Thursday, September 27, 2007

MANHATTAN TRANSFER SOLD AND BACK TO WORK


Many years ago when I was in the agency business I represented an amazing novel by John Stith called "Manhattan Transfer". John is an amazing author and this book is a simply incredible adventure. For four and a half years : From 1992 through November 1996 I represented this book to the Hollywood community. The story is great: Imagine if you will that an alien world has created a Doomsday machine that is destroying every other world it encounters. Their many efforts to stop it or destroy it is simply fruitless. And they feel badly (as only aliens might feel badly) that they are responsible for the destruction of other worlds in the universe. They decide that they will visit each world in advance of the Doomsday device and take a piece of it (whole cities etc) and place that "souvenir" in a big galactic "zoo" on their own well developed planet. The aliens come to Manhattan, New York City one quiet Sunday morning and literally steal Manhattan Island and take it into their humongous space craft where they enclose it a giant glass dome, pumping water and air into it. No no one in NYC who is captured here will ever have to go to work. Nobody will ever have any bills to pay. Nobody will have traffic to fight over. But as any New Yorker might tell you, they couldn't stand NYC in a utopia state. People of New York City want it just the way it is-- warts and all! So the people of New York who are captured break into the alien mother ship and after a great battle with each other decide to work together with the aliens to find a way together to destroy the doomsday machine for all time to come. Wow! What a story! We pitched this novel to many studios and the option was finally picked up by (believe it or not) Dodi Fayed's company Allied Stars)-- yes, Princess Dianna's Dodi Fayed. Dodi's company had made FX 1 &2, Hook (with Dustin Hoffman) and The Scarlett Letter. Dodi's company also held the motion picture film and television rights to the character of Peter Pan by Sir James Barrie. The great author in the 1930's had willed all rights to the Sick Children's Hospital in London, but in 1984 had transferred those particular rights to very rich Dodi Fayed in exchange for a guaranteed payment by him to them of ten million dollars a year. This was guaranteed. They had to do nothing to earn this money. They had reasoned that they were in the business of getting and keeping children well and didn't have the means or the time to administer and tend to the business side of promoting James Barrie's famous property to the motion picture and television markets properly. Dodi had produced Hook to good if not spectacular results. At any rate. Dodi's company through Melissa Henning and Allied Stars had optioned the property for all of these years paying John Stith about twelve thousand dollars a year for the option to the property. The option expired and I was out of the agency business and ten years passed. I was informed yesterday that John Stith has sold the film rights for $100,000 dollars. So there you are: almost fifteen years for something to sell. Time can be our enemy sometimes and sometimes it can be just what we need when we need it. So patience is an amazing word. In other news, I go back to work day after a few days off and negotiate with Ritz about becoming manager of the Sherman Oaks store. I wonder how this will turn out? Well, I am simply going to put this into God's hands and trust him completely. He is the center of my life and hasn't done me wrong yet! John Nugent and i are sending "SEVEN" off tomorrow for an ASCAP sponsored contest.

Monday, September 24, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME




Today is my 60th birthday! Wow! What a great birthday this was. First my writing partner and best friend sponsored a visit to a big banquet at Charlie Brown's restaurant. There was food for the gods and the Holy Angels, themselves. Prior to that Tim had totally surprised me with a recording that he had produced and paid for one of the newest "Traveling Companion" songs entitled "Was There Any Room For Me? The singers he chose were absolutely perfect and his orchestration was such a thrill. I was so happy! What an amazing and incredible present! Then Sunday night I had a great party at The Robin Hood Restaurant in Sherman Oaks. Randy and Patty Ames were there and dear Greg Lastrapes and his wife Karissa and his two beautiful daughters: Scarlett & Piper. Great food! We even had a great singer. Then tonight my nephew and his new wife took me out to dinner and i heard from two great friends that I haven't heard from in ages. Jaime Silos and I had been very close friends and room mates when we both lived in Hacienda Heights. And John Stith was a great friend who was my client during my agency days. I even heard from all of my sisters! How grand! Very happy last two days! I ought to turn 60 more often! Ha!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICKEY ROONEY

