OK part 1 was originally written for Doug Drexler, part 2 was easy to add and funny. Growing up in LA and Movieland #1: When I was a kid, lived in Palms. MGM wasn’t far away and it was before it got broken up and sold off (1971 by Kirkorian), we found the holes in the fence around the backlot and had a ball. There was a Babylonian Fort, a Southern Plantation house and all kind of things including a WWII set (occasionally used on Combat). Great fun, guards didn’t care since we didn’t damage anything and didn’t go in when they were filming. The Hal Roach studio was nearby, as well as the David O Selznic Studio (which later became the Desilu, then Wolper and eventually the Culver Studio last time I saw it).. Yes some of TOS was filmed on the backlot which was shared with MGM. Yes they closed Culver City during the filming of “Under the Rainbow” (Chevy Chase, Carey Fisher: 1981). During the demolition of the Hal Roach Studio, the wreckage caught fire and the three surplus Sherman tanks had to pull out before they “Brewed up” as the Brit’s used to say (caught on fire). My best friend in the early 60’s had a Dad who was one of the head gaffers at 20th. We used to get taken over to the lot and we’d always head off to the back lot (now Century City). While I have an aging photographic memory, this was 50 years ago and I was a kid. I might be slightly off on this, but I do remember two “pools” on the backlot. I did go back and check the production years for Voyage to the bottom of the Sea, this was during the days of the movie. When they started the show, I’d moved to Beverly Hills and the back lots were sold off. One Pool was used for the RC controlled models (there were three different models of the Seaview from small to very large, and a Polaris class sub, thanks Mark Myers). They had a rather large controller counsel set up for working the models in the water (the days before circuit boards and transistors). We did get the play with the medium sized Seaview a couple of times. The second “pool” was for the sets when the Seaview was in port and tied up to the dock (partial Sub set). This set was far more solid than the TREK sets I’ve been on and seen. But the backlot was a ball for kids because of all the crazy things they had there at one time or another. Best place to get out of the heat and sun was underneath the Peyton Place bandstand where we got stuck once during filming. Before the shutdown (financial problems from Cleopatra), it wasn’t unusual to see other kids on the lot. But it’s where we learned about scaling models to look realistic on screen (movie magic). A large Flying sub model (too young to be able to judge size) hung in the shop nearby. When my Dad had an office in Orange County, his secretary had a son that I got friendly with. First time I went over to their house, I noted a weird metal skeletal structure under glass. When I asked about it, he told me it was one of Willis O’Brien’s King Kong armatures. It was fascinating and what got me fascinated with Stop Motion Animation for years. First 8mm film I made was with a Walker Bulldog tank model I’d built and I actually had the canon fire (rather amateurish to say the least), but with the one exception it worked nicely. It’s where I got fascinated with practical effects and model making (I was a Revell Master modeler by 1964) Beverly Hills in the 60’s was great. When we moved to Beverly Hills, I went to Beverly Hills High School. Very intimidating and 1st day, 1st period was study hall in the cafeteria. I threw up and was sent home. In 64 or 65 there was Richard Dryfus (bit of an ass), Rob Reiner and Albert Brooks (Einstein). Funniest thing I remember about those days was Dryfus coming up the main hall at Beverly in full Elizabethan costume and powdered wig. The 20th backlot(s) were beginning to get bulldozed to make room for the construction of Century City (just west of BHHS). There was always construction noise during my days at BHHS. In 64 or 65 Jon Provost (Lassie) was a friend until we got into a fist fight over something he said, but typically we were blowing things up in his backyard. If you built a model that you didn’t like, it went over the Jon’s house to get blown up. For some reason the effects guys were always giving him all kinds of explosive goodies. If you paid attention to the location shooting in the Hollywood Hills, in Franklin Canyon they periodically filmed Combat. Since most of us had BB guns, we’d climb over the hill from a friend’s house in Coldwater Canyon into Franklin and harass the German extras until the day they charged us one day with blanks in their Mausers and MP 40’s. (we had no idea of what a blank was in those days, although