by Ed Nelson
They would reemerge at some later date, but I wouldn’t be in them. This happened more often than the public knew. Things changed, it could be the actors as in this case or world events would make it impolitic to release a movie on a currently sensitive subject.
Not that the studios were shy of sensitive subjects. It would be better to say they were shy of subjects that could hurt the box office.
Then there were movies like my surfing movie that had financial issues, such as grand theft in that one. That also occurred more often than reported. Usually, it would be fraud rather than theft.
It was a beautiful day to drive. It was one of England's rare sunny days in June. The temperature was mild, and I had the windows down. It was amazing how the simple things in life can bring great pleasure.
My good mood lasted all the way to Pinewood studio.
Since I didn’t have the proper stickers on my rented car, I had to go through the entire entry process. This took almost two hours before I was permitted to proceed.
You would think being a rich Duke would make it easy. These people dealt with all types and weren’t easily impressed.
I suspected the Queen would be given a pass, but the question was, why on earth would she want to come here? Even then she would have to have her robes and crown on to be recognized.
The studios were the most self-absorbed crowd I had ever come across. Even those I liked at Warner Brothers were of that ilk.
I was escorted to the office of the VP of Production. He is more powerful than his title indicates. He not only had the final say on production but what would be produced.
His office professionally reflected this. His wasn’t over the top like some Hollywood offices I had been in. It was large but not gargantuan. He had a desk that was kept neat, and the I love me wall behind him that was filled with legitimate awards and pictures.
In front of the desk were three comfortable chairs of the proper height. I got so tired of those guys who had chairs that made you sit low so they could look down on you.
One thing I had going for me, at six foot five even a low chair couldn’t make me look short. One side of the office had a small conference table with six chairs.
The walls had posters of what I assumed were movies that he had been involved with. They were all class acts.
Once I was inside his office it was like I had never left.
“What had I been doing lately?”
When I shared that I made a cameo in, “Escape From Siberia,” the VP of Production said that was nice, but wanted to know what real work I had done?
“I did escape from Siberia.”
“Yeah, yeah, but what movies?”
In their world, if it wasn’t fake, it wasn’t real.
“None, I have been taking care of my other business interests.”
“Like what?”
“Launching a man to the moon.”
“Which studio and when will it be released?”
“It isn’t a movie; I have a company that is working on sending real live people to the moon.”
“Do you have anyone working on a screenplay of the project?”
I begin to get exasperated, then stopped. He had a point. Why wouldn’t we have a documentary of the project? This would dovetail in with my commitment to have British involvement in the process.
So far, they have had a few scientists working us with on the launch team. What General Booth was doing was deep in the background and would be a boring presentation.
“That is a good idea. I would like to put together a production team to cover the whole project and release it as a documentary. We may even do it in several parts. We have to put someone into orbit around the earth, build a space station in orbit to support the trip to the moon, fly to the moon, then establish a permanent manned basis. This could be an ongoing project for some years.”
“How will you get permission for the project and the funding?”
Is this guy for real? I held up my hand.
“Wealthy Duke of Hong Kong here, it's my company and my money I can do what I want.”
He got a little goggle-eyed at me.
“You’re a real Duke?”
“Yes.”
“I thought, it was just a publicity title, like Duke John Wayne. I wondered how you were getting away with infringing on his screen name.”
“First of all, Duke is just a nickname that John uses. His screen name is John Wayne.”
“Oh yeah, I remember now, he’s Marion Morrison or something like that.”
“You got it.”
“Then when I saw the Queen awarding you the Victoria Cross on TV, it wasn’t just a publicity stunt with some actress playing the Queen?”
“That was real.”
“I even made a note to find out who the actress is that played the Queen. She was exceptionally good at it.”
“I’ll tell her that the next time I see her, I bet she would work for scale.”
“Do you think so?”
What sort of dolt is this? He doesn’t live in the same world as the rest of us even if he has a nice office.
“Then you are telling me that you can give the go-ahead on this, and finance it?”
“Yes.”
If I strangled him, I was certain no jury would ever convict me.
That was when he turned all business on me. I had entered his world and he was darn good at it. He called a group to his conference table, he pulled together a team of accountants, lawyers, and screenwriters.
He had me describe the proposed project to the group. Fortunately for them, they were more clued in. At this point mass murder was feasible.
I gave an overview of the moon project. Then broke it down into its major components. There was a blackboard on wheels in the hallway which was brought in.
The first order of business was to consider the number of film crews that would be needed. After trying to divide it up the same as the production groups we decided that wouldn’t work.
