by Ed Nelson
“No.”
“That is where most people get their start.” I had been getting, “I want to break into movies,” comments more and more so I had learned to give the Central Casting answer.
Who knew, if they registered maybe they would get work.
With Nina holding my wallet I stood under one of the beach showers fully clothed. The salt water was already starting to itch. I sat on a blanket as I drove us back to her house. Her Dad was coming out the door as we arrived. Since I looked like a drowned rat he wanted to know what happened.
Nina gushed about me being a hero. Mr. Monroe looked at me with a question in his eyes.
“I only followed my training. It wasn’t that big of a deal.”
“Yes it was!” Nina yelled.
“You don’t know what great things that Billy Gates might grow up to do. If you hadn’t saved him the world may be worse without him.”
Somehow I doubted Bill Gates would be other than a normal person.
Mr. Monroe invited me to dinner. I declined because of my clothing situation. He said if I went home and changed I could be back in an hour or so and join them. I told him that would work. Nina wanted to ride with me, but her Dad wasn’t wild about that idea. I wonder why a Father wouldn’t want his teenage daughter to go to the apartment of a boy that lived alone. I didn’t blame him in the least.
With Nina pouting a little I took off. It was almost five o’clock when I returned all showered, shaved and clean clothes. I dressed up a little wearing good slacks, golf shirt and blue blazer. When I returned I was really glad I did. There were other guests for dinner and the guys were dressed like me.
There were two couples, I was introduced to them and then promptly forgot their names. As the dinner progressed I figured out it was Jerry and Sally on my right and Marvin and Grace on my left. That is a terrible feeling not remembering the name of someone you were just introduced to. I vowed to pay more attention in the future.
The conversation was more of a local society update rather than an exchange of ideas. Since I didn’t know most of the people involved it was rather boring. I perked up once when Marvin started talking about the conversion John Wayne had made from one movie to another. He was impressed with Wayne’s business abilities on top of his acting.
Mr. Monroe let the others know that I was involved in the halted film and the new one. This led to a few questions about how the new movie was going. I told them it was great but that Mr. Wayne seemed to enjoy throwing me in a water-trough more than he should. As a matter of fact after six takes I had been informed on Friday that they would be redoing the scene so I was in store for more.
That led into a discussion of the changes required in a scene like that. The logistics of clean clothes and getting dry between takes. This led Nina into asking how I had showered, and dried my hair so quickly this afternoon. It didn’t even look damp. I explained my hair dryer to the table at large.
The women all agreed they would want one like that. Even Mr. Monroe showed some interest as it would cut downtime between takes.
Nina said, “Besides being a lifesaving hero, and actor you are an inventor?”
That led the discussion into the events at the Santa Monica pier. I told them that it wasn’t such a big deal, my Boy Scout Life guard training kicked in and I did what had to be done.
Jerry followed up with, “In the army they trained us all the time so that it was ingrained in us. We didn’t have to think, we just did what we were trained to do. I know it kept me alive a few times.”
That redirected the conversation to his war experiences. I think he was trying to be the center of attention, as he told of his adventures it became apparent that he had never left the State of California during the war. That was fine with me. I didn’t really want to be the center of attention.
Nina and I sat with the adults over coffee after the table was cleared. The conversation had returned to the social update so I followed Nina’s lead when she suggested we go for a walk. This got a sharp look from her Dad, but he nodded his head yes.
We walked around the yard for a while, and then we sat on an outdoor swing by the pool. Those inside could see us so I was hoping her Dad wouldn’t get his shotgun out. Actually I wasn’t worried about that.
Nina and I talked about our different life styles growing up. She was shuttled between her Mother in France and her Dad in Hollywood with stops in major cities like London, Paris and New York along the way. This made my life in Bellefontaine seem so dull in comparison.
Nina told me Bellefontaine life sounded wonderful, small town America without the best dressed competition of Rome or Paris. I didn’t burst her bubble, but the competition, between teenage girls in a small town, seemed to me as vicious as any fashion center. It was on a smaller scale, but just as real.
I did agree that we didn’t have traffic problems like LA or smog.
It was a pleasant evening but I was getting tired so I said a good night to all, and thanked Mr. Monroe for the dinner invitation. Nina walked me to my car. I kissed her good night. It was just a light brushing of the lips but they were such nice lips I thought about them all the way home and until I fell asleep.
Chapter 41
Sunday, Dick and I had agreed to sleep in so we didn’t do our run until seven o’clock. After that Janice fixed us what she called a brunch. Since it was still early I had no intention of giving up my lunch. After that I returned home and finished off my weekly letter. I also decided to make my call as it would be late Ohio time when I finished my golf round. If I waited too long Mary would be asleep.
As it turns out I missed her anyway. She was playing outside with a neighborhood friend. They were building a snow man. I had forgotten that it was still winter. Here I was about to play golf and they were playing in the snow. I had to give living here full time some serious thought.
