Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour by Marti Rulli

Author:Marti Rulli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2008-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Dennis said excitedly when he called about a month later, “A dentist needed his yacht refurbished and hired me as a resident worker. I’m living on a yacht again. I’ll miss driving to the studios with P.V., but my brother Paul is flying out to live here again.” I remembered Paul’s last disaster move to L.A., but said nothing.

Dennis’s lighthearted calls were rare, so I made a concentrated effort to not disturb his mood. “Now you have the best of two worlds—the marina and the studios.” I asked, “Are you doing movies?”

“Movies, television, commercials. I just had a speaking part on The A-Team, and that’s unusual for general extras. But I’m getting a hell of a lot less work than P.V. and other extras. They’re called in daily, but I get about one part a week. P.V. says it’s like I’m blacklisted.”

Dennis was registered with Central Casting Corporation and with RichMar Casting, Inc. He belonged to the Screen Actors’ Guild and paid his own dues. He had worked for Warner Brothers, MGM, Twentieth Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, and for television networks ABC, CBS, and NBC.

“Tell me about some of the parts you’ve played,” I asked.

“Well, in Bay City Blues, a camera panned the bleachers for a baseball game scene, hometown side and a visitors’ side. The camera closed in where we all gathered close to make the bleachers look full. Then, to film the visitors’ side, about four hundred extras exchanged what we were wearing while tearing across the field to the other side. I ended up with a girl’s sweater,” he laughed. “In Hill Street Blues I play a cop in briefing room, and played a homeless bum in a winter scene. I wore an old, beat up overcoat in the hundred-degree sun, pretending to be freezing. The stunt guys on all these shows are so trained and professional—especially on MacGyver. Richard Dean Anderson is a cool guy.”

“Den, as a kid, I remember Sammy Davis Jr. washing his rented car at a gas station in front of the hotel I used to swim at, and people talked about how real that was for a celebrity. What could be not real about washing a car?”

“These big stars are just people. Some have tremendous egos, but on the set, it’s nothing but business. Every second costs money. I wish you had been able to visit me when I worked for the Wagners.”

“Den, ironically, we were planning it for the summer of eighty-two. I missed meeting Natalie by a matter of months.” To stay off course, I asked, “So, what other shows have you been on?”

“Let’s see, I’ve played in Trauma Center, Trapper John, Hotel, T.J. Hooker, Hardcastle and McCormick, and I did a Wells Fargo Bank commercial we filmed in the mountains. I’m in a McDonald’s commercial filmed in a gymnasium, an Old Milwaukee Beer, and a Wranglers Jeans spot.”

“And you say you aren’t busy?”

“Nowhere near as busy as P.V. and other extras.”

“Are commercials easier and faster than television scenes?”

“It’s all hard.

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