Rand Unwrapped (11 page)

My aunt Virginia's father Michael (I called him Pop) an older man from Italy. He spoke mostly Italian, which mean
t that I re
ally couldn't have a long conversation with him. But I did manage to have a great time with him sitting on the side porch of the house. He would sit out there in a chair in a long knit cardigan sweater he wore neatly over a plaid shirt that was buttoned to the top. Pop sometimes smoked a pipe or short little Italian ci
gars ca
lled stogies. I can still remember the stogies now because they had a really distinct smell when they were lit. Sort or a cross between dirty socks and Limburger cheese. Most days, Rinty (the collie), Pop and I sat out there on the porch steps for hours and watched the world go by. We had long conversations about life even though we didn't always understand each other. Pop mostly spoke Italian and well, Rinty was a dog and I spoke English. Although the language was different we somehow all understood each other. One of my favorite things to do with Pop was to learn Italian. He taught me lots of cool Italian curse words and accompanying hand gestures that I used on my classmates when I was at school. However, when I think about it now, the most important thing that Pop taught me was to open my eyes and observe the world around me. He
would notice details in almost anything he saw. There was a large willow tree across the porch where we sat. Most people, as they walked by, only saw a tree or perhaps didn't notice it was there at all. Pop, on the other hand, would make that tree a metaphor about almost anything you wanted to know about life. He would compare its leaves to a person's life. Things like that. We would sit out there day after day and even though we didn't speak the same language Pop taught me how to “see.” In later years, as an actor and a writer, this skill was essential in creating a character. Now, my uncle Marty, on the other hand, wasn't always thrilled to have me bobbing around the place. I was always “under foot” doing some sort of mischief. He was always patient with me and sometimes he even let me help him.

My Uncle Marty always had been a very creative type guy who was a painter, (the canvass kind) window decorator and inventor. He often would spend hours in his workshop working on all sorts of inventions. I think the one he was most proud of was a portable toothbrush that had toothpaste already in it. It was about the size of a pen and you could put it in your jacket pocket and (if you wanted) brush your teeth almost anywhere. There is a family story that as a young man in the 1930's, my uncle received a letter from a young filmmaker in Hollywood. This filmmaker had seen his drawings and invited him to move out to the west coast to become part of a new film company. The letter was from Walt Disney and my uncle wanted to go but couldn't because he had to work to help support the family during the Great Depression. The last time I visited him, over twenty-five years ago, he still had the letter framed on the wall in his kitchen. For my Uncle Marty, this wonderful story remained a dream deferred. He did manage to utilize his talent by becoming a window design decorator by trade. He would work freelance and decorate the display windows of clothing stores all over New York City. Saying he was creative was a sort of understatement. Once, I saw him take a large wooden packing crate sitting in the garbage on a New York City street and several minutes later (with a little paint added to it) put it in the store window of a high-end boutique and magically made it all work. I thought to myself, that he was able to take a piece of garbage and turn it into a work or art. I never forgot that. He was also an enthusiastic movie fan who collected full-length movies, animation and cinema memorabilia. He was so enamored by movies and Hollywood that he built an actual movie theatre called the
Bijou
in his basement. The theatre that was modeled after the original Bijou in New York City was a much smaller version of the original. It was designed in a refined Louis XVI style inside, featuring color scheme of blue, ivory and gold. But, in the eyes of a five year old, it was much more than that.

Now when I say movie theatre, I mean the works. The theatre had a marquee, a colorful lobby and real velvet theatre seating and a large white movie screen framed by a crimson velvet curtain. The walls were lined with vintage movie posters and one wall, as I remember, (in the Cambria Heights house) had two stuffed alligators mounted on it. I never figured out why there were stuffed alligators in a movie theatre but I remember being concerned that at one point when the lights went off that those two alligators would wake up and start chasing me. In another corner, there was a pool table and an old style neon lit jukebox that played all sorts of big band music from the 1930's and 1940s. You could just press a button and the whole thing lit up with a bright neon glow. I remember looking on in amazement through the small glass window as a 78rpm record dropped
onto the turntable and the needle arm miraculously lifted and gently placed itself at the start of the record. There was the familiar scratching sound of the needle on the record, then the music of Glenn Miller's
Moonlight Serenade
, Artie Shaw's,
Dancing in the Dark
or Harry James and Frank Sinatra singing
All or Nothing at All.
My uncle would play this music and I was usually nearby or underneath the pool table playing with my toys.

