This time last week I was at the Natural History Museum of LA panting like a cornered mountain lion after at least seven trips up and down stairs lugging posters, easels and wine for the fund raising cocktail party opening the Third Compleat BIO Conference being held across the road at USC. I think my heart rate has returned to normal now, thank you...
The conference itself was inspiring, edifying and all those goals any organiser would want to kick, but it was also So Much Fun. I met up again with great people I'd crossed paths with last year at the conference in DC or had corresponded with via email. Someone would pass me by and I'd recognize the name but not the face of someone who had provided some advice, answered a question or even folks I'd been able to help. There was a convivial and collegiate atmosphere to the whole weekend, kicked off with our cocktail party last Friday night.
Running up and down stairs was not the only reason my heart was thumping. I had been appointed moderator for a panel session on Saturday afternoon titled Pursuing Hollywood's Past featuring historians and biographers of the highest calibre: Cari Beachamp, James Curtis, Steven Ross and Lois Banner. I'd met with all of them separately in the preceding weeks, in pubs, offices and even poolside as a means of getting to know more about them that I'd be able to ascertain from their impressive and, needless to say, more than slightly intimidating biographies. That they were such generous, feisty, passionate and goddam interesting people made my job of steering the 90 minute conversation relatively easy. If we had any issues, it was how to balance the necessarily practical advice (such as make ProQuest and Ned Comstock your friend) with the dozens of "coal-face" experiences they'd had, the tiny scraps that led to treasure, the bizarre connections that come from unlikely sources and the extraorinary humans that emerge from their years of persistent digging.
I couldn't help but feel I have a mountain of work still to do. Listening to the panel speak, I had half my mind on the time, the other casting back through all the tip offs and suggestions various people had made over the last two years or so, that I have either put on a follow up list or been unable to get to. I may be in the States, but it's a looong way from Santa Monica to George Eastman House. But you never know, I may yet get there.
I'd attended a morning session on Legal Obligations and Liabilities that I found absolutely terrifying (you could almost hear everyone in the room nervously sucking in their breath). I've been concerned about the ramifications of "outing" not just Claire as an abused wife but of Hampton as an abusive husband and less than reliable source on the History of the Movies. At least I was able to release my breath when I learned that dead people cannot sue you for liable, but there are some privacy elements I'll look into, just in case.
I also poked my nose into a session on adapting Biographies to Biopics, with some great chaps from HBO and other companies talking about the process of transferring life to the screen - treatments, outlines, agents, scouts etc. Then they shared a story about how the moderator's book was picked up for adaptation. Turns out that three people on set making Shutter Island happened to be carrying the book one day and started a conversation - hey wouldn't this make a great movie? Pure Luck and coincidence that left everyone sort of shrugging hopefully. Best comment - "hey man, love the way you worked into the speech that Leonardo Di Caprio was reading your book!"
I'm not sure what I was actually registered for following my panel session (which I have on good authority "went very well" Thanks Beverly!) I was too mind blown to move very far so took a seat in the same room and came to have one of the most inspirational moments of the day. The session was about Unauthorised Biographies and I did a complete conceptual 360 when Andrew Morton began to speak. I'll admit I thought people who dug into the lives of celebrities, including and in particularly royalty, were a little sensationalist, capitalising on someone else's fame to improve their own fortunes. How narrow minded could I be? Perhaps I was still recovering from my shattered princess dreams, but listening to his descriptions of death threats and recriminations for uncovering the truth, I came to see him and his colleagues somewhat more like journalistic crusaders, questioning the role and power of the celebrities our culture has produced. EG: Tom Cruise was able to sway Bill Clinton to call Tony Blair to lobby for Scientology's tax free status in the UK. David Stenn was another speaker who drew the distinction between Fame (Angelina Jolie) and Notoriety (Monica Lewinski) - one is sought, earned and cultivated, the other incidental, coincidental and largely negative.
Thought provoking, inspiring and reassuring stuff. I spoke to David Stenn following the session. Asthe biographer of Clara Bow, I thought he may have heard of Claire Adams. They were costars in 1924s Helen's Babies. He had and then asked if I'd spoken to Diana Serra Cary. I did not recognise the name, until he said that she used to be Baby Peggy, who played Claire's daughter. We swapped cards and with a couple of days, this lovely lady was on the phone who had played opposite Claire Adams. Honestly, it was quite overwhelming.
Together, these sessions and the fabulous people I've met have brought home not just how important it is to get this project finished and out there, but if I'm lucky enough to continue this with another biography, just what the responsibilities are. Not only in terms of liability, veracity and integrity to our subjects, but to our potential readers, to represent the truth of our subjects and their times to help illuminate our own.
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