by Ed Nelson
“It sounds as though your Mrs. Hernandez is highly educated.”
“Do the script writers know you speak Spanish or can do an English accent as if you were from Mayfair?”
“No, and where is Mayfair?”
“When you hear English Royalty speak, their accent is described as a Mayfair accent. It is an expensive part of London. “
“Oh, I didn’t know that, but now you say it, it is mentioned in Pygmalion.”
“Did your mother come from London?”
“Close by, Essex.”
“Essex is not considered close by to Mayfair. I wonder where she got her accent.”
I thought about telling him who my godmother is, but decided that it wouldn’t make a difference and would come off as bragging. Vince dropped the Spanish and told me that I had a pretty good command of the language. He also said that I should somehow let the writers know of my other accents as they might need them someday. Actors always had to be planting seeds for the next job.
We continued on with my lines, now I would memorize them so I could speak naturally, and then worked on the inflection. After a while it began to flow. I would read and understand the intent of a scene, then structure the strength and tone of my reply based on the scene.
We did this till lunch time then adjourned to the cafeteria for lunch. I tried a burrito for lunch. It was pretty spicy, but I thought I could learn to like them. My first bite was funny though. I thought my mouth was on fire. Vince had been waiting for it. He laughed as I gulped a Coke.
“You easterners aren’t used to this. It won’t take long and you will be putting Tabasco sauce on everything.”
He then had to show me what Tabasco sauce was. He poured a drop on my burrito and I was gulping Coke again.
After lunch I went over to the school house where Miss Sperry was waiting for me. She immediately started me in on the tests. The first one was math. Towards the end of the test I was running into problems that I hadn’t seen before. Since they were solving formulas I used the knowledge I had and the solutions crossed checked so I think I did okay. It also told me what I had to do tonight.
I asked her what days each subject exams would be given. This did not breach any exam protocol so she told me, Latin tomorrow, English on Thursday, Biology on Friday then World History on the following Monday. Fortunately in my suitcase were my text books from school. Since the tests were based on the whole year, I would have to at least look at the entire book. I had no illusions that I would learn everything, but anything was better than nothing.
That took me up to four o’clock. Dick Wyman was working until six so I had several hours to kill. I wandered about and looked at the various buildings and sets that were not in use and open.
I was in one mansion, well mansion false front, when I noticed plumbing fixtures in a fancy bathroom. It looked like a scene had been shot here. What I noticed was that the fixtures looked more like artwork than bathroom faucets. I thought the rich live differently than we do.
From there I walked over to where the stuntmen were headquartered. It was a barn like structure which did include a stable with horses but also had some weird stuff like giant trampolines. I saw a group of guys over in the corner of the yard lifting weights. When I sauntered over practicing being in character a couple of them smirked at me, but didn’t say anything.
After a while one of them did ask.
“You look pretty fit, do you work out?
“I do pushups and setups every day and run five miles whenever possible.”
“Work with weights at all?”
“No, I don’t own any and don’t know how to use them.”
“How long are you going to be here?”
“Six weeks is on the schedule.”
The next thing I knew I had a ten pound weight in my hand and was being shown how to do curls. I was asked my name and a blank form was filled out. In the next hour I learned about ten different exercises I could do with the weights. They had me record my starting weights and the number of repetitions or reps as they called them that I could do.
I had finished the last ones when Dick showed up. He looked around.
“Well it didn’t take you guys long to find a new acolyte. Rick these guys will have you worshipping at the altar of body building if you let them. Nothing wrong with looking good, but don’t take it to extremes.”
Gee, I was only lifting weights. It’s not like going to church! As we started to leave the guy who started me out said.
“See you tomorrow Brother Rick.”
Now I was concerned, and it must have showed on my face because they all started to roar with laughter.
Dick, Janice and I grabbed a burger and went to a supermarket. One cart was loaded with cleaning and laundry supplies, the other with food.
The foods were basics, teenage boy basic, this included hot dogs, hamburgers, milk, bread, butter, strawberry jam, peanut butter, mustard and ketchup. For some reason Janice also insisted on salt and pepper. Oh yeah and lots of toilet paper.
We were home before seven o’clock, they had a meeting and I had an appointment with a Latin text book. My Latin teacher in Bellefontaine, Miss Audie, had taught the four conjugations and six tenses: present, perfect, imperfect, pluperfect, future, and future perfect during our first semester.
Her intention was then to have us learn additional vocabulary then and practice the use of the tenses for the second semester. This worked to my advantage because the textbook spread them out over the course of the year. My real lack would be vocabulary. I also remembered something Tom Watson had mentioned at lunch one day.
The final exams in Latin by State Board of Education regulations had an essay portion which counted as twenty five percent of the grade. Tom had explained there was a trick to doing well on this portion.
The idea behind the essay was to gage how well you had really learned the Latin language. It was not a test on your ability to write a reasoned response, it was a test of your language comprehension skills. So they weren’t looking for a strong response, they were looking for a well written response.
The trick was to plan a general response in advance then spin their question to fit your response which you had written out in advance. You couldn’t take a copy, but if you wrote it down and made sure the language was correct, then rewrote it on the test you would do well.
The example Tom gave was a question.
“What were the ethics of the early Roman Republic?”
His answer was that the average Roman was a very hard working ethical person and supported this with a description of working life on a farm. Any question that he was asked he would turn to the working life on a farm.
This took a lot of the pressure off the last question of the exam and gave more time for the rest of it. I figured that it probably didn’t change much from state to state so spent two hours constructing a grammatically correct answer. Now I had to hope that there was an essay on tomorrow’s exam.
After all that work I made myself a jam sandwich. It also made me realize that the next time I was near Kresge I needed a toaster. I also needed to buy some furniture and office supplies along with a typewriter. I started a list. Setting up housekeeping is expensive!
I managed to stay up until eleven o’clock. As I was falling asleep I realized I hadn’t let my parents know I had arrived and was okay! I could be in trouble. I also needed to add phone service to my list.
Chapter 23
In the morning when Dick and I went running I related my failure to call home and asked if I could use his telephone. He laughed.
“Your Dad won the pool.”
“What pool?”
“About how long it would take you to remember to call home. Your Mom, Dad, Janice and I all had bets going on how long it would take you. Your Mom thought it would be right after you landed, Janice and I divided up yesterday and your Dad got from today on out.”
“Ouch, I’m going to be in trouble.”
“Not really
, I let them know you arrived that night, and Janice talked to them last night. You will never be allowed to forget it, but I don’t think you will be in trouble. They realize this is one heck of a life change for you.”
It was early in California, but midmorning in Ohio so I called home from Dick’s. When I called Mum answered the phone. When I said this is Ricky, she replied.
“Ricky who?”
I was toast. She gave me a hard time for a little while then got serious about my trip and how I was getting on. We talked for half an hour.
This would be an expensive call. We agreed that I would call once a week on Sunday to get the cheapest rate. I would send a weekly letter with more detail so the whole family could keep up with me. Dad wasn’t available but I got to say a quick Hi, to Denny, Eddie and Mary. Mary wanted to know if I had gone to Disneyland yet. I promised her I would buy her a present when I did go.
After the call I gave Janice twenty dollars for the call and told her I would pay whatever extra appeared on their phone bill. After breakfast Dick and I headed out to the studio. This morning was to be the first scene that I would be in. I had to go to costume then make up.
The people in costume took one look at me and asked if I knew that I didn’t have to provide my own costumes. They then proceeded to have me change into my costume. The Levi jeans they had me wear actually had buttons on the front instead of a zipper. That was so odd.
The shirt was a plain brown or which they called butternut, it had no collar. I wore suspenders instead of a belt. The boots were battered and plain looking but they fit well and were very comfortable. I wasn’t wearing a hat in this scene.
From there I went to makeup, the studio had me skip my haircuts for the last two weeks. The first thing the makeup people did was give me a haircut. It looked like they had placed a bowl over my head and trimmed around it. When I mentioned this I was thanked for recognizing the effect they were trying to achieve.
They touched up my face with some stuff they said would cut down on shadows, so I wouldn’t look like a corpse. Other than that, there wasn’t much to it. The lady doing it told me for some movies they would have to spend two or three hours in makeup for a two minute scene.
The scene being shot today was all of us boys hearing a speech from John Wayne about how we were too young for a cattle drive. I had no lines, I just had to pretend I was listening then look disappointed.
I arrived on the set five minutes early. It was interesting to see the various prop people, cameramen, soundmen and others doing their preparation. Mr. Wayne was there but didn’t look like he was in a good mood so I only nodded to him. He nodded back and that was it.
Everyone was there but Paul Grant. Starting time came and went. The Director wasn’t happy. Since Wayne and Grant had dialog they needed him for the scene. A runner was sent to Grants trailer. That is how I found out that real stars had a trailer to retreat to during the time they weren’t working. The runner came back and told the Director there was no one at the trailer.
We waited till lunch time, which was the end of the filming sequence for the day. We were all excused for lunch and told to be back here in the same place at the same time tomorrow. I heard the Director talking to an Assistant. I won’t repeat what was said. It wasn’t nice.
After lunch the schoolhouse and Latin test was next so I headed there. I was allowed up to three hours for the test. I took the whole time. I was very lucky the essay question was on the test. It was about the life of the average Roman. I wrote about the life of the average Roman farmer as that was what most Romans were. At least that is what I said, I have no idea if it was true or not. Of course with that introduction I wrote out my prepared two hundred word essay.
There were some vocabulary words that I didn’t know, but between English and Spanish I had several good guesses. I hoped my test results would be good enough to show that I had successfully completed one semester of Latin.
After the test I was glad to go over to the stunt area and work out with weights. It was actually restful after concentrating all afternoon. I recorded my weights and number of reps on my sheet which was on a clipboard kept in the barn. I had a fifteen minute wait for Dick Wyman. We headed back to the apartments right away.
