Y's Men of Westport/Weston
Y's Men of Westport/Weston
Hank Herman and Paul Burger
1/12/12
Hank Herman, author, educator and regular contributor to the Westport News and our own Paul Burger were our speakers last Thursday. Their subject was – memoir writing.
Hank began by reading his column for the next day’s Westport News entitled “Caffeine to the Rescue” and then went on to describe how he approached writing a memoir. One had to choose a subject and then be self confident – if the piece was interesting to the writer it should be interesting to others. He discussed three problems. The first was getting started and the cure was just to throw down 10 to 12 thoughts on a yellow pad. That was enough on which to build the story. Then, in 45 minutes, write a rough draft – 800-1,000 words in a frenzy of creativity. From there – self edit. Was it funny? – Yes/no. Was it current? Yes/no. Was it interesting or boring? And so on.
The next step was crafting. Get it into a consistent structure with good grammar and vocabulary. And lastly, fine tune it – add the finishing touches.
The second problem was the act of “writing” itself. You had to enjoy it as an intellectual exercise and you had to have the drive to make it good.
And finally – embarrassment. A memoir was a personal experience shared with others. Was that appropriate? You had to have at least one editor who would also serve as your censor. In his case, it was his family.
He then gave some examples of stories he had written. These included “Little League Revisited” that described the joy of his 10-year old son who was the winning pitcher on his Little League team, noting that detail in the writing was needed to keep it interesting. Another example was a college tour he took with his reluctant 17-year old son. He noted also that a memoir was a single event, not a life history - that was, of course, an autobiography. Don’t be afraid to write about yourself, said Hank, but to avoid the appearance of self importance, use self deprecating humour.
Y’s Man Paul Burger then took up the theme with a Power Point presentation of his book “An Aviator’s Story”. He asked us to think of his story as a template for our own memoir. He created a photo book, for which he used software called Blurb.com, because he thought that in years to come his grandchildren might become interested in his love affair with flying and he wanted to tell them about it in his own words. He described some of his most memorable experiences including trips with a friend in their private aircraft to places as diverse as Singapore, Russia, Shanghai and, his favorite, a solo business trip around the country in his twin engine Cessna 310.
In Q and A. the following points were made: oral and video family histories were a wonderful idea with modern, good, affordable equipment. Passion in the creation of a memoir was critical, but Hank preferred to avoid this rather overused word. A cross country road trip with a dog for company, in Hank’s case a beagle, was highly recommended. And the use of computer programs such as Nuance to convert the spoken word to text, could be very helpful, especially for those with vision problems.
With that, we can now confidently expect a spate of Y’s Men memoirs all ready for publishing, printing and who knows, maybe regurgitation at a Y’s Men meeting.
Christmas has come and gone but its message is timeless….
Doug Tirola
1/26/12
Doug Tirola’s talk was entitled “A Westport Life in Movies” and he began by describing his love affair with Westport. Doug’s parents moved to Westport in the 60’s and Doug’s father served on the Board of Ed. as a result of which Doug went to Fairfield Country Day but finished his high school education at Staples. From there he went to Miami University of Oxford, Ohio where he studied film. He became a screen writer and produced a movie with some nudity that got him some, and the actress a lot more, attention. He worked as a Hollywood screen writer and produced documentaries and, after marriage, moved back to Westport. He noted how the town had changed with the loss of its own movie theaters as well as some of the local stores, bars and restaurants. To him, the restaurant, Dunville’s captured the atmosphere and sense of community that Westport once had and that he would like to see revived.
Doug then introduced Mrs. Sandy Lefkowitz, head of the Westport Cinema Initiative and, (although I admit to being a little slow), here we learned that the main point of his presentation: their aim was to open a 3-screen cinema in Westport that would show documentaries and foreign films as well as general distribution movies. To succeed, the project would need community support and membership subscriptions.
They had targeted a site for construction, located between the Tavern on Main restaurant and Great Stuff store and were working on a business plan encompassing a 6,500 square foot facility able to seat 200 people with 3 screens that would be presented to the Town’s Planning & Zoning Department.
The Y’s Men had several questions:
Why not use the Playhouse? Because its commitment was to live performance – it had not been redesigned to show movies.
Netflix and the Internet gave cheap and easy access to a movie library. How could the Cinema Initiative compete? The membership element and appeal to seniors would be important.
What was the current market for documentaries – Michael Moore seemed to be the only one who could achieve consistent success? The speakers agreed but claimed that there was still an interest in shorter movies about special subjects.
How about eat and watch? This was being done by certain companies, especially one called the Alamo Chain. 40% of independent theatres sold, beer, wine and cocktails. So, yes, we were headed in that direction.
Time will tell if this cinema initiative can get off the ground.