EARLY MICKEY ROONEY SCENE


A VERY SHORT MICKEY ROONEY ACCEPTING THE GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD FROM JAYNE MANSFIELD -- MICKEY'S QUOTE WAS
"AM I STANDING IN A HOLE?"
Today is Mickey Rooney's 87th birthday! A true legend of Hollywood hits another milestone birthday! Happy Birthday Mickey! In other news, I am holding a party tomorrow in honor of my 60th birthday on Monday at the Robin Hood Pub in Sherman Oaks. Tim Doran, Greg Lastrapes, Randy and patty Ames and John Nugent are expected to attend. In the early afternoon Tim Doran is hosting a party in my honor at Charlie Brown's restaurant in Montebello. I am very honored and excited about that! The Traveling Companion script is ready to go to Disney-- Tim and I are very excited! Casting continues for "Seven" and john and I are planning a new bizarre ending for it. Could be great fun!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

FAY WRAY'S 100TH BIRTHDAY AND A BIRTHDAY FOR ROBERT BENCHLEY

"The Reluctant Dragon" released in 1941 was the only motion picture to feature Walt Disney himself. In it, the great Robert Benchley is given a tour of the then new Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. What a hoot!


Robert Benchley at an NBC radio broadcast in 1940. Robert was the father of famous children's writer Nathaniel Benchley and the grandfather of Peter Benchley, the author of JAWS.

Perhaps only a true Hollywood fan like I am would ever enter a blog entry like this but I am that Hollywood affectionado of all time. Today would have been the 100th birthday of a true Hollywood legend: Miss Fay Wray: the girl who answered the question: What could you possibly give a four hundred pound gorilla that he'd appreciate. Who doesn't remember King Kong's FAMOUS climb of the Empire State Building with the character of Jean Darrow clutched in his mighty hands? It was the role of a lifetime-- "one for the angels-- as I like to say. Fay was going to play a cameo in the latest version of King Kong released just a few years ago, but she died in her sleep the night before she was going to film her scene. In honor of her demise, the lights of the Empire State Building were extinguished for fifteen minutes in her honor. Fay probably did more promotion of that New York landmark that anything else in the world. It is also the birthday of the great humorist and comedian, Robert Benchley. Benchley was simply an amazing guy: a great writer , humorist and one hell of a funny actor. Even Walt Disney knew this when he hired Robert to star in "The Reluctant Dragon" --one of my all time favorite Disney films. Ward Kimball, Pinto Colvig, Clarence Nash (the voice of Donald Duck) and even the very young Alan Ladd star in this picture. Casting efforts continue for Seven. John and I are receiving some incredible resumes from some really talented young people: some with singing ranges of three and four octaves-- the Internet is where we receive most of these replies and their singing voice is right there to hear. I also entered for myself and Tim Doran The Edward Kleban Award Contest under the librettist category. They have a lyric contest as well, but you can only win in one category-- so with time constraints, I felt it was better to focus where there might be less competition. Many more people attempt to write lyrics then attempt the book of a Broadway type musical. My 60th birthday approaches quickly-- it does seem very strange. Well more later!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

A NEW MUSICAL : LOOKING FOR SINGERS




Today the ad goes out formally in Backstage West for the upcoming musical recording of the new musical I am writing with John Nugent called "Seven" -- a delightful and fun musical romp and spoof about the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Cardinal virtues. We have already received about thirty two responses from the Internet listing of the piece. The premise in this spoof is simple: imagine that the promised Millennium has arrived and the devil is about to be locked up by the Archangels (Gabriel, Michael, etc) for the promised one thousand years. Imagine also that the Seven Deadly Sins gather themselves in a panic meeting in the old Garden of Eden, under the mistaken assumption that one of them needs to take the devil's place in the world during these one thousand years. Who will be in charge? On the other side of the garden another meeting is taking place with the Seven Cardinal Virtues. They figure that if these "Deadlies" can't decide what to do, they may all scatter and do what they will in the now peaceful world. The solution is diversion. Divert these guys into a harmless place where they can't cause any trouble. That place is a "twilight zone" type fictional town called "Temptation, Ohio" Of course the Deadlies fall for this like a stack of dominoes. There are complications when the devil escapes his Millennium prison and a vice and a virtue fall in love. Great songs and a funny script. In case you don't know what the Seven Deadly Sins are: Listed in the same order used by both Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th Century AD, and later by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem The Divine Comedy, the seven deadly sins are as follows: Luxury (extravagance, later known as Lust), Gula (gluttony), Avaritia (better known as Greed), Acedia (Sloth), Ira -- more commonly known as anger), Invidia (Envy), and Superbia (Pride). Each of the seven deadly sins has an opposite among the corresponding seven cardinal virtues (sometimes also referred to as the contrary virtues). In parallel order to the sins they oppose, the seven holy virtues are chastity, abstinence, temperance, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility. Some of the talent interested here is pretty amazing. So we will see what happens. The songs are pure fun such as Greed's song "You've Gotta Love Your Money Like A Dame" or the devil's lament at his millennium imprisonment called "It's Only A Thousand Years" In other great news THE TRAVELING COMPANION" is now completely re-written (with a much better libretto and a much defined score) Tim Doran and I are very proud of this latest effort. MARKETING BEGINS IMMEDIATELY!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007




