Surfing Dude

by Ed Nelson

  “Dennis I understand you are the last man standing as far as waiting in my office.”

  “I hope you will give me an interview so it pays off. Frankly I am running short on time and money.”

  “How’s that?”

  “I guess it is really about the money. I’m about broke. I’ve tried to get a job with a paper or magazine but don’t have the in’s so I haven’t connected. I decided to try freelancing, but if I don’t sell a story soon I will have to look for another trade.”

  “I have some time, and I have to face this sooner or later, go ahead and ask your questions.”

  That may have been a mistake because after several hours, I think he knew more about me than I did. He kept his questions about my business interests, but he wanted to know how each of them developed.

  He was aware of my patent on the movable shower head but not that I was a part owner in Detroit Faucet. He quickly realized that DF was manufacturer of the Anna Romanov collection. I didn’t mention Sharon Bronson going in with Anna as they had not announced it yet.

  He was aware of the hairdryer and the fact it was licensed out. I did tell him about our expansion plans for the overseas market.

  Of course the big deal was the container business. He learned about Narrow Freight, our connection with Howell in Argentina and The Scottish Line. I gave a short brief on the various ports we would be working with.

  He asked very few questions about my movie career. I got the impression he thought it was a hobby. He did know enough about me that I could tell he had done a lot of homework. There were no questions about singing which was probably for the best.

  We finished up just before noon, which worked out well as I had a lunch meeting with Susan Wallace. He had a steno pad full of notes. Dennis asked if he could send his rough draft to me for review to ensure that he had no major mistakes.

  “You’re willing to let me see it before it’s printed?”

  “It is in my best interest to have you pleased with the story. Not that I see anything negative, but the happier you are the more likely I will get access in the future. Since you currently are my only access, I need you a lot more than you need me.”

  “I will be happy to review it. This could be the start of a good deal for both of us.”

  I was thinking about my other newspaper and magazine connections when I said that.

  Susan arrived at our agreed restaurant at the same time I did. We did the European kissy face thing like most other people in Hollywood. I had to laugh at myself; a kid from Bellefontaine doing kissy face.

  We took a few minutes to catch up on our personal lives. She was very happy with the way things were going. I was low maintenance for her, especially compared to the scumbag she represented before. At one point she told me she almost felt guilty about taking my money.

  “Oh, will you work for free?”

  “Not that guilty,” she said with a laugh.

  “Rick, do you have anything I could pass on to your media contacts.”

  “Not much,” as I brought her up to date on my latest movie.

  “What about your knighthood?”

  “Well there is an official investiture in April. I’m planning to be in London for that. Oh yeah, I am getting an award from the Boy Scouts at the White House for that. That reminds me, my parents and I are having dinner with Ike the night before.”

  She drew herself up straight in her chair.

  “Nothing happening? I forget you are a teenager and don’t live in the real world. Did it ever occur to you that your fans may be interested in that sort of detail?”

  “Uh, no.”

  She just shook her head.

  “What else are you up to?”

  “Well I had an interview with a freelance business writer this morning.”

  She didn’t say anything; her look reminded me of Mum. Is this in the woman’s handbook?”

  I proceeded to repeat the highlights of the interview.

  “Let me get this straight Rick, I knew you had invented the hairdryer, and had an interest in a faucet company. Now I find out you own a trucking line, an ocean going ship, and hold the patents of something that may revolutionize ocean freight.”

  “Yes.”

  Thinking quickly, in an attempt to dig myself out of my hole I tried to distract her with some new information. Yes, I saw that I was in a hole. I told her about being a Shellback and the other sailor honors for crossing the equator and prime meridian.”

  As her face got redder and redder I realized that I had better shut up.

  Have you ever heard the term, ‘When you realize you are in a hole; stop digging?’

  Well I had to stop digging.

  It got to her finally, she started laughing.

  “Rick, you are incredible. This is a gold mine of publicity. I will share this out to each of our contacts. This all will keep you in the entertainment news; and from the sound of it business news for months. Is there anything else I need to know?

  “Don’t think so, I am on track to complete tenth grade by the New Year. Oh, and I start flying lessons this afternoon.”

  I don’t know why she started throwing the untouched rolls in the breadbasket on the table. Luckily she wasn’t that good of a shot. What I thought was really funny was the flashbulbs that started going off. It turns out half the paparazzi in Hollywood were there. I could see the headlines about me and my agent having a falling out.

  At that point I left money for our uneaten meals and we bailed out of there. We both found the whole thing to be totally off the wall funny, so parted on a good note. She suggested that I pass the business article by her before giving an okay. That sounded good to me, so I agreed.

  Chapter 13

  From lunch I headed out to the Ontario Airport for my first real lesson. As I was pulling up to Mr. McGarry’s office there was a little British sports car pulling out.