Denny and Eddie were fine. They wanted to know if I had been to Disney yet. I told them I had been too busy. I was told to get my priorities straight. Dad up dated me on Jackson Housing, we now owned twenty units in Bellefontaine and he was now looking to expand to Urbana to the south.
After that he was already thinking of Kenton, Marysville, and Wapakoneta. We also discussed Russell Point, but both agreed that we didn’t want to get into the vacation rental business, at least yet.
He informed me that I had a package coming in the mail. It contained my first ten hair dryers. The prototype molds were finished so Don Thompson and Paul Samson had assembled the first dryers for my review. They had left them on for one hundred hours each and they hadn’t melted, caught on fire or electrocuted them so they thought they were safe to start using.
I left for the golf course and arrived at twelve. My name was at the gate so I was allowed to drive on in. I unloaded my clubs at the caddy shack. Then proceeded to eat my lunch, it was too many hours since my brunch! From there I checked that my tee time was still two o’clock. A caddy took my clubs to the driving range for me. This was a level of service I had never had before.
I started out on the range slowly with the smaller irons. As I limbered up I was able to put more into them. After a half hour I was up to my driver and hammering them out to almost three hundred yards. This got me some looks on the practice tee but no one commented.
The putting green kept me occupied until my tee time. These greens were faster than anything I had ever played on. I had heard the term, slick, used about a green. Now I knew what it meant. This course would be all about the putting.
At two o’clock I was in place at the first tee box. The starter introduced me to my foursome. They were three elderly gentlemen. They must have been in their sixties. After my loss of names at dinner last night I paid attention today. When I shook hands with them, I made it a point of making polite.
“It is nice to meet you Mr. Simpson, Mr. Acton and Mr. Williams.”
“Well at least he has manners,” one of them said.
“Can he play golf?” another asked as if I wasn’
t standing right there.
The guy that said that, Mr. Acton turned to me and told me.
“We can’t hit it far but we hit it straight. We don’t want you to hold us up so you can only take ten strokes a hole. After that you pick the ball up.”
I agreed with this restriction with a straight face. If I took a ten I should pick the ball up, trash the clubs and leave the state in shame.
They had been playing together for some years so had their routine down pat. They had their first tee line up in order. No tossing tees to see who went first. I was informed I was last up. They had two carts but I chose to walk. I would’ve carried my bag, but club rules made me have a caddy.
All three teed off and were straight down the middle of the fairway. If they played like that all day and had mastered these greens then I had my work cut out for me. After that thought, I had to laugh at myself. So much for a day of relaxation, the competitive drive had kicked in. Well maybe that could be relaxing in a manner of speaking.
The first hole was only a three hundred and ten yard par four so I was waiting for the foursome on the green to move before I drove. I had a three wood out for my first shot with every intention of driving the green. The old guy who told me I had to pick the ball up if I took a ten now got on my case about not hitting. Rather than say anything I changed the three-wood for a four iron.
“Why are you using an iron?” I was asked.
“If I’m going to hit now I have to lay up.”
I then promptly hit the ball straight down the middle to within twenty yards of the green.
I noticed that the loudmouth had nothing to say after that.
As we walked towards the green my Caddie told me.
“I loved it, that old man has been a pain in the butt for years. I hope you play that well all day.”
I shared my concern about the putting and he told me that as long as I hit onto the green so that the grass was bent towards me they wouldn’t be too fast. He would let me know on each approach shot where I needed to be.
That was how the day went. My caddy directed me in each shot. I ended up a respectable six under for eighteen. Not a course record but still good. The loudmouth had been quiet the whole round. One of the other old guys approached me in private.
“That was the most enjoyable round of golf I have had in years. You shut Todd up and it was wonderful, Thank you, and I will play with you anytime.”
I don’t know where I dredged it up but his name came to me,
“Thank you for letting me play with you Mr. Williams. It was an enjoyable day.”
I gave my caddy John Jacobs a twenty dollar tip for his help. Without his guidance my day would have been a disaster. I now knew why the pro’s used a caddy.
I returned home and spent some quality time with my Biology and Spanish text books, falling asleep early.
Chapter 42
I woke up at my regular time on Monday feeling good. I had an enjoyable weekend and it looked like it would be a good week except for getting dunked in a horse trough some more. Dick and I did our regular run. My stamina was back up to where it was before my winter layoff. I began to appreciate why baseball had spring training.
After costuming and makeup I found out they had been pulling my leg about redoing the water trough scenes. Everyone on the set was in on it. They all could see how tired I was getting of that particular scene. There were actually bets on whether I would show up today!
I felt a little insulted by those bets. I had been working since I was eight years old, first at home then when I was ten I had a paper route. You did your job unless you were really sick. If I skipped middle school every time there was a test or even worse, a school dance I would never have graduated. If you had a job you did it, taking the good with the bad.
Today was to be a walkthrough of a scene that was put in to lighten the movie up. They didn’t want it to be all gun fire and fist fights. John Wayne and I were to install a water faucet on the ranches new indoor plumbing system. This would result in us being soaked.
