A Day in the Life of Thunder was described to the author by Doug Tice and his mother, Marie Tice; former Ingleside Elementary School principal Richard T. Ford was among those who remembered Steve Spielberg’s Home Movies; the filming of Scary Hollow was reported to the author by Betty Castleberry Edwards (Roger Sheer’s widow). The making of Fighter Squad was recalled by Edwards (who preserved the single surviving print), Arnold Spielberg, and cast members Jim Sollenberger, Barry Sollenberger, Steve Suggs, Doug Tice, and Mike McNamara. Clips from Fighter Squad were shown in The Barbara Walters Special (1994) and The American Film Institute Salute to Steven Spielberg (A&E; expanded version, 1995).
Sources on Steven’s early film screenings include the Savoy and Clark articles and the author’s interviews with Arnold Spielberg and neighborhood children who attended the screenings. Paul Campanella’s story about Steven painting his ladies’ room is from Citizen Steve.
Spielberg’s comments on David Lean’s influence are quoted in Taylor and in L. Robert Morris and Lawrence Raskin, “Lawrence of Arabia”: The 30th Anniversary Pictorial History, Anchor Books, 1992; Haven Peters recalled Spielberg’s classroom discussion of The Bridge on the River Kwai in a letter to the author on February 12, 1994. Spielberg reminisced about the Wallace & Ladmo show in Ladmo Remembered: A Wallace & Ladmo Special (KPHO, Phoenix, 1994); other sources include the author’s interview with Bill Thompson (“Wallace”); Mark J. Scarp, “Spielberg Remains True to Local Roots,” and Jeffrey Crane, “Ladmo Memorials Still Coming into Club,” Scottsdale Progress Tribune, March 19, 1994. Ray Bradbury’s comments on Spielberg are from his introduction to Durwood, ed., “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”: A Document of the Film.
Ingleside’s 1961 eighth-grade graduation ceremonies are documented in the program for that event and in teacher Patricia Scott Rodney’s “Class Prophesy [sic] 1961.”
5. “BIG SPIEL” (PP. 94 –111)
Sources on Phoenix’s Arcadia High School, which Spielberg attended from September 1961 through March 1964, include the author’s interviews with the current Arcadia principal, Dr. J. Calvin Bruins; former principal Jackson Drake; and other past and present staff, faculty members, and students. Also helpful were the school newspaper, The Arcadian, 1961–64, and yearbook, The Olympian, 1962–64; and booklets commemorating the twentieth and thirtieth reunions of the Class of 1965. Arcadia was profiled by Mary Jo Clements in “School’s a Blast in Arizona!” ’Teen, April 1962.
Spielberg reminisced about the incident with the frogs in Corliss, “Steve’s Summer Magic,” and in the 1996 MCA Home Video laserdisc documentary The Making of “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” directed by Laurent Bouzereau. Spielberg’s theatrical activities at Arcadia were recalled by faculty members including Drama Club adviser Phil Deppe, vocal director Harold Millsop, and art teacher Margaret Burrell; and by Phyllis Brooks, who worked on costumes for the school plays and is the wife of former school band director Reginald Brooks. The author also interviewed the following students who were involved with Spielberg in school plays and/or in the Drama Club and theater-arts class: Jean Weber Brill, Karen Hayden, Bill Hoffman, Clifford Lindblom, Clark (Lucky) Lohr, Peggy McMullin Loper, Haven Peters, Paul G. Rowe, Carol Stromme Shelton, Sherry Missner Williams, and Beth Weber Zelenski. Peters also recalled Spielberg’s work with stage director Dana Lynch in his 1994 letter to the author. Other sources on Spielberg’s theatrical activities include The Olympian, 1963, 1964; Jarrett; Spielberg, “Dialogue on Film: Steven Spielberg”; and articles in The Arcadian, including Melinda Milar, “Crews Arrange Sets for Play” (Guys and Dolls), February 15,1963; “Crews Named for First Play” (See How They Run), September 27, 1963; “I Remember Mama Tryouts Completed,” November 8, 1963; Lynn Davis, “I Remember Mama Opens Next Week,” December 6, 1963; and “Drama Students Become Arcadia’s Thespians,” March 6, 1964. The Olympian also lists Spielberg’s membership in the Junior Varsity Band (1963) and the Titan Marching Band (1964).
Sources on the filming of Escape to Nowhere include the author’s interviews with Arnold Spielberg, Jim Sollenberger, Barry Sollenberger, and Chris Pischke; and also Crawley; Taylor; the Clark, Jarrett, Janos, and Rader articles; and Poster’s interview with Spielberg. Barry Sollenberger also recalled the filming in Citizen Steve. Clips from Escape to Nowhere were shown in The Barbara Walters Special (1994) and The American Film Institute Salute to Steven Spielberg (A&E; version). For sources on Firelight, see notes for the Prologue.