  It was an older model MG. It was actually really cool looking. I think it was a 1948 MG-TD but wasn’t sure. I had thought about one when I was younger, but found out they had problems. Not only that, the one time I had sat in one the foot pedals were so small. I could cover all three with one foot. It was in a racing green with those neat wire spoke wheels.

  Actually I took that in, in a glance, what really caught my attention was the young lady driving. She didn’t look much older than me and what a looker with dark black hair. She gave me a jaunty wave as she accelerated out of the lot. I would like to find out her name and what she does.

  McGarry was waiting for me in his office. His first comment was, “You just missed my daughter. She wanted to meet you, but had to get back to school.”

  “That’s too bad. Where does she go to school?”

  “Stanford. She’s a junior.”

  “Why did she want to meet me?”

  “She thought it would be nifty keen to meet Sir Richard Jackson of movie fame. Her words not mine.”

  “Well I’m sure we will meet someday.”

  Dang, she is so good looking! When will I meet someone local, my age?

  “If she got to know me, she wouldn’t be as impressed.”

  “Yeah the young girls always go for the good looking, famous rich guys, Tough to be you.”

  “You might be surprised. I can’t seem to meet any girls my age.”

  “I hear you, I remember being young and wondering if I would ever meet the girl before I died.”

  “Before you died?”

  “Never mind, let’s get started on your lesson. Where are you on your reading?”

  I explained that I had looked over everything and had a good start on one of the manuals.

  “Good, let’s get into the air and talk about that.”

  Getting into the air didn’t go as quick as I thought it would. He had the crazy idea that we had to make certain we had fuel in the tanks, no water in the fuel; oil in the sump; tires weren’t flat or the wings had fallen off.

  He had a preflight checklist that we used to make certai
n that everything was okay. When we got inside he had me make certain the rudder would turn, and the ailerons worked. As we checked each item it clicked with me that if you messed these up, you couldn’t get out and walk home.

  When we finally did take off, he had me work the radios with the control tower and check our headings. As we flew around the valley we talked about what I had studied. In between questions he had me steer the plane, changing altitude and direction many times.

  Pretty soon I would answer a question and he would say take it up one thousand feet, slow climb, turn left forty five degrees, and I was able to do it without breaking out in a sweat.

  He even let me try a touch and go. It went well. At least I didn’t break anything though I did bounce it back into the air several times. He called it a day, and reminded me same time next Tuesday.

  I drove home on the road, but was mentally flying. I loved it.

  Dinner was normal. That is a continuous conversation, mostly about the kid’s day at school. The boys were slowly fitting in. From what Mary was telling us I think we would be calling her Queen Mary soon. She already had her court of ladies in waiting.

  Well at least a…, what do you call a group of five year old girls anyway. There must be a special name like a pod of whales or murder of crows; a sound of shrieks, maybe a gaggle of giggles? No a gaggle is geese, what about a tantrum of girls. Yeah I like that, a tantrum.

  Anyway Mary was excited with all her new friends. Again note to self, avoid groups of little girls.

  I spent the evening studying. So far my school work was not held up by having to ask questions. The books in the library were more than sufficient. As usual I spent more time side tracked on the books referenced in the text books. It seems like nothing is ever simple like it is presented in school. Heroic people did crummy things and crummy people did heroic things. This applied to nations as well as people.

  The lesson I was learning was that humans can be trusted as long as it is in their self-interest. Just when I really thought that was a hard and fast rule, I would hear machine gun bullets hammering against the landing craft door. Why can’t things be cut and dried?

  By the time I had finished my studies I was ready to call it a night.

  Breakfast was the usual madhouse as kids needed to be pushed out the door with all their books and homework in hand. At least Mum didn’t have to put anyone in a snowsuit anymore. I hated those, and when older the eight buckle artic black rubber boots we wore.

  The morning had become a routine, pick up Fred, surf till lunch time. I must say I enjoyed surfing, but when you have to do it on a schedule it becomes a chore. I think the worse part was listening to the guys talk about Saturday and Sunday surfing when the girls showed up, surf bunnies they called them. They were in school during the week. Most of the guys were over twenty-one so they were flirting with jail bait. Not smart in my opinion.

  Since my life wasn’t surfing I passed on surfing on the weekend. Somehow it didn’t seem worth the effort even to meet new girls.

  I had lunch with my movie agent, Mr. John Baxter. At eleven thirty we met at the Brown Derby which was our usual meeting spot. I had asked for the earlier meeting as I had to be at my office at one o’clock.

  Once settled we made inquiries about the health of our family members. He had the latest batch of pictures of his granddaughter to share. I joked that he might be representing the little beauty one day. He was horrified at the thought.

  “Rick, I wouldn’t want my little girl to be associated with most of the people in this industry, present company excepted of course.”

  I didn’t get it because I first thought of Mr. Wayne, Anna Romanov and Sharon Bronson. Then I remembered Paul Grant and that agent of Sharon’s.

  “I get it, but there are a lot of good people involved.”