As if that weren't enough, when I sat in one of those velvet movie chairs to watch a movie at this Bijou, I had a big bowl of popcorn all to myself. Suddenly, the lights went down and an overture began to play as a large crystal mirrored ball glowed and spun slowly making the room look like it was filled with shooting starts. A moment later, the lights came up on the stage and out of the orchestra pit, an orchestra of animated musicians playing all sorts of instruments, rose from beneath the stage. As the overture ended, the musicians were lowered back down beneath the stage, the crimson curtain slowly parted and the movie began. The Bijou was truly a magical place but what I would learn there had just begun.

I will freely admit that I was kind of, what can I say
pain in the ass
when I was a young Italian child. I loved to be busy playing or doing something. I wasn't much for just moping around. I also admit that I used to bug my uncle a lot when he was trying to do something in his workshop. In order to get me out of his hair, he would put me in the theatre by myself and put a movie on for me. Sometimes I sat there in dark all alone and watched the same movie over and over. This was not like watching television, the images in front of me were larger than life and there weren't any commercials. Remember, back at that time, there were no DVD players or satellite television. The only way you could see a movie, on a big screen, would be in a movie theatre.

I watched full-length animated movies like
Snow White, Peter Pan
and
Sleeping Beauty.
But my favorites were the wise cracking short subject cartoons like
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck
and of course
Donald Duck
. My uncle would put on a whole reel of them at once. These short subject cartoons, when viewed today, still hold our attention because they are smartly written and funny. I got a lot of my
wise quacking
kind of attitude from these animated characters. Of course Bugs Bunny cannot be mentioned without his famous line,
“Eh… what's up doc?”
Usually spoken while eating a carrot to Elmer Fudd. Not to pick on Elmer Fudd, but I always thought he was more a stereotype version of a gullible sort of nitwit rather than a realistic character. But now that I'm older I think Elmer was right on the mark. Don't we all have Elmer Fudds in our lives? Those kind of boring people that we just want to let have it. I will never forget Daffy Duck's crazy laugh and his famous line after holding a stick of dynamite given to him by Bugs. It explodes and he then stands there motionless fried to the crisp and says to Bugs, “
You're despicable…”
Bugs responds with, “
I'm a such stinker ain't I?”
These characters possessed an almost irreverent quality toward their adversaries. Their adversaries are usually authority figures whom they challenge and effortlessly overcome.
Robotech
has some parallels, when Rand is being pummeled by Invid crossfire in
Episode 1 – The Invid Invasion
, most characters would say something like.
“These Invid are on my tale, I've got to get out of here!”
But Rand, after taking some incoming fire snaps back at them,
“I'll be submitting a bill for damages!”
and later
“All right, you'll be hearing from my lawyer.” – Episode #1 – The Invid Invasion.
This could have well been Bugs Bunny snapping back at Elmer Fud. Now the Invid are not totally bumbling idiots but
what Rand is really saying is that these out of space invaders are not worthy of his respect and that he will play with them a bit more before he destroys them. And what about Donald Duck?

You might think that Donald Duck is an unlikely choice for a hero. He doesn't always win in the end. He's a selfish, ill-tempered angry white duck who probably curses under his breath when he does those unintelligible crumbles. But at other times, he's a kind, just and loving Duck who wants to do the right thing but often doesn't quite get it right. Isn't that just like us? Don't we all try to get out there with the best of plans only to learn later that we were wrong? We just like Donald, screw up sometimes. When we do, we get angry about it, often blame others and might even lose our temper. Think about Rand, doesn't he have some of these qualities? I used a little bit of Donald's temper to connect with the situation in
Episode 10 – Enter Marlene -
when Rand has had it with the Invids and vents,
“enough is enough!”
Although the characters in
The New Generation
were more realistic and human, using sources like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Donald Duck was a great way to connect to them. However, I also watched a lot of live action films at the Bijou.

