OUR CLASSES INVOLVEMENT
WITH THE MOVIE INDUSTRY



~ Don Boggs ~

I am a member of SAG (not stomach) and have worked in numerous pics and several TV productions. I worked in a Hallmark Christmas TV showing mainly as a bartender...and speaking part in a SCI-FI production which I still receive small residuals to this day. Yes..Debbie Reynolds (52) is still pumping out Vegas songs and still looks great. I worked with R Zellwegger on "Nurse Betty" years ago and became somewhat friendly with her. She had a dog named Dillon which always sat by her set area. She is from Plano, TX. So we all share some billing somewhere be it in movies...law...church, etc.

Don Boggs email was great! I bet we have more members of our class and at JBHS who have movie credits or ties to the industry. Jerry King was in the class of 56 or 57. His dad was a movie director and illustrator for Walt Disney. Jerry was my litt;e brother in my fraternity at USC. We ought to take a survey. It would make another interesting fact about our class. dan



~ Carol Muscorella Maitland ~

Here is a litle of my history my 35 years in the Motion Picture Business....I did go to entertain the troops while still in High School. I met Raymond Burr here and he wanted me to go overseas to entertain the troops, but I didn't have a chaperone, which I needed because I was still 16 years old. So I never was able go with his USO TOUR. However: I went on the WHITE ROCK SHOW and won a bracelet watch... I still have that watch to this day. I was also on the INA RAY HUTTON SHOW. Remember, she had the ALL GIRL BAND on TV. I went to most of the Air Force bases close to home like, March Air force Base, Pendleton Air Force Base & Norton Air Force Base. I even played at the Hollywood Cantina... THEN STAGE FRIGHT set in and my mind went blank on stage, I couldn't remember my fingering and I quit. It had happened several times to me and that was the end of my career as a STEEL guitarist. I went under the name: CAROLYN LEIGH I was told to drop the name Muscorella because it was too hard to remember. my being in the business has put 3 generations of my family in the business. One Grandson is in New Mexico working on "MAC GRUBER" as a Cinematographer and his 'HALLOWEEN 2" is opening in Theaters on Aug. 28th (Tomorrow)... Plus son Ron is the Special Effects Coordinator on the same show in NM. Grand Daughter is a COSTUME DESIGNER in the business.... Then my other grandson just had his 1st acting job and writes scripts... It all started with me being the mother on the set with my two young sons. One as a baby. Then there was me who went into stunts and stunt doubled for Angie Dickenson, Barbara Eden and Janet Leigh when the kids grew up.... Later I became a Production Coordinator and retired after my Aorta Valve Replacement in 1995... Anyway, there were 3 generations in the family all starting with me. The Matriarch!! I said the 1st one that is nominated for an Academy award, I get an invitation to the Awards Ceremony. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKzAhfnY9jI&feature=channel_page (Grandson, Brandon Trost, is in light green shirt...) This is a PROP TEST for MAC GRUBER.... http://www.lafilm.edu/news/6826-brandon-trost-an-eye-for-film.html See ATTACHMENTS. The residuals I get will be life long.... I still get about $1,000 a year from "ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN." Each month a get a little nest egg checks. Better than a kick in the shins. Hubby, SCOTT MAITLAND, is a retired ASST. DIRECTOR/PRODUCTION MANAGER/LINE PRODUCER.... http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0537968/ Names to watch for: RON TROST - SON: Special Effects Coordinator BRANDON TROST - GRANDSON: Cinematographer SARAH TROST - GRANDDAUGHTER: Costume Designer JASON TROST - GRANDSON: Actor/Script Writer Can you tell I'm a PROUD MOTHER & GRANDMA????



