Dear Los Angeles
Page 19
HARRIET HARPER
1930
The actual work is negligible….So far I have had eight collaborators. The system is that A. gets the original idea, B. comes in to work with him on it, C. makes a scenario, D. does preliminary dialogue, and then they send for me to insert Class and what-not. Then E. and F., scenario writers, alter the plot and off we go again.
I could have done all my part of it in a morning, but they took it for granted I should need six weeks. The latest news is that they are going to start shooting quite soon. In fact, there are ugly rumours that I am to be set to work soon on something else.
P. G. WODEHOUSE
1939
There is more social life out here than in a rabbit warren during the rutting season, and it is this which may drive me crazy first. We have seen all the best patios, the largest swimming pools….
Jack Warner wanted to know yesterday if I was any relation to Edna Ferber—was I her husband? I spelled my name and then pronounced it. Zane Ferber? he said. Any relation to Zane Grey? Elliott Nugent patiently explained the whole thing and Warner nodded. On his way out of the party he stopped and shook hands. Good-bye, Ferber, he said. So long Baxter, I said. It’s a great place.
JAMES THURBER
JUNE 27
1847
Relieved from guard at 8 a.m. Spent the day in my tent receiving instructions in the Spanish language. Our officers are becoming more and more like men, giving us as many privileges as they can conveniently. They have not been more than half as strict for a few days past. In fact they seem to realize that their power as military commanders will soon be gone and that their influence will go too.
HENRY STANDAGE
1921
Well—[Hollyhock House] stands. Your home.
It is yours for what it has cost you. It is mine for what it has cost me….
Can we not pronounce benediction upon it, now, absolving the building at least from rancor and false witness?
Whatever its birth pangs it will take its place as your contribution and mine to the vexed life of our time. What future it will have?—who can say?
Faithfully yours,
maimed as it is—
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, to Aline Barnsdall
1973
The Tonight Show is an all-American institution. At one go, Python will be seen by the few aficionados in New York and San Francisco, and also by the Mormons in Salt Lake City, the tobacco farmers of Louisiana and the potato growers of Idaho….To make things more nerve-wracking, it was to be recorded as a live show, with no stops or retakes, for the tape had to be ready an hour or so after recording to the various parts of the States for transmission the next evening.
A great air of unreality. Here was Python going out to its greatest audience ever, and to us it was no more than a hastily organized cabaret. We were totally unknown to the audience, and felt like new boys at school. At 6.00 the recording started. This week Joey Bishop, one of F Sinatra and D Martin’s buddies, was hosting the show as regular host Johnny Carson was on holiday. Bishop was on good form, fluent and funny. When it came to our spot he produced our two latest LPs and tried, quite amusingly, to explain the crossed-out Beethoven cover. All good publicity.
MICHAEL PALIN
JUNE 28
1945
Everybody has a garden but they look pretty amateurish: corn too thick, etc., though tomatoes do better. Gardening people miss the Japanese, who used to do all that around private homes. They made a bad mistake in not watching their Japanese gardeners and learning something while they had the chance.
WILLIAM FAULKNER, to his wife
1993
First day of jury duty. I had heard they were calling panels for the Menendez brothers’ trial, but I didn’t necessarily believe it because I thought that case had been settled a long time ago. Even I knew that Lyle and Erik Menendez were the Beverly Hills teenagers who had shotgunned their parents to death in their home because they were greedy for their inheritance. When Erik Menendez walked into the courtroom, my blood went cold.
HAZEL THORNTON
JUNE 29
1847
The Col. Addressed the Battalion on the necessity of keeping troops here till more could be transported from the U.S., endeavoring to persuade the Battalion or at least one company to enlist for another year….Lieu. Canfield next rose and said it would be the best thing we could do to re-inlist as our means were small and likely to be expended in reaching our families….
Cap. Hunter said it had been hinted that there was a prophet somewhere in the camp, he believed among the privates; if so, he wished he would come forth and give us the word of the Lord on the subject….Meeting dispersed, 15 or 16 names being obtained for re-enlisting.
HENRY STANDAGE
1937
Bought a paper on the way out to Santa Monica. The bodies have been found. Bodies being those of three Inglewood girls, ages 7, 8, and 9, missing a couple of days. The police with some clews are now searching out what the paper describes as a “Mexican-looking, maniac degenerate.”
Near Ventura, Cole driving about 42, a cop waves us to the road side. Asks to see Cole’s license and looks piercingly at me. Edward produces his press card. Cop says “Who’s that in the back seat?” Edward: she’s a member of our party.—another overhaul from the cop’s gimlet eyes. “O.K.” says he. And explains he’s “working on this Inglewood thing” and couldn’t get a good look at me as we drove by. Of course I was dressed in my usual faded blue shirt and pants, but the real trouble was I had just lit up my pipe for the first time in months, and he saw it clamped in my jaw as we went by. Pleasant day over the old familiar road, no excitement.