What can one say about the anniversary of one of the saddest days in American History: the day of infamy that even Abraham Lincoln declared would never happen, but indeed did? My prayers and my thoughts are with all of those families who lost a dear member of their own family. In tribute to them, I will here reprint the lyrics from the song I wrote the very day that all of this happened, Tuesday, September 11th, 2001:


WE ARE DIFFERENT NOW!

On a bright September morning
On a day so warm and grand!
Without a word of warning
Came am enemy who planned:
An attack upon our freedom
And the we always knew
And ever since that morning
We are different, me and you!

We are different now!
Kinder in heart and soul!
Finder of sweet control:
We’ve more patience and compassion than before
We are different now! We’re not ashamed to cry!
Our hearts taught us to fly:
To the needs of every person:
To offer love and more
We are different now!
We’re flying flags with pride!
New York to paradise!
We pray for another evry day!

We are different now!
Don’t mind so much to wait!
We just appreciate:
That the Lord restrained the evil of that day!

They woke the sleeping giant
In the heart of all our lives
They made us stand defiant
And we’ll face them side by side
So what these wicked souls may say won’t fly!
In freedom’s skies
Praising God for violence
Is just Satan in disguise (Satan’s best disguise)

We are different now!
Kinder in heart and soul!
Finder of sweet control:
We’ve more patience and compassion than before
We are different now! We’re not ashamed to cry!
Our hearts taught us to fly:
To the needs of every person:
To offer love and more
We are different now!
We’re flying flags with pride!
New York to paradise!
We pray for another evry day!

We are different now!
Don’t mind so much to wait!
We just appreciate:
That the Lord restrained the evil of that day!

We grow stronger evry day
We’re not afraid to pray!
We’ll defeat the face of terror, somehow!
All because! Just because!
We are different now!__________
We have the love we need
With God’s help we’ll succeed
Just because we are different now!
From this day on! Our fear is gone!
We are different now!______________


©Copyright 2001. All rights reserved 316
words.

Monday, September 10, 2007

FAREWELL LUCIANO AND A BRAND NEW WEBSITE


Farewell and Arreverdercci to Luciano Pavoretti who was laid to rest over the past weekend. What an amazing performer! I was reading that on his last performance at the New York Met on March 13th, 2004, the great one received a FIFTEEN minute standing ovation and ten curtain calls. Not bad! I can only hope that he is singing in praise of God in heaven this day as an absolute treat for the angels! In other news, I would like to announce that my company CREATIVE HORIZONS has a new website at www.broadwaysongman.com. Check it out. It has news about our new shows, the promoting of the new and improved "Traveling Companion" and samples of my my music and lyrics. I had a great conversation with my old collaborator last night: Mr. J. Eric Schmidt. What an amazing guy! Symphonies, ballets, movie scores. His young son performed the role of Curley in Oklahoma flawlessly the other night. He was so proud! It couldn't happen to a nicer guy! He has simply been so helpful over these many years! It seems so long ago that the two of us were collaborating on "One Big Happy Family"-- that grand old Roaring 20's tribute to the Gilbreth Family. It was that "Cheaper By The Dozen" family that invented touch typing and the push button washing machine. So do visit the website and let me know what you think!