Anthony Bregman
2/2/12
Our speaker last week was independent film producer Anthony Bregman.
He drew a distinction between independent films and studio films. For example, “Avatar”, a studio film, cost $300 million to make and made $3 bn. in box office sales worldwide – a factor of 10 times. By comparison, the independent film “Our Idiot Brother”, which he produced, cost $5mn.to make and notched up $25 million in box office sales – a factor of 5 times.
Anthony told us that he received hundreds of proposals, ideas, scripts and movie shorts and he discarded virtually all of them. To determine if an idea had the potential to be a successful movie, Anthony focused on what it was about a movie that had appeal. For example, “The Wedding Day” that he produced in 1993 was about a gay Chinese man who decided to go through with a fake marriage. His parents came from Taiwan and, much to his consternation, turned it into a lavish affair. Complications and misunderstandings led on from there. The film cost $750,000 to make, won the Berlin Film Festival prize and made $32 million in sales around the world. But what group made up its largest audience? Not the Chinese community, not the gay community, not those concerned with immigration issues – the largest audience was made up of seniors – and the central theme was: how to please one’s parents.
Another movie he cited was “Money Ball” the main idea of which, he said, was not about baseball or statistics or money in sport but second chances. So, the first step in movie making was to try to identify and develop an idea that generated an emotional response in the audience.
The second phase was packaging. This involved developing the script, finding a director and famous name actors, all with a view to finding someone to put up the money. And this led to the third phase: financing.
For a studio movie this was relatively easy. For example, with Avatar, 20th Century Fox teamed up with director James Cameron to produce a mega movie that made history and broke records. But Anthony warned that only 4% of films that reach the financing stage actually got made. This could lead to another situation known as a “turnaround” when money had been spent but either the studio or the director decided not to go ahead. An example was “Slumlord Millionaire” that was made by Paramount for $5 million. Warner Brothers wanted to release it as a DVD but the Director said No. The movie’s producer then went to Fox Searchlight who repaid the $5 million and the movie went on to make $250 mn. in the US and $400 million worldwide. “Forest Gump” was another turnaround.
The independent film producer’s main job was to raise finance and this he did from a number of sources including incentives from States where the movie was made, such as Louisiana, distributors, international sales agents, banks and, if there was still a gap, from equity investors.
In Q and A we learned that theatrical release was typically not profitable and the DVD market had declined. Video on Demand was now the growing outlet of choice.
Comparing today’s movie market with the 20’s and 30’s, Anthony said that after the war, 45 million Americans could go weekly to the movies whereas today the number was 2 million. In the old days, the business was star driven – Clark Gable or Charlie Chaplin could pack in the crowds.
What were the demographics of movie going? Surprisingly, the most profitable sector was kids. The movie “Transformers”, about robots fighting, he described as awful – but the kids enjoyed it. Horror movies were, surprisingly, very popular with young girls who would go with their friends and boy friends. On the other hand, the movie “Money ball” was most popular with audiences over 50 years of age.
Why was VOD or video not available all the time? Because Netflix, for example got the streaming right for 3 months after which Liberty Media might get it. Did he think that, down the road, big movies would still be made? Yes – the large screen and great sound would always appeal for certain movies. Finally, a Y’s Man told how in 1974 he invested a small amount in a movie limited partnership that apparently made $10 million but he barely got his money back. Where did it all go? Anthony described the many mouths that had to be fed when it came to distributing the proceeds of a movie, successful or otherwise.
Anthony’s presentation was refreshingly enthusiastic and animated. Thank you to Woody and Paul for lining him up for us.
Jeff Kaplan
1/19/12
Our speaker last week was Jeff Kaplan, a cataract surgeon who, we were told, had performed over 10,000 cataract operations.
Jeff described the structure of the eye and how the lens behind the cornea could become cloudy over time. Corrective surgery was elective and was usually done in an ambulatory setting with little or no discomfort to the patient. The success rate was 99%. The implanted lens was usually monofocal but newer developments allowed for multifocal lenses that provided both close up and distance acuity although insurance companies might not pay for the latter that cost $2,500 each. After a short video that showed an actual operation, Jeff answered a large number of questions that included the following:
Did he perform freehand? Yes, under a microscope. Jeff liked to keep his hand on the patient’s head so that his operating hand that held the instrument would move if the patient moved involuntarily. He described a patient (who happened also to be a physician) who developed a coughing fit just as the knife blade went into his eye. Jeff was able to step back and no damage was done. This was one of the reasons he felt lasers or robotics were not appropriate for this type of procedure.
Did the replacement lens wear out? No, but the back membrane could get cloudy and this could be fixed with a 20 second burst of laser treatment.