I certainly learned about movie guns later on). In our class at Beverly: Mike Tolkin (“The Player” 1992) as well as 3 of us that ended up in management for ABC. Holly Palance was in our class and we were scared to death of Dad (it didn’t help that we grew up watching some of his movies, more to come on this). After us came Paul Diamond (“chicken chronicles”), Laraine Newman (SNL), Claudia Wells, Nick Cage, Angelie Jolie and so on. Anglie’s Dad (John Voight) and I used to talk for a couple of years, but this one I’ll never discuss after seeing her and her brother at their first Oscar show. If you ran track and ran laps in the morning before class, you’d run with Burt Lancaster. Always went by with LARGE toothy grins and said “Good morning Mr. Lancaster” and he always gave us a good greeting and occasionally a story as we ran laps. Because of the late night re-runs, we’d occasionally greet him with things like “Oh GOD, it’s the Crimson Pirate”. Always got a good laugh. Very nice guy. He had a great sense of humor. Betty Davis lived around the corner from BHHS on Gregory, she was one of the few we stayed away from. Very nice proper English Gentleman lived across the street from a girlfriend. He’d invite us over for Tea. Delightful stories of living with Errol Flynn in their early days in Hollywood. It was David Niven and some of those stories never saw print. Delightful man. If I went over to Ben’s house to visit (never could spell his last name), there was a kinda of creepy house next door where the windows shades would occasionally move, like someone was watching you. Finally found out it was Broderick Crawford. Very Strange… Most fun was going up to a friend’s house on Rexford right by where it meets Beverly and turns into Coldwater canyon. Very nice older gentleman used to putter about his garden on good days. The trick was to sneak up on him and do your best imitation of him, something like “Nyaa, see here Rocko”. It was Edward G. Robinson. Very nice man and seemed to enjoy our mischief. He did tell us that the reason he looked so crazy in some of the gangster movies was because he’s flinch when firing blanks from the 1928 Thompsons they typically used, so they taped his eyes open. The damndest thing we ever did, was one of the guys had a WW II jeep. We painted it up in proper WW II colors and since his Dad worked in the industry, we mounted a non-functional .30 cal machine gun on it (a 1919A4 Dewat) and drove around Beverly Hills in Arab costume (the WII MG mount for the jeep came from “Rat Patrol”). It did not go over very well and BHPD was not happy about the 1919A4, but some of the guys had a sense of humor. I still know guys on BHPD. In those days a lot of the classic actors still lived in BH and you could just bump into them around town. Rachael Welsh shopped at Market Basket, Susan Oliver shopped at Safeway and she knew every teenaged boy that watched TOS was madly in love with her. A friend (Ed Edelstein) lived next door to a house that always had a VW bug in front, except it wasn’t a beetle. It was a Porsche 356 which had a Beetle body on it and he later had the Super Hawk racing kit put on the engine. It was Steve McQueen’s house. Fast car! Jack Benny always went to the Theater on Wilshire at Crescent. When I pumped gas at that gas station, I always ran to park his car when he pulled into the lot (64 Blue Impala), he was very nice and tipped well. Dean Martin lived in Beverly Hills (then moved to Bel Air) and since we knew his son Dino, most interesting thing was the M1 Thompson and MP 40 on one of the walls that Dean brought home from a movie (old style blanks guns that could be converted to functional by changing the barrel). The Martin’s may have moved, I don’t know for sure but I did know Dino later got into trouble with those SMGs (he had the barrels changed, and got busted when he tried to sell them). Dean was a very nice man, a bit quirky, but didn’t drink that much, he was a classic homebody. Sadly when Dean’s son got into trouble with the 2 SMGs Dean had on the wall, his son ended up in the Air Force Nation Guard and was killed in an F4 in the mountains later on. It was the 60’s, no photographers following the actors around, they were allowed to have normal lives and most were really nice down to earth people. But in those days, you showed proper respect and courtesy. Then there were some that weren’t so pleasant, it happens. One more about the Beverly High days. We had a club called “SAMSON” (don’t ask) and when we wanted to have a picnic in Coldwater park, to have it (for the permit), we had to have permission from all the residents around the park. So off we went door to door to get permission in writing. Went up to one door and knocked. It opened and who answered? Tony Curtis. Since “Some like it Hot” has always been one of my favorites, I stammered “Gee Mr. Curtis, we’d like to have a picnic, etc etc etc” and he smiles and said “Sure kid!”