The Making of a Movie..."Christmas in Connecticut"

It was a busy day today! I found a Flea (really!) on Sadie; and since she is my bed-partner for the time being, that Flea was the object of my scorn for the better part of the morning. A quick trip to the local CVS Pharmacy, and the subsequent purchases of a Flea Collar, a Flea ointment, and an Oatmeal Shampoo, is putting chase to that one and only Flea as we speak! There will be no Flea Circus in my bedding...I don't care how the Sirs Barnum and Bailey would have handled that enigma in the good old days!

But that is not the "gist" of this story, probably has not the slightest connection to what I am going to share with you.

The "gist" of this story I am about to lay upon you came to me while I was humming a song to myself while searching for all those Flea products and the fact that Christmas would soon come upon us and CVS was being duly all decked out by its employees in Christmas decorations on a slightly colder day than usual for sunny Southern California and I was happy! Silver Bells happy! And it was only 9:25 a.m....

Let me take you back in time to the remaining three months of 1991, to the suburbs of Arcadia, California, where the calendar pages were confirming it was truly Winter, the days were getting shorter and the weather fast becoming slightly on the brisk side...REAL SNOW was expected on nearby Mt. Baldy and other Ski Resorts. Not much going on in our end of town but in the "uppity" part of Arcadia, there were rumors that a famous movie star was scouting out sites for a Turner Movie Classic to be called "Christmas in Connecticut." He was seen running up and down the myriad streets of our bedroom community in his Hummer (oh, yeah, this could be the connection) and was going to hire citizens to be "extras" in this movie that would star ruggedly handsome Kris Kristofferson, Laker's No. One Fan and fashion-model-skinny Dyan Cannon and some others, large and small, not quite so well known. (Well, Tony Curtis was definitely well-known but he wasn't in any scenes being shot in Arcadia.)  The man who singlehandedly had made The Hummer famous, Mr. Universe himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was to be the Director; he was the guy in the white tee-shirt in the Hummer, and everybody was agog with excitement. (Aren't you glad I solved Sadie's problem in one fell swoop, and we can now concentrate on this one man known as The Terminator, Mr.Freeze, Maria's muscled husband and, oh yes, California's 38th Governor!)

Back to the making of this Classic Movie - well, not really, but it was to be a remake of a Classic Movie - and for the true movie buff, I will probably ruin your take on movie making when I divulge one or two dirty little secrets I learned by peeking when I should have been typing away at my Pre-School duties.

By now you are probably wondering how I know even this much about how Arnold spent the months of October, November and December of 1991. It just so happened that one of the places scouted for a couple of the important scenes to wrap up the movie was the Quaker Church where I had lovingly toiled as Secretary, Treasurer, Board of Trustees, Window Washer on Work Days since 1965. The Hummer parked in front of the Church was one of the first indications that this location was exactly what Arnold had in mind: yes, the pews could be removed, wooden floors laid down over the new carpet and voila! the Sanctuary would become a place where Kris and Dyan would have a great time of mingling and dancing to the clapping hands of the extras. And the sidewalk in front of the Quaker Church was ideal for artificial snow to be blown about as the sleigh drawn by a beautiful horse left the dance with Kris and Dyan snuggled up under cozy robes. Perfect! Arnold was happy with the arrangements, the Trustees of the Church were happy for there was a fee involved for the use of the premises, and I was really happy for some church members who would be paid for being "extras" for the day...waiting to be discovered just like Lana Turner was at the drugstore counter in Hollywood, if you want to believe THAT story!

Sometimes out of a "downside" to any story there can be an "upside" ... in my case, the December 5th target date was the day I spent at the hospital with Del who was experiencing some heart problems and, not being there on location that day, I was definitely out of "the loop" and unlikely to be "discovered" which, if you will recall from previous Blogging, is why I came out to California in the first place in 1948. It seemed simple enough: Shirley Temple had 52 curls and became a star. I could type, take and transcribe Shorthand and had a few pin curls of my own...but I couldn't dance and no Bojangles to teach me. Enough said.... (Explaining to you with tongue-in-cheek, the Downside.)

(The Upside) Arriving at the scene where the stars and the church extras were acting out their lines at the dance inside the Church walls, the horse being fed a nice bucket of oats by his (or her) handler, the limousines with attached chauffeurs lined up both sides of Lenore Avenue, klieg lights, cameras, overhead booms (for sound) and reflection boards being wielded by stagehands, I was swept up in all the excitement as were a lot of the neighbors and Lookie Lou's who had dropped by to see what all the commotion was. Even the Arcadia police men and women strolled the premises which I found exciting, too! Uniforms! Sleepy South Arcadia had come alive!

Sometimes I just cannot help myself, wanting to know all the inside details of what makes things tick. But why I walked over to the parking lot where all the movie stars' huge trailers were parked and where the Transportation Crew was settled in, doing nothing but waiting for the movie to wrap up and they could all go home, well, that is what I do best...ask questions and soak up information to be mentally filed away to be used 19 years later in a Blog.

Only a shy and innocent lass from Iowa would ask the typically blonde question: "Is anybody famous here?" Of the Transportation Crew yet! Yup, I got their attention, and I shared with them that all my relatives back in Ioway thought I had movie stars for neighbors ever since I had written them about Martin and Lewis and my close encounter with Jerry. That got things started, of course, and so I took pictures of everyone and everything in the immediate vicinity, which can now be found somewhere in large boxes in a closet at 5529.

Now about those dirty little secrets. In those movie scenes where the actors are dancing dizzily around and around the dance floor and you think they are really better than anyone on "Dancing with the Stars"..well, don't you believe it! The dancers are standing, and hopefully anchored, on a moving platform and are not "boot-scooting" at all...very deceptive, right? The "snow" comes out of a machine and isn't really "snow" but that is a trick that is as old as the hills and this is not something new I am telling you. It is a convincing trick tho'! Furthermore, "Arnie" is really not all that tall, all that muscular nor all that different from your average "Joe" hanging out with his crowd at the Bit o' Bavaria down street on Live Oak Avenue. Mebbe a tad richer!   (And Dyan hung out with her stand-in and ignored my Rose Parade Princess hand wave...whatever, Dyan!)
As day turned to dusk and, with camera in hand trying to find just the right moment to "snap" Kris Kristofferson as he hurried to his "home away from home," I think I might have caused him to swallow his orange-colored Tic Tac (he jumped a country mile!) when I reached out to sweep a tree limb from his path and he might have thought I was reaching out to touch his arm....nawwwww! :)

But the dumbest thing I did that evening was to turn down a chance to meet Arnold on a one-to-one basis. Previously I had met a young man...he was seated among the Transportation Crew when I asked if there was anyone famous there, remember?...by the name of John. He and his wife were there as part of the movie and they were personal friends of Arnold's. As we got better acquainted and John realized I was not a threat to the completion of this movie, he asked me if I wanted to meet Arnold. Arnold, at that exact moment, was passing by, and it would have been the ideal time to exchange small talk, ask him how he's doing, how's the wife, when's the next "cattle call"... that sort of thing. (Yes, I do know John's last name but to save him embarrassment, I am not disclosing it at this time....he sorta got in trouble with the Government when he was involved with the House Banking scandal of 1992 after the making of this film. I am sure you can Google it if you are one of those who lose sleep over trivia like this...I'm going to!)

I can close my eyes and see the disconcerting look of disbelief on the face of my new friend, John of political fame in Washington D.C., as I said "Un huh...uhhh...nah."

So, kids, I am here to tell you now: when an opportunity that may never come again, presents itself to you in the form of a "gift," take it! We all know "It is not over until the Batlady sings!" and, perhaps, there will come another Kodak Moment for Arnold and me, perhaps not! The populace of California will "let Arnold go" in January of 2011, and he will have more time to flit around our countryside scouting locations for another new film in one of those Hummers now out of business, too. And if they decide to cast a now older, even shorter, curly-haired, nicely-rounded "femme fatale" for the role of "Batlady"...why, I am sure I can take time from my Facebook Friends to audition for an old "friend!" (It's either THAT or challenge Palin for President in 2012...on the Blogger's Transparency Platform...'cause every Geriatric Doctor's column I've read says..."You Seniors gotta keep movin', movin', movin'!)

No doubt "Christmas in Connecticut" will soon be seen on Turner Network again for the 18th time, and I (and my bed-partner, a Flealess Sadie) will watch it with the same wide-eyed enthusiasm I felt on that comfortably cold and wintry night, just before Christmas 1991.

Along with the employees of CVS, may I be the first to wish you a "Very Merry Christmas!"? And, that's a "wrap!" That's movie lingo for "30" in the newspaper world....