Some Hollywood thing ... thoughts!

Hi,
 
I wanted to post this, because some of the news recently about a huge name in Hollywood, is ... yeah ... that too ... and everyone is getting on the boat about it now. Hollywood has been about this kind of thing ... for 100 years, and the line that is irresistible is ... I'm going to make you a star ... or ... you want a chance to be a star? ... or ... we can go back as far as a woman falling off a boat something like 100 years ago (didn't count!), in what became a famous scandal, most of which was hushed and buried quickly to prevent the sanctified from getting their due. I suppose that accidents do happen, but there will always be a doubt or two?
 
Skipping a few years, the Advanced Acting class I was a part of at UCSB, was 19 actors (8 men and 11 women) and three directors (myself being one of them) and they were all very good. These folks were all Seniors or advanced Juniors for the most part and many of them had some experience in theater going as far back as high school, and in general, I would state that they were good.
 
Towards the end of the year, all students are kinda convinced that there is a try out for potential professional work, but you had to pay out $500 dollars for that chance (1981 mind you!!!) and it was going to be done in a place like the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, or a place with that kind of image and history to make the kids feel better and more important.
 
I had nothing better to do, except visit Moby Disk and the Tower on the Strip and pick up some import records and went to see it. I stayed for about 2 hours ... and here is the report. No kidding here!
 
A guy behind us, complete with hat and coat, was smoking cigars. He made it look like he was there for a reason, but he was bored senseless and only looked at the stage when there were women on it. He conveniently went out for popcorn or a drink when the guys were on, or if a scene had a pair of them, which some did. Mostly they were alone and they were to do it on their own. But it appeared that some were there for secondary reasons, that no one else knew.
 
In the middle of the theater was a sort of area bounded up, where three people stood and shouted instructions and when they could start or stop, and more than one person was stopped within a minute, btw! As I walked by, on the table was a copy of Penthouse, and a copy of Playboy, on the left side, quite visible from the isle and one of the "judges" opened one of these at least once during the time I was there, when someone was doing their scene. One other was smoking a cigar and loved talking to the left or right about any of the scenes.
 
At the end of one of my mates' audition, she walked out and while walking back to our theater group, she was whispered by this guy. She went over to him, and he complimented her, and asked her if she wanted to go out for a drink, and see if any of the projects he had on hand (he was carrying a lot of scripts it seemed), would fit her.
She was excited that someone noticed, and went.
 
The school year was over, so we kind went our ways after that ... but only 2 folks in my group did any professional work, two of the men, and one is still active in the LA area theater thing, even though he became an entertainment lawyer.
 
I have met, since, and we're talking now 30 years plus, 2 of the women, one of which was the said lady mentioned above. We were not, and had not, any direct involvement, but since I had directed her a couple of times, one in a performed play, and a couple of scenes for the year long class, and she was nice to talk to, and I had, one time, to help her open up some, in order to let lose a little to be able to do a scene that was very hard for her ... and we discussed some personal stuff that helped her break normal personal patterns, the kind of thing that actor training works on the most. One was people touching her, and making advances ... and she said that the whole thing was a mistake, and that she should have never had gone, as she was not exactly raped, though she had enough drinks and laughs, but she was not given a choice ... your dream life (potentially) ... or the door ... and she wanted a chance at it, but knew right away that the dream of the star thing was not serious, and mostly it was an inside joke.
 
She got passed around to at least 3 or 4 guys in the next 3 months, until she figured out that they were not agents at all, but just hackers picking up innocent and unknowing girls ... who thought nothing about the whole thing ... and of course, the professors all stand by that cattle call ... for other reasons, but not always different. We're talking something like 5K of these acting "tryouts"  across the country.
 
Of the 11 women, I know of at least 5 of them that had a fling or two with professors and assistant professors and a few TA's. Two of them were even given major parts in various plays. One of the girls, seems to have refused them all, or at least never got "caught" near them, and mysteriously she never got cast, even as a spear carrier. She was actually very good, and had a nice sense for characterization, that was not centered on just tricks and hand expressions. She never did any more acting after this, but also did not say anything about it either.
 
