Thanks, Figo/Trab....... Good to hear that you like these recollections. I gotta write them down before the facts start fadeing away.
I've been a movie fan since I saw Pinnochio as a little kid and spent some time crashing the movie studios when I was old enough to drive a car and make serveral attempts at "crashing the gates" at 20th Century, Universal, and several other major Hollywood/Burbank studios.
While I was in high school, my favorite hobby was doing my best to sneak into various movie scenes as they were being filmed. My biggest success in that respect was a scene in a Frank Sinatra/Kim Novak movie called "Pal Joey". There were others too, but nothing worth mentioning here.
Later on my best friend became a major stuntman at Universal Studios (before the theme park was even being thought of) and he was the kind of guy who had no idea who or what major movie stars were, but he enjoyed the work and became one of the top stunt guys in the movie business making friends with some of the major players and studio owners during the 60's and 70's. (I'm bad at dates.)
I'd go to work with him quite often and would end up wandering through the sound stages watching them film some big Hollywood production starring actors who woould soon be major players in the big time movie world.
And as time passed some of my nephews and nieces got into the business and became someone important and indispensible in the making of some of the major block busters and a few minor attractions over the past few years .... Eraser, Grinch, Superman, Hulk, Village, (a others which I presently don't recall) and a couple other major films to be released shortly.
So with this family involvement, I've gotten involved once more and did some stunt work and, more enjoyably, stunt coordination and had/have the opportunity to meet some darn interesting people in this business called movie-making.
I, myself, am on the fringe of the business, but some of my family members are in the very center and work constantly.
Once you're known as the "Best at what you do", the doors are open wide and the work is fairly constant. And very profitable.
But the immediate future concerning the possible writer's strike may slow it down a bit. That will definitely hurt the TV industry and could possibly have an adverse effect on the movie business as well. Everybody wants a bigger share of the pie and as I understand it, the smallest slice always went to those who did the writing, and now they want to change the way that pie is cut.
