Wagon of the Day - 1958 Edsel Bermuda Station Wagon

I do believe,that WAS the point I was trying to make...I'm sure we'd all rather have the real Shelby Cobra signed by Carroll Shelby and/or Lee Iacocca,than the one signed by ANY Hollywood luminary...Or a real "Eleanor",over one of the clones made for the newer version of Gone In Sixty Seconds...Although,one of those Eleanor clones wouldn't be too bad...

 

Not dissin' your post, Taranau...just making my own statement. I worked in the business in Hollywood and hate the place with a passion. And most of the people in the buiness. I agree 100% with your post.

 

those Hollywooders---woodians?

Until recently,I worked in the Hollywood area,but not "in the business"...I can tell you,having also worked in other areas of Los Angeles,few neighbourhoods come with as many "bad vibes" that the Hollywood area does.You can feel yourself driving into them as you go over the Cahuenga Pass on the 170/101...It's as bad as a thick fog,maybe even worse.

 

I don't even know if they call the movie industry the "business" anymore. That's what everyone called it back in my day. I was out there way back in the early '70's. Thought I had reached the top when I was invited out to direct. Wrong. Made my own films before that and used a lot of the Hollywood talent, sound stages, Glen Glen Sound, CFI etc. I liked my trips out there and loved the weather. Once I MOVED there it was a different story. Still loved the weather (except for the smog) but working with some of the PEOPLE in the industry was an education that I soon realized I didn't need or want. Sure did like the non-rust old cars though. And everywhere you looked around the studios the women were drop dead gorgeous. Had my share of both the cars and the women. I had a lot of fun in CA but I knew I had to get out of that Hollywood scene. The people that stay in it are jaded for life. The Hollywood industry values and mine just aren't synonymous.

 

I have noticed that some there, are okay pleasant people.They're probabaly in the phase you were, when you first showed up...I have also noticed others(usually behind the cameras people,maybe not even on the set,really)who have a weird superiourity complex going.Some minor laws are suspended for film crews(like parking where-ever they want to,etc.)and,apparently so are others,for these people(like stopping at stop signs and just walking blindly out into the street)and God forbid you get upset with them for being this way.I've caught the "can't you tell I'm helping Hollywood make movies?" vibe more times than I can count.(I was just a mailman,who was I to be upset with them?)Which leads me to the "class distinction" vibe..."They" help Hollywood make movies and TV shows,the "rest of us" are just lowly working schmoes...Is THAT the kind of thing you were talking about?...Like Moe Greene in the first Godfather movie.

 

On the inside, even though I was the director...it was worse than that. Much worse. The thing that bothered me most is that many of the "stars" were bottom feeding, scum bag, druggies. Goes for a lot of them behind the cameras too. Maybe MOST of them. Don't get me wrong...I met and befriended SOME actors that were reasonably nice people....but....in general, they were as described. Behind the scenes, it was like you took the worst street people off the street, suddenly put them in charge and gave them a whole lot of money. It goes on and on but I don't even like talking about those experiences. Funny thing is, when people hear that I was a Hollywood director...that's all they want to talk about. Kinda hard on them after I pop their pie in the sky bubble. So..I learned to just not talk much about it. It simply is not the highlight of my life even though I made lots of money.

 

We'll steer it away from that then.Using part of that discussion.That's another elitist attitude that gets to me.That just because someone makes more money than you do,they are somehow way better than you...Like the part where,because they can afford to buy an MBZ AMG or Bugatti Veyron,they must be way smarter and a way better driver than us. Or,that because all I can afford is a big old stationwagon and a Taurus,I must be lazy and stupid.Nothing in their thinking about how I might want to spend all my money on a car I actually like driving,instead of whatever's trendy and "HHOOTT!!!" So I can have lots of money to spend on something else,instead...I do know people who live in shared apartments and eat little more than fast food,because they spend the bulk of their earnings on the bitchen car they drive.One they only have for three years and then they move on to the next bitchen car.And then,it's an Accord,Maxima or Camry---and I just have to shake my head.

 

No problem bantering a bit about it here, Taranau. Just don't like going to parties and have to explain over and over again to tons of different people. Yeah...most of them get adulation on the set and start to actually believe thay are a superior human being and think others should continue the adulation where ever they go. It's a joke, really. And, of course, sooner or later they all take the proverbial nose dive and go back to begging for a job and selling their jewelry. Saw very few that could handle success.

 

Strangely enough,the most down to earth "showbiz" folks I met,were the guys in the Paramount mailroom...My big beef with Hollywood(and back when it was both Siskel and Ebert on the Siskel and Ebert show)it was a beef of some film critics,too(like Siskel and Ebert),that when a car in a movie crashes or gets squashed or blows uo in a big old ball of fire or flies off into the Grand Canyon---it's the nice old car that's actually worth something,that does this.Rarely,is it the brand new import sports model there's a million of.Why can't Hollywood make a movie where 100 cars are completely and totally demolished in a myriad of entertaining ways---and they're all brand new imports?

 

Well, I bought cars just because my dad hated them LOL

 

So that a potential buyer hopes his co-stars rode along clothed in nothing more than their wet bikinis?