We would need many teams to do it that way, and the teams would have significant downtime waiting for the next action phase of the project.
We finally decided on one film crew in England, one in the US, and two in China, there would also be a floater team on call if action picked up in one of the areas.
Then a question came up that floored me.
“Who is controlling the entire mission?”
“Right now, I am.”
“Just you?”
“The Yanks have a great bloody team in Houston they call Mission Control. Are you doing all of that.”
“I’m not certain what all they are controlling in Houston, let me check some things out and get back to you.”
What I was doing was trying to buy some time. This entire project was gathering speed and I wasn’t prepared for it. I needed to talk to the expert in logistics, General Booth.
I asked them to appoint their own “mission controller” for the film teams, come up with some pricing while I did my homework. As a sign of good faith, I wrote a cheque for one hundred thousand pounds to get the ball rolling.
Future costs would be deducted from that. At least I knew the accountants would be on my side.
I hightailed it back to London. This time it was not a leisurely drive. I had a mess to clean up.
By the time I got back, it was late in the day, so I called General Booth at Whitehall and caught him just as he was leaving for the day. I made an appointment for tomorrow morning.
He started to ask what about, then he started laughing, “You’ve figured out that you have bits and pieces moving but not an organization in place to control things.”
I had to admit that was the truth. I wasn’t about to tell him that it was a movie production guy that set me on the right track. I was embarrassed enough.
“Come round in the morning and we will sort it out.”
I decided I needed to do something different so asked the hotel concierge to get me theater tickets, something light, if
you please.
He came up with a good seat at the Comedy Theater. It had a revue playing, “An Evening of British Rubbish.” It had been playing since January to good reviews. I particularly liked the segments, ‘Penny Farthing,’ ‘Tiger Rag,’ ‘Dolly Gray,’ and best of all the skit, ‘Inventors Act.’
Chapter 45
I was so anxious to see General Booth in the morning I was early for my appointment, a full hour. They let him know I was there. Luckily for me, this was the time of day he read the morning briefing papers over coffee.
He invited me into his office. I had been there before, so I expected the austere appearance. To look at it you would think it was a spare office used for temporary visitors.
No ‘I love me awards’ or pictures. The walls were painted institutional green. The flooring was old linoleum that looked like it had been there since the World War, the first one.
An overflowing ashtray was the only extra item on his desk. The in and out baskets were both empty. There was one chair in front of the desk that was low and looked uncomfortable. I remembered it with distaste from my last visit.
Each to his own, I guess.
When the escort dropped me off at his door he grunted as I came into the room.
“Can’t even let a man have his coffee in peace. Well, follow me.”
He led me to another office, his real one. It was carpeted with a deep blue plush, the walls paneled a light oak.
Shelves with books took up the wall behind him. There were a few awards posted but they were on the other side of the room, and I couldn’t read them.
His office was two offices joined together; the other office half contained a conference room table with eight padded chairs around it. There was a projector on a table at one end and a screen at the other.
A copier was placed by the door so you couldn’t see it when you walked in. There were three file cabinets with combination locks.
There was even a kitchenette for tea and coffee, a small refrigerator for cold drinks. I mentally bet the door to one side led to a restroom.
This was the office I wanted when I grew up.
The General spoke up, “This is my real office. The other is for fools who want to waste my time. When you first came here, I didn’t know which you were.”
I didn’t know if I had just been complimented or insulted.
“Am I right in thinking that you are here because you have realized that you have set things in motion and are about to lose control?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“At least you woke up before it is too late.”
He went over to one of his file cabinets and after fiddling with the combination pulled out a file. From that, he extracted an organization chart.
“I knew that this would be needed quickly, but even I’m surprised at how fast we got to this point. May I explain to you how I think this should be set up?”
“Please do.”
I know a lifeline when I see it.
“At the top, as you can see is Jackson Enterprises, it has overall ownership but no actual involvement in running the Space Division.”
“Space Division is broken down into three parts, Science, Launch, and Administration. “
“Science will be responsible for identifying, obtaining, or developing all materials used in the flight program.”
“The launch group will be exactly that, responsible for all launches, recovery, any mission above the earth's atmosphere.”
“The administration will be responsible for human resources, infrastructure including facilities, accounting, and purchasing. Where needed, they will purchase whole companies to satisfy our needs.”
“I suggest Science be located here in the United Kingdom as it will help our economy and especially slow or stop the loss of our best minds.”
“Administration in the United States because their companies will be providing most of the products we need to purchase, and most of the manpower.”
