Myths of the Golden Era -- Exploded!

[Harp]

One of the brothels run by the CIA as part of Operation Midnight Climax was at 225 Chestnut Street on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. It ran from 1954 to 1963. The operation was uncovered by Seymour Hersh in 1977. The Chronicle ran a sort on it here.

Christians in Action. I once attended a CIA briefing in Thessalonikki where nude pix of Yasser Arafat's
latest boy toy were passed around.

 

[Zombie_61]

Christians in Action. I once attended a CIA briefing in Thessalonikki where nude pix of Yasser Arafat's latest boy toy were passed around.

Out of curiosity, what purpose would this serve? Embarrass Arafat? Humiliate him? Were those in charge of the CIA at the time equally attracted to young men?

 

[Harp]

Out of curiosity, what purpose would this serve? Embarrass Arafat? Humiliate him? Were those in charge of the CIA at the time equally attracted to young men?

A moment of levity following a very serious discussion of Soviet intelligence penetration and several assassination
attempts on Athens based American SEAL units. Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization had recently announced
activation in Greece during which time the Greek terrorist November cell was active.
Barracks humor has its place; although admittedly not always appreciated.

 

[Zombie_61]

A moment of levity following a very serious discussion of Soviet intelligence penetration and several assassination
attempts on Athens based American SEAL units. Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization had recently announced
activation in Greece during which time the Greek terrorist November cell was active.
Barracks humor has its place; although admittedly not always appreciated.

Ah, got it. Barracks humor is okay with me, but I was never in the military so I don't always recognize it.

 

[MikeKardec]

I was pretty sure the screams were added.

I agree. For the record there were, however, a couple of single system sound newsreel cameras around. Berndt had one in the early '30s, though I don't know if very many were made. By '39 he was manufacturing the B & M Sound Pro and Bach Auricon was making a single system (optical recorder in camera) camera around the same time.

I had a friend who bought a Bach Auricon at a garage sale when I was in film school in the 1980s. He discovered that the company still existed and, not being able to get them on the phone he drove over to Burbank to see if he could discover what was up. He pounded on the door of an old brick warehouse until a bent over old man, Walter Bach, opened the door. Bach serviced his camera at a work bench in his mostly darkened factory. He was working alone taking care of the few cameras still in use. A few years later the place was raised. For all it's tendency to plow under and renew itself, Los Angeles, even today, has some remarkable little pieces of the past still hanging on. Thank god ... but not for long.

 

[Tiki Tom]

The golden age of Hollywood has now been pretty much exploded. Sorry to hear how degenerate it all was. Not surprising, I suppose. I always imagine the last days of F. Scott Fitzgerald, writing trash screen plays just to stay afloat. Have recently been reading about some talented people (Teo Davis) who went to Hollywood in the hopes of writing scripts, who sank horribly. Many are called, few are chosen.

 

[MikeKardec]

The golden age of Hollywood has now been pretty much exploded. Sorry to hear how degenerate it all was. Not surprising, I suppose. I always imagine the last days of F. Scott Fitzgerald, writing trash screen plays just to stay afloat. Have recently been reading about some talented people (Teo Davis) who went to Hollywood in the hopes of writing scripts, who sank horribly. Many are called, few are chosen.

Los Angeles, likely all of California, was a live and let live, buyer beware, libertarian wonderland until the early 1970s. People came here to get away from the stifling norms of all the other places in the world. It was the place where you could change your name, start a cult, make a million and retire to Malibu, Big Bear, or Palm Springs. You could be or do anything you could get away with and the rules over what you could get away with were pretty slack. That's what came with all the creative freedom, that's what CREATED all the creative freedom.

You don't get creative freedom without the freedom to fail. All that freedom comes with another price, too. You get Jonas Salk but you also get Charles Manson. You get Steven Spielberg but you also get Harvey Weinstein. With a VERY few exceptions (all who started at a particular time) Writers in Hollywood are secondary talents. They have always been beholden to the suits, the studio executives. A few are lucky and talented enough to end-run the system, almost none survive without becoming directors to protect their writing. John Milius, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarentino. Even if they direct they must take orders from the execs and many times the orders are suicidal, you do what they say and destroy your script or you destroy your career. If you are lucky you only interface with good executives for your first few projects, until your reputation can survive a few stinkers. But there are very few "good executives." Not to say that there aren't a lot of bad writers, and not to say that there aren't a lot of good writers who just don't have the right work habits, too slow, anti social, etc.

This is true for actors too. The system doesn't reward the best, it rewards the ones who can hit a very high level fast. If you can be good in 2 takes, you'll do better than someone who can be great in 10. Time is money.