~ Dan Cassidy ~

Carol is right about Kay Van Eps deceased dad George Van Eps being famous. Kay's dad was a fabulous jazz guitarist. He played in concerts and recorded albums with all of the great jazz artists. He was also a well known soloist. In the 50's and early 60's he was always included in the annual Playboy Jazz poll that asked readers to vote for their favorite musician on various instruments. He always did well in the vote. On some of the NPR jazz stations you still will hear his name when the DJ announces the various artists on an old cut from the 50's and 60's.(88.1 fm) I told Kay a year or so ago that I was in Palo Alto for one of my partner's daughter's wedding. A jazz trio played at the garden reception. I talked with the guitarist who played in a style that reminded me of George Van Eps. I told Kay that the guitarist had told me he always tried to play in the Van Eps style. He said he and others think of Van Eps as one of the truly great Jazz Guitarists. (Jay Smith started this hunt for this voice. Some of us were trying to find out who the voice of this You Tube fifties 4 min. clip was to answer Jay. Jay Smith thought it was Phil. It turned out Jay was correct after several e mails from good detectives. It turned out that Phil Granucci, JBHS 54, was in very many movies and then his kids, like daughter Victoria, below, was very successful. I can't believe that Jay remembered a voice of 55 yrs. ago.)



~ Fred Roth ~

I was Debbie Reynolds parents Valley Times paper boy. Does that count? Hey Dan, did you ever meet her dog? His name was Heinz Debbie's mom said it was because he was 57 varieties. They lived across the street from Buddy Scanland. Oh yes, at Taft High School I taught Maureen McCormick and Ann Jillian. Ann was a favorite of mine. Real name was Ann Nausada, plus two mainly TV actresses, Jeanna Michaels (The last Convertible + many others) Real name Jeanna Levine, she was a real sweetheart, and Melinda Naud (TV series operation petticoat + many others) Taught the children of Marion Ross, (Marion once worked with me on a creation fair I put on for many years at Taft to honor talented kids in all areas other than sports who already got a lot of recognition.) Chuck Connors, Parley Behr and James Caan's daughter Tara. I'm sure there were others but have forgotten in my old age.

Speaking of Phil Granucci, here is a little more but rather obscure and insignificant thread to that now burgeoning story. I sold a 63 split window Corvette to a manager of the rock group Heart. It turned out the manager was really buying it for John Cougar Melloncamp. In the early 80's his wife contacted me to help her straighten some paperwork out that the manager had screwed up on the car. We had a pleasant conversation and I got things taken care of, not even knowing at the time who Melloncamp was. Several years later I found out. I guess that must have been Victoria Granucci, Phil's daughter. Small world isn't it.



~ Darleen Whiting Strong ~

My father worked for Warner Bros.way back when as a chauffeur for the some old time movie stars like Betty Grable, Betty Davis, John Wayne, Clark Gable etc, and boy did he ever tell us some interesting stories about them. Before, My father retired from Universal Studio, he was a heavy equipment driver and he helped grade all the mountains where Universal City sets today.



~ Frances Strothers ~

I talked by phone to Frances Strothers today and she was in Girl Scout troop with her mother as leader. Debbie was an assistant scout leader and came over to help with her troupe. Debbie helped with another troupe also. I heard other class girls talking about Debbie and the girl scouts also.



~ Donna Knight Schmidt ~

Hello. You are right I was in the studios. I had a screen test when I was 14 at Warner Bros. with Richard Conte (an actor from the late 40's to mid 50's). I signed a contract and had parts in several movies (most of which people wouldn't remember). When I was 17, I was hired as Elizabeth Taylors double in Giant because she was having back problems and couldn't walk a lot. I also got a part in Giant. Chill Wills (old time cowboy actor) appointed himself my guardian when I was on the set, being a minor I had to have a guardian. My mother use to go with me but Chill Wills told her he would take care of me. One day after we were done shooting Rock Hudson and I got back to the make up department before anyone else and decided to wash each others hair (we had been aged to 60 so we had a lot of gray). We had water all over the place and when the hair dressers walk in they were pissed. At 18 Warner Bros. wanted to sign me to a 3 yr. contract but I met a sailor who was stationed in San Diego and we got married. He didn't want me working at the studios when he was in San Diego so I walked away from the business. I stayed in the SAG union and kept in contact with friends at the studios and when I was pregnant with my 3rd child I did some TV work. There was a show in the late 50's called Night Court which is like the shows now dealing with small claim courts. The people that appeared before the judge were actors (today they are real cases) and they couldn't use the same person twice so the make up people kept changing me and I did 4 of those shows. I did an I Love Lucy segment, a Coca Cola commercial and then I left the business for good. The studio gave me the film of my screen test. I'm not sure of the film size but it's what ever was used for movies at the time. Six years ago I had the film transferred to video so my kids could see it. We paid for our first house with the money I made in the business. They were good times.



~ Mary Jane Bennett ~

Remember our classmate MARY JANE BENNETT, (We need to e-mail her on this) she went with JOHNNY MC GOVERN in school and married him but they were later divorced and she went on to marry the Used Car Dealer, RALPH WILLIAMS. I think they are divorced now, too. Johnny Mc Govern, a year a head of us at JBHS, changed his last name to match his stepfather's last name of BILLY WILDER, a producer. We now know Johnny as JOHN WILDER, Producer. Dan Cassidy can probably fill us in on a lot of this. Then we need to call DON PULFORD, since he doesn't have an e-mail address, and find out on his STUNT WORK in the business....Maybe Dan Cassidy can fill us in on this one, too. l



~ Donna Duncan ~

Charles R. Duncan, my father got into the movie business when he was 16. He used to talk about working at Hal Roach Studios. Really don't have much time to do research these days. He was into Special Effects in the days that explosions really were explosions and fire was fire. I often went with him on location. John Wayne was a friend of his and he usually made his war films etc. In 1959 my father and others invested in that Plan 9 from Outer Space movie and he designed the space ship which later inspired NASA. His workshop was Ali Baba's cave with so many artifacts he had invented and used in films. Kids used to love to visit him and hear all his tales. He would have been very proud of my son Dino who owns a movie production company here in Morocco and God knows Dino would have loved to have inherited all the goodies that my mother finally had to pay to have hauled off their lot. Dino worked for NASA after college. As for Donna Duncan's Variety Show it began with one of our Burroughs theater productions - maybe 'By The Skin Of Our Teeth'. We were so perfectly cast in that play that I wrote to several Air Force bases to offer our services. I even paid the royalty fee. That turned into a variety show with talented students from Burroughs and later I got some great acts from LA City College and other colleges around. We went to Edwards AF base, ..... When I have time I will research the details. Sorry for now.



~ Lois Nair Burks ~

Hi! My Dad, Ned Nair, worked for Warner Brothers for almost 40 years as a sound engineer. He was hired away from the telephone company in the late 1920's to work on the first sound movie, "The Jolson Story." Evidently nobody knew anything about the transmission of sound other than telephone company people. Some of his friends at the phone company were also hired by WB. I have one of Dad's original contracts, signed by Jack Warner.



~ Marilyn Capps Bowman Knapp ~

My son, Rob Bowman, is executive producer, director of the new "Castle" series on ABC. He directed about 33 episodes of X Files and directed the first X Files movie. At age 25 was directing Star Trek the Next Generation, has directed five movies, etc. Google his name and see the list of stuff he has done. He worked with his former Scout Master on some productions, which I thought was cool. All this and he was self taught, but a very hard worker. Who knew your kid would turn out to do all this.



~ Carrol Gordon Cluck ~

Yes I worked at Disney for 40 years started out in fan mail - signed Haley Mills autographic to her pictures - then did slide presentations for corporate - stockholder meetings and merchandising and publicity etc - then we were put in charge of the projection/Audio Visual dept (post production) - I was in charge of 8 guys projectionist plus had two girls working for me - so that was a good part of my life.



~ Jack Hughes ~

I began my work in the Motion Picture Industry the day after I graduated from JBHS at the tender age of 17, where at Warner Bros., I had the distinction of being the youngest full-time employee on the lot. After various and sundry jobs at WB, I was accepted into the International Photographers Union and began a long career in the visual effects field. My first work in that field was with an effects company on the Paramount/Desilu lot where we worked on effects for "STAR TREK", "THE INVADERS", "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE" and many other TV and Features too numerous to mention here. After Paramount, I floated around at various effects companies and ended up at Pacific Title and Art Studio where we worked often with the editorial staff from LUCASFILM creating optical composites, the most notable being for the early "STAR WARS" features. Well, enough was enough. After 42 years in "the biz", I jumped at the industry's early retirement scheme and I quickly bailed. Now, I'm a happy member of the Warner Bros. Employee's Retirement Club and spend my time with other old "geezers" swapping stories. (mainly the ones we can still remember).



