The Sementimental Writer

Young rock journalist, Cameron Crowe (center) with shock rocker, Alice Cooper, right.

Writer-director, Cameron Crowe has been on my mind ever since I posted the blog on director-writer Billy Wilder. I have been working on my play and my screenplay--inspiration sends me off on paths of unexpected destination--and one wave of inspiration led me back to the Wilder and Crowe conversations. See, what you don't know about me is that when I was a teenager, I read Rolling Stone Magazine.  Jann Wenner's magazine was the paper of record for the music world and young Cameron Crowe was my favorite rock music journalist. Why? I loved his work.  And Cameron Crowe wrote about rock musicians and events like he was one of my best friends and as if it was the best time ever. As fate would have it, Crowe wrote and directed my favorite film about the music business, "Almost Famous". I knew he was an ofttimes sentimental, but not self-indulgent writer. I thank him for inspiring me to go to the newsstands and magazines racks to read about rock music. I certainly thank him for making me want to be a cool music journalist.

Caroll Drug store on Coventry had a nice selection of magazines.

I took the entire day and looked through the Billy Wilder-Cameron Crowe Conversations book. And maybe you don't know this, but we writers have a tendency to go off on tangents (non-inspirational)--anything to keep us from writing. Distractions are a necessary evil in our business, so, I sat at my desk and re-connected with why I love Crowe so much--he reminded me of myself. I remembered when I was a young music journalist thrust into a world that I was too young to comprehend. I had seen those youthful and wide-eyed photos of Cameron standing next to rock superstars and it reminded me of how I felt and must have looked as I sat in hotel rooms or backstage waiting for the latest music celebrity to sit down and tell me their story. I religiously read Crowe's byline. I enjoyed going to the newsstand and gazing up the colorful array of covers. I loved magazines. I loved journalism. I loved Cameron's work. His coverage of Led Zeppelin's tour in 1973 stands as a benchmark in my life. The article appeared in the Los Angeles Times, and yes, I read the LA Times. You could read any major newspaper if you visited a newsstand on a regular basis. I knew I would write about music one day just like my hero, so I had to read all the right magazines. I had to prepare by learning how to hang out. The British rock magazines were filled with lurid tales about ligging--getting all the freebies that come from gaining access to the backstage area of a venue. American magazines were filled with stories about groupies like Miss Pamela (Pamela Des Barres) and I wanted nothing to do with that scene. I wanted to write about it all.

Crowe's cover story: A legend was born and an idol created.

In 1975, Led Zeppelin performed at the Richfield Coliseum. My friend Jeff Wright and I ventured down to Swingo's Celebrity Inn on 18th in Euclid Avenue to hang out with Led Zeppelin. When Crowe wrote about Led Zeppelin, he made you feel like you knew the band--he was able to bring you the inner workings of the band. And I knew his Zeppelin interview was a coup for Rolling Stone. We drove down the ramp to the parking garage of Swingo's and we instinctively knew to ride the elevator up to the second floor. We got off the elevator to look around. Oddly, there seemed to be nothing going on; there were other teens--pairs of pretty young white girls in tube tops and bell-bottom blue jeans--looking for the band. We smiled at one another. I knew we were on the right floor. We saw a bearded man sitting on a chair in front of the door of a room--Jimmy Page was behind that door!

The Colonial Arcade,  a place for thoughtful magazine shopping and newspaper reading..

I remember spending weekends riding the St. Clair bus to downtown Cleveland. I would go to my favorite newsstands to buy magazines. There was a newsstand in the Colonial Arcade and one on 4th in Euclid. I read everything from Rolling Stone to CREEM Magazine! As I grew older, I had a friend who drove to Coventry where we went to Caroll Drug to buy magazines.  We'd buy Rolling Stone, Right On!, Soul, Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine, NME (New Music Express), Melody Maker, CREEM, Billboard, The Village Voice, and any other popular music magazine. I never understood why they let us read the magazines before we bought them, but the newsstand owner in the Colonial Arcade always let us browse through the magazines looking to see whether they were worth purchasing.

What you don't know about me was that I was so inspired by Crowe's work as a music journalist, that I decided to write about my time as a music journalist as part of my Master's thesis, I contacted him. I told him that I was writing about the death of vinyl music. Below is his response:

While I didn't score an interview with Cameron Crowe, in a future blog, I'll begin sharing some of the interviews I did snag with legendary music critics like Anthony DeCurtis (Rolling Stone), Robert Christgau (Village Voice) and Dave Marsh (CREEM Magazine) to name a few. Reading those magazines turned out to be preparation for writing the biggest project to date--my thesis.

Billy Wilder: Something Old, Something Cool

Screenwriter-director, Billy Wilder with Marilyn Monroe.

No one knows this, but I once checked out two library books and forgot to take them back. The books were screenplays for two films from 1950: "All About Eve", and "Sunset Boulevard". I remember walking along the stacks in the Fine Arts Department of the Cleveland Public Library to find them. Back in those days, there was only the main building and you had to take the stairs up to the Fine Arts Department. Michel Hazanavicius won the Oscar for Best Director, for the film, "The Artist". The Hollywood Reporter post-Oscar wrap-up included the following: "Hazanavicius thanked the late, multi-Oscar winner Billy Wilder three times, presumably for helping provide the inspiration for revisiting the days of silent cinema, even if Wilder never directed a silent film." Billy Wilder just happens to be another of those writers whose work I adore. When I read Maurice Zolotow's "Billy Wilder in Hollywood", I knew I had come across a kindred spirit. Wilder had worked as a reporter in Vienna--what could be more heavenly? He then moved to Germany where he worked for a larger newspaper until Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933. Soon, he arrived in Hollywood. He spoke no English. His partnership with writing partner Charles Brackett resulted in some of cinema's finest films--comedies like "Ninotchka"  starring Greta Garbo, and later, Wilder would write and direct one of my favorite dark films, "Lost Weekend". When my Academy Awards volume for 1950 arrived I was surprised to learn that Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" (#12 on the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films) had won Best Picture over Joseph Mankiewicz's, "All About Eve". Great writers pen classic scripts.

Writing partners, Charles Brackett (l) and Billy Wilder (r) with "Sunset Boulevard" star, Gloria Swanson.

One Saturday afternoon, I rode the St. Clair bus downtown to visit my library. I remember checking out many scripts and biographies. Carrying a bag of books was still cool at that point in my life. I don't remember returning the books. I do recall finding the two screenplays behind my bed one day. I had no idea how long they had been back there. I was shocked that I hadn't gotten a notice from the library. I didn't know what to do. I was afraid that they would make me pay for the books and I knew didn't have the money. One day I happened to be looking through my books when I discovered the scripts--years had passed. Of course, I spent the next week devouring the words and as luck, no fate would have it, it was spring and TCM was airing the classic Best Picture winners and nominees. I watched both films thinking how well Wilder's work had stood up over time. Later in the week, "Lost Weekend", and "Double Indemnity" both aired. 

I should mention that Wilder's cache grew exponentially when journalist-turned-screenwriter and director, Cameron Crowe spent a year talking to the director. The resulting "Conversations with Wilder" is a classic. Two of my writing heroes (reporters-turned-screenwriters) together in one volume. Crowe, another kindred spirit got it--Wilder was the man. After last Sunday's Academy Awards, I think we all know that everything old is cool again, at least where Billy Wilder is concerned.

One of my favorite Wilder quotes is: "I was not a guy writing deep-dish revelations. If people see a picture of mine and then sit down and talk about it for 15 minutes, that is a very fine reward, I think."