The Show Biz

Gravitas
By
Bob Fraser

I was recently thinking about movie stars - and our collective ‘sense’ of one of the most interesting; Morgan Freeman.

Since he is a presence in so many modern classics, I think we’ve tended to take him for granted. Of course, his story is (like most actors) one of struggle - so there are lessons for all of us who aspire to the sort of career he’s managed to build – and the big lesson is to take nothing for granted.

For me, the first word that comes to mind when I hear Morgan Freeman, is ‘gravitas.’ These days, he is one of the few men in movies who harkens back to a time when dignified manhood was the first component of stardom. Like Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and many others of the golden age, Morgan Freeman always seems to lend weight and importance to the proceedings – not to mention grace and generosity.

Born in Memphis Tennessee in 1937, Freeman grew up in the care of his grandmother in Mississippi, because his parents went north for work. This was in the heart of the depression. That might seem a horrible beginning to some, but Freeman says it wasn’t … “We had second-hand equipment, but first class teachers.”

When he began spending his summers in Chicago with his parents he discovered the movies. Since money for the matinees was non-existent, he would comb the streets and alleys for empty pop bottles, which he returned for a cash deposit. Cagney, Bogart, Cooper, and Gregory Peck would become his icons.

It was also at the movies that he fell in love with airplanes and flying. This led to Freeman joining the Air Force at age 18. After his tour of duty, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue the career he thought he was really cut out for … acting.

Los Angeles in the late fifties was difficult and he was frequently broke. He got a job as a transcript clerk at LA’s City College. The money was not very good, but the acting, dancing and singing classes were free. He proved to be an excellent dance student and, in fact, collected his first real pay in show business as a dancer in The Cabaret Union – appearing at the 1964 World’s Fair.

But he wanted to ACT. The job that changed everything was in the Inca Chorus in a touring company of The Royal Hunt Of The Sun. He was an understudy as well – and got his chance to go on in Des Moines, Iowa.

“The feeling of rightness and power that washed over me on the stage, came as a revelation to me. I said to myself, ‘THIS is what you do. THIS is where you really shine.’”

At the end of that tour, he moved to New York City with dreams of Broadway. He spent a few years auditioning for everything and getting very little. Food was a constant concern and he often went hungry. He finally made his New York debut in an off-Broadway show and was suddenly making $72.00 a week. “It was wonderful. I wasn’t starving anymore and neither was my dog.” The following year he made the step up to Broadway in Hello Dolly, starring Pearl Bailey.

Freeman continued to struggle throughout the sixties – working irregularly off-Broadway, in regional theatres and summer stock. He also managed to get some walk-on roles in TV and films – appearing first as an extra in The Pawnbroker. His first major break came in the seventies when he became a cast member of The Electric Company where he co-starred with Bill Cosby and Rita Moreno. For those who were kids around this time, he will always be remembered as Easy Reader, Count Dracula and The Cop.

But this apparent success had it’s downside. The work was not very demanding and Freeman started to believe that it was all he would ever get. Eager to join friends who were moving to Hollywood during the wave of ‘blaxploitation’ movies, Morgan was convinced by his agent to wait – “When the time is right, Hollywood will come for you.”

And of course Hollywood did come calling, in the form of Robert Redford – who cast Morgan in his prison drama Brubaker. As the eighties began, Freeman’s career started taking off. He won an Obie for his performance in Coriolanus, gained more screen time in the docu-drama Attica, co-starred with Sigourney Weaver in The Janitor and played Malcolm X in Death Of A Prophet.

But, by 1982 he was unemployed again. And this time he had kids to worry about. He was wary of TV work, but finally relented and started a two-year run in the soap opera Another World. When he was cast in the Paul Newman film, Harry and Son, it was his first screen role in three years. When Newman heard that, his reaction was, “That’s criminal.” A bit later Freeman was cast in the mini-series The Atlanta Child Murders and was well received … but again unemployed, so he went back to New York and the theatre.

This time, his move proved to be the right one. He won a Tony nomination for The Mighty Gents, won another Obie for a production of The Gospel At Colonus and (perhaps most importantly), discovered a play being given a try-out at Playwright’s Horizon – called, Driving Miss Daisy.

His portrayal of the long suffering chauffeur won him yet another Obie, rave reviews, and the attention of the producer of the Christopher Reeve film Street Smart.  Playing a sharp and sophisticated pimp in that film, Freeman was noticed big time. He got an Oscar nomination and suddenly became what all actors dream of becoming … regularly employed.

In quick succession he played memorable characters in Clean and Sober, Lean On Me, and was Oscar nominated for recreating his role in the screen version of Driving Miss Daisy. Having broken through at the age of fifty, he was often called a late bloomer. He says, “I bloomed very early. It’s just that no one bothered to notice.”

Now it seems as if Freeman is ubiquitous. In all, he’s racked up 63 films (many modern classics), been nominated for 4 Academy Awards, and finally took Oscar home for his work in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby.

