it was really hot. We became rather concerned about her and her health. But she was fine and came through it well. Our liaison with the Alenco company was really a nice guy. Some of the things I remember about College Station/Bryan was everyone were fanatics about the Aggies football team. Barbecue was a big thing there and we tried out two or three places and they were all good. They would slow cooked their meats over night in a wood fire pit. One other thing I remember was at that time some counties in Texas were dry and some were wet. You couldn’t buy packaged alcohol in College Station/Bryan because it was in a dry county, but just a few miles away across the Brazos river was a wet county. The locals would make their daily runs to the Brazos.

On the Alenco Crane portion of the film job the three of us and the liaison drove from Texas to Detroit to shoot some film of the Alenco Cranes on actual job sites. One day we were filming a tree trimming crew using a crane in a residential area. A few of the residents came out to see what we were doing and wondered if we were shooting a scene for the “Fugitive” TV show. They expected to see David Jensen run out from one of the houses or something.

Driving back to Texas we stopped over in Chicago and were able to go to the Museum of Science and Industry and in one of the exhibits you could go down into a recreation of a coal mine. Also, we went to Morton’s Steakhouse an elegant restaurant near Lake Michigan. Standing on the shores of Lake Michigan in the Fall with the wind coming in off the lake is an experience you don’t forget.

On another film project about four of us drove from Pasadena to Daytona, Florida to shoot footage of a father and son motorcycle racing team for Yamaha motorcycles. Dale knew personally the father and son and we shot a lot of other footage of them locally in southern California. Fortunately for the Yamaha film the father and son team won the race.
Another regular client and friend of Dale’s was Mel Marshall. He was responsible for making audio tracks for filmstrips produced by Brigham Young University for the Mormon church. Mel was a real nice guy. Pat Miller, the White Production guy we went to Texas with, and a guy by the name of Art Romans did most of the narrations for the film strips. Art became a close friend. He was the friend I mentioned in chapter twenty-five Name Dropping that did the holiday show in Beverly Hills that I met Carole Burnette at. A friend of Mel’s and an actor by the name of Gordon Jump did a lot character voice work on the film strips. Gordon later was cast in a major role in the TV comedy “WKRP Cincinnati” (1978 – 1982). After the TV show, Gordon was the Maytag repairman for several years.

In the next chapter my experience with Academy Awards winner Dennis Muren and The Equinox.

Chapter Twenty-Seven More Hollywood

Chapter Twenty-Seven
More Hollywood

Matt and I moved to a newer and larger apartment on N. Kingsley Dr. just South of Melrose. I think I was still working at Wallich’s Music City and Matt had become a ballroom dancing instructor. He met a fellow instructor named Sherry who was originally from Findlay, Ohio. I was uncomfortable when Matt said she was moving in with him. I apparently didn’t fell uncomfortable enough to object. Fortunately, I liked Sherry as a person and the arrangement lasted until my life started a different course.

Dale White, my former TV instructor from the Playhouse, along with Jan Haraszthy formed an Industrial Film studio called Dale & James Production. I guess Jan’s name was actually James. Jan and his family became very close friends (more on Jan later). Dale offered me a job with Dale & James Productions as a non-title general worker. I accepted – at least it was ShowBiz. Another original member of the group was Pat Miller. Pat and I over the following years went through many journeys together.

It wasn’t too long after I started work at Dale & James Productions that Jan decided it was no longer a good commitment for him and his family to continue as a partner in the production company. He continued to do some art work for the studio and through that association I got to know him and his family well. The name of the studio was changed from Dale & James Productions to White Productions.

A little more on Jan and our friendship. Jan was the great, great ... grandson of Count Agoston Haraszthey who is credited with being the father of the California wine industry. In 1857 he founded Buena Vista Winery and Vineyards at Sonoma, California. In 1861 he went back to Europe to tour through the country collecting cuttings from different quality grape stocks and brought them back to California in a trunk. He then by wagon travel up and down through California distributing the cuttings to the various vineyard which were struggling to rebuild after a devastating blight of Phylloxera.

The Count had quite a history escaping from Hungary and coming to America as a political refugee he ended up in the San Diego area of California. He served as the Marshall/Sheriff of early San Diego, as well as the Assemblyman representing San Diego at Sacramento. He later founded the winery and vineyards at Sonoma, but eventually ended up in Nicarauga where he died mysteriously in a river on his sugar plantation.

Jan and his family, his wife Miana, son Val and daughter “Missy”, lived just across the street on the East side of the Altadena golf course. I spent a lot of fun filled time in that home. What I fondly remember about Jan was in our travels he would point out a place and would tell me a historical account or anecdote about it. He was a great story teller. He’s the one who told me about the yellow poppy fields in Altadena that I have shared with my friends in Pasadena and Altadena. Jan told me that back when the air was clean and clear that the ships coming in from the sea would use the yellow poppy fields in Altadena as a beacon to take them in to the port at San Pedro. Can you imagine not only the yellow poppy fields but the clear air in the Los Angeles basin?

