Just located and downloaded a video of “The Ballad of Fess Parker,” my parody theme song medley (from Disney’s Davy Crockett and NBC’s Daniel Boone) that preceded my interview with the man himself at the 2004 Walt Disney Art Classics Convention.

Note: No adjustment of your computer is necessary. I’m playing a left-handed Taylor 414. And believe it or not, those ARE flashbulbs going off throughout the first part of the song. I think the audience was using me for a light meter before Fess came on stage.

The lyrics (below the video) do contain some Disney/Crockett “inside” humor (ie: Parker was chosen for the Crockett role over James Arness after Walt Disney saw him in the sci-fi classic Them), but knowing that Parker played a lot of roles in a coonskin cap before becoming a successful vintner & hotelier will probably suffice.

Enjoy!

The Ballad of Fess Parker

Lyrics by Craig Hodgkins

Born in the lowlands of the Lone Star state
His acting style was quite sedate
When Walt saw Them, he couldn’t wait
To give him a role that would change his fate

It’s Fess, Fess Parker
Better than James Arness

So Walt cast him in the new TV show
And coonskin sales hit a new plateau
But the Crockett craze was dealt a blow
When they killed Davy off at the Alamo

Brilliant corporate planning
Twelve million kids just cried

But driving a wagon or a railroad car
He remained a favorite star
Now it’s been years since he’s kilt a b’ar
Today he’d rather serve you a Pinot Noir

So buy some “Fess Parker”
Available by the case

Yes, ol’ Fess is the man…He’s a big man
And his fame is transcendent
We see that his legend just grows
Yes, ol’ Fess is the man…He’s a big man
So it just doesn’t matter
That he wore the same hat for two shows

From the silver hair up on top of his head
To the toe of his six-five frame
He is a kind and generous soul
And we’re so glad he came

Yes, ol’ Fess is the man…He’s a big man
Whether Davy or Dan’l
We’d all tune the channel to you!

—

For some cool Fess Parker photos, click HERE.

- craig hodgkins

PS: Special thanks to my buddy Chris Marcus for shooting this back in 2004!

What would Mother’s Day be without some gentle musical satire?

Glad you asked.

Here’s a (mercifully brief) live performance recording of a “non-autobiographical cautionary tale” I wrote* a couple of years ago to mark the occasion (click the title to listen, and a Quicktime audio file will open):

A Mother’s Day Song

I hope you take the message to heart, and — unlike our hero — do a little pre-Holiday prep for Mom.

Just added: For a slightly longer video version of this song on YouTube, click HERE.

- craig hodgkins

* Lyrics by Craig Hodgkins, with apologies to Lennon/McCartney.

Here’s something for fans of the Modern Folk Quartet (aka The MFQ), and maybe a few Turtles and Monkees historians as well: some sample tracks from The Wilcox Three LP: The Greatest Folks Songs Ever Sung.

What’s the Monkees-Turtles-MFQ-Wilcox Three connection?

None other than Douglas Farthing Hatlelid, better known as Chip Douglas: gifted instrumentalist, singer, writer, arranger, producer…and the third most famous folk musician to ever matriculate at Hawaii’s famed Punahou School.*

Recorded in 1961 on the mainland (at the RCA Victor’s Music Center of the World in Hollywood), Greatest Folks Songs was released on RCA’s budget label as RCA Camden CAL-669. True to its title, it sported ten “experienced” folk tunes, and if not for a couple of exceptions, the album title could have accurately been amended to read The Greatest Folk Songs Ever Sung…by The Weavers.

The trio (which also included Fred Claassen and Steve Tilden), however, does a fine job with each. Especially impressive is the banjo work by Douglas, a skill not often heard, as he played upright bass for the MFQ. And although the song list was primarily Weavers, the feel is early Kingston Trio, more specifically as the latter sounded in their initial effort for Capitol. In other words, not a lot of nuance, but great energy, and Douglas’ musical precociousness in much in evidence throughout.

Just click on the back cover image (that’s Douglas in the middle of the photo) to read the liner notes and the track listings. In case that doesn’t work for you, the LP track listings are as follows:

Side One:

1. Tom Dooley
2. Goodnight, Irene
3. Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
4. The Roving Kind
5. Darling Cory

Side Two:

1. The Wreck of the John “B”
2. Sylvie
3. Down By the Riverside
4. So Long (It’s Been Good to Know Yuh)
5. When the Saints Go Marching In

Here are four sample tracks from the LP.

