From my box of movie making memories.
Back in 1993, I was hired as a graphic artist / sign writer for what was to be a TV pilot Called “Staying Afloat” starring Larry Hagman (“Dallas”).
The plot, such as it was, surrounded a wealthy playboy (Hagman) who lost all his money and was scrambling to fund his lavish lifestyle. Side note: For some reason they gave up the idea of a series and sold it as a TV movie. Probably the financial backing went away…my guess.
I was assigned to production designer Ward Preston, famous in Hollywood for his work on “The Towering Inferno,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” “Airplane!,” “Purple Rain” and “The Twilight Zone” (The original TV series). Side note: He later wrote a film school textbook called “What an Art Director Does.” One of the chapters describes a conversation with me (without naming me) about a technique I showed him while we were putting together a set which involved a lot of handpainted signs.
Ward was a really nice, respectful and talented man. A wonderful boss. But he was old. Really old. His heyday was in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
As is often the case with medium budget shows, he was not given the full staff of art directors, location assistants and drivers. Just him and a signwriter…me.
Once again, I found myself filling all those roles but my paycheck read “Sign writer.” Somewhat less money than art director but better than driver. I won’t complain.
In addition to my other duties, I drove him in my car all over from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm scouting locations for sets.
Since it was just me and him, he would occasionally ask my opinion. My standard reply was “Mr. Preston … I paint signs! And drive a car!”
The minute Ward sat in the passenger seat and was out like a light. I know how he felt now that I’m almost his age. Nap where you are.
The first time I drove him to meet Hagman out on a distant location, I found out why someone wanted to shoot “J.R.” (You oldies will get that).
Not to speak ill of the dead, but he was a horse’s butt. Other than Ward, he would not look anyone in the eye as he spoke. All the peasants were way beyond his acknowledging their existence. Very rude guy.
I had to create quite a few signs and props as well as being a tour guide. Production had paid a hefty sum of money to “borrow” a gorgeous 1920s wooden yacht that had belonged to the DuPont family. It played the part of the main character’s boat “Invincible.”
The real name, which I can’t remember, was painted on the fake metal “smokestack,” the back of the boat, and all the large wall mounted life preservers. These needed to be temporarily covered with the new name without damaging the vintage boat.
Someone had gone down to Fort Lauderdale to get measurements, which they managed to get right. Surprisingly.
Another somebody decided that it would be lettered on big sheets of magnetic sheeting.
Hey…the surface was metal, right? Send a couple of PAs down and they can just flop the magnetic onto the “smokestacks”…yeah!
As the date got closer to shoot the yacht, two slight problems arose.
The smokestacks were metal alright. ALUMINUM. Magnetics only stick to steel. Crew ended up mounting them to a multimillion dollar antique boat with drywall screws. That was bad enough.
Then we got the message. Legal had approved the fake name “Invincible” and some soon-to-be-canned PA had written down “Invinsable” on the art department work order.
Everything had to be redone costing a ton of money they couldn’t really spare. And a lot of time we couldn’t lose. It would be a very hard working weekend. One of many to come.
Thom Caraccio ([email protected]) is a retired musician and retired motion picture scenic artist living in West Palm Beach, Florida who hails from Columbus. He graduated from S.D. Lee High in 1968 and still considers Columbus his real hometown.
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