With his quiet strength and gravitas, Morgan Freeman is an actor who is in constant demand – but he never forgets the long and sometimes difficult road that led to this place. His nearly five-decade career is a study in perseverance, patience, and optimism. He has said many things of importance to other actors, about the struggle and the success:

“I knew at an early age I wanted to act. Acting was always easy for me. Was I always going to be here? No I was not. I was going to be homeless at one time, a taxi driver, truck driver … or any kind of job that would get me a crust of bread. You never know what’s going to happen.”

“I always tell my kids if you lay down, people will step over you. But if you keep scrambling, if you keep going, someone will always, always give you a hand. Always. But you gotta keep dancing, you gotta keep your feet moving.”

“You do what you are. You’re born with a gift. If not that, then you get good at something along the way. And what you’re good at. – you don’t take for granted.”

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I am often asked whether it’s ‘too late’ to start a career as an actor or entertainer - and I always answer that ‘it’s never too late.’ Today we are reminded of the potential everyone has to switch gears and grab another dream.

What happened today?

Danny Gans has passed away, unexpectedly, at his home in Las Vegas.

If you aren’t someone who visits Las Vegas on a regular basis you may not even know who Danny Gans was.

Well, Danny was the headliner in Las Vegas - where he was billed as ‘The Man of Many Voices.’ He was named Entertainer of the Year eleven times in a row, and his show was awarded Show of the Year more than once.

I saw Danny back in 1998 when he was just starting to build his reputation as a headliner - and take my word for it, he was amazing.

But the most interesting thing about Danny and his super-star career is that entertainment was not his original goal.

Danny had never planned a career in show business. His dream was to play third base for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In fact, after high school, he was drafted by the Kansas City Royals. Then the Chicago White Sox drafted him again after college, where he was an All-American at Cal Poly.

Two years later, his life long dream came true when he signed with the White Sox and went to the minor leagues to start his career as a professional athlete - playing for the Durham Bulls.

In an ironic precursor to his eventual career, Danny played a small role as a third baseman in the film Bull Durham - although his role was cut. Not long after that, his dream came to a crashing halt as a career-ending injury turned his life upside-down.

With encouragement from friends and family, Danny shifted his focus from baseball to entertainment. Blessed with a great singing voice, the ability to make people laugh, and a rare stage presence - he began pursuing his entertainment career.

His first few years were spent on the road, performing mostly at private corporate functions - often playing to crowds of thousands, for major companies such as IBM and McDonald’s. Fellow entertainers, including Bill Cosby and Natalie Cole, raved about Gans’ and it was apparent that he was a star on the rise.

In 1992 he played Dean Martin in the CBS miniseries Sinatra. In 1995, he arrived on Broadway with his one-man show, which was an unqualified hit. Then Danny moved to Las Vegas in order to be near his family who lived on the west coast.

He started his Las Vegas shows at the Stratosphere Hotel in 1996, and moved to the Rio Hotel shortly thereafter. In 2000 Danny moved his show to The Mirage when he signed one of the largest contracts in the history of Vegas for 150 million dollars.

Danny was a permanent performer at The Mirage, where the Danny Gans Theatre was built for him. In early 2009, Gans changed hotels again and began performing at Encore, the sister property of The Wynn Las Vegas. The marquee on Las Vegas Strip, bearing his image, is the largest freestanding marquee in the world.

But the facts of his meteoric career pale in comparison to his story - which, hopefully, gives each of us the absolute knowledge that it’s never too late to pursue your dream - even if it’s not the first dream you have.

I’m sure that Danny will be missed - not only by his wife and three children - but by everyone who ever saw him in action on the stage.

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The picture above (Courtesy of Roth Stock Digital Media*) shows a group of actors picketing outside Fox studios recently. The issue is Fox TV’s recent announcement that they plan to do away with re-runs and simply place their content on the web for a ’second run.’

The reasoning behind this decision is that putting product on the internet is a way (if they win the fight with the unions) that production companies can avoid paying actors residuals.

Oooh! Not a very nice plan.

A favorite topic of conversation among actors these days is the unbearable situation regarding our unions. One’s got a contract and the other does not. And production companies are giving more work to the union that agreed to the ‘little or no web residuals’ contract.

And the other union (I’m not mentioning any names here) is spending an egregiously large amount of ‘quality time’ having an inter-mural war and wavering on a decision to stand up to this obvious “shot across our bow.”

Lovely - and just what ‘management’ wants to see.

But picketing will not change the situation (IMHO).

Look, it seems clear that current management wants to ‘break’ the unions. It’s the only way they can keep all the profits they hope to see from distributing their product on the web (despite their constant plaint that they don’t know if they’ll EVER make any money from this ‘new, untested medium’).

Bottom line: They must cut corners somewhere - because they are in trouble, financially-wise. Like running-out-of-cash-to-make-next-week’s-payroll-wise.

Who’d have thunk it? They lose gobs of money and come after our pittance to bail them out.

It’s enough to make a humble thespian feel unwanted.

I know - it’s galling. It’s pretty much the same feeling I (and hundreds of other writers) had when the ‘industry’ decided in the early nineties, that anyone could write a series … if they hired enough wannabes who could spell ’scenario.’