~ Ron Brill ~

My big public media claim to fame was being the host, producer & chief bottle washer for a local Cable TV program in Novato (Marin County) in No. California in the mid 90's and early 90's. I developed the program for my then client, a millionaire family that owned that County's only landfill. (Who says you can't make money out of garbage?) That TV program, "Recycling in Novato", was broadcast once a month for eight years! As the on-camera host, I interviewed experts on recycling, plus manufacturers who utilized waste paper, glass, tin cans and plastic bottles to make other "new" products. I also had a live (no screening of calls or videotape) call-in program where anyone could ask questions of our guests or me. In all those years, amazingly, I recall only 1 or 2 crank callers! Big difference from what it would be today, with all the "crack pots & wing nuts" out there. The show was all unrehearsed and a great way to educate the community on recycling do's and don'ts (including several programs on worm composting that produces the healthiest fruits and vegetables you can imagine. As a result of my comprehensive community education program on TV and in schools, Novato boosted the percentage of waste that was recycled from 16% to 60% -- higher than the State of Calee-fornia mandate in those days. Hosting and producing over 100 of these programs made me a local "celebrity." Couldn't go into a store in town without someone asking, "Aren't you the recycling TV program guy?" Ahhh, I do miss the limelight!



~Barbara Kiser Griffin~

I managed the telecommunications at Universal Studios for 20 yrs. I also went to Girls Scout Camp with Debbie Renolds & had many other encounters with while growing up.



~Ron Geraci~

Ron Geraci was in a Rockford Files segment as a Burbank Batallion Chief. He was in one episode. Another of Ron's claim to fame was they used his hands for a hands model for a Chinese man. This Chinese man was to be shown knitting. They needed bigger hands that knew how to knit. He joined SKAG and spent most of money he made to pay dues.



~Gloria Rubalcava Eisle~

Gloria Rubalcava Eisle's girlfriend talked her into putting her name in for an extra. She did this several times and she was picked for a background picture for the "Three Kings Bible Story" Gloria's brother in law worked for studios and her Father was a chef for Warner Bros.



~Tom Shields~

Tom Shields, Belen Santoyo's husband, was in a Mexican Calvary unit in "Wild Wild West" with Kevin Kline and Will Smith. It is a documentary about the Mexican - American War. He played the Artillery Captain in the Mexican Army.



~ Dan Cassidy's Epilog ~

I LOVE ALL OF THESE STORIES AND PICTURES. IS THERE SOME WAY TO COLLECT THEM AND PUT THEM IN THE CLASS ARCHIVES? MAYBE A SHOW BUSINESS PAGE. I REMEMBER GOING TO THE REYNOLDS HOME WITH BOBBY SITES (JBHS54) ALMOST EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT. BOBBY'S DAD OWNED A TV REPAIR STORE. MR. REYNOLDS (DEBBIE'S DAD) WAS AN AVID BOXING FAN.WEDNESDAY NIGHT WAS THE GILLETTE FIGHT NIGHT. THERE WAS A TUBE IN HIS TV SET THAT BURNED OUT ONCE A WEEK. WE WOULD TAKE THE RIGHT SPARE PART(IT WAS ALWAYS THE SAME)--CHANGE THE TUBE AND WATCH THE FIGHTS WITH MR. REYNOLDS. BOBBY'S BROTHER DAN WAS A CLASSMATE AND FRIEND OF DEBBIES SO WE WERE ALWAYS WELCOME TO SWIM AT THE HOUSE ON THE WEEKENDS. DEBBIE BUILT THE POOL WITH THE PROCEEDS SHE EARNED FROM HER RECORD-ABBA DABBA HONEYMOON,WHICH WERE IMPRINTED ON THE STEPS INTO THE POOL. WHEN DANNY SITES WAS ON THE FRONT LINE DURING THE KOREAN WAR, DEBBIE WENT WITH A USO TOUR TO SPECIFICALLY ENTERTAIN HIS UNIT.MANY YEARS LATER, ART LINKLETTER DID A "THIS IS YOUR LIFE DEBBY REYNOLDS" DANNY SITES PLUS ANOTHER FROM HIS UNIT WERE ON THAT SHOW TO RELATE HOW IMPORTANT HER VISIT WAS TO THE MEN IN THAT UNIT DURING A VERY NASTY WAR.