Awhile back, I promised you the story of how I got my start in the wonderful world of entertainment. Well, truth be told, I never really made it in “the biz.” But making the attempt did get me to New Jersey, which got me to North Carolina, which got me happy. So all is well now.
But it wasn’t always that way.
Let me take you back to 1992, as a Broadcasting student at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania…
It was my last year at MU and I’d already made a name for myself at the school: I’d showcased some groundbreaking video editing techniques using the school’s antiquated equipment, I’d also written, produced, and starred in a comedy sketch-based television program, I wrote movie and theater reviews for the school newspaper, I’d won a scholarship from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and I was on the Dean’s list for the 4th consecutive semester.
My professors and advisors all told me, it’s time to think about an internship. I’d already had a small one at ABC Sports the prior year, working at a relay station for the live broadcast of the New York Marathon but that was just for a week or so. The time was right to hook myself up for a summer internship, said my advisor, Dr. Trent (name changed).
Dr. Trent had a friend with her own production company in New Jersey. Or at least, she was trying to get it off the ground. The production company owner’s name was Gloria (name changed) and my advisor contacted her about the possibility of an internship for the summer of ‘92. Gloria thought it was a decent idea, since she had a few things cooking with her company, Entertaining Cold Grapes (name changed). So me and a school chum of mine, Steve Mile (name changed), drove out to Parsippany, NJ, home of the really brave.
The day we arrived at the ECG offices was actually very cool! Gloria had a visitor in the office that day: Vin Burnham, who has a pretty famous costume shop in England. She was working with Gloria on…something…shit if I can remember. But we listened to Ms. Burnham tell stories about Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton and it was all very impressive. Gloria also had Bill Luhrs as a quasi-partner. Bill is an actor and really great and funny guy. He was a frequent castmember of Late Night with David Letterman, the NBC years mind you (back when the show was funny). We watched Ms. Burnham’s “reel” (a video reel containing highlights of their motion picture and/or television work) and Mr. Luhrs’ reel, which was really funny, since I was a huge fan of David Letterman. In fact, I had many, “Oh my God, that was YOU???” moments.
We all talked about movies and what I’d been doing at MU. I made them feel comfortable with me and they made me comfortable with them. Gloria told Steve and I what she had in mind for her company: the things she had in the works, the properties she had her eye on as well as the properties she already owned, like the Angel Wallenda story and a book about Nostradamus, which was a New York Times best seller. More on that in later posts.
So it looked very cool at the start. We got to meet people that were at just the right level of business involvement for getting an “intro-to” the business, you know? In other words, we didn’t meet a bunch of A-list celebrities who only wanted to talk about their favorite brand of bottled water. We met real professionals who had a clear goal for the direction of ECG and it was a good way to start. It was tough to not be a little blown away.
The original idea was for both Steve Mile and I to be interns for ECG, but Steve had a conflict and had to take himself out of the running. So basically the internship at ECG was mine for the asking.
Continued tomorrow in part 2.