Before introducing the other leg of the “a different course”, let me relate another name dropping experience. White Productions was located between the Playhouse and Colorado Blvd. Which made it just a couple of doors north of the Playhouse. Before the Playhouse shut down as being a college due to issues with the IRS, a young female student would frequent White Productions. She was a young, vibrant and friendly girl name Sally Struthers. A short time after her graduation she landed the roll of Archie Bunker’s daughter Gloria on “All In The Family” TV show (1971-78).

While living in Hollywood I started attending the Hollywood Congregational Church located on Hollywood Blvd. near La Brea. After getting involved there I became the Sunday School Director. I was asked to take on that roll mainly because no one else wanted to. There was also a youth group active at the church headed up by a young couple who also had a small theatre/drama school. Of note the veteran film actor Mako was a member there for a while. Mako also for a short period of time attended the Pasadena Playouse before I got there. Mako seen above from the 2001 Jerry Bruckheimer film “Pearl Harbor”. Through both of these groups I came to know Susan Plews. I’ll follow up in the next chapter with more about Susan.

Chapter Twenty-Six Shakespeare and Hollywood

Chapter Twenty-Six
Shakespeare and Hollywood

After graduating “cum laude” with a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre in June of 1961, that summer I was part of a Shakespearean repertory group performing in Farnsworth Park in Altadena. We did “Romeo and Juliet”, “Twelfth Night” and “The Taming of the Shrew”. As I remember we would perform on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. We started with one play and when it was ready we would start performing it and rehearsing the next play. When it was ready we would start alternating performances of those two plays and prepare the third play. When it was ready, we then alternated performances of the three plays. I think we had a three month season and was very well received. I had small parts in all three plays. Several of the actors had Playhouse connections but not all. We shared in profits from the show but the profits were meager and shares were proportioned to the size parts you had. It was a great experience if not necessarily a profitable one.

After the summer Matt and I moved to Hollywood to be close to where the action was as the story goes. I think our first apartment there was on N. Ivar just above the Hollywood freeway. We both were a part of a small theatre group; again most with Playhouse connections. It was called "The Cellar Theatre”. It was a small theatre in Hollywood basically in a basement area of a business building on N. Cahuenga. It had seating for about twenty-five people on two sides with the rest of the room our stage. Sid and Charlotte mentioned in the previous chapter were part of the group. Ken Rose who had been an instructor at the Playhouse was the head of the group. I remember when we did “Front Page” a play written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, James MacArthur came to see our production of his father’s play. I believe Charlotte was the connection for his being there. James MacArthur played detective Danny Williams in the TV series “Hawaii Five-O” which ran from 1968 – 1980. Most episodes of Hawaii Five-O ended with the arrest of criminals with McGarrett's (Jack Lord) catch phrase to Williams, "Book 'em, Danno!".

The Cellar theatre was a showcase for struggling actors not a paying job. So, to pay the rent I got a job at Wallich’s Music City located at Sunset and Vine. I worked in the stock room filing new records on the shelves of the stockroom. It was a pretty good job and I worked my way up to some degree. Wallich had a store in Hollywood, another one in Lakewood and a third one in the San Fernando Valley. They’re all three closed and gone by now. When I started working there the NBC studios were right across the street on the northeast corner of Sunset and Vine. At that time the studios were mostly designed for radio shows. When they built their new studios in Burbank at their current location they closed the studios at Sunset and Vine. If I remember correctly, Johnny Carson did a few shows from the studios there in Hollywood.

About the time Barbara Streisand’s movie “Funny Girl” came out, she came in to Wallich’s Music City. The store was all a buzz kind of like in the movie “Selena” when she and her friend was shopping in LA before the Grammys and all the workers were saying “Selena aqui!”

I remember I was at work at Music City the day President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas-Ft. Worth.
Everything came to a stand still and nobody could believe he was actually dead. That was November 22, 1963. Five years later in April Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis. Not long after that JFK’s brother Bobby Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles. Again everyone was stunned. Those were very turbulent years.