CHARIS WILSON
JUNE 30
1939
It was true! It was true! The weather was perfect. Under a monotonous bolt of blue, relieved by not even an amateur cloud, I walked. Every day was like the day before and there was no hope that there would ever be bad weather….
But When It Rains—
Rain is the great catastrophe. A pall hangs over the whole city and the incomplete write-up and photographs for eastern papers all entitled “Sunny California” don’t help a bit….But once the rain sets in and really becomes a downpour the “native sons” treat it as a great adventure. What children they are when it rains! First they lose face and sulk. Then they laugh and exclaim over it and pretend it is as great a novelty as snow in Africa would be. They hold out their hands to it. They lift their faces to it.
WILLARD F. MOTLEY
1939
I am grateful rather than angry at the nice deep mud-lined rut in which I find myself at the moment. The world outside doesn’t make it possible to even hope to earn a living, while here the pay is large (it isn’t as large as people think, however) enough for me to have at least three or four months off every year.
NATHANAEL WEST, to Edmund Wilson
1942
I am working on various shifts of the 4th Interceptor Command and find it is very important work and keeps me on my toes. I don’t suppose the censor will let me tell you all about it but it is connected with aeroplane work and wonderfully carried out. They treat us well too, give us a meal and transportation. I am quite proud of the work and am glad I am strong enough to do the work….
Bless you sweetheart—I wish I could answer a letter from you! Love from your Mother.
RUTH WOLFFE MERRITT
1943
Lunched and Word-Gamed at the table, amused at the fact that Billy knew from my expression before he read my words in the Word Games that I was trying to get away with murder. Wonder if he has read all my recent thoughts about him as easily.
CHARLES BRACKETT
JULY 1
1927
I start the new month with a new love! I am not surprised. F. and I were forecast to have this
experience—at least once.
She came to be photographed again. From the last time I have one extraordinary negative. She bent over forward until her body was flat against her legs. I made a back view of her swelling buttocks which tapered to the ankles like an inverted vase, her arms forming handles at the base. Of course it is a thing I can never show to a mixed crowd. I would be considered indecent. How sad when my only thought was the exquisite form. But most persons will only see an ass!—and guffaw as they do over my toilet….
We drove to Pasadena. We drank. We kissed. She was an artist with those lips————
EDWARD WESTON
1993
The judge called us into the courtroom one by one and asked us about the first questionnaire….I admitted to having heard they were making a movie about this case.
HAZEL THORNTON
JULY 2
1907
The tableaux vivants, the last day of the Friday Morning Club, were unusually splendid….I posed as a Chinese singing-girl. They said it was “pretty,” whereas my intent was to be “funny!”…
My birthday yesterday was almost as dreary as possible. An extra hard grind and an extra high temperature, 94 degrees. I would like a holiday and a merry making sometime on my “fete-day.”…Now next year, when I am 40, I hope to have a notable party.
Am trying to write pot-boilers, these hot evenings—but do not get on at all, my old head is so tired and I would so much oh! So very much rather do nothing. Really my mental condition is semi-comatose. How stupid I must seem to the world! Certainly, I bore myself!
OLIVE PERCIVAL
1927
One reason I’m keeping this diary, as Mother insists on calling it, is because I have grown, in so many ways besides inches and vocabulary. I’d like to see if I have the mentality to write what I want to write—what I think. I doubt it. Damn it—what’s my idea in forever playing to an invisible audience? Or not an audience so much as an observer? Sometimes, in those rare moments of companionship that flicker between people I meet and me, I almost say what I want to, and then as I say the words in my mind, something utterly different comes out of my mouth and is twisted into a meaning I don’t recognize—hate—sneer at. Well, I shall see—maybe—and this book will be amusing, even if it doesn’t say what it’s supposed to—maybe.
M.F.K. FISHER
JULY 3
1928
Monday I dropped in at DeMille’s and was put to work immediately. One of the writers needed a girl and I was sent to him.
VALERIA BELLETTI
1965
David Selznick died on June 22….The funeral was on the 25th at Forest Lawn. It was a sad grey day with drizzle. George Cukor gave us directions; he was having a great time, and talked so loud that someone came to shush him. He told Sam Goldwyn, “Now Sam, you’re going to go in front of the coffin, with Bill Paley….The rabbi will go first, of course.” “Why should the rabbi go first?” Goldwyn asked. This may just possibly have been a deadpan joke, but he certainly seemed a little gaga, vaguely smiling and telling everyone, “You look good.” He said to me, referring to David, “He was very fond of you,” and then added, “We’re all very fond of you.” So I had to forgive him. If I’m not careful, I soon won’t have any mortal enemies left….
