These chapters have not been proofed...they are posted on the web site because I'm in jeopardy of losing heart and my vision for the book, let alone that it can be finished. If my friends are able to actually read a chapter or two...and give me some feed back I just know I can finish the last few chapters, pick the many photos...set up the index, finish the appendix, and the other flotsam and jetsam that goes into writing, designing, and publishing the book...wait...I shouldn't have written that...now I am dubious once again...oh, well...have fun reading.
Check back often for more exclusive sneak peaks and information on when the book will be available.
Hubby Meets Walt – Margaret Meets Daughter
It became obvious to one and all that either Ritchard and I were living together or we were married. Living together! One did not DO that in my day. So, we made a modest announcement at a script read-through. Mr. Ruggles gave me a hug and shook Ritchard's hand. The cast and crew gave their congratulations and we went back to work.
Ritchard had tracked down an apartment for us to settle in. His Uncle and Aunt, Mark and Elvera Pierce, sent us to a furniture manufacturer to pick out lovely and sturdy maple furniture. The ABC crew threw a little party on the Grace Larson Cooking Show set and that was that.
It was a wonderful blur of a time when I became a real-honest-to-goodness housewife. Bessie-O told what to get for the kitchen although I have never done more than heat up vittles. But this was what I had been anxious for and I knew just how to behave. Although I had watched enough movies to know how to act I found that I needed a third party to our marriage… a script writer. Very little went according to my dreams.
A couple of weeks later I got the first inkling of how the decisions were going to be made in the Brown household. Ritchard, quite offhandedly mentioned that he had been offered a promotion at ABC. They wanted to move us to New York to live for a year so that he could be trained as a television director.
I was excited about the prospect but, alas, he'd already told them that he couldn't live in the Big Apple. So, eight weeks married and he was without a paycheck. ABC had dropped him. To say I was startled would be an understatement. I was now the big breadwinner making the magnificent sum of (before deductions) one hundred and forty five dollars a week from the TV series and bringing spotty checks in from radio. And he had turned down a career! Well, I thought it was odd but husbands made unilateral decisions in 1951 so I smiled bravely. (Honestly, I did!)
Ritchard had been moonlighting with a Sunday program. It featured Pastor Fred Jordan. He came to speak at one of our Hollywood Christian Group meetings. He was a flamboyant pastor which was no surprise when you heard that his small church was called the American Soul Clinic. He had come to our group to get extra funds to help the poor of Los Angeles. Ritchard took Pastor Fred aside and suggested that TV was the way to raise funds. The next thing I knew Ritchard was producing and directing one of the earliest televangelist programs seen in the Los Angeles area. .
It aired every Sunday morning on Channel 13 and rapidly gathered a large following. Up till Jordan went on the air, some pastors were presenting rather static Christian programming. Ritchard designed the show to be theatrical within bounds, of course, and to keep viewers interest he had a handsome white and gold set with the choir in robes as background. There was a small sedate group of leaders in the foreground and a lovely young lady dressed in white playing a gleaming harp to open the program.
Fred Jordan's "American Soul Clinic" TV show was paying about seventy five dollars a week and Ritchard had another eight weeks on his thirteen weeks contract to produce. Jordan decided to go in-house for the show's producer and did not renew the contract. Pastor Jordon's wife Willie Jordan has kept his great work going to this day with the Fred Jordan Mission in downtown L.A. It was Ritchard Brown's vision that started building this blessed mission work for the poor.
After he left ABC, my husband tried several things but none really panned out.
At this point, he knew one thing for sure. He did not want to work for someone else. He wanted a "command" of his own. He needed to be the Skipper and have a crew. I'm not making this up. That's the way that he put it.
However, he did accept an assignment to be an assistant director on the ABC staff that was to televise the opening of Disneyland in 1955. This was to lead the way for him to meet with his idol, Walt Disney.
A groundbreaking undertaking with miles of TV and sound cables strung throughout the Theme Park, ABC did not have enough TV cameras and borrowed many from other local TV stations. Logistics were made even more difficult because there was no precedent to follow.
The young television industry had not attempted anything on such a large scale. A score or more of cameras spread out over acres, tied together with many large cables, ready to focus in on the finished part of Disneyland inviting viewers from all across the nation to visit something new, something magic … Disneyland.
Ritchard was working on the problem of moving the clumsy TV cameras, sound equipment, cables and some forklifts through the truck traffic clogging the few streets in Disneyland. The cables had to be physically lifted over the top of each heavy truck to allow it to pass. The forklifts were to be placed in chosen areas and used as camera cranes for up-high shots.