Spielberg’s involvement with Ernest G. Sauer’s film Journey to the Unknown was recalled by its lead actor, Haven Peters, who also provided a copy of the premiere program. Spielberg recalled his visit to the set of PT 109 in Army Archerd’s column, DV, December 1, 1992.
The principal sources on Spielberg’s first visit to Universal Studios are the author’s interviews with Charles A. (Chuck) Silvers and Arnold Spielberg. Steven’s various accounts of his first visit are from the articles by Hull (1969), Kramer (1970), Cameron (1971), Adler (1972), Corliss (1985), and Gross (1996). He recalled obtaining a gate pass in Loynd, “Shorts Makers Get Short Cut to Success Via Short.” HR.
6. “HELL ON EARTH” (PP. 112–34)
The chapter title and some of Spielberg’s other comments about his senior year at Saratoga (Ca.) High School are from his January 11, 1994, letter to the San Jose Mercury News, “Sometimes We Take the Abuse in Silence.”
Spielberg’s attendance dates, September 1964–June 1965, were provided by the school’s current principal, Dr. Kevin Skelly. Other information on the school came from the author’s interviews with Spielberg’s fellow students and Saratoga faculty members, and from The Falcon (school newspaper), 1964–65; The Talisman (yearbook), 1965; and the Saratoga News, 1964–65. Information about Spielberg’s academic record is from faculty members and from Don Shull. The dates of Spielberg’s prior attendance at Los Gatos High School, March–June 1964, were provided by that school’s registrar, Jan Heizer. The Spielbergs’ Sarahills Drive address in Saratoga was documented in a December 16, 1964, Saratoga News column on newly arrived residents.
Background on Saratoga is drawn largely from the author’s interviews with Spielberg’s friends, neighbors, classmates, and Saratoga High faculty members, especially former social studies teacher Hubert E. (Hugh) Roberts. Other sources on Saratoga include Florence R. Cunningham, Saratoga’s First Hundred Years, Panorama West Books, 1967; League of Women Voters of Los Gatos–Saratoga–Monte Sereno, Saratoga, 1991; Elizabeth Ansnes, Saratoga’s Heritage: A Survey of Historic Resources, City of Saratoga Heritage Preservation Commission, 1993; and Leigh Weimers, Guide to Silicon Valley: An Insider’s Tip for Techies and Tourists, Western Tanager Press, 1993.
Spielberg’s memories of Saratoga are from his letter to the Mercury News; The Barbara Walters Special (1994); and the articles by Ansen, “Spielberg’s Obsession”; Spillman; Weinraub; and Wuntch. The reactions of some of his former classmates were reported by Connie Skipitares in “Spielberg Anti-Semitism Charges Disturb Saratogans,” Mercury News, December 18, 1993, which also quoted Spielberg spokesman Marvin Levy. Falcon writer Austiaj Parineh commented on the controversy in “Spielberg’s Claims Illogically Rattle Saratogans,” January 21, 1994. Don Shull’s letter to the Mercury News, “If Spielberg Had Been Hurt, I Would Have Known,” was printed on January 1, 1994; Gene Ward Smith’s letter to the paper, “Teen-age Spielberg Aspired to Reach a Mass Audience,” appeared on January 15, 1994. Smith’s other comments on Spielberg and Saratoga are from his interviews with the author and from his February 25 and March 28, 1994, letters to the author; Spielberg also recalled his senior year in a January 14, 1994, letter to Smith.
Spielberg’s revelation about his sexual initiation was reported in “Spielberg Defers to Prophet Lucas,” Variety, June 2, 1982. His work on The Falcon in 1964–65 was remembered by his journalism teacher, Bert Pfister; the paper’s editor, Bonnie Parker Bartman; and by other fellow staff members: Mike Augustine, Diana Hart Deem, James Fletcher, Nancy Frishberg, and Philip
H. Pennypacker. Spielberg’s Falcon articles include “Shull Travels” (on Don Shull and his family), October 2, 1964; “Athlete’s Feat,” October 23, 1964; and “Fluke Plagues Varsity,” March 12, 1965. His journalistic bent was mentioned in the class prophecy, “Twenty Years Hence,” The Falcon, June 16, 1965.
Information on the school play Twelve Angry Jurors (1965) is from the author’s interview with Mike Augustine; The Talisman; “Senior Play,” The Falcon, February 5; and Karen Mitchell’s column, Saratoga News, February 17. Information on Spielberg’s Senior Sneak Day film is from interviews with various classmates and the Skipitares article; the dates and place of the senior party are from Mitchell’s column of June 23, 1965.
