American Dreams

I’m gonna combine three shoots into one this time. I was on American Dreams as a driver in Jason’s ’66 Corvette. Even though I knew I wouldn’t be seen walking around in frame, I still did my best to wear something that was period-correct for 1966.

Anyhow, I’ll do sort of highlights of each of the days… For the most part, the days were pretty run-of-the-mill except for these oddities.

The first day included 3 locations all around Sunset-Gower studios. And well, the Corvette’s pretty darn loud, so I don’t usually drive through frame much. I tell the PA’s and such, but they still don’t listen for some reason. I end up in the driving line to go through frame and then around the block. Usually, I only go through once before they pull me out. This time, I made it through 3 times before they told me to go park somewhere around the block.

I wait there for a few hours, watching all the other car people do their circles. But then, I realize that the cars haven’t circled in awhile and the ones that staged in front of me haven’t come around. Okay… That’s pretty strange… So I walk up and peer around the corner… Everyone was gone! They’d done a company move and forgot about me! Luckily, I recognized one guy who could tell me where to go so I hollered out to him, asking if he could help me. First he looked at me like I was insane, but then we both realized how funny the situation was.

He told me where to go for the next location and I lined up in that drive-through line, knowing full well I wouldn’t last more than one or two crosses through frame. Sure enough, after my second cross, the PA told me to go up to the parking structure and wait for the next shot.

I waited there with a bunch of other parked cars for a couple hours, wondering when either everyone else was supposed to show up or lunch break would be called. Well…lunch was called, but I’d missed it because I followed instructions. If I’d known I could’ve left the lot for lunch…well, dinner…it was about 4PM…first, I’d’ve done that. Anyhow, I had to settle for a couple bagels from craft service. But darn it all, without those, I swear I would’ve passed out.

The rest of the night went off just fine.

The next time I was on the show, I parked on the lot and they told me tonight’s scene was a rain scene. Ummm…the Corvette’s a convertible and the top doesn’t go up anymore. Thankfully, they put me in the back, away from the sprinklers that simulated the rain.

The only other oddity that night was that when I was heading out, one of the transpo guys asked what happened to my license plate. My license plate? Hmmm…I walked around the back of the car to discover that the plate was completely gone. I talked to the prop guys who’d put on a fake Pennsylvania plate and they said there was no plate on the car to begin with. I shrugged, then remembered a certain odd clanging noise when I was on the freeway, heading to the set. Yup, within the next few days I was at the DMV, buying Jason a new plate for his car. Ah well. Life’s an adventure.

The third time I was on the show was a two-day call in Pasadena.

I drove through the frame twice. On the second time, one of the Assistant Directors came running out of the building, waving her arms, yelling at the top of her lungs, “Shut that thing off!!! Shut off the Corvette!!!! NOW!!!!!!” I did as I was told and then just shook my head. It wasn’t the first time I was on the show, why the hell didn’t they remember that my car’s too loud to drive through the frame? I always asked before I started driving, too. Hell, the sound man probably wanted to throttle me by this point. Poor guy. I parked the car and hung out with a few of the other car people.

One guy in particular saw that there were antique stores near the set. Both of our cars were parked and likely wouldn’t be going anywhere for awhile, so we ran through one of the antique malls. Let me just say that it was so good, I brought Jason back there the following week. Yeah, I know I wasn’t supposed to leave the set, but darn-it-all, we knew we weren’t going to be needed for the twenty minutes we took to run through the shop.

Later on when both our cars were parked again, we headed down an alley that led behind a Maserati dealership. Both of us being car folk, naturally, we had to walk in and look. Well, the salesman was shuffling cars around and there, aimed out the back door, top down, engine running, was a metallic-midnight-blue Ferrari convertible. Let me just say that I have never been so tempted to steal a car in all my life. The back gate was wide open, too! Good-ness gracious me… What a sinful temptation.

Nothing else the rest of that day or the next was of any interest. Just more of the same sitting around, then moving my car from one side of the street to the other…all the while dreaming about jumping in that Ferrari and driving somewhere–anywhere in it!!!!!

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