Katharine Hepburn read Kipling’s “If.” When she got to the last line, she turned to the coffin and said, “You’ll be a Man, my son!” I later heard that George Cukor thought this a supreme touch of artistry. I thought it farcical. One expected David to put his head out of the coffin and exclaim, “Now she tells me!”
CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD
1976
Spent the day at the beach. Again, the water was so warm although the air was much cooler….
I picked up Susie and we got some bbq’ed chicken and went to see 2 of 4 seasons by Vivaldi and some Brandenburg Concertos by Bach played by the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. It was really an ideal setting. The night air was warm, not a cloud in the sky, overhead the 2 searchlights formed a perpetual cross.
There wasn’t any visible structure in the mountains. We seemed alone in the mountains. It’s at places like this when L.A. is at its best. People mix together easily from all parts (like they do at the beach) and the weather and the setting make it.
AARON PALEY
JULY 4
1847
Independence. This day was celebrated by the troops at Pueblo de Los Angeles….A short address by Col. Stevenson and the name of Fort Moore given to the fort at Ciudad de Los Angeles….An offer made to the Spaniards to have the Declaration &c. read in their own language, if desired; not read.
HENRY STANDAGE
1891
No. I will not live with you again—not even in the same house. I know too well what that would amount to. Not as your wife in any case. How can you ask me again when you KNOW! Nor will I come to Providence on any terms. You have to live there? Well, I don’t. And I will not go abroad with you. As you know I have been planning and hoping these years to have you go—alone. I will not accompany you on any terms. And for my work—that is my life and I shall pursue it as long as I live, whether you consent or not, approve or not. I had my work to do before I ever knew you, you know.
I am sorry very sorry to have to put these things so plainly, but you would have it. I hope you will not ever need to ask again. We two must part—and then…an end to it.
All goes well here and you need to be under no concern about my health, it is fast becoming established. Regretfully but sincerely,
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN
1933
So at last I landed in Hollywood! [Impresario José] Rodriguez met me at the station—he looks exactly like Zangara the would-be assassin of Roosevelt. He is native of Guatemala, and one can even discover some sing-song element in his dashing English. He was with his wife (second, I suspect, for in the course of conversation he mentioned his 11-year-old son). His wife had a dog in her arms. They drove me to this hotel which is situated on the Hollywood Boulevard, corner of Highland St. Half-a-mile up Highland St. is the Hollywood Bowl. I walked up after Rodriguez went and came upon this imitation-antique amphitheatre. The moon and Jupiter shone down on this auditorium around which so many petty passions raged….
He is very brilliant, very self-assertive and, it seems to me, without nerves. I am seeing him tomorrow morning—we’ll rearrange the programs—he is enthusiastic over the fanfare idea, he is writing the program notes, and I am delighted with this….
My room is fine, but it has a superfluous bed. Three dollars a day, no weekly rate. Rodriguez said to the manager that the Hollywood Bowl Association will take care of the bill. I don’t bank on it, however.
NICHOLAS SLONIMSKY, on José Rodríguez
1991
Independence Day. Altman party in Malibu. Dress code; red, white and blue. Buy US Flag stickers and plaster my clothes, hair and face with them, and trek up the coast looking like a stamped parcel for just about the best party I have ever been to. Why? Well, I will try….
EASE. In every sense. Their condo is on the Pacific Ocean. I don’t mean NEAR, but ON the beach. The living room is dominated by the sound and sight of the pounding surf immediately beyond the wall-to-wall windows. Katherine is the coolest, keenest hostess I know, makes everyone feel hugely welcome, every detailed arrangement seem effortless, unfussed.
She has been married to Bob for thirty years, and they kind of “top ’n’ tail” one another with an outward show of EASE. Like hand-hewn spoons….Please, God, when my turn swifts up, do NOT let me fit a rug to my balding cranium or wrench some designer jeans around my saggy “cheeks.” Remember this wisdom. EASE….
Then there are fireworks over the Ocean, from Malibu Patriots. Food, candles, dancing, singing and I know no matter how I try to write this it will be a mere cornball to what it was like to be the
re. Apart from the absence of wife and baba, THIS is a night of perfect happiness. Unalloyed. PURE. Enough to make me cry, knowing it now, in the moment rather than reconstituted in memory.
RICHARD E. GRANT
JULY 5
1941
I spent 3 hours wandering round L.A. It is the most awful city, isn’t it? The only good thing in it was a marvelous Rare Book shop, wherein I browsed contentedly.
PETER PEARS
1941
The war of [Los Angeles and San Francisco] is a thing of the past. It never was much more than a publicity gag, and now the world has more important wars to worry about.
L. M. GIANNINI
1943
Dear brother,
I hope to God that you are well.
As for us we are all well thanks to God’s grace.
Without anything from you that I could refer to, I’ll send you this.
The 25th of last month marked three months since we’ve received a letter from you. We know that there is a lot of work for you here.