My Life as a Hollywood Screenwriter

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I co-starred several times with my longtime friend Jose Ferrer, and in one case, he starred in one of my “Happening Productions” in Hollywood. This was an artist event in which the “Happening” was an orchestrated eruption of argument in Musso & Frank’s Grill on Hollywood Boulevard in 1969, when this photo was taken by my girlfriend Samantha. The costumes we’re in are relative to the production, not our own clothes.

To begin with, I wasn’t a screenwriter; I started in the mailroom at KNX-Radio KNX-TV, then got hired as the official Columbia/Screen Gems photographer, met the Monkees, and from then on, I was on the inside. When I wasn’t screenwriting, I was writing about the Monkees and other friends for Tiger Beat and Monkee Spectacular, for my editor, Chuck Laufer and my co-reporter, Annie Moses.

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My Hollywood Film, TV & Author’s Agent (and family friend) Forry Ackerman with co-star on the set of one of my more spectacular Hollywood Productions, “Vampire Rose”. I lost my only copy, but have been told it was recently aired on cable. Max Oseran directed that dud, and it was exceptionally campy and funny. Total budget was under $100,000 in 1964!!!

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Organizing pages — this is my rewrite of several scenes in “Abducted” — left to right, Catherine Oxenberg, James Healy, Joyce Kenyon & Claude Needham — I took the photo — I believe this was in 1987.

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That’s me on the left, Harlan Ellison, script supervisor on Man From UNCLE, on the right.

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Award ceremony with George Scithers, Ben Bova & Fred Pohl, 1978, for Star Rats.

Well, there’s more of the same, only different. I wrote for several hundred productions, mostly in the role of script doctor. A few were entirely my own, but only a few.

See You At The Top!!!

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