I Scared Gore Vidal Broadcast on The Mike Malloy Show August 01, 2012.
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Below is an excerpt. To read the rest of the words go here: http://www.voicesinourheads.com/2012/08/02/scared-gore-vidal/
Maybe he saw some wild-eyed long-haired freak in a leather jacket running pell-mell straight for him down a long dark deserted hallway. The faint but perceptible bourbon-scented cloud enshrouding said wild-eyed long-haired freak in a leather jacket probably didn’t help Vidal’s piece of mind either. That’s how I briefly met one of the best writers of all time. Rest in Peace Mr. Vidal. I’m sorry I scared you.
Living and working in LA was always pretty ugly but starting in the early 80’s it became especially brutal. All the dirty fucking hippies were out of a job and the stupid swaggering Republicans who took over walked around like they owned the place … because they did. In the early 80’s nobody in the “Entertainment Industry” talked about making records or movies anymore. Now everybody made … product. And if I wanted to work in “The Industry” I had better jettison any idea I might have about doing something good and wrap my head around cranking out the movie equivalent of Velveeta Cheese …The Sequel.
The balancing act of artistic vision vs. making money created a dynamic that made for some pretty good movies. But accountants and lawyers found out you could make a whole lot more money if you threw away the script and just filmed the bottom line.
Porky’s made money … crank out two more.
Police Academy made money … shove out six more.
A Nightmare on Elm Street made money … punch out nine more.
Friday the 13th made money … extrude twelve more.
A sleaze in a good suit told me if I ever wanted to make a movie again to come up with something people had seen before and describe it like a TV Guide listing: