A sad comment on the business today. That birthday party in 2013 had as many people show up as did because "the word" was out about what Roger was facing. Jack Nicholson showed up. I ended up talking with him at the bar. We got to talking about "new" Hollywood, and he made a comment I will never forget: "I wouldn't have a clue how you'd break in nowadays." He was referring to all the damn "interns". The finest actor of his generation, wouldn't know how to get in.
I was surprised to hear he had Alzheimer’s. I spoke to him a few months ago at a dinner party and he was completely alert and conversant on all sorts of topics. He was on his way to a festival celebrating drive-in movies in Nevada somewhere.
It's mostly my guess from the way he retired from public life, others agree, other people say they saw him as you say you did. They're going out of their way to not say a thing as to cause of death, which makes me think I'm right. Having been around three people who went from Alzheimers and my wife's journey into the beginnings of Parkinson's dementia before she passed (without going fully there, thank god), I know what I saw. There is also a lot of "sturm und drang" inside the family, since his children from his first marriage have never gotten along with Julie. There was a lawsuit a few years ago about removing her as the person responsible for him that disappeared into the murk. Roger got his gift of being very rich (over $100m) with the killing they made on Little Shop of Horrors on Broadway, so there's lots to fight about.
During the strike last summer, I went over to Warner's picket line and talked to some young writers - all members of the WGA - we lived in different worlds. When I got in, it meant you gave up the side gigs because you'd be working. For them, their side gigs are their main income and being a screenwriter is almost a hobby. I wouldn't have a clue how to get in now, either. The process I described here doesn't exist any more. What was shocking to me over there was discovering I made more money from my books than they did from screenwriting.
It all traces back to Reagan’s dissolution of PATCO in 1981. That gave all employers a green light to shortchange workers of all stripes. And employers ran with it.
I'm sorry, Tom, but as you say, even if you know it's coming, you are never ready. You had a long history there and when I got the WaPo news, I almost forwarded it to you, but then I knew for sure that you would hear from your own connections. He meant so much to so many over the years. I'm sure he taught you a lot too. My engineering mentor was a brilliant man, professor at Cal Tech who passed from Azheimers also. The most horrible way for an amazing mind to go. I was fortunate to see him on TV at the Academy Awards, getting his honorary Oscar for inventing the Movieola and setting up the company to manufacture that device that revolutionized putting a film together. He could barely speak and walked with difficulty, but it was clear that he still remembered the Movieola. He passed less than a year later.
I'm sure you have many more stories yourself of your experiences with Corman over the years. "about stuff" says more than many others of what and who he was. even as the Variety obit told how much he meant to so many coming up that we've forgotten that there was a time when nobody knew who they were. Your recollections are important too. Write them down as they come to you. He was lucky that you are the one that showed up.
I almost forgot. LInda designed Roger's first company logo back in the day, when she worked at the Women's Graphic Center down at the Woman's Building. He went there because he could get the good work done cheaper than anywhere else. True to Roger. LInda still has the original artwork in one of her files.
Mark Serrurier. Also look up Serrurier Truss. The contribution that allowed Big Science to be. Asrtrophysics would not be here without it. Ronald Florence's book, The Perfect Machine is the history of the develpment of astrophysics, starting at the New York Athletic Club and ending with the dedication of the 200" Palomar Telescope. I worked for his son, Steve, building Rose Parade floats in Pasadena. Mark had recently retired and sold Moviola to the competition, Magnasync and brought one of the old South Bend lathes to the shop to help build the moving parts. I was designing the animation and structural systems so it was natural that he hung out with me and showed me his designs that his son asked him about.Since I was doing the building and faster and cheaper was the goal, if my design would last through the parade we'd do it my way. If he saw serious issues, we'd do it his way. In either case, he would bring drawings, graphs and calculations back the next day and go over all of it so I could incorporate the physics into my future designs, He was at my side for four years. No grad student ever got that kind of hands on attention and experience. I loved that man more than my own father, who cast doubt upon my every move since childhood.
Mark's father actually built the first little hand crank projector to show movies at home. Mark incorporated the frame accurate cutting block and BOOM, there was the Moviola.
I can be a little long winded, but there was so much more about Mark Serrurier than his name.
When I saw that Roger had passed RIP, I knew that you would have something good to say about him, and I wasn't wrong Tom. That was a beautiful tribute that obviously came from the heart, as a long time member of the film making tribe, I was touched. While I never worked with Roger, I'm almost alone among my long time friends who didn't get their start working with him. So many people got their first break because of him, what a wonderful legacy to have left our industry. Making money is great but it's who you help when given an opportunity that will survive the bank accounts and far outlive you in the end. What a nice remembrance Tom, thank you for it, I'll pass it around, I know people who will want to read it.
Truly an amazing career over many decades - I'm sire you are glad you had the opportunity to work with such a creative and versatile mentor. I have seen many of the films you's listed and was not aware that Roger had been involved n so many of them. Treasure those memories.....
like a lot of people, I tended to deride RC when I was a young whippersnapper immersing myself in "great" film because I'd spent my entire childhood in movie theaters every chance I got. I even got into some sort of primitive "script analysis" because I'd come in whenever I came in and watch the movie from the beginning, figuring out how the plot worked. if the second feature was good enough, I'd watch it again as well. my parents were cool about this and let me go to the local movie theaters alone from the age of seven or so. in the summer, the movie theater was the coolest (as in "air conditioned by refrigeration") place to be. and I LIKED the Roger Corman movies I saw there, even if--even then--I resented some of the plot liberties taken with the original Poe stories.
later, when I was doing my film education in HS and college (in any NYC summer, one could get a pretty firm grounding in great older movies by following the "festivals" at the Thalia, New Yorker, Bleecker Street, Garrick, 8th Street Playhouse, Theatre 80 St Mark's, Elgin et al). the prints were deplorable but it was fun having everybody in the audience giggle when a bad splice was coming because we'd all seen it many times before. and of course, the reigning "hipness" was that RC wasn't to be taken "seriously."
much later, of course, I started to read and hear about the myriad ways in which Corman was all about finding and nurturing young talent; for this, he seemed to have been one of the most loved presences in Hollywood.
he had a great run. may his memory be a blessing, as we say in my "religion." I can occasionally cite my religion in a positive way because it's a religion of practice, not faith (a quick and elegant formulation I only recently came across). I was born without the faith gene. but this does mean I am any kind of pure materialist. for example, I'm waiting impatiently for Jubal to show up in a dream to let me know he's okay. and that is NOT a metaphor. actually, the day after he passed, my superintendent and close friend told me (very excitedly) that he saw Jubie in a dream, running to greet him as fast and with the same intense sense of purpose he displayed in life. I told this to the friend I was with when we went to pick him up from the final car in the rescue group's relay trip from Virginia. she asked me if I'd had a dream about him and I said no. she stopped sobbing (we both were) and said "Nah...he's gonna make you wait...he knows that now he has you in his power forever." he already did and he always will.
sorry for the digression, but I can't help it.
anyway, thank whatever powers may be for guys like RC. he was a real mensch.
Interesting history. I saw "The Tin Drum" many years ago and to this day still remember some of its more disturbing scenes. Gale Ann Hurd is famous to me for not only the Terminator franchise but also The Walking Dead television series.
Another grad is Rachel Talalay who made a mark with Tank Girl and had since directed episodes of Dr, Who, Sherlock and Riverdale. Her brother and so worked at our college radio station together.
In the education business I was in, a favorite saying was "teachers touch tomorrow." I can't think of a greater legacy than to mentor and nurture others who will add their gifts to the world. This is a lovely tribute to a man I never knew, but who truly did "touch tomorrow."
Great essay about Roger Corman and your association with him. I have forwarded your essay onto some of my writing and film friends out there on your coast and around here in New England. Thanks for writing about the film making legend.
A sad comment on the business today. That birthday party in 2013 had as many people show up as did because "the word" was out about what Roger was facing. Jack Nicholson showed up. I ended up talking with him at the bar. We got to talking about "new" Hollywood, and he made a comment I will never forget: "I wouldn't have a clue how you'd break in nowadays." He was referring to all the damn "interns". The finest actor of his generation, wouldn't know how to get in.
I was surprised to hear he had Alzheimer’s. I spoke to him a few months ago at a dinner party and he was completely alert and conversant on all sorts of topics. He was on his way to a festival celebrating drive-in movies in Nevada somewhere.
It's mostly my guess from the way he retired from public life, others agree, other people say they saw him as you say you did. They're going out of their way to not say a thing as to cause of death, which makes me think I'm right. Having been around three people who went from Alzheimers and my wife's journey into the beginnings of Parkinson's dementia before she passed (without going fully there, thank god), I know what I saw. There is also a lot of "sturm und drang" inside the family, since his children from his first marriage have never gotten along with Julie. There was a lawsuit a few years ago about removing her as the person responsible for him that disappeared into the murk. Roger got his gift of being very rich (over $100m) with the killing they made on Little Shop of Horrors on Broadway, so there's lots to fight about.
I had a young acquaintance who was trying. Unfortunately, during the pandemic. He’s off in Italy now getting another degree. Not that it will help.
During the strike last summer, I went over to Warner's picket line and talked to some young writers - all members of the WGA - we lived in different worlds. When I got in, it meant you gave up the side gigs because you'd be working. For them, their side gigs are their main income and being a screenwriter is almost a hobby. I wouldn't have a clue how to get in now, either. The process I described here doesn't exist any more. What was shocking to me over there was discovering I made more money from my books than they did from screenwriting.
It all traces back to Reagan’s dissolution of PATCO in 1981. That gave all employers a green light to shortchange workers of all stripes. And employers ran with it.
...like I needed another reason to loathe Reagan?
You honor Roger Corman with this tribute.
It's those people who who launch others to great careers in the profession who deserve the biggest accolades.
Thank you. This is a looking glass into a place and time you obviously cherished. It made me wish I had lived it too.
Back when "makin' mo'om pitchas" was fun. Which it isn't now.
You got that right!
I'm sorry, Tom, but as you say, even if you know it's coming, you are never ready. You had a long history there and when I got the WaPo news, I almost forwarded it to you, but then I knew for sure that you would hear from your own connections. He meant so much to so many over the years. I'm sure he taught you a lot too. My engineering mentor was a brilliant man, professor at Cal Tech who passed from Azheimers also. The most horrible way for an amazing mind to go. I was fortunate to see him on TV at the Academy Awards, getting his honorary Oscar for inventing the Movieola and setting up the company to manufacture that device that revolutionized putting a film together. He could barely speak and walked with difficulty, but it was clear that he still remembered the Movieola. He passed less than a year later.
I'm sure you have many more stories yourself of your experiences with Corman over the years. "about stuff" says more than many others of what and who he was. even as the Variety obit told how much he meant to so many coming up that we've forgotten that there was a time when nobody knew who they were. Your recollections are important too. Write them down as they come to you. He was lucky that you are the one that showed up.
I almost forgot. LInda designed Roger's first company logo back in the day, when she worked at the Women's Graphic Center down at the Woman's Building. He went there because he could get the good work done cheaper than anywhere else. True to Roger. LInda still has the original artwork in one of her files.
What is the name of your professor who invented the movieola. I learned to edit on one and remember it fondly.
Mark Serrurier. Also look up Serrurier Truss. The contribution that allowed Big Science to be. Asrtrophysics would not be here without it. Ronald Florence's book, The Perfect Machine is the history of the develpment of astrophysics, starting at the New York Athletic Club and ending with the dedication of the 200" Palomar Telescope. I worked for his son, Steve, building Rose Parade floats in Pasadena. Mark had recently retired and sold Moviola to the competition, Magnasync and brought one of the old South Bend lathes to the shop to help build the moving parts. I was designing the animation and structural systems so it was natural that he hung out with me and showed me his designs that his son asked him about.Since I was doing the building and faster and cheaper was the goal, if my design would last through the parade we'd do it my way. If he saw serious issues, we'd do it his way. In either case, he would bring drawings, graphs and calculations back the next day and go over all of it so I could incorporate the physics into my future designs, He was at my side for four years. No grad student ever got that kind of hands on attention and experience. I loved that man more than my own father, who cast doubt upon my every move since childhood.
Mark's father actually built the first little hand crank projector to show movies at home. Mark incorporated the frame accurate cutting block and BOOM, there was the Moviola.
I can be a little long winded, but there was so much more about Mark Serrurier than his name.
When I saw that Roger had passed RIP, I knew that you would have something good to say about him, and I wasn't wrong Tom. That was a beautiful tribute that obviously came from the heart, as a long time member of the film making tribe, I was touched. While I never worked with Roger, I'm almost alone among my long time friends who didn't get their start working with him. So many people got their first break because of him, what a wonderful legacy to have left our industry. Making money is great but it's who you help when given an opportunity that will survive the bank accounts and far outlive you in the end. What a nice remembrance Tom, thank you for it, I'll pass it around, I know people who will want to read it.
Truly an amazing career over many decades - I'm sire you are glad you had the opportunity to work with such a creative and versatile mentor. I have seen many of the films you's listed and was not aware that Roger had been involved n so many of them. Treasure those memories.....
Ninety-Eight...What a ride!!! (As Wags on 'Billions' might say) Great stories, Tom.
sorry for your loss, Tom.
like a lot of people, I tended to deride RC when I was a young whippersnapper immersing myself in "great" film because I'd spent my entire childhood in movie theaters every chance I got. I even got into some sort of primitive "script analysis" because I'd come in whenever I came in and watch the movie from the beginning, figuring out how the plot worked. if the second feature was good enough, I'd watch it again as well. my parents were cool about this and let me go to the local movie theaters alone from the age of seven or so. in the summer, the movie theater was the coolest (as in "air conditioned by refrigeration") place to be. and I LIKED the Roger Corman movies I saw there, even if--even then--I resented some of the plot liberties taken with the original Poe stories.
later, when I was doing my film education in HS and college (in any NYC summer, one could get a pretty firm grounding in great older movies by following the "festivals" at the Thalia, New Yorker, Bleecker Street, Garrick, 8th Street Playhouse, Theatre 80 St Mark's, Elgin et al). the prints were deplorable but it was fun having everybody in the audience giggle when a bad splice was coming because we'd all seen it many times before. and of course, the reigning "hipness" was that RC wasn't to be taken "seriously."
much later, of course, I started to read and hear about the myriad ways in which Corman was all about finding and nurturing young talent; for this, he seemed to have been one of the most loved presences in Hollywood.
he had a great run. may his memory be a blessing, as we say in my "religion." I can occasionally cite my religion in a positive way because it's a religion of practice, not faith (a quick and elegant formulation I only recently came across). I was born without the faith gene. but this does mean I am any kind of pure materialist. for example, I'm waiting impatiently for Jubal to show up in a dream to let me know he's okay. and that is NOT a metaphor. actually, the day after he passed, my superintendent and close friend told me (very excitedly) that he saw Jubie in a dream, running to greet him as fast and with the same intense sense of purpose he displayed in life. I told this to the friend I was with when we went to pick him up from the final car in the rescue group's relay trip from Virginia. she asked me if I'd had a dream about him and I said no. she stopped sobbing (we both were) and said "Nah...he's gonna make you wait...he knows that now he has you in his power forever." he already did and he always will.
sorry for the digression, but I can't help it.
anyway, thank whatever powers may be for guys like RC. he was a real mensch.
Interesting history. I saw "The Tin Drum" many years ago and to this day still remember some of its more disturbing scenes. Gale Ann Hurd is famous to me for not only the Terminator franchise but also The Walking Dead television series.
Another grad is Rachel Talalay who made a mark with Tank Girl and had since directed episodes of Dr, Who, Sherlock and Riverdale. Her brother and so worked at our college radio station together.
Wow! I had no idea…thank you.
💜
In the education business I was in, a favorite saying was "teachers touch tomorrow." I can't think of a greater legacy than to mentor and nurture others who will add their gifts to the world. This is a lovely tribute to a man I never knew, but who truly did "touch tomorrow."
Morning Tom,
Great essay about Roger Corman and your association with him. I have forwarded your essay onto some of my writing and film friends out there on your coast and around here in New England. Thanks for writing about the film making legend.
What a terrific tribute this piece is. I'm sure Mr. Corman would be pleased and proud.