The Final Entries
I've been looking back on my adventure in Hollywood, culling pages from my journal...
Previously on a Writer’s Journal’s Journey: I am introduced to a low-level producer who likes my stuff. A meeting is arranged…
So a few days later, I meet with Ralph Cooper, low-budget producer. My new contact, Bernadette, was there and some other guy (Joey Kato—who?) at Club USA. I have the barest of memories of being in this quiet bar on a Monday night. Cooper was very, very impressed with “Peking Duck.” And he’s willing to do whatever he has to do get Duck to his contacts, including cut a deal with Night Hawk Entertainment. Cooper feels his contacts are placed high enough and are anxious enough to see something from him that he has to act quickly.
Cooper thought a lot of himself.
So a few days later, I meet with Ralph Cooper, low-budget producer. My new contact, Bernadette, was there and some other guy (Joey Kato—who?) at Club USA. I have the barest of memories of being in this quiet bar on a Monday night. Cooper was very, very impressed with “Peking Duck.” And he’s willing to do whatever he has to do get Duck to his contacts, including cut a deal with Night Hawk Entertainment. Cooper feels his contacts are placed high enough and are anxious enough to see something from him that he has to act quickly.
Cooper thought a lot of himself.
So, I call Ken Hawk and he sounded “hurt, threatened” that Duck may be taken away from him. Hawk has been showing it around; it got rejected by one place and was sitting at another. But he’s willing to talk to Cooper.
I touched base with Bernadette the next day. And we figure we’re in for the long haul.
This entry ends with me mentioning that the Writers Guild Annual meeting was the night before. I met with the president, Herb Sargent. At an earlier guild mixer, I spoke with Herb and somehow we started to talk about refrigerator magnets and how there are none shaped like a refrigerator. I found one and gave it to him that night. Then a woman demonstrated a new product, script writing software. Scriptware, I note, looks “way cool.” “Some day!” I added.
I touched base with Bernadette the next day. And we figure we’re in for the long haul.
This entry ends with me mentioning that the Writers Guild Annual meeting was the night before. I met with the president, Herb Sargent. At an earlier guild mixer, I spoke with Herb and somehow we started to talk about refrigerator magnets and how there are none shaped like a refrigerator. I found one and gave it to him that night. Then a woman demonstrated a new product, script writing software. Scriptware, I note, looks “way cool.” “Some day!” I added.
A few days later, I learn I didn’t win the WGA election. I got 96 votes and placed higher than 5 other candidates. Who knows, maybe if I was actually motivated about it.
Cooper and Hawk talked. Cooper said it took him all of “five seconds” to convince Hawk to make a deal. Now Cooper is all psyched to go. I have to supply him with the copies, however. A few days later I run the copies up myself to Cooper’s fancy apartment. He follows up with a call to supply a resume which he will include with the cover letter he’s writing.
Then Generation Sketch calls. They’re planning to do another set of shows in November.
Cooper and Hawk talked. Cooper said it took him all of “five seconds” to convince Hawk to make a deal. Now Cooper is all psyched to go. I have to supply him with the copies, however. A few days later I run the copies up myself to Cooper’s fancy apartment. He follows up with a call to supply a resume which he will include with the cover letter he’s writing.
Then Generation Sketch calls. They’re planning to do another set of shows in November.
    | So, as I reach the final pages of my notebook journal, I wrote nothing in November ’94. On the last page, I tried to wrap up what had happened; My friend John Rawlins called after 2 years. Why? To help him move. He later called back to say he was getting movers instead. I don’t hear from him in 2 years and that’s what prompts a call? Sheesh. The option with Hawk expired and Cooper was now looking to get going and get an agreement directly with me. He was showing “Duck” around. Bernadette and I were trading material to critique for each other. She even recommended me for a gig, a radio gig, she didn’t feel right for (Didn’t pan out). But it certainly seemed like Bernadette and Cooper were going to be in my life for a while. I talked to Kevin Brown, he’s still hustling “Kringle.” Generation Sketch didn’t do a November show, but was getting the taped show on the local cable station. Rob Taub, of “Where’s the Party,” calls me out of the blue to see if I could get his script to the proper committee for the guild script reading series. Later, I run into him at a guild event, but he left early, not feeling well. So much for reestablishing a connection there. |
By the time I reached the final page of my journal it had become a much broader picture of everything I was working on, not just my “Hollywood adventure.” It’s a record of the mundane and repetitive nature of an aspiring writer. It’s “hurry up & wait.” Nothing happens for months, then you get a call and you have to come up with a new take on a script you thought everyone loved. It’s getting in bed with hustlers and wanna-bes, all trying to weasel their way into show business.
I’m not a social person. I’m civil. I’m polite. But I’m not a networker, a schmoozer. These various people I’ve encountered on my path to wherever it is I am now passed through my life. Not a one became part of my live. Nothing ended, things just petered out. And nothing I did build toward a “next thing.” I would wind up in some situation, that situation would play out and it would simply cease to be. Then I would stumble over into the next situation. Sometimes they over lapped, sometimes they intersected but none of it stuck. And here I am.
This was the end of the first 100 page composition book I bought and filled. I know there was discouragement. I know there was disappointment. But there was always hope. It happened once, it could happen again, right? That’s what kept me going for a long while. And it filled a lot more notebooks. Will I continue to rehash this for the blog? Maybe. I now have a hankering to pull out the old volumes and re-read them. Maybe I’ll be able to put a story or two from them. Something with a beginning, a middle and an end. What happens with Cooper? Does Brown ever return? How many more scripts am I going to create? A lot I’ve forgotten and maybe I’d like to remind myself.
We’ll see, we’ll see.
I’m not a social person. I’m civil. I’m polite. But I’m not a networker, a schmoozer. These various people I’ve encountered on my path to wherever it is I am now passed through my life. Not a one became part of my live. Nothing ended, things just petered out. And nothing I did build toward a “next thing.” I would wind up in some situation, that situation would play out and it would simply cease to be. Then I would stumble over into the next situation. Sometimes they over lapped, sometimes they intersected but none of it stuck. And here I am.
This was the end of the first 100 page composition book I bought and filled. I know there was discouragement. I know there was disappointment. But there was always hope. It happened once, it could happen again, right? That’s what kept me going for a long while. And it filled a lot more notebooks. Will I continue to rehash this for the blog? Maybe. I now have a hankering to pull out the old volumes and re-read them. Maybe I’ll be able to put a story or two from them. Something with a beginning, a middle and an end. What happens with Cooper? Does Brown ever return? How many more scripts am I going to create? A lot I’ve forgotten and maybe I’d like to remind myself.
We’ll see, we’ll see.