. Signed the documentation and off I went. Pleasant man (Jack Lemon in person wasn’t nice since I occasionally bumped into him at MG Mitten on Santa Monica Blvd. After the first couple of scowls, I ignored him). In the 80’s before I went into business with Hap Arnold’s grandson, briefly worked at a place and had Dick Van Dyke come in for something. Spent the afternoon laughing with him, incredibly nice and warm guy. Worked at Estes Zipper (exotic cars), David McCallum would come in with his car (or we’d take parts to his place in Santa Monica). James Gardner who had a Mini Cooper S (Mama Cass had one too) they took them to Hollywood Motors (since Hollywood Motors did BMC and both these shops supported each other). Otto Zipper had a Porsche 904 that they were trying to convert to street legal. Never was able to and BHPD always had a motor officer down the street on Oakhurst waiting for the 904 to get fired up. Dino Martin used to bring his Dino in for service. I learned to dislike the Ferrari’s because the mechanics always had cuts on their hands and arms from unfinished metal edges. Later went to work at Westside Imports which handled BMC and again had the pleasure of dealing with James Garner’s Cooper S again (good handling Cooper S). Great cars, lots of fun, and me and a friend used to make money racing a Cooper S up on Mulholland before LAPD got helicopters and stopped that one. One of the Outer Limits episodes where a .50 cal machine gun was set up and fired on Laurel Canyon by Mulholland and no one complained. Sadly the Manson Murders changed the way things worked in LA and Beverly Hills. When you grow up around some of the classic greats, it’s easy to be casual with actors and people in the industry, typically I have been, because they’re really just people. Part 2: Imagine if you will You’ve just gotten your driver’s license (16 in those days), it’s a dark, cold and windy night in Beverly Hills. You have a friend who needs to run an errand and so since you can drive, you have to go! You drive up to a dark house and park, and as you walk up to the door with your friend, all you can think about is every crazy Horror movie, bad guys and crazies you’ve seen on film. He knocks on the door and after a short wait pondering how you’re going to die because it’s one of those nights, the door opens. A tall man who’s backlit so you can’t really see who it is answers: YES in a deep, dark ominous voice. You know that voice and you’re so scared you can’t move a muscle, it’s Jack Palance! Your friend manages to croak out: “Is Holly there?” and he politely says: Just a minute! Short form, I’m really glad I didn’t mess myself. All of us were scared to death of Holly’s Dad! After Graduating, I had a girlfriend named Wendy. We hit it off and through the summer and into the fall we were inseparable. Funny story about going to see Lee Michaels (with Frosty), the opening act for the Bluesbreakers at the Bowl, but embarrassing so I’m not going to go there. One day during the summer, I wanted to check my wetsuit (you were supposed to check them periodically in those days) and so I asked Wendy if I could come over with the suit and check it in their pool. One Sunday morning I drove over in the wetsuit, grabbed the tank and went into the backyard by the driveway, and walked down into the deep end of the pool. Since you were supposed to stay under water to check the seams, I sat there for about 20 minutes. As I walked out of the pool (no flippers) and my mask broke the surface, I noticed Mom and Dad had come out to sit by the pool. I quietly kept walking out as Dad’s newspaper got lowered to see what was going on. When he realized someone was coming out of the pool, I dropped my mouthpiece and said: “Hi, I’m Mike Nelson and this is another adventure of Seahunt!”. Mr. (Norman) Spinrad (who wrote “The Doomsday Machine” for TOS, thanks Doug) was not real happy with me. Mom thought it was funny. There were scripts sitting around the house, but since I was going through a bad case of “Shatneritis”, I didn’t pay much attention to them. Don’t remember what year (probably early 70’s when got home), but we used to run up to have Belgium Waffles at “Old World” on Beverly, just north of Wilshire. From time to time you’d run into Carrie Fisher. Very nice, good sense of humor.
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 18:43:28 +0000
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