During the drive I told him about my morning and Paul Grants no show.
“That is not good, first day of shooting and the movie is behind schedule. If it gets too bad they will abandon the movie.”
On the way I saw an office supply store. I asked Dick if we could stop in. He was okay with it as long as it wasn’t more than forty five minutes.
I was able to buy a Model C IBM typewriter along with all the supplies. They even had office furniture so I bought a desk, chair, credenza, and bookcase. They agreed to deliver the furniture on Saturday morning. Since it was guys shopping we were out of there in half an hour.
Getting home I set the typewriter up on the kitchen table. I realized that I could have skipped the office furniture completely, but was glad I hadn’t. It was neat to have my own office.
I tested the typewriter out by starting a letter home to the entire family, making personal comments to all. I told my brothers I would be buying a weight set for us to use at home. For Mum and Mary there was a paragraph on going through makeup. I told Dad about the specialized fixtures I saw on sets of wealthy homes and wondered if there was anything we could do.
I skipped dinner with Dick and Janice that night. I felt that I had imposed enough. Instead I went to a little restaurant across the street. I quickly learned that no English was spoken here, at least any that I could hear. It was seat yourself so I went to the counter.
The waitress took one look at me and asked in good English what I would like. I ordered meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy with corn. It was great. The Hispanic crowd looked like working class blue collar. I didn’t feel uncomfortable around them. They seemed like decent hard working men.
One of the guys teased my waitress about her serving the good looking gringo. This was all in Spanish but I was amazed that I understood every word. She told him that if she didn’t have a handsome husband at home she would rather be with a good looking gringo than a poor excuse of a man like him. Everyone laughed. So did I. That got me some looks.
The waitress asked me in Spanish if I spoke the language. I told her a little. We chatted in Spanish for a while. Finally she asked me where I had learned Spanish. I explained the whole deal to her. She nodded her head.
“You have a very educated accent. You sound like a professor from Spain would. Be careful not to take up the local accent, yours will stand you well if you can keep it.”
After returning to my apartment I opened my English text book. The second semester concentrated on reading comprehension. There were short stories in my text, these had to be read and questions answered at the end of the story. This was my strong suit and I would have normally overkilled it with an essay on every question.
This time I settled for reading the story and making certain I knew the answer to the question. If they used the same stories in California as they did in Ohio I would do okay. If they used different ones I had a problem. I had read that most states bought the same books as the State of Texas, as they purchased more than any other state, so it kept prices down. I hoped this was true here.
I studied until eleven o’clock then turned out the lights. As I was trying to go to sleep I thought about meeting some girls, maybe at the swimming pool on Saturday if it was warm enough.
Chapter 24
Thursday morning I was up at six a.m., already a routine was developing. I met Dick as he was coming out of his apartment. We did our run. It really felt good as my stamina was coming back. I wasn’t huffing and puffing at the end like I had been from the winter layoff. I wished I could run all year around.
At the studio Paul Grant made an appearance. He showed why he did well on his TV show as he delivered his lines in one take. After the shoot Mr. Wayne complimented Grant on his performance.
<
br /> Grant told him, “Old man, some of us have it and some don’t.”
Mr. Wayne replied, “I wouldn’t make a habit of calling me that son.”
Several of the movies writers were on the set to observe. I noticed one nudge the other.
After lunch I went to my one room schoolhouse. As the only current student I was getting possessive. I lucked out on the test. California and Ohio were currently using the same textbooks so the questions were about the short stories I had read.
They also threw in some general questions that were no brainers, like what did Sherlock Holmes do, when he was high on cocaine. That was easy. He shot V’s in the walls of his room. The V was for Victoria. I wondered how hard it would be to shoot E’s for Elizabeth.
I felt pretty good about that test. My workout went well and I was able to increase the number of reps by five. Dick Wyman also had me saddle a horse and ride around the lot to prove that I knew what I was doing.
I swear my horse fell asleep moving. That is until we turned towards the barn. Then he took off at a gallop. He also cut the corner at a shed so close I had to duck so my head wouldn’t be taken off by the eaves.
For that little trick I rode the horse around that shed ten times and made him stay away from the corner. I then took him out a ways and turned towards the barn. The horse must have learned its lesson because while it did move fast it gave me clearance on the corner.
After I rubbed the horse down, Dick told me, “You know your way around a horse.”
I think from him that was high praise.
I ate at the same little diner. This time going with what I thought was Mexican but was told it was Tex-Mex food. It was great and I was developing a liking for spicy foods. Mum never cooked like this.
I returned to my apartment and started on Biology. There were no tricks here, you knew it or you didn’t and there was new material introduced the whole year. I picked several systems to try to understand how they worked. If I had to list specific details of each system such as the names of the major nodes of the nervous system I was done. I would be doing all I could to pass seventy five percent of the material on the test if they distributed the questions evenly.
