Tuesday, May 17, 2011

WINNERS AND LOSERS IN LA-LA LAND

Many years ago, when the world was young and innocent, or I was, I went to the Bing Theater at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) to see an on-stage discussion of film with Billy Wilder and Izzy Diamond.

I thought it might be instructive, or mildly amusing. Little did I know. This was Hollywood, and these were two of the most successful and famous writers (and in Wilder's case, also a famous director) in the movie biz.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._A._L._Diamond

They had written a string of hits as long as your arm: "Some Like It Hot," "The Apartment," "Irma La Douce," on and on. 

The year must've been 1974 or '75. The theater was packed. They showed one of their movies first, I don't know why, since everyone knew their work. But we all sat through the flick--I don't recall which one--and the audience laughed and was well behaved.

Then the two giants of show biz sidled out onto the stage and sat down in two overstuffed armchairs, as I remember it. They were quiet, shy, typical old Jewish gentlemen.

They took questions from the audience. The first one: How do you make it in Hollywood?  

Everyone was stunned. How do you answer such a question? It reminds me of an old joke. A tourist on the street asks a taxi driver in New York, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" He answers, "Practice, practice, practice."

That's funny. But the two creative lions of show biz didn't know what to say. What could you say?

First, have tons of talent and write brilliant stuff for your college humor magazine, as Izzy had? Start out as a journalist in prewar Germany and then write brilliant screenplays, as Billy had?

I don't recall what they said, but I do recall a sense of embarrassment. I looked around and realized that the auditorium was full of ragged, bedraggled, lonely, forlorn people--skinny young men who had what Shakespeare called that "lean and hungry look."  

I remember one guy especially who looked like he hadn't eaten or changed his clothes or had a bath in a year.

It was sad. It told me something about Hollywood. "Many are called and few are chosen," as the old saying goes. Another old saying is that Hollywood is like a life raft that will hold five people and 500 people are trying desperately to get on.

Many people are attracted to the glitz and glamor of Screenland. The ones who get on the life raft are Winners. Those who don't are Losers. It's a brutal business. Hooray for Hollywood.

I am so glad I don't care about that.

But it reveals a dilemma for creative people. Do you go for the big bucks, or do you follow your own lights? Do you sell out, or are you content to labor in obscurity? Is the work its own reward? Or is it a means to fame and fortune?

It is hard for the work to be its own reward when you have to buy food and pay rent and put gas in your car. But that's the creative life, if you chose it, or it chooses you.

-- Roger

© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle

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