A Y’s Man suffered from glaucoma but after the lens implant the eye pressure had reverted to normal. Was this a common result? No, very occasional – “fantastic” said Dr. Kaplan.
Could the procedure be applied to those suffering from macular degeneration? Unfortunately not. It was a different condition and although treatment involving stem cell implants was being developed, there was still no real cure. Early detection helped.
How about astigmatism? Yes, it could be fixed at the same time the cataract was treated.
How long was his training before he was allowed to operate? 4 years of medical school and then 4 years of ophthalmology training, including operating on the eyes of pigs and cows but, yes, eventually someone had become his first case (and his hand had shaken so much he had made a mess of it). (No – I just made that up.)
Did the surgery get rid of floaters? Unfortunately not.
Where did he operate? Jeff had developed his own surgical centre in Bridgeport that was fully equipped and staffed especially for the procedure and that was greatly preferable to reliance on a hospital operating theatre.
It was a fascinating talk on a subject that we all either have been or will be confronted with. Thank you Woody for introducing us to Jeff Kaplan.
Kathy Maher
Director, Barnum Museum
2/9/12
Kathy Maher, Director of the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport was our speaker last week. She spoke so fast and so encyclopedically about the great man, it was hard to keep up. However, apart from the bit about the oysters, I got .. some of it.
The title of her talk was PT Barnum the Man, the Myth, the Legend. She began by informing us that the Barnum Museum had been damaged by the 2010 tornado and the dome had shifted. The museum was therefore closed but was being restored by Richard Hayden who restored the Statue of Liberty and the Grand Central Station ceiling.
PT Barnum was born in Bethel in1810. He was one of 11 and worked on his family’s farm which was what most people did in those days. When he was 12, he was given the opportunity to travel to Brooklyn with a herd of cattle and this was an eye opener into the world of the deal. He was married at 19 – too young he said – and wrote editorials for newspaper that resulted in his being sued for libel 3 times. He began to put on shows in New York City including one that featured a certain Joice Heth whom he introduced as a former slave of George Washington, aged 161. When she died, a public autopsy was performed and Barnum eventually admitted that she was a hoax.
One of his biggest ventures was the American Museum in downtown Broadway. To raise the funds for it, he pledged a piece of worthless swamp property called Ivy Island in the middle of Bethel that he had inherited but that was in reality worth nothing. However, adding it to the collateral he offered for the loan he was able to build the Museum. It consisted of 5 floors and displayed freaks of all manner and size, one of the most famous being Tom Thumb. But they were never described as freaks, just “natural wonders”. Barnum took Tom Thumb to London in 1844 where he was very popular and he subsequently met the crowned heads of Europe. Tom Thumb would stand on a table and re-enact the likenesses of people such as Bonaparte and Queen Victoria herself.
Another wonder was the Fejee Mermaid that was the body of an orangutan to which the tail of a fish had been added. He built himself magnificent houses including the Iranistan Palace that was modeled on the Brighton Pavilion. Sadly it burned down in 1857.
While in England, Barnum heard of the Swedish nightingale Jenny Lind and introduced her to the United States where they pioneered ticketed seating, women in the audience and matinees. The tour was a huge success netting Barnum and Jenny Lind $250,000 each – a huge sum in those days.
Barnum was interested in politics and began his public life as a Jacksonian Democrat. He was an idealist – for example putting on Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the Museum with a happy ending and Romeo and Juliet in which nobody died. But the main attraction were curiosities, the Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, the bearded lady (almost certainly a man), a living whale – that didn’t do too well as they kept it in fresh water, unaware of the whale's need for salt water - and a living hippopotamus that died when it was hit by a train.
In his early days Barnum was a drinker and rabble rouser but he became quite puritanical in his beliefs and founded a movement known as the Platform for Social Awareness. He wanted to change the Connecticut constitution and changed parties to become a Republican. He knew Abraham Lincoln and became Mayor of Bridgeport where his motto was “temperance” and “civility”.
He built a second down town Museum that was burned down. His first wife having died, he married the daughter of an English friend, Nancy Fish, who was 40 years his junior. His “Greatest Show on Earth” was visited by thousands but he did not, apparently, coin the phrase "There’s a sucker born every day”.
He died in 1891 and wrote his own simple obituary.
Q and A the question was asked. When will the Barnum museum re-open? Not for another couple of years and the cost will be $15 million.
Was his sign that read “This way to the egress”, as if it were a strange animal, true? Yes, it was a way to keep the people moving.
Why was he run out of New York as Martin Scorsese’s the gangs of New York” suggested? He wasn’t.
Finally, Kathy recommended we read Barnum’s book the “Art of Money Getting” – similar in many ways, she said to the “Disney Way”. On the Peter Knight scale of 1-10, this was a rapid fire, informative and entertaining 9.