“I can’t thank you enough Holl. Do you really think this has a chance at an Oscar?”
“Stranger things have happened.”
After he left I went for another run in the woods. Here I thought I was getting to be a smooth talker and having an understanding of the industry. I had just about blown it. I needed to run off some of the stress.
Thinking back of how I told Sharon Wallace not to worry, I thought ‘How wrong could I be?’ It seems even us experienced pros could get off on the wrong foot. Maybe I wasn’t as experienced as I thought.
Now all I had to do was hope that Holl was a man of his word. I would know by tomorrow morning when the interview appeared.
After my run, it was time to get ready to go to the premiere of ‘Over the Ohio’.
Fortunately, my new tux had arrived yesterday and with everything to go with it here. Getting ready probably took me ten minutes longer than normal as I had to put the studs in my shirt. My braces were in a tangle but they weren’t hard to get on. I thought the braces were much nicer than suspenders.
My cummerbund would hide them so it didn’t matter which ones I used. The braces felt more stable. I had a vision of the pants fabric slipping out of the suspender clamps and my pants falling down. I bet that is why so many old guys wore belts and suspenders.
Now Mary getting ready was a different story. I’m proud to announce to all females of the world that my little sister was ready to join the ranks. It was time to go and she was still dithering about which necklace to wear.
Mum didn’t help when at the last minute she brought out a real tiara for Mary to wear. Real as in they were real diamonds. I must say she looked the perfect little princess.
At last, all was acceptable. Not perfect but acceptable. Mum brushed the last little bit of lint off of my shoulder and gave me a hug. She and the rest of the family would meet Mary and me at the theater.
We had our own motorcade leaving the house, Mary and me in our limo, the family in theirs, and guards in vehicles front and back. It really got wild when we drove out the front gate.
The Sheriff had sent two patrol cars to escort us to the theater. Lights flashing we went down the hill. It was cool, the only thing missing were flags on the front bumpers of the limos. I would have to ask about that. We could use two sets, one each of my and Mum’s coat of arms.
Well, maybe that would be a little ostentatious.
Our arrival at Grauman’s Chinese theater was a lightning storm of flashbulbs. Mary and I descended from the limo with her taking my arm. I told her in the car not to worry, that I would take care of her. She had been very quiet during the trip. I could tell she was nervous.
Those nerves lasted until we got out of the car. She put on a million-dollar smile and waved at everyone.
I whispered to her that she was doing well.
“Of course I am. I’m scared to death. I’m just acting like I’m comfortable with this.”
If anyone deserves an Oscar it is my sister.
We posed for pictures and gave the brief statements prepared by the studio. They called them sound bites.
Eventually, we made it inside, and once we were settled the movie started. The audience was made up of reviewers and people who had been involved with making the movie.
There was also a cross-section of people who would make up what the studio thought the typical audience would be. These people would be questioned after the movie to see how it would be received.
As anyone who has made a movie knows until you see the finished product, you don’t know what it will be like. In the making, you did it bits and pieces at a time and many of the bits and pieces were left on the cutting room floor. I could have attended an early showing but elected not to. I wanted to be in a real audience rather than the biased one at an early showing.
The way people got into my song told me it would make the charts when it was released tomorrow. I came across in the barn dance and people scenes as a happy go lucky guy. You had to wonder why I was even in the movie.
That is until I was shown to be Death Wind. It was startling how evil I came across. There were actual gasps in the theater when the audience realized it was me the happy go, lucky guy.
Afterward, there was a press interview. It was a circus. The main train of questioning was, “How could you do this, it will change your image forever. This is the dark side of the American Hero, should it be shown?”
“Yes, it should, it is consistent with the rest of the movie about the dichotomies of the times. It wasn’t a black and white time in American history.”
Chief Redfoot was with me. He broke in and stated how all the Indian Tribes would agree with the portrayal of the wars in the Ohio territory. He went on to comment that until very recently Indian’s identified themselves by tribes. Today they were now Indians who belonged to Tribes. A new national identity had been created.
As such they would be more of a voting block than before.
While all this was true, the entertainment reporters weren’t that interested in the