First is the up-tempo Darling Cory (recorded by many individuals and groups since the late 1920s), featuring Douglas on banjo. It’s difficult to make comparisons to any current young musician (few modern youths take up the Vega banjo these days), but keep in mind Douglas was still a teenager when these tracks were recorded.

Next is “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine.” The Weavers charted with it 1951, and Jimmie Rogers’ version was a hit in 1958.

Here’s The Roving Kind, written by cowboy actor and singer Rex Allen (who also provided the original voice of the audioanimatronic host/father in General Electric’s Carousel of Progress at the 1964-65 World’s Fair, Disneyland and Walt Disney World). Guy Mitchell had the early 50s hit with this one.

Finally, the classic Leadbelly tune popularized by the mighty Weavers: Goodnight, Irene.

As many folk fans know, Douglas was seriously considered to replace fellow Hawaiian Dave Guard when he left The Kingston Trio in 1961, a spot that went to John Stewart. The one strike against Douglas was his youth. He was under 21 and couldn’t play club dates.

Following a couple of years and two great albums with The Modern Folk Quartet (their sophomore effort, Changes, is one of the top popular folk LPs of all time in my humble opinion) he played bass with the Turtles (most notably on the hit Happy Together) and produced two albums for The Monkees (Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd.). In the strange coincidence (or small world) department, he also produced the Monkees’ last hit single, John Stewart’s Daydream Believer.

Note: Other members of the early 60s MFQ were Henry Diltz, Cyrus Faryar and Jerry Yester, who each played an integral part (in various ways) in the late 60s folk rock era. Yester’s brother Jim (of the Association) joined with the group for several reunions in the 80s and 90s, making them a quintet (which fortunately didn’t alter the group’s shorthand “MFQ” designation).

For a Wikipedia entry in Douglas, click HERE.

For a brief Wikipedia entry on the MFQ, click HERE.

There are too many sites with good info on the MFQ to list here (and their official site is mostly in Japanese, since the MFQ are still very popular in Japan), so hit those search engines!

- craig hodgkins

* The first two being Kingston Trio co-founders Dave Guard and Bob Shane.

With national politics in the air once again (whether or not you like what’s “blowin’ in the wind” is up to you), it seems more than appropriate to revisit a tiny portion of the 1968 presidential campaign, specifically this musical ditty from Denver, Boise & Johnson, a group which evolved from The Chad Mitchell Trio. This cut (subtitled This Year’s Model) and Take Me To Tomorrow (the flip side of the Reprise 45) are the only known commercial recordings of DB&J. The stereo track below is taken from an early 70s Warner Bros. “Loss-Leader” 2-LP set titled Hard Goods.

The CMT had a history of mixing humor and political satire into their tight vocal harmonies (starting with the classic The John Birch Society), and the tradition continued through a series of personnel changes. In 1964, they became The Mitchell Trio (to become more egalitarian), and recorded a couple more LPs under that moniker before namesake Chad Mitchell left for solo pastures. He was replaced by a “jaunty lad” (as he was described in the That’s the Way it’s Gonna Be LP liner notes) named John Denver.

Yes, THAT John Denver.

In 1966, member Joe Frazier (no, not THAT Joe Frazier) moved on as well, and was replaced by David Boise (pronounced “boyz,” not like the city in Idaho). When the final original CMT member — Mike Kobluk — left the following year, he was replaced by Michael Johnson, and the group became DB&J until 1969, when the three went off to solo and sideman careers.

Of course, history also tells us that Richard M. Nixon won the 1968 election despite the vocal efforts of DB&J. Maybe it was that “Sock it to me?” appearance on Laugh-In…

Other links to DB&J performances:

Click HERE for some Denver, Boise and Johnson performances on YouTube

Click HERE for some wonderfully rare live recordings of DB&J as well as a few early solo sets by John Denver. NOTE: This site (cincinattidancingpigs.com) also has some great photographs, marvelous song-by-song notes of each concert set, and excellent fact-filled personal stories. If you’re a fan of John Denver, the Chad Mitchell Trio (or, for that matter, DB&J), you should check it out.

- craig hodgkins

Recently I’ve had some opportunities to revive a presentation I gave when I was employed full-time (and later, as a consultant) at The Walt Disney Company. Titled “Walt Disney’s Life Lessons,” the seminar focuses on Walt’s personal and business values in the context of several company milestones, from his earliest days in Kansas City through the end of his life.

This entailed digging through my Disney files again, which was a lot of fun. Creating sessions such as “Life Lessons” requires a good working knowledge of the company’s vast history, and to that end I’ve amassed thousands of Disney books, special publications, magazines and internal newsletters as well as reams of press releases, posters and photographs. Oh, and plenty of pinback buttons and lanyards.

Now that I have this blog, I thought it might be fun to periodically post some of the photos, along with some other things. Of course, the blogosphere is filled with Disneyphiles posting marvelous information and cool stuff everyday, and I can’t pretend to rival anything some of them put out. I’ll just feature stuff I’ve picked up preparing for and hosting events, as well as elsewhere in my Disney travels.

Quick side note: Click HERE to watch (and listen to) the “Ballad of Fess Parker,” a parody song I wrote and performed prior to an interview I conducted with him at the 2004 Walt Disney Art Classics Convention.

Here are some photos related to Disney’s production of Davy Crockett and the pop culture craze which ensued (just click to enlarge them. They’re pretty big). First off, many have seen this photo of Fess Parker as Davy Crockett in black and white…

…but here’s a slightly different pose (chin a bit higher, “Old Betsy” at a different angle) in marvelous color. Yes, that’s Disneyland’s very own Rivers of America in the background, somewhere between Bear/Critter Country (not when this shot was taken, of course) and the “mechanical” Indian Village (only a quick backstage hike through the trees from present day Toontown). This color shot was used for (among other things) the cover of the Three Adventures of Davy Crockett LP released on Disneyland Records (DQ-1315, itself a reissue of ST-1926 with a different cover).

Here’s a few more…

(above) At this live appearance, Fess Parker gets the drop on a whole troop of coonskin clad Crockett fans. Check out the kid in the back row center who is drawing a bead on the photographer. (below) In this staged promotional photo, Walt Disney reviews the Davy Crockett “script” with star Fess Parker and director Norman Foster. Parker looks a little happier — or at least less pensive — holding the gun than the guitar.

Finally, here’s one of my favorite Walt Disney photos (below), taken at “Disney Night at the Hollywood Bowl” on August 1, 1958. Walt dons the famous headgear as he addresses the audience. Check out the smarmy look on the face of the man to his right. I love it!

That’s all for now. But just in case you missed my post (odds are you did) on a WDAC event I did with Fess Parker (who appeared in full color), click HERE.

All images, of course, are copyright The Walt Disney Company, with all rights reserved.

- craig hodgkins

Lately, we’ve been watching episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (aka MST3K, formerly on Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Network) 2-3 nights a week. We’d enjoyed (and occasionally taped) it back in the 90s, but recently broke out the VHS tapes now that the girls are old enough to get the humor. They’ve enjoyed them so much that — after exhausting the taped episodes — we’ve begun to invest in the Rhino boxed sets, and have just placed our first DVD order of “uncollected” episodes with Cheezyflix.com.

I know, we’re obsessive, but I’ve always felt that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing A LOT.

Anyway, last night’s episode was The Starfighters (A early 60s film about USAF pilots flying F-104 jets starring former Congressman Bob Dornan), and I don’t think I’ve seen them laugh that hard in years (and we laugh a lot). It was full of hilarious riffs from Mike and the ‘bots (If you don’t know what I’m writing about, click HERE for an almost complete MST history), and caused me to consider adjusting my personal MST3K Top Ten. Anyway, the whole thing reminded me of a few other non-traditional family traditions we’ve continued this past year, including watching 60s TV series on DVD, building gingerbread houses, photographing rainbows, and celebrating birthdays with mini-donut cakes.

I’ve written a previous post about our watching all 138 episodes (sequentially) of the Get Smart TV series last year, but we’re also working through multiple seasons of That Girl, Wild, Wild West (just picked up season 4), Andy Griffith, and Dick Van Dyke. Sometimes it seems as if the 1960s never ended in our house (which was built in late 1963). Not that Wild, Wild West is high culture or anything (despite Ross Martin’s best efforts), but it’s really too bad that my girls won’t be able to watch current television series with their pre-teens and teens. Besides the current network stuff that is a little too mature, the reality shows will undoubtedly have a much shorter shelf life than the scripted shows I grew up with. But I digress.

—

Here’s our most recent rainbow photo (above), shot in December looking across from our front yard. We’ve been shooting (and chasing) rainbows since our honeymoon in 1987.