“It has already been decided that China will have the launch facility. I suggest that their mandate be expanded so that if there is a need for a launch facility outside of China, they are still responsible. This will head off any turf disputes.”
Thinking out loud I responded, “That all makes sense to me, but there is one thing I would like to include.”
“That being?”
“Any companies that we need to purchase that we own less than fifty percent. The rest should be offered to the public in which they are located. This is to avoid any future claims of Jackson Enterprises being a monopoly.”
“JE should not be the sole source of items needed for space flight. I don’t want to be accused of preventing others from trying.”
“But you will still have a lot of control over those companies.”
“I said I didn’t want to be accused of being a monopoly, nothing about being one. I trust myself to exploit the initial exploration of space for the betterment of the world, but not everyone else.”
“You realize every dictator of the past would have made the same claim.”
“True, but by not owning everything if I go too far wrong others can constrain me.”
The General nodded but you could tell he wasn’t convinced. That worked for me, I'm not even sure I'm convinced.
He changed the subject.
“Our investigation group found the Soviets had developed the Proton rocket which could be used to put items into high orbit. They also have a capsule that could go into low orbit and land on the ground, unlike the American proposal for sea landings.”
“You mean we could have a person orbit the earth right now?”
“Yes, do you want to fund a mission?”
“Not only yes, but hell yes.”
I think Mum would forgive that outburst; she has a pretty rough tongue herself.
“Then we need to bring, rocket, capsule and astronaut or cosmonaut together at Jiuquan.”
I would rather call them astronauts; do we have any?”
“We have the chance at getting the best one in the world.”
“Who?”
“Jerrie Cobb; she and others have been let go by NASA because they aren’t combat trained.”
“Women aren’t allowed in combat training. That sounds iffy to me.”
“She has scored better in everything than John Glenn, Alan Shepard, and others. They didn’t want the competition, so they got Lyndon Johnson to hold a congressional hearing where they scuttled the FLATs program. That is First Lady Astronauts Training. There were 13 of them that qualified, so are called the Mercury 13, only 7 men made it, thus the Mercury 7. Tell me which group is better?”
“Can we hire them all?”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t like Lyndon Johnson and we want the best. By the time this program gets going every one of them will have been in space. Think of it as my blow for women's rights.”[LBJ is one of my favorite presidents, and not just because he’s the only president who ever invited me to the White House, shook my hand, and gave me a medal, but because he pushed through important and necessary laws, like the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. Of course, there was that pesky war . . . .]
“Then you better get your administration group up and running so you have an HR group to hire them.”
“Oh lord, there will have to be contracts, those require lawyers. Why me?”
“Since they will soon come under the launch group have the Chinese hire them on a short-term contract basis.”
“That’s brilliant!”
“I have been given permission or rather directly ordered to put the Science group in place. I suggest you ask the Chinese to do the same with the Launch group. I don’t know what to do about Administration in America. The last thing you want to be involved in America is NASA.”
“You are right about that; they have a lot of good people, but they are now infested with bureaucrats, and it will only get worse. By limiting themselves to orbit and then trips to the moon without
a permanent base they have stifled their future. It’s the perfect breeding ground for an inefficient power-hungry bureaucracy.”
“Now tell me how you really feel about it.”
That made us both laugh.
“My corporate headquarters has got used to creating new organizations overnight. I will call them and dump it in their lap later today.”
“One more thing, We could use some more money to get things going here.”
“How much.”
“Ten million pounds if you can spare it.”
I pulled out my checkbook.
“Who should I make it out to?”
For the first time ever, I saw General Booth flustered.
“Uh, we have to set up the organization first.”
“How about I set up a drawing account at my bank in your name.”
“That works, you know I thought I knew what rich was, I didn’t even begin to dream.”
I returned to my hotel in time to have lunch brought to my room. These days my notoriety was so great I wouldn’t be left alone for a meal if I tried to eat in the hotel restaurant.”
After that, I called Jim Williamson. If I didn’t pay him so much, I would’ve felt sorry for him.
“Jim, I need some help.”
From the groan on the other end, he knew it wouldn’t be easy.
“I need an Administration group set up for the new Space Division.”
I thought I would keep it low-key until he realized what I was asking.
“You mean with lawyers, accountants, and HR people?”
“That and an engineering group for infrastructure around the world and a purchasing group. Same deal as the IC Chip set up, partial ownership of any company we need for rocket parts.”
“Okay, I thought you would want something big.”
“Huh?”
“Rick, we know you, as soon as you said Space Division, we started work identifying all those resources, except for the facilities group, that one wasn’t foreseen.”
“This is why I pay you the big bucks.”