My own girlfriend, did not make it into the advanced acting class, and her studies in theater and acting went south from there, and the relationship died ... her voice was not settled and it worked against her, the sad part being that professors could not imagine that someone at the age of 20 still was going to go through various body changes, of which the voice is also one. Our 2 year relationship fell apart, since there was no reason for her to be with a directing major, though I was ready to do film, and had written a screenplay for her, and already made a film by that time. I wrote 2 more things for her, and various poems, and scenes, which she does not know about, and probably will never even consider, and I moved on ... but the sad thing about it all, is that she, too, fell into the hands of folks in the University, and she was also taken advantage of ... for another empty dream!
 
I doubt, that film and theater are the only sides of the University life that are worse than what that one person has a history of. There are many others in Hollywood and in other places around the world, where they are still in charge doing what they do ... end of story ... and thank you very much! My own boss at one ISP, would walk around with 2 Golf Balls, and state loudly in front of anyone ... "I like playing with my balls" ... and he could say it, because he was the boss! Guess what some Hollywood hotshots (and in other places in the world ... !!!) love to say and do? Heck, they do that in tryouts for porno stuff, too!
 
The moral of all this is ... there is no moral, since where there is "money" and "fame", there is also going to be the scavenger, the crook, the thief and everyone else that we love to hate and talk about, when we hear about something like the current situation, when all we want to do is crucify him, and every one gets on the boat ... and damn it ... even Monty Python was right and the crowd went crazy and had their fun for a few days ...
 
It's not fun for any of these ladies to have to put up with this, and I never tried to even go out with any of the ladies in the acting class (I was with the specified lady above already), and I did not harbor any ideas or fantasies about any of them ... I was more interested in doing my Peter Brook exercises and ideas with the actors, many of which liked working with me, because I was innovative and creative, and allowed them freedom. I was not directing "ideas" ... I was working the moments as they happened.
 
This does not mean you can not allow your daughter to do theater or film ... but what you will, at the very least, is tell her that ... she needs to promise not to go to cattle calls ... where a lot of these things get started. And wouldn't you know it ... I just saw "All That Jazz" and the same similar thing is there, and this was at the same time.
 
Thanks for reading this far ... if it matters ... I bet that some of you have similar stories about music, and yeah, the wife of a band member in the house I lived in, was accosted quite a few times, right in front of her husband guitarist!

I read the whole thing. I'm not sure if there was a statement in there, but definitely not a question.
 
Are you saying it's a horrible practice that's been going on forever, or are you saying it's the price of admission into that industry?
 
From my viewpoint, scumbags like HW and Bernie Madoff have been with us always. Our own greed makes us vulnerable to them. If we didn't want so desperately for power, money or fame, they would not have power over us.  We give them the leverage they use. 

Gosh Pedro!  I can't believe you wrote all of that without mentioning that you live really close to the "real" Hollywood (not the one in Kalifornia that stole the name). 
 
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Of course, for full disclosure, you could have mentioned it, I didn't have time to read all of it and only took in the "Cliff Notes" version posted by Paulo... 

That's a book I'm writing:  Hollywood Through the Back Door.

Hi,
 
Not sure you even want to hear the stories about radio ... FM radio this one ... and even some of the "stars" that came around ... I'm not saying anything about those, since most of it was hearsay, and I was not there, but the stories were ... yeah ... not any better than .... !!!

Beepster

 

I feel sorry for the one on the near right.

The one in the foreground though seems to have...
 
...
 
wait for it...
 
...
 
WAAAAAIT FOOOR IT!!!!
 
*drumroll*
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
the eye of the tiger!
 

*begrudgingly gives SSUK an orangutag... but with an asterisk... in fact... ALL of the asteriskses*
 
 
************ X infinitum

craigb
With an arseterisk? 

You got something on your mind, craig?
 
As Bapu would say...
 
 
 
nttiawwt
 

Ham N Egz
TL;DR
 
anybody got the Cliff Notes version of the OP post?

 
Pedro knew some women actors who were hit on by casting directors. I think that's the gist of it.

Wait a minute...  Pedro slept with Weinstein too??? 
 
(Maybe I misunderstood...)