Page 12 - cr53

Hoyts’ Managing Director Ernest
Turnbull and his executives, the other -
carefully separated - for Sir Norman
Rydge and his Greater Union men. I
was appointed barman.
Sid’s office occupied the exact
airspace where Sir William McKell,
Premier of NSW and later Governor
General of Australia had been born. A
Surrey Hills tenement then, it was now
an imposing room with its own
bathroom.
Hoyts, of course was owned by Fox.
Ernest drank Scotch, and most of his
colleagues, beer. Sir Norman favoured
gin (as did Sid) and he took a shine to
me. “You should buy some of those
BHP shares”, he advised. Next year he
remembered me. “See, what did I tell
you? How many did you get?” I didn't
have two bob to rub together.
So having settled into the swing of
life in the executive ranks, I disrupted
matters by having my first trip around
the world, departing on Good Friday
1958.
The Qantas Super Constellation was
an elegant aircraft and it offered elegant
service: lunch in the air, and dinner in
Fiji, at the Nandi Airport Hotel. After a
fuel-stop at Canton Island, I arrived in
Honolulu, where I stayed two days.
My friend Keith Stevenson had
elected to travel with me and was a
great companion.
Top: Flying high: A Super Constellation over New York.
We flew on to San Francisco for a
Above: Fox President and Chairman Spyros Skouras and studio head Darryl Zanuck
great turkey sandwich on Easter Day, a
lunch with their star Carmen Miranda c.1943.
ride on a cable car and first taste of
Fisherman’s Wharf, Top of the Mark
and Nob Hill. Then it was on to the centre of the organised all arrangements for the
In Los Angeles I met with Sid’s universe; New York and 444 West 56th. frequent visits by Spyros Skouras.
friends Frank Neill, Head of Studio Street, the spiritual home of all Fox Albert introduced me to the British
Publicity and his assistant Chuck employees. There I met Sid's contact Managing Director and Sales Manager,
Panama; both had wonderful stories of Alan Silverbach who later was to play a Percy Livingstone who offered me a
location work with Darryl F. Zanuck major part in my business progress. sherry.
and other great directors and producers. Although an American, Alan had Keith Stevenson had to return home
enlisted in the RAF and flew a Spitfire so I progressed alone to Paris, Geneva
Pre the disaster of Cleopatra, it took
in World War Two. Skouras had taken a and Rome.
half a day to travel by car around the
shine to him and used to pick him up in My Italian counterpart was the
Fox back lot, now Century City.
his limo every morning for the drive to charming Raffaele Tucci. At lunch we
I saw Spyros Skouras in the distance
56th. Street; I suspect it was to hear the had to drink our vermouth from coffee
with Jayne Mansfield outside the main
office scuttlebutt. cups since it was a national election,
office building, and met Rory Calhoun
I wasn’t feeling too well on the and just like in Australia in earlier
in a bar. He taught me how to improve
flight to London, so visited the doctor times, alcohol was not on the menu on
American beer by putting a shot glass of
at the Cumberland Hotel. He diagnosed election days.
tequila, glass and all, into the beer mug!
acute appendicitis and removed me to I arrived home with my first TV
At Bausch and Lomb in
Harley Nursing Home. The surgeon set, purchased in London; I think it cost
Chicago (first time I ever saw maple
kept me in hospital a week. Then 50 pounds sterling. I wrote a book of
syrup poured over bacon and eggs at
followed a week’s recovery with friends fifty thousand words (unpublished)
Marshall Fields Restaurant), I lunched
in London and Worthing. based on my experiences, and over
in the Boardroom, then spent two days
Back on my feet, I visited the Fox three revisions learned how to type. ★
in Washington, where the cherry trees
London office and met the man who
were in full blossom. To be continued
12 2006 CINEMARECORD