(And, by the way, they fought us in our attempt to collect our fair share of video and DVD’s because they had ‘no idea’ whether they would EVER make any money from this ‘new, untested medium.’  WGA estimates are that writers lost over a billion dollars in income, thanks to that contract cave-in.)

Anyway, union woes …

Here’s my somewhat informed opinion:

Friends, co-stars, above-the-liners … I come to bury these Little Caesars … period.

This is war!

No matter how we feel, the die is cast. They are in the ‘cut expenses or die’ mode - and their main strategy is ‘union busting.’  Those of us who make the product just cost too much - and don’t expect any of these brain trusts, who have dragged us to this precipice, to cut their own outrageous salaries. It just doesn’t work that way. Look at the banks (being run by the same blank brain MBA’s).

Their battlefield tactics now are a direct result of their original bad decisions (”anyone can write, she’s cute – we’ll make her a star, he can direct - look at his story-boards”).

The upshot of that is they’ve lost the audience - AND they are in the financial dumpster. They are intent in their plan to cut off our livelihoods to help bail them out. (There are big media companies out there borrowing money at credit card rates - trust me, there will be no Federal tax-payer bail outs in the pipeline for these bozos.)

Oh, they’re not admitting that they’re in hot water - they are touting their grosses to the skies. (And let’s not forget who controls the so-called “media.”)

But check the real numbers. If 15 million people show up for one of their network efforts, it’s “break out the champagne!”  20 years ago – with a smaller population to draw from – if a show had a pathetic 15 million viewers, the ‘creative team’ would have been dismembered and buried near Barstow.  (My own humble show, Marblehead Manor was not picked up for a second year because we only attracted about 21 million a week in syndication.)

Oh, I know, there are “so-o-o many channels.”

This is a fallacious argument. Add up the the cable numbers - take a close look at who owns all those outlets.

Believe me, the audience has left the building.

Movies aren’t faring that well either.

Yes, I know, 55 million in one weekend. Listen, if they had charged ten bucks a ticket for “Abbot & Costello Meet The Mummy,” it would have made about 3 billion dollars.

All right!  What’s the answer?

As General Patton said, “Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.”

Here’s my solution: Let’s get busy making our own stuff.

The big boys have only recently discovered the web - and they think it works just like the old media - they’ll simply be able to control it as they have with TV, film, etc.

Those of us who use the web every day, know better.

Anyway … for the cost of mounting a vanity production of an iffy play in a dank basement in Hollywood - in order to be seen by a casting director’s assistant’s significant other - you could be making your own digital movie.

Start gathering actors who want to do it. Find cinematographers – they hate the situation too. Writers, directors, grips - all are eager to do the work they love.

On a side note: Given his recent financial success with Doctor Horrible and the way he’s being treated by the network airing his new show - I doubt we’ll see Joss Whedon doing business with any of the networks in the foreseeable future.

You can do it too. Work to make it happen. Just keep it to yourselves.

Go ahead, start making “product” for the web, behind the backs of the “ticket takers.”

This is a fact: They once had an audience.

This is another fact: Writers, actors, directors and professional crews delivered that audience.

They don’t want to do business with us?

Ha! We don’t want to do business with them!

Keep in mind that the “marketing boys” idea of entertainment is a repellent real estate agent with a constant bad hair day firing fake celebrities from fake jobs (while real people are losing real jobs). Or the tenth outing of a psycho killer with a saw (knife, ax, meat cleaver, weed-whacker - name your implement) carving up 30 year-olds pretending to be teen-agers, who are too stupid to stay out of the basement.

Yawn.

The audience has left the building.

Okay, steps:

Get a camera
Assemble a team
Find a barn
Make some costumes
Put on a show (on video)

Complaining won’t help. Yelling won’t help. Picketing won’t help.

These folks are going down - just like vaudeville, silent movies and network radio.

My advice? Don’t be standing near them, begging for a lousy job, when it happens.

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My thanks to Lee Roth for the photo.

* Roth Stock Digital Media offers photographic services to the entertainment community.  A specialist in live event and red carpet arrivals coverage, Lee Roth’s celebrity photos are syndicated worldwide to magazines and television shows.  His photos regularly appear in such publications as People, In Touch, Us Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, and many others.

For a more intimate approach, Lee also offers headshot and personal portfolio sessions, along with private glamour sessions for the adventurous woman.  A one-hour headshot session is $250 and includes a CD of magazine-quality finished selects from the shoot, along with up to four 8”x10” glossy prints and licensing to use the images to seek work.  For portfolio and glamour sessions, a two-hour minimum applies with rates of $250 per hour.  Half days are $850, and a full-day session is $1500.  Fees do not include makeup artist, hair and wardrobe styling, or catering.  These services are available for additional rates.  Magazine-quality finished selects are always provided on CD after the edit is complete, along with a few prints of each look for your book. Additional licensing fees may apply for commercial use.

Spend a day with Roth on location, or in-studio, and you will have a variety of looks that will get you that next part.  Lee understands your needs, and caters to your desires.  View his portfolios and bio at http://www.rothstock.com.  Contact him at producers@rothstock.com or 323-385-3050 for availability and reservations. All fees include worldwide syndication services to the wires.

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