While all of this activity was going on, Ritchard had an inspiration. Why not film this mammoth television undertaking and then show it to Walt Disney? Possibly this would be an entrée to Walt and the big boys at Disney. Approval to film was given for "The Making of the TV Special of the Opening of Disneyland." Ritchard brought in cameraman, Edwin "Ted" Gillette, a well-established World War II cameraman.
The special looked good on TV and yet opening day for Disneyland was a disaster. There is famous story about a visitor's high heels sinking into the still soft pavement. Though I have always wondered what was she thinking? High heel shoes for a day at an amusement park? Well, it was 1955. Women dressed more lady-like then.
Ritchard slept for about two days straight after the opening and a few days later retrieved the footage Ed Gillette had shot. Now the fun began. On July 22, quite pregnant with my second child Christina, I plopped down in our back bedroom and, using a 16mm projector we had bought at auction, I made a rough cut and wrote the narration for the film. It ran about 20 minutes.
The narration and some music were recorded and the film went to the lab. Titles and credits were added and voila, our documentary was ready for screening. But there was a problem. August 7th was the important screening for Walt Disney and his executives. It was to be held in the evening at Disney Studios in Burbank. The late afternoon at our house went something like this:
"Ritchard, call your mother and tell her to get over here to take care of Eric," I said. For a touch of drama I heaved a sigh.
"What for? She's way down in Playa del Rey. Don't you remember? She's coming up this weekend," he said setting his jaw.
"I'm starting labor and I think it's time to call the doctor. We need to head for the hospital," I said shaking my head in wonderment at how dense a man could possibly be not to get my cues.
"Oh," he said quietly looking up at me. "Oh, but I'm meeting with Walt and the others tonight to show them the film."
Ritchard said the name Walt with such feeling that he was convinced the very mention of the Disney name would even stop labor pains.
Well, as magical as the moniker Walt Disney was, it didn't stop the labor process. However, I set about thinking of how we could work this out. I didn't want Ritchard to think that a woman, doing womanly things like having a kid, would mess up his very important meeting.
Yet, before I came up with a solution, there were many more words between us which I will not bore you with here. You didn't think that I was going to pass on this delicious moment to hammer in my two cents worth … if I remember, it was more like five cents worth. I let him know that his attitude was not the way I had seen any other husbands on TV handled the imminent birth of their child. The penetrating guilt trip I was laying on him and the frustration about missing the Disney meeting was too much. He called his mother and the doctor. After that I calmed down. Well, in between the pains.
"What time does the meeting start?" I asked in a moment when I was rather comfortable.
"Seven o'clock and I've got to be there at 6:15 to set up with the projectionist."
"Well," I said feeling very much like a 15th Century Saint Margaret, "Why don't you just drop me off at the hospital. There's really not much you can do for a few hours but wait."
Ritchard, looking guilty but relieved, took me up on my offer. What followed was a typical I Love Lucy type scenario: a) he drove me to the steps of Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, b) he kissed me and said he would be right back after the meeting, c) I stepped out onto the sidewalk, d) he handed me my overnight bag, e) I wished him luck as I closed the car door and waved goodbye, f) I took my fat self and waddled up the steps and into the hospital and g) signed myself in. h) I settled in and was prepared. Then I waited to see which one would appear first … the baby or Ritchard.
Around midnight Ritchard came into my room with a silly grin on his face.
T"They were all there," he bubbled. "Walt himself and the others … they all loved it!"
"That's good, dear," I replied sleepily.
"Good? It's great!" he exclaimed. For about twenty minutes Ritchard proceeded to give a blow-by-blow account of the meeting. He ended his story by saying, "Disney is buying the film. We stood around with coffee while they asked me questions because they were curious about the more technical stuff that we didn't have in the film."
"That's good, dear."
He stretched and yawned as he mumbled, "I'm exhausted."
"Tha's dood, gear..oh…uh … that's good, dear"
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Richard as it dawned on him that I was in a hospital bed and I was there for a reason. He asked lamely, "How are you doing?"
"I've just had an epidural and I'm feeling nothing from my waist down and I'm sleepy from the waist up."
"So, you haven't had the baby yet?"
"Oh, you dumb bunny … drag the chair close to my bed and put your head on the covers and go to sleep."
Ritchard was out like a light. It was rather difficult for the nurse to rouse both of us when I was wheeled into the delivery room. Beautiful Christina Lizbeth Brown was born early in the morning of August 8th and weighed in at eight pounds and seven ounces.
We named her after Queen Christina of Sweden. She has been 'My Joy' to this very day.
(I'm sure by now you are convinced that I am a perfect wife… if you are not…well)