I didn't only watch cartoons. As I said, my uncle Marty was a film collector of vintage Hollywood films that went back to the silent era. I can recall silent films like
The Mark of Zorro (1920)
and
The Gaucho (1927)
starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. You didn't need sound to follow these swashbuckling high adventures of swordplay and acrobatics. He also collected lots of silent comedies with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. However, above all, he was a fan of the late film actor Errol Flynn and collected almost all of his films. I remember sitting in the Bijou watching Errol Flynn on many afternoons playing a pirate or a rogue in
Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) or The Sea Hawk (1940).
These were swashbuckling adventures where Flynn, no matter what his past, was on the always on side of good. Despite the odds against him he always used cunning and bravery and triumphed at the end of the film. His sidekicks played wonderfully by Alan Hale Sr. and Guinn “Big Boy” Williams usually flanked Flynn. No matter what type of characters they played, they were always willing to follow Flynn into hell if they had to. Flynn also did a string of Westerns including
Dodge City (1939), Virginia City (1940), Santa Fe Trail (1940)
and my favorite
They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
.
They Died with their Boots On
is the very loosely adapted story of the rise of George Armstrong Custer and his ultimate demise by the Sioux Indians at the massacre at Little Big Horn. Now I do not want to go off track here too far but just enough for you to understand the connection to Rand.

One common thread in all of the Flynn movies of the late 1930's and 1940's was that they were all centered around a hero who stood up against overwhelming odds (often reluctantly) for right over wrong. The challenges they faced were larger than life and stood for a cause or greater purpose. As a pirate or a cowboy, Flynn's characters stood against evil, tyranny and greed. Flynn was always the leader and would do anything for his loyal men even if it meant his own death. He always had a band of men who were also dedicated to the cause and always loyal to him. They would fight any fight, take on any cause and even die if they had to for the honor of serving with him. I knew then as a small New York Italian child that no matter what, that is how I wanted to be when I grew up. I dreamed of growing up and being part of something good that had a greater purpose.

As I sat in the darkness in my velvet seat at the Bijou, I saw a universe larger than life
played out before my eyes. You're probably thinking, that this universe was not real. It was a reality manufactured by a Hollywood studio designed for a mass-market audience. That's the adult in us speaking. I want to go beyond the literal reference to what was on the screen to the metaphor. Those old black and white adventures taught me something I have never forgotten. That we must all believe in something greater than ourselves and approach our lives with honor and integrity. In the film
They Died With Their Boots On
, Errol Flynn as George Custer chooses to die with his men in honor and glory. Just before he rides off with the 7
^th
Calvary, he holds his wife (Olivia de Havilland) for the last time to what he knows will be his death. In the scene, they both know what is really going to happen but treat his goodbye to her as if it were just another mission. That is until he hands her the locket that contains their pictures. He pretends that it is broken but they both know that it means he would not be coming back. He simply says to her, “
Walking through life with you, ma'am, has been a very gracious thing.”

By today's standards, Custer's line seems corny, but the truth in it is universal, that this man had a sense of honor and duty that transcended his own personal need. The same honor and duty is evident when he addresses his men: “
I needn't tell most of you that a regiment is something more than just six hundred disciplined fighting men. Men die. But a regiment lives on; because a regiment has an immortal soul of its own. Well, the way to begin is to find it. To find something that belongs to us alone. Something to give us that pride in ourselves that'll make men endure - and, if necessary, die… with their boots on. As for the rest it's easy: since it's no more than hard work, hard riding and hard fighting.”
It's true that this is a line from a movie made over seventy years ago but it has a ring of truth to it. Ask a veteran of any war who has experienced combat how they felt about the individuals that fought beside them. No matter what the conflict or the mission, those individuals fighting developed a core belief in themselves, their country and our value system. Just like the small rag tag band of reluctant freedom fighters that faced the Invid invaders. They are no different. Rand,
“I'm not exactly your basic hero type. But if there's anyone I can't stand it's someone who's willing to sell his neighbors down the river just to save his own miserable skin.” – Episode 2 – The Lost City