story arcs

Part of the reason I think a lot of people say - or used to say - that they "started in the mailroom" is because it gives their "story" an "arc."

I started there.

Now I'm here.

(farmer who inherited 500 acres of land) -

"I worked hard for everything I have."

(rancher who inherited 1000 acres of land) -

"I worked my way up."

(rancher who inherited 2,000 acres of land) -

"I started in the mailroom."

---------------------- Something else I've heard successful people say is, that they had a teacher in school who told them they would "never amount to anything" or some variation on that, like - "You are not good enough to be a writer" - or actor, etc.

That sounds crazy, to me.  Would any teacher ever say such a thing??  It seems implausible....

But there again, like the Mailroom Story, it gives the person's story an arc.  

Things were bad; now they're good.

Someone tried to discourage me; they were WRONG!

I started at the bottom; now I'm at the top.

Do we believe all this?

(Thinking about a story arc - something the character Christopher Moltisanti worries about in The Sopranos - makes me think of another scene in that show, where the character Salvatore Bonpensiero [played by actor Vincent Pastore] says jovially, "Ya know who had an arc?  Noah!")

Vincent Pastore (in the middle photo)

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working our way to the top

 That Hollywood agent discussed here in yesterday's post was said to have "started in the mailroom" at an agency.

That's a common story of people who have successful careers.

They started in the mailroom.

        (That photo I used here yesterday that I found on the Internet - that was a mailroom he was standing in.)

David Geffen, another successful show business person, said he started in the mailroom, & there was something I read a while ago about Michael Bloomberg, who was mayor of New York City after Rudy Giuliani, that said he began his career sweeping floors at a brokerage firm, and worked his way up and is now a billionaire.

        I'm beginning to get a little bit skeptical of these stories.

        A little while ago in this blog, I advised readers to be skeptical of things people say, like 

"family!!"

"freedom in America!!"

"I'm a CHRISTIAN!!!"

Perhaps I need to apply a little skepticism to these backstories - (myths?).

(billionaires) - 

"I started in the mailroom."

"I started in the mailroom."

"I started in the mailroom."

"I started out sweeping the floor."

"I started in the mailroom..."

(me, howling into the void) -

"Where is this mailroom??!!"

portrait of Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City

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lovers of classic Hollywood

 This guy whose interview channel I've been listening to on You Tube, Harvey Brownstone, is a Canadian retired judge.

Now, this is a way to "retire"! - The conversations are fascinating.

        Some people might tune in to this channel and then write to my blog and say, "You listen to the weirdest stuff!"

Mr. Brownstone said, in his Joel Brokaw interview, "people who watch this channel are lovers of classic Hollywood."

He had the conversation with Joel Brokaw because Mr. Brokaw's father Norman was a show business agent in Hollywood, and the son, Joel, wrote a book about him.

        A lot of the guests on the channel have a book out, so that's part of the interviewing process - promoting their book.  But the conversations are really interesting, because they go way beyond that.

Some of the people he has on, worked with "ghostwriters" to "do" their book. (...My idea of a ghostwriter:  a white sheet with big dark eyes, hovering above an office chair, focused on a computer screen with a stack of pages....)

Norman Brokaw    (1927 - 2016)

Hollywood agent

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the lobbyist who brought cat treats

 

If you write in your free time, it may make you remember things you hadn't thought of in a long time.

It does that for me, for some reason.

        Recently I remembered, out of the blue, when I went to the state capitol for the annual legislative session one winter in the '90s, and one of the lobbyists, a lawyer in the western part of the state, came over to me in the lobby and gave me two little containers of cat treats.

That was unexpected.

        But then I understood when he reminded me of when we talked about our cats last year, and so this year he wanted to share with me these specially made treats that his cats enjoy.  He thought my two cats might enjoy them, too.

I thanked him, and we laughed and talked again about our cats.

        These little note-cards of experience and conversation that are here, and then gone. ...

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there's no business like show business

 

Kaye Ballard, pictured above, is one of the "iconic" American entertainers featured on Harvey Brownstone Interviews, a channel on You Tube which I recently encountered.

I could listen to this [stuff] all day.

...(I have listened to this [stuff] all day. ... haha)

He conversates with stars and, many times, the adult children of stars because the stars have passed away - Don Knotts, Tim Conway, etc.  ...People who were entertaining us - and / or our parents - in the mid-20th Century.

(I used to get Kaye Ballard mixed up with Martha Raye.

I won't, anymore....)

Mr. Brownstone has a terrific interview on there with Tommy James, of Tommy James and the Shondells ("Crimson And Clover" ...)

And an off-the-wall interview with Mamie Van Doren, an actress whom a Hollywood studio intended to be an imitator of Marilyn Monroe.  

        Ms. Van Doren was from South Dakota.

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an epic American life

 

1976

the first five, left to right, are:  Bob Dole, Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller

There's a video on You Tube titled:

Jon Meacham:  Carter was a complicated man driven by ambition and service

uploader / channel:  MSNBC

        That title is kind of "click-bait."  I don't see Jimmy Carter as all that "complicated."

        But it's  a good video.  Very informative.  12 minutes.

One of the commentators says Carter lived "an epic American life."

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he touched our hands; he quoted Dylan

 Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter passing away this week - 100 years young....

He was the first president I got to vote for:  I turned 18 a month before the election, Whew!

He came to the state where I lived, to campaign:  he was set to appear and speak in the biggest city down in the southeast corner.  I and two friends from school asked my dad to drive us down there to hear him.

        After he talked about issues that were current at the time, he said, "We haven't had a farmer in the White House since Thomas Jefferson; I think it's about time we had another one." 

        And the crowd roared.

He reached out from the stage as if to shake hands with everyone.  At the front, we reached our hands up, and he swept his hand in an arc, touching as many fingertips as possible.

Years later, I read something where he quoted a line from a Bob Dylan song.

He spent the years after his presidency working for projects such as Habitat For Humanity - (doing things to help; not boasting about himself).

He was a good person.

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