About this time I went through a period of trying to find my way in the world of boy-girl relations. I was a late bloomer when it came to relating to women and I was shy. I knew and dated some of several different types of women. I even tried at being a Player, but that wasn’t really me. The names of these women have long since become lost in my memories. I do remember this one tall redhead that was a blind date. I don’t remember her name but I do remember what we did on that date. We went to see the bullfights in Tijuana.
The blind date didn’t work for either one of us. She was a nice person and attractive, but the chemistry just wasn’t there. But the chemistry was there for me and bullfighting. I became an aficionado of the ritual. I read up on it and learn many of the names of the great matadors both past and present. I went to see El Cordobes a great matador from Spain fight at the ring by sea at Tijuana. I even created a board game based on bullfighting. The parade of the matadors and their entourage entering the ring to music of the trumpets and in their suit of lights raises the emotions to a fever pitch. At first I bought into the rationale that the bulls were raised for fighting in the ring. That the bulls like to fight, and after all once they die in the ring they’re slaughtered and the meat given to the poor. What could be more noble? I have since accepted the fact that bullfighting is savage not only for bulls but also for the picadors’ horses. But I must admit that the sight of a matador’s suit of lights glittering in the late afternoon sun as he maneuvers the bull with his cape and ballet like movements stirs the emotions. But it comes at too high a price when man abuses his God given control of the animals.

In the next chapter I continue with more of my life in Hollywood.

Chapter Twenty-Five Name Dropping

Chapter Twenty-Five
Name Dropping

During the summer between my first and second year at the Playhouse I lived in a UCLA frat house in Westwood. During the summer months while the students were on vacation they would rent out rooms. I lived in one for the summer and worked at Pacific Ocean Park. POP was an amusement park on the Santa Monica pier. They closed the park in 1967. (click here to see info and vintage photos of POP) Westwood in the 60’s was a nice college town with no high-rise office buildings. It’s very commercial these days.

I didn’t live in the dorm for my second year. A fellow student of mine, Matt Uitz, and I got a small apartment located on the second floor of a house farther north on El Molino. Matt was born in Germany and grew up there during World War II; so, when the World War II “Combat” series starring Vic Morrow was on TV (1962-1967) Matt was able to get several bit parts. We actually roomed together even after the Playhouse living in a couple of places in Hollywood.

During my second year at the Playhouse I took a television class. We had a small studio with a small closed circuit system of monitors. We didn’t broadcast anything, but we were able to learn the basics of directing, tech directing, camera and sound jobs. Dale White was the instructor for the TV class and we became more than teacher/student friends. Dale had a reappearing part on the old Jack Benny show as Don Wilson’s son. Don Wilson was Jack Benny’s announcer who also appeared in the show. Dale looked like he could be his son. I remember one time Dale got me on the set of the Benny show when Carol Burnette was the guest star. They did a very funny Tarzan skit. A side note on Carol Burnette: a Playhouse friend of mine had a part in some kind of holiday show in Beverly Hills and she was in attendance with her kids. We were able to say “hello” to her and she was very gracious. Another side note out of chronological order: when Ginger worked at CBS she got dad and I in for a rehearsal of the Carol Burnette show. That was fun and dad really enjoyed it. Back to Dale White, more on him and White Productions later on.

The Playhouse had a couple of small theatres in addition to the main stage and I remember playing a small part of a poker player in a production of “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Rue McClanahan played the part of Stella. Rue went on to play a featured role in both Bea Arthur’s “Maude” and “The Golden Girls”.

Stu Margolin was another classmate who made good in TV also. Stu was a year ahead of me and I think we may have been in one play together, but I knew him fairly well. I kept in touch with him for a couple of years after the Playhouse. Stu landed a part in James Garner’s “Rockford Files” TV series (1974 – 1980). He appeared in 38 episodes as Angel. Here's Stu with Garner in a scene from the “Rockford Files”:

Charlotte Stewart another classmate and good friend got the part of Ms. Beadle the school teacher in Michael Landon’s “Little House on the Prarie”. Charlotte got me on to the set to watch them filming a scene from the show. Her role on Little House inspired me to write a script for the show and I actually got an agent to submit it to the Producer, but it was not what they were looking for. Here’s a somewhat recent picture of Charlotte :

Other classmates that got parts in major movies or TV include Gigi Goluban in the 1962 “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm”, Frank Atienza as Ito O’Hara in the 1961 Elvis Presley movie “Blue Hawaii” and a good friend of mine Sid (Mosesian) Haig who played villains in several movies and TV shows.

Tyler McDuff who had graduated earlier from the Playhouse came back to work in a play that I was in also got production work on the Perry Mason TV series. He got me on to the set one day. I also had the opportunity to watch Andy Griffith and Don Knotts rehearse a scene for the Andy Griffith Show where Barney is playing chess against himself. It was really funny. I don’t remember who got me on the set for that one.

With all these former classmate doing well and getting on to the different sets I thought that I was going some place in Hollywood. But I only worked in two training films shortly after graduating. One was a pharmaceutical film and the other was for the telephone company which I understand my sister-in-law Pat saw back in Topeka. Next chapter Shakespeare and Hollywood.