When I was told of the scene I started thinking.
I asked Mr. Wayne, “What sort of faucet are we installing?”
“I have no idea, just an older type they have in prop storage.”
“Could we use a brand that was actually in production then?”
“What are you thinking Ricky?”
I then proceeded to explain about how our family, not wanting to say it was only me, owned thirty percent of a company, Detroit Faucet that was founded in 1880. I thought it would be neat to have our product in the movie.
Wayne mused, “Since the faucet wouldn’t have a name on it that could be read on the screen we would have to say its name. That is called a direct product placement. Since you were so good on the salary negotiations I think we can do it for free.”
“Mr. Wayne I would like to take it further. I would like a clip to be included in the television special and then have Detroit Faucet be a sponsor of the show.”
“Young man I like the way you think. Let’s make it happen.”
Mr. Wayne got with the writers and they changed some dialog. Now there was reference to the Detroit Faucet that Mr. Wayne had found in the Sears catalog, being delivered by Wells Fargo. Now Big Jim, nickname of James Braxton played by John Wayne, had the faucet in hand, he makes the statement.
“This will be easy.”
The next shot is of water pouring all over Big Jim and Sir Nick. They fix this problem and turn the faucet on again, this time Sir Nick takes the water flow in the face.
“Easy huh?” asked Sir Nick, as he changes the water flow with his fingers right into Big Jim’s face.
The scene ends up with Big Jim and Sir Nick laughing about their shared misfortune. This scene would be a makeup scene after the tough love Big Jim has had to show Sir Nick. It is the most lighthearted part of the movie. The rest of the movie is serious as outlaws and regulators are fended off.
We spent all morning on that scene. Getting wet, drying out, doing retakes. After four takes the Director, Ron Dodge, was happy with what he saw. He liked the adding of the faucet scene. He felt this modernization showed that they were living in the end of the old west. The small modernization was a symbol of the much larger changes in the west such as the Johnson County Range war.
Open ranges were coming under private control. This large change was at the root of the range war. After this war was finished the old west was no more. There would be minor incidents but for all practical purpose the west was won. I could see someone using this example in their PhD thesis.
After my part was done for the day I still had a little time before lunch so I went to the prop masters office. Mr. Rodrigues was there so I explained to him that I wanted to obtain pictures of some of the faucets in storage. What did I have to do to get them? I didn’t go into detail why I wanted them and he wasn’t curious. He made a phone call. After fifteen minutes a still photographer showed up.
We went to the shelves where they were kept. There must have been fifty types of faucets with multiple copies of each. I went through them and selected a dozen that looked good to me. I asked each of them to pick out some that looked nice to them. This added another eight faucets for a total of twenty.
I told the photographer, a Mr. Grey, that I would like a picture of each. He asked me if I needed the pictures right them or could he take them elsewhere for proper lighting. I told him proper lighting would be better.
He said, “Okay I should have prints by tomorrow.”
That sounded like a quick and dirty job to me, and that was all I expected.
“Thanks,” I replied.
After lunch I headed over to Hollywood High, this was my last week. I was eager to get it done with and sit for my exams so I was finished with ninth grade. I was more eager to see Nina. She was glad to see me, if the greeting she gave was any sign. I was leaning in for a second kiss when Miss Powell entered the room.
“This is Biology class, not practice Bi
ology,” she remarked.
Flustered we backed off quickly. That was the end of it from Miss Powell. I shudder to think what would’ve happened if Mr. Hurley had caught us. I would be returning to school after graduation to work off my detention.
Miss Powell made a boring subject to me become interesting. I realized that I loved mechanical things but really didn’t get this living stuff. This living stuff as I called it was so much more complex, than my simple mechanical thoughts, it was incredible. While I hadn’t any desire to go into any form of organic science I was developing a great respect for it.
It made me realize that anyone working on devices such as prosthesis arms and legs had to know how they interfaced with the human body. The logical next step would have a direct interface with the nervous system. Now that would be cool. I think the smallness of transistors was a tiny first step in that direction.
Nina had a verbal invitation from her father to a party at their house this Saturday. She told me all the movers and shakers in the movie industry would be there. She also told me not to be upset with the afternoon paper.
The headline in the entertainment section would be, “Ricky does it again!”
Someone had an 8mm home movie of the whole Billy Gates rescue.
Nina’s Dad followed up after dinner on Saturday night. He had his people check with the life guards. They in turn told of the people who had volunteered the fact that they had the film. From there Warner Brothers had purchased the film and released selected frames to the press along with the life guard report.
I hadn’t told Nina or her father that I liked to avoid publicity and was ready to get angry, but stopped and thought before opening my mouth. I must have been thinking for too long as Nina asked me what was wrong.
“Nothing,” I said, “I was just thinking it through. I can see why your Dad went to those lengths. His job is publicity of his movies and its stars. While I don’t like that sort of limelight because I don’t see it as real heroism I see why he did it.”
“Ricky you are a hero!”