—

Another hallowed tradition is the early birthday morning donut “cake,” complete with candles. We started this one when Emily was really small, maybe three or four. She loves little powdered donuts (which amazingly hasn’t effected her svelte teen figure), so I had the idea to build a tower of them for her. We now do it for all five family birthdays, and it really is fun. It’s much easier to stack a donut cake in the early morning than baking a traditional one, and we now mix in some cinnamon minis with the powdered ones. We still do traditional birthday cakes for the afternoon and evening celebrations (we tend to have multiple parties for each birthday), so we enjoy the best of both worlds.

Emily’s most recent donut cake (above) and mine (below). We’re both December birthdays, and, yes, my candle count is highly inaccurate.

—

We inherited (OK, stole…) our gingerbread house building tradition from our friend Cinda Webb, who invited us over for a pre-Christmas family house-raising several years ago. Since then, we’ve built a whole neighborhood of them, usually over the Christmas holiday break. This past season, Emily had a couple of friends (Lauren Hoeneke and Jennette McCurdy) over for her own house party.

(left to right, above) Lauren, Emily, Erin and Jennette get started on the roofs.

Work ceases when the decorators (above) become aware of the photographer.

—

That’s all the tradition I have time for right now. We’re off to the USC Trojan Huddle (their spring football scrimmage) and Galco’s Soda Pop Shop up in LA (home of hundreds of classic and kooky brands), which just happen to be two more family traditions.

- craig hodgkins

Part 7 of “My Life with Eighth Graders.” To read parts 1-6, Click HERE. To ignore the whole mess, just move along. Nothing more to see here.

—

I finally made it to Gettysburg, but it took 74 eighth graders to get me there.

Despite arriving 144 years (and several hundred books) after the fact, the battlefield remained an impressive and fascinating place, worthy of further study. If author George R. Stewart’s premise is correct (and many of his premises were), there is good reason for every American to have a grasp of what happened during those three days in July of 1863. In the introduction to Pickett’s Charge (1959), he writes:

“If we grant — as many would be ready to do — that the Civil War furnishes the great dramatic episode in the history of the United States, and that Gettysburg provides the climax of the war, then the climax of the climax, the central moment in our history, must be Pickett’s charge.”

I’m not worthy of debating the issues surrounding or leading up to Pickett’s charge, or any other battle of the Civil War. I also know opinions remain strong on all sides…I’ve read Tony Horwitz’s engrossing, artful and occasionally hilarious Confederates in the Attic. But whether or not you agree with Stewart’s third point, I believe he is at least directionally correct. To better appreciate American history, we should be familiar with what happened in the open, rolling fields and on the gentle wooded knolls of south central Pennsylvania on July 1-3, 1863.

—

We arrived in our two motor coaches, and stopped at the visitors center so our personal tour guides could board. For the only time on the trip, our buses were segregated by gender, and our “boy” band was fortunate to get Ed Guy, a guide with more than twenty years experience. I found out later in the day that he’d moved to the area as a young boy and had grown up in the shadow of the National Park. After introducing himself, he said that our bus and walking tour would be roughly chronological. In other words, we’d start where the battle began.

Our first stop was at a field adjacent to a statue of Gettysburg resident John Burns, who walked out to the battlefield that July day, musket in hand, and offered to join the One Hundred and Fiftieth Pennsylvania Volunteers, though he was more than seventy years old. According to General Doubleday’s report, he fought bravely.

(above) A statue dedicated to citizen soldier John Burns. (below) Tour Guide Ed Guy teaches the boys how the troops marched into battle in formation.

At that first stop, Ed talked about certain events leading up to the battle, and how everything finally came to a head on July 1st. Then he taught the boys how to march in formation, and how they’d adjust the formation to quickly replace fallen comrades while advancing in battle. It was great to watch history came alive as the boys engaged and had fun. After that, it was back on the bus for a quick ride to the Devil’s Den, the location held by Confederate sharpshooters on Day Two of the battle.

Devil’s Den is overlooked by Little Round Top, which came into Union Hands following an historic day two bayonet charge by the 20th Maine, led by Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a professor at Bowdoin College. The battle made him famous in his day, and again more recently through many popular works on the war (including Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, Shelby Foote’s 3-Volume The Civil War, and Ken Burn’s eponymous PBS mini-series, among many others). As enjoyable and informative as those sources were, they paled in comparison to actually being there. I can’t speak for the boys, but looking down across the fields from Little Round Top, or hunkering down in Devil’s Den really brought everything to life for me…the size and scope of the battleground, the contours of the land as it lay this way and that.

(above) Ed and the boys down in Devil’s Den. The boys really were listening to Ed, they just rarely make eye contact when processing historical information.

(above) The boys leaving the Devil’s Den area on the way to Little Round Top

(above) Ed “Guide” up on Little Round Top, with Devil’s Den in the center background, just to the right of the white camper.

We finished our tour at the Gettysburg graveyard (after visiting the Bloody Angle, of course) near where President Lincoln delivered his famous address. For me, everything was over much too soon.

After lunch, we wound our way into Amish farm country, where we enjoyed a fine meal at a family style restaurant, before heading out to our final destination on the trip: Philadelphia.

- craig hodgkins

*Another in a series on Disney events with which I’ve been involved. To read about Fess Parker (Disney’s Davy Crockett), click HERE. For Mary Costa (Disney’s Princess Aurora), click HERE.

Of all the Disney Legends with whom I’ve worked, none needed an event host LESS than legendary composer Richard Sherman. Our appearance at the 2003 Walt Disney Art Classics Convention aboard the Disney Wonder cruise ship reminded me that, in addition to his being one half of a amazingly prolific songwriting team, the Sherman Brothers, Dick is a born raconteur. For those who have become used to seeing him and his brother Bob on the special features sections of the Disney 2-disc DVD sets, this won’t come as a surprise.

A few months before the convention, I’d met with Dick, Imagineer Bruce Gordon and my friend (and fellow event host) Tim O’ Day for lunch at Disneyland. Over sandwiches and soup at Carnation Main Street, Tim and I talked through the convention show elements with Dick. Then we walked over to the Walt Disney Story theater to take a few promotional photos of Dick at the piano in Walt’s recreated “formal” office.

Dick Sherman and me at the piano in Walt’s “formal” office at Disneyland.

After the photo session, Bruce took the three of us for a special walk-though of the yet to open Winnie the Pooh attraction in the former home of Bear Country Jamboree. It was a real treat to experience it scene by scene with Disney veterans Bruce, Dick and Tim. At the end of the day, Dick presented me with an inscribed copy of his book, Walt’s Time, co-written his brother Bob, and edited by Bruce, Jeff Kurtti, and David Mumford. I asked Bruce to sign it too, and I’m glad I did, especially in light of his recent untimely passing.

By the time May rolled around, everything was ready for the convention. The 500 spots for the cruise had sold out in a couple of days. My family accompanied me to Orlando, as they had for each of the previous conventions, but wouldn’t be joining me on the ship, since my wife was “too” pregnant for sailing. So Diane, Emily and Erin had to tough out eight nights at the Grand Floridian. Eric didn’t care either…he was comfortably in utero.

The “over sea” portion of the convention was to last only three days, just enough time for us to hit Nassau (on Friday) and Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island) before heading back to Orlando. There were also “on land” events scheduled at both ends of our sailing, making the total event a five day experience. Because our convention guests were just a portion of the group on board (we had a full seating), all of the usual stage shows went on as scheduled, meaning our special presentations were held early in the morning or late in the evening. But you tend to lose track of time out at sea, and no one seemed to mind. After all, in the middle of the ocean, where else was anyone going to go?

Saturday was already a full day before the lights dimmed in the Disney Wonder’s Walt Disney Theater. I had conducted a hilarious interview and career retrospective with Imagineer Alice Davis in the morning (I’ll have to post about that sometime!), and spent most of the afternoon on the private beaches of Castaway Cay.

Still, nobody was too tired for our final convention offering: a 10 pm show titled, “By Request on ‘The Beautiful Briny Sea.’” After an inspiring series of film clips featuring Sherman Brothers tunes, the crowd cheered Dick as he and the piano rose through the stage on a hydraulic lift. Due to a miscommunication, Dick had only packed a dark suit for the trip, while I had been fitted for a tuxedo at Walt Disney World. We decided that I should “dress down,” which created another problem. Because I had the tux, and my two other presentations were in “island casual” garb, I hadn’t brought a suit. In the end, I borrowed a shirt and tie from WDAC GM Michael Young for the show. And check out my deck shoes. Fortunately, no one was paying much attention to me.

The show set up was simple: I’d take questions and requests from the audience, and Dick would tell stories about how different songs were written, then perform a few verses of them.