Sources on Universal Studios include DV’s Universal Pictures 75th anniversary issue, February 6, 1990, which includes Joseph McBride, “Business 101” (on the studio’s theatrical films from 1970 through 1990). Other background on Universal includes Clive Hirschhorn, The Universal Story, Crown, 1983; and Dan E. Moldea, Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob, Viking, 1986.
Spielberg’s 1977 comment to Ray Bradbury was reported by Bradbury in “The Turkey That Attacked New York,” his introduction to Jim Wynorski, ed., They Came from Outer Space, Doubleday, 1980. Quotes on Jewish humor are from Albert Memmi, The Liberation of the Jew, Orion Press, 1966; and Leo Rosten, The Joys of Yiddish, McGraw-Hill, 1968. Friedrich Nietzsche’s observation on a joke being “an epitaph on an emotion” is from his Miscellaneous Maxims and Opinions (1879). Lenny Bruce’s remark “Negroes are all Jews” is quoted in Alan M. Dershowitz, Chutzpah, Little, Brown, 1991. Spielberg recalled his first viewing of Dr. Strangelove in Eric Lefcowitz, “Dr. Strangelove Turns 30. Can It Still Be Trusted?” NYT, January 30, 1994; the film’s first showings in San Jose were listed in the Mercury News for the weekend of March 20–22, 1964. Spielberg’s comment on growing up in the 1960s is quoted in Taylor. He told Hodenfield about seeing a psychiatrist and not being part of the drug culture in “The Sky Is Full of Questions!!” His comment about staying in college to avoid the draft is quoted in Crawley. Saratoga classmate Douglas H. Stuart recalled Spielberg’s failure to take the ACT exam.
Information on the divorce of Spielberg’s parents is from documents in the Santa Clara County (Ca.) Superior Court: Leah Spielberg vs. Arnold Spielberg Complaint for Divorce, No. 178192, April 11, 1966, including a Property Settlement Agreement, April 1, 1966; Interlocutory Judgment of Divorce, April 20, 1966; and Final Judgment of Divorce, April 17, 1967. Other sources include the author’s interviews with Arnold Spielberg and Don Shull; and Steven’s comment in Margolis and Modderno.
7. “A HELL OF A BIG BREAK’’ (PP. 135–66)
“The Film School Generation” has been covered in the segment of that title in the 1995 TV series American Cinema (PBS) and in such books as Michael Pye and Lynda Myles, The Movie Brats: How the Film Generation Took Over Hollywood; Dale Pollock, Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, Harmony Books, 1983; David Thompson and Ian Christie, eds., Scorsese on Scorsese, Faber and Faber (London), 1989; Peter Cowie, Coppola, Scribner’s, 1990; Kevin Jackson, ed., Schrader on Schrader, Faber and Faber, 1990; Mary Pat Kelly, with forewords by Spielberg and Michael Powell, Martin Scorsese: A Journey, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1991; Van Gunden, Postmodern Auteurs: Coppola, Lucas, De Palma, Spielberg and Scorsese; and Charles Champlin, with forewords by Spielberg and Francis Coppola, George Lucas: The Creative Impulse: Lucas film’s First Twenty Years, Harry N. Abrams, 1992. Time spotted the trend in “The Student Movie Makers,” February 2, 1968.
Spielberg recalled his first encounter with Lucas in his foreword to Champlin’s book and in “The Film School Generation”; their donations to USC were reported in Dale Pollock, “Lucas & Spielberg—Investing in Film-School Futures,” LAT, September 6, 1981. Information on Spielberg’s honorary doctorate from USC and his election to the school’s board of trustees is from “Spielberg New USC Trustee,” DV, September 17, 1996. Lucas recalled the “credo of film school” to Audie Bock, “George Lucas: An Interview,” Take One, May 1979. The author interviewed such 1960s USC film school graduates as Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck, and Howard Kazanjian, and also Mike Medavoy, who became the agent for Spielberg and other prominent filmmakers of that generation.
Spielberg’s attendance dates at California State College (now California State University) at Long Beach, September 1965–January 1969, were provided by the school’s records office. Other information about Spielberg’s college years came from the school paper, The Forty-Niner, 1965–69, and yearbook, The Prospector, 1966–69 (his picture appears among the members of Theta Chi in the 1966 yearbook). Articles about Spielberg in The Forty-Niner include Bruce Fortune, “Great Race to Be Filmed by Students,” February 18, 1966; Thronson; and Bagala. Spielberg’s boast that he “didn’t learn a bloody thing” at the school was made to Howard Priest in “Jaws, Duel Directing Product of Former LB Student,” The Forty-Niner, November 13, 1974.
