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Henry Fonda and Charlton Heston
Going through a stack of old photographs yesterday, I found pictures from the initial filming of the first Screen Actors' Guild Legacy Program back in December, 1979.
I was appointed associate producer by actor-attorney John Kerr. The goal was to interview the most famous members of the Guild on video to share their life stories and reminiscences with the membership.
In November, 1979, Kerr convinced former SAG president Charleton Heston, then president of the American Film Institute to interview Henry Fonda for the premiere program for the Legacy Series. The filming would take place at the American Film Institute, headquartered at the Doheny Estate in Beverly Hills.
Jack Myers, president of Pacific Video in Hollywood, was the director. The interview was to take place on the last Saturday morning in December at 9 o’clock.
On Friday afternoon, at 3, I received a call at home from Jack Myers. Highly upset, he had checked out the set that we were to shoot on the next morning. “The set consists of a pair of white sofa stools,” he growled.
“Henry Fonda will look like he's sitting on an ice cream cone.” Myers insisted I get rid of the white stools and replace them with chairs that were darker. It was too late for me to obtain anything from a rental house or from one of the production crews. My brother-in-law came by with a truck. We loaded two dark mahogany chairs and a matching coffee table from my house and left for the AFI headquarters.
On the way, I stopped at the Bank of America at Culver Center on Overland in Culver City. My brother-in-law followed me onto the parking lot and waited for me. I went into the bank, cashed my check and left.
Unknown to me, the guy behind me in line at the bank, stepped up to the teller and pointed a gun at him. Later, when I talked to the teller, he told me that the guy demanded that the bank bring one thousand pounds of birdseed to the parking lot and leave it in his truck.
“When he said that, I knew I was gonna die!” he recalled.
As soon as I pulled out of the parking lot, the police sealed all of the exits off and put a team of sharpshooters on the roof of the drug store across from the bank. My wife and brother-in-law were not allowed to leave.
I drove down Venice Boulevard toward La Cienega Boulevard, totally unawareof the incident at the bank. Twenty minutes later, I arrived at the AFI headquarters, parked my car and went into the main building where we were to film the next day. These were the good old days before cell phones, so I had no idea of what had happened at the bank. So I sat down to wait and waited and waited…….
An hour later, Birdseed Man surrendered to the police and my wife and brother-in-law the drove to AFI.
The next morning, I was at AFI getting things ready for filming. The set was being lit, and coffee had just been brewed. Pacific Video's driver had been instructed to park in the lower lot next to the AFI headquarters, but had chosen to park in the upper lot. An underground spring lies underneath the top parking lot which makes it unacceptable for large vehicles to park there.
A half hour after I had arrived, Charlton Heston came bounding into the kitchen shouting at the top of his lungs. “Who the bleep parked that bleeping truck in the upper lot?!!” “I did…” the driver said sheepishly.” “Move it down here ,like you were told!” Moses commanded. “Yes, sir,” the driver replied sheepishly and quickly left.
I walked up to Moses as he was glaring out the window. “Mr. Heston,” I said quietly, “would you like a cup of coffee?” He looked at me and grinned, “yeah!”
And that was my first meeting with Charlton Heston.
Mr. Hawkins may be contacted at rjhculvercity@aol.com.