Here’s one audio clip from that evening: Dick telling of how he and Bob first came to work with Walt (click on the arrow):

We started off talking about the Enchanted Tiki Room, and weaved our way from The Jungle Book to Mary Poppins (including “The Eyes of Love,” which didn’t make the film’s final cut), “One Little Spark” from the Imagination Pavillion, Annette Funicello’s “The Monkey’s Uncle,” and “About Time” from The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. We even spent some time talking about several attendee’s favorite non-Disney “Disney” movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which — at the time — had just opened as a musical (with six additional Sherman Brothers songs) on the London stage.

The songs were fun to hear, but the stories behind each were fascinating. This was before many of the Disney DVD collectors sets were available on the market, and few people had heard Dick’s song creation tales. For example, he shared the little-known story of the most addicting song he and his brother wrote, “It’s a Small World.” The brothers had first attempted to write a rondolet for the ride, which didn’t work out due to the overlapping scenes. And when they finally settled on the tune we know today, they conceived it as a much slower piece. It’s interesting how things evolve.

We eventually covered a few of my personal Sherman Brothers favorites, such as “The Ugly Bug Ball” from Summer Magic and the classic “It’s a Great, Big, Beautiful Tomorrow” from the General Electric Carousel of Progress (originally at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, then Disneyland, and finally, the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World). And from the “Tiki Room” on through to “It’s a Small World,” our finale, Richard Sherman gave the capacity audience just about everything they wanted.

And through it all, I had the best seat in the house.

Here’s the WDAC Team (I’m second from the right) on Castaway Cay, Disney’s private Caribbean island. That’s the Disney Wonder in the background, but you probably knew that. Good times.

- craig hodgkins

On this day in 1903, Frank Edgington Fenton was born in Liverpool, England, so today would have been his 105th birthday. Despite the absence of an honored guest (who passed away in 1971), the party is already underway here at “Get it. Got it. Good,” with streamers, bunting, and staged readings of his novels and short stories. To top off the evening, a double bill of “Escape From Fort Bravo” and “River of No Return” will screen in the little theater at 7 pm.

My friend Jan (of the ever-compelling “The View From Her” blog) tagged me last week, and I am just now getting around to responding.

On the surface, the task is simple. Here are the rules:

• Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
• Open the book to page 123.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the next three sentences.
• Tag five people.

I’m certain Jan tagged me with a smile on her face, knowing that choosing the “right” book would be a challenge. I take up to ten minutes at the market when faced with the “paper or plastic” dilemma.

Because I spent an inordinate amount of my time the past couple of weeks drafting a Wikipedia entry for screenwriter and novelist Frank Fenton, the books currently at my elbow reflect that. In addition to Fenton’s two novels, they include Southern California Country by Carey McWilliams, and two fine biographies: American Prophet by Peter Richardson (on McWilliams) and Full of Life by Stephen Cooper (on Fenton’s infrequent collaborator, the novelist and screenwriter, John Fante).

I’ll apply the page 123 scenario to Cooper’s book, since the selection ties a thread through all of the above:

“One of the first things Carey made happen for John was a meeting on the Culver City lot of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios with the head of the story department, Ross Wills. Wills had helped his friend Carey help other friends before, notably the literary critic Wilson Follett, who thorough Will’s good offices had gotten into MGM’s Reading Department and then risen rapidly to writig scenes for Greta Garbo. Now Wills was taking John’s breath away with talk of the princely sums commanded by adequate scenarios and the suggestion that John might have the inside track on a sophisticated drama Wills had in mind for Joan Crawford, or, failing that, a rather more trifling comedy drama.”

In the paragraph immediately preceding this selection, Cooper had described the first lunch meeting between McWilliams and Fante in 1932. Fante’s first screen credit came in collaboration with Fenton, and McWilliams was a supporter of Fenton’s work, quoting his first novel extensively in Southern California Country.

To complete my responsibilities in this affair, I tag Lisa (quite the literary type), Matt (a reflective friend who I know for a fact has recently read a book) and Adam (who reads, but is almost certainly working on his new screenplay).

- craig hodgkins

Note to Jan: Frank Fenton and your personal fave Ray Bradbury are anthologized together in New Stories of Time and Space (1951). Bradbury’s entry was “Here There Be Tygers,” and it was the first time this piece of fiction had been published. It has since appeared in other books and publications.