Sources on Spielberg’s 1965–67 filmmaking and his visits to Universal during his college years include the author’s interviews with Chuck Silvers, Arnold Spielberg, Tony Martinelli, Carl Pingitore, Richard Belding, Ralph Burris, Don Shull, Jeff Corey, Allen Daviau (also quoted from Crawley and from David Chell, Moviemakers at Work, Microsoft Press, 1987), and Tony Bill (who also spoke about Spielberg in 1967 to Bagala). Spielberg reported on his experiences at Universal in an undated letter to Shull; internal evidence, including references to the shooting of The Chase and construction work at Universal, establishes that Spielberg wrote the letter in June 1965. Charlton Heston’s recollection of Spielberg’s visit to the set of The War Lord is from In the Arena: An Autobiography, Simon & Schuster, 1995. Sources on Spielberg’s attendance at Jeff Corey’s acting studio include the author’s interviews with Corey and Bill, as well as Patrick McGilligan, Jack’s Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson, Norton, 1994.
Information on Universal TV programs of that period is from Larry James Gianakos, Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle 1959–1975, Scarecrow Press, 1978; James Robert Parish and Vincent Terrace, The Complete Actors’ Television Credits 1948–1988 (second edition), Scarecrow Press, 1989; and Christopher Wicking and Tise Vahimagi, The American Vein: Directors and Directions in Television, Dutton, 1979. Shooting dates on Torn Curtain are from Donald Spoto, The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock, Little, Brown, 1983. Spielberg reminisced to Ventura about his experiences with John Cassavetes; other information on Faces is from C. Robert Jennings, “Hollywood’s Accidental Artist of Faces,”LAT, February 16, 1969, and Ray Carney, The Films of John Cassavetes: Pragmatism, Modernism and the Movies, Cambridge University Press, 1994. American Cinema Editors president George Grenville’s comment about Spielberg’s respect for editors is from Paula Parisi, “Spielberg ACE’s Filmmaker of ’80s,” HR, February 2, 1990.
Sources on Amblin’ include the author’s interviews with Silvers, Denis C. Hoffman, Julie Raymond, Burris, Daviau, Donald E. Heitzer, Hal Mann, James Mann, Devorah Mann Hardberger, Belding, Pingitore, Martinelli, and Jerry Pam. Other sources include (I968): “Universal Pacts Pamela McMyler, Steve Spielberg”; “Univ. Pacts Pair”; Loynd, “Shorts Makers Get Short Cut to Success Via Short”; “Pact-Winning Short Will Open Next Week,” DV, December 17; advertisement for opening engagement at Crest Theater in Westwood, LAT, December 18; “Short Subject Amblin’ on Crest Screen,” LAT, December 19; and Warga, “The Short Subjects—Much in Little”; also, Atlanta International Film Festival program book, 1969; Morton Moss, “She’s a Sad, Glad Girl” (on McMyler), LAHE, December 28, 1971; and Peter Rainer, “Student Films of Welles, Scorsese and Spielberg Offer Lessons in Ambition,” LAHE, February 24, 1984. Business documents on Amblin’ are contained in Hoffman’s 1995 lawsuit against Spielberg (see notes for chapter 2). Spielberg’s claim about Hoffman wanting the possessory credit is from Crawley.
Sources on Sidney J. Sheinberg as a TV executive include Cecil Smith, “There’s No Biz Like TV F
ilm Biz,” LAT, January 9, 1969, and “He Makes Universal’s TV Moves,” LAT, April 1, 1971; and “Sidney J. Sheinberg,” DV Universal issue, February 6, 1990. Sheinberg’s initial meeting with Spielberg was recalled by Silvers and Medavoy in their interviews with the author and by Sheinberg to Hirschberg and Shah; Spielberg’s recollection is quoted in Crawley. Spielberg’s gift to the Cedars–Sinai Medical Center was reported in “Cedars–Sinai Gets Spielberg Donation,” DV, March 29, 1989.
8. “THIS TREMENDOUS MEATGRINDER” (PP. 167–98)
See notes for previous chapter on the release of Amblin’ and Spielberg’s signing by Universal. Information on film festival screenings of Amblin’ (1969) is from the author’s interview with Denis C. Hoffman; the Atlanta Film Festival program book; “Universal Enters Short, Amblin’, Atlanta Fest,” HR, June 2; “Amblin [sic] to Venice,” DV, June 17; “Hoffman’s Amblin [sic] Wins,” HR, June 30; and Hoffman, letter to the editor, HR, July 24, 1969. Information on the Oscar campaign is from the author’s interviews with Jioffman and the film’s publicist, Jerry Pam; the trade advertisement featuring marijuana ran in DV, December 23, 1968. The terms of Spielberg’s initial contract with Universal are from the author’s interview with his agent, Mike Medavoy, and from Cameron. Spielberg’s description of that contract as “the biggest mistake of my life” and information on his amended 1970 agreement with Universal are from Reed; the new contract was reported in “Spielberg Pacted to Produce for U,” DV, December 28, 1970.
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