  “I know, I’m just a cynical old man.”

  “Maybe cynicism is acquired by a life time of experience.”

  That comment made me think of my lessons from last night. I would have to think about that.

  “Are there any offers that look good right now?”

  “There is nothing that screams Oscar. The way I look at it Rick, you are in a good position right now. If you continue to take summers off, the next time you could start a movie is fall of next year. Why don’t we wait and see what develops between now and next summer. I hesitate to ask, but are you okay for money right now?”

  I almost spit my coke through my nose at that question.

  “Yeah, I’m okay.”

  “Why the reaction?”

  I did the fair thing and brought him up to speed on Jackson Enterprises.

  Mr. Baxter got a concerned look on his face.

  “Will you be continuing your acting career?”

  “For the time being yes; I enjoy it, and I can’t do much else until I finish High School and start college. I suspect I will have to quit acting then.”

  “Serious question then, you have been in B-Movies up till now, do you want to aim higher?”

  “I have never given it any thought. Do we have any control over that?”

  “Depends how bad you want it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If necessary you could finance your own movie. The problem would be in finding the right vehicle.”

  “No, I don’t want it that bad. Keep your eye out for the ‘right vehicle’ and we will see what develops. I have to think of a serious business image for the future.”

  “An A-List actor would have a more serious image than a B-Lister.”

  “Well yeah, but I think of this more as a kid having fun rather than a career.”

  “Well Rick, I must say working with you is different than anyone else I have ever worked with.”

  About then Mr. Cobb came over.

  “Rick, we haven’t seen you for a while, by the way congratulations on your knighthood.”

  “Thank you Mr. Cobb, it still seems strange to be called Sir Richard.”

  A loud British voice from the next table spoke out.

  “It certainly cheapened the knighthood.”

  I turned quickly and saw that it was the rather boorish Richard Burton. He may be a good, notice I didn’t say great Shakespearian actor, but in his personal life he had little charm from what I had seen of him at the studio. Considering the source, I ignored him. Well for a moment.

  I spoke out, “Yes the knighthood has been degraded. Next thing you know Burton will receive one.”

  Things got very quiet in the restaurant, but Mr. Cobb changed the subject.

  “Frank Sinatra was in last night and asked for you. I told him you hadn’t been in for a while; he asked that I pass a message to you. He is ready for another duet.”

  What is this world coming to, Richard Burton an actor and I’m considered a singer. I think Mr. Baxter had earned his cynicism. In the meantime Burton had apparently decided that he didn’t want a scene as he left the restaurant with his party. I noticed that Elizabeth Taylor was with him. I wondered what that was about.

  Chapter 14

  From the restaurant I went to my office. I had promised to be there every Friday at one o’clock. I was fifteen minutes late which was not my usual style but traffic was horrible.

  Since we had met yesterday that was not much news, but we did iron out a format for presenting me the information that I needed. One nice thing the studio had sent a messenger over with the publicity photos so I had an autograph session. We decided that next week would be a photography session and that we would have a catered open house for friends and family of the office staff.

  I felt very strongly that I needed to win these people over. They worked for me, but I wanted a loyal crew. Thinking of that, I asked Jim Williamson my accountant for a minute in my office.

  “Jim, are we paying everyone fairly?”

  “More than fair.”

  “Good that is the way I want it. What about benefits?”

  “We are at the top of the industry.”

/>   “Good keep it that way. If it seems to be out of line let me know, but we want to be considered the place to work. There will be a lot of dollars flowing through this office in the future and I don’t want anyone to think we aren’t sharing properly. As a matter of fact do we have a bonus plan?”

  “No.”

  “Work one up and present it to me next week, no the open house is next week, the week after.”

  With a grin, Jim said, “I will be glad to. Do you know how high you are willing to go?”

  “Hmm, make it that each person can increase their salary by fifty percent. Have a portion of it group effort and the rest individual. While we are at it, our attitude will be getting the work done correctly, not being on time or hours spent.”

  Jim thought for a moment.

  “Can we be flexible on working hours?”

  “I don’t see why not.”

  “For some of the staff and their families it would be better to come in early, for others staying late is best.”

  “That will work better than you think. Remember we are an international company. I can see the day coming where we will need twenty four hour coverage, in several languages.”

  “At least it won’t be boring around here.”

  “I hope not, now I feel a golf course calling me.”

  From there I drove out to Calabasas where I found that I could tee off in half an hour by myself with John Jacobs as my caddy. What luck.

  My luck stopped there, while hitting long my putts were bad. You might just call them raunchy. John was cool; he suggested that I spend more time on the putting green next time out. I couldn’t disagree with that.

  After that I went home showered, had dinner and hit the books until bedtime. Where are the girls?

  I extended my morning run as I was getting back into shape. After a hearty breakfast I was kicking around trying to decide if I wanted to do school work or take the day off. It didn’t take much convincing to take the day off.