Donnie Norden: More Stories of Hollywood Trespassing

Tom and Greg go for a sequel of sorts with our second interview with Donnie Norden Phantom of the Backlots. 

Some of Donnie's own words to describe his adventures

From that first time I poked my 10-year-old head through a hole in the tall fence surrounding the MGM backlot near my house in Culver City, I became intrigued, maybe obsessed. I began a coming-of-age journey through the studio back lots and through movies and TV shows past and present – the history, the romance, the fantasy, and how it all looked real. People watch movies to escape everyday life; it became my everyday life.

To most people, movies made the world seem enormous and impossible; to me, the back lots made the world seem smaller and workable. For a kid, the back lot was heaven. And it was only two blocks away. I spent much of the next decade on the back lots. I learned how to make plans, and make them work. I learned to be a leader among the many kids I took along as guests. I learned to drink beer. I dabbled in drugs. I lost my virginity. I learned how to have fun, and the costs of having too much fun. I learned the value of hard work – and the value of getting out of hard work. I learned to be a man. And I learned what I wanted to do with my life – I wanted to be on the back lots, and be part of the magic.

This is not only my story. It’s also the story of a major chapter in Hollywood history – the demise of the traditional, powerful studio system. As I explored them, the lots were literally being sold out from under the moviemakers – and me – as takeover specialists swept in like vultures, picked the studios clean for quick investments, and then spit out the bare bones.

Podcast music:
Intro music Kamihamiha! - Alien Warfare Stems by Kamihamiha (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial  (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/Kamihamiha/60882

Movie Reviews and Serious Nonsense is a King Dyro Production ©2024

Movie Reviews and Serious Nonsense is a King Dyro Production ©2024

Transcript

Dyro Burka Podcast Season 03 Ep 07

Welcome to Movie Reviews and Serious Nonsense, with your host, Greg Dyro, and Tom Burka. Today we'll be interviewing Donnie Norton, about his adventures as a teenager in Hollywood. He visited many of the studios, uh, most of the time, not exactly invited in, in a proper manner. So, without further ado, let's listen to some of Donnie's adventures.

I honestly, when I started trespassing, did not know anything about these laws, meaning there was no computers. It's very important to understand there's, there was no instigation that you can do. There weren't the books. Stephen Bingham came out with the first best book, um, about MGM. But there was nothing to go off.

I had to Conquer each building and each street, and then figure out what was done here. And then you, you, you match it against TV reruns, and it was inspiring to, to, to watch. [00:01:00] To connect those dots in history and to live them even to sneak in a tv. Oh, yeah, go ahead I don't know. I was gonna say and and you ended up working Uh for one of the students was it universal?

Oh universal. Yeah universal for like 33 years But trust me and I started as a tram driver because it's so hard to break into that business It's a very nepotism But there was an ad in the paper for a tram driver just had to have a commercial license And then I went And applied and got that job. So I actually did four years of that, uh, at the tour.

It was the funnest stuff in the world. That's another like podcast because it's just behind the scenes at the world famous universal studios tours. And there's so much that goes into that. But in the, while I was doing that, I had actually applied for an apprenticeship program. There was no guarantee it would come through and it's, uh, It was for an electrician be [00:02:00] trained by the studio.

So, so those jobs are their career jobs, uh, and they train you at the studio. You do your shift in the day, you go to school at night. It's a, it's quite a fulfillment. But once you do that, you are gold because you, you had the whole studio fronts on electricity. The technical end of the studio is a 24, seven, three 65.

So if they. Uh, Motion Picture has an industry stack, you still work because you have to maintain the facility. Uh, especially now with the news there, and the tour, the tour, the tour carries the place when show production doesn't. So yes, I had a long career. Yeah, it's, no, I was going to say it's an interesting thing you were saying starting as a tram driver, the, uh, Uh, one of the former heads of WB Studio Facilities, John Gilbert, started over at Universal in the uh, uh, tour department.

Well, a lot of big shots, uh, well, definitely the [00:03:00] tour people start at the bottom and they move their way to the top. So drivers are actually a studio union, 399 Teamsters, so when you get, when you get, a lot of people don't work full time when they first start in, and then you jump back into shows. So you're working shows.

When I, when I got hired at tours, it was interesting. The drivers were making double time on Saturday and Sunday, whether they worked any other day or not, you were getting double time because it's a studio contract they're under, but the tour wanted their own contract. Cause they're saying that's way over.

scale what we want to pay. So they paid a lot of the veteran drivers when I'm still in contact from the seventies, uh, that, uh, they paid them to vote this new contract in, gave them a lot of money depending on their seniority and People left the studio. So created a void and that's when I got hired in.

It was like, everything came together as it always does. [00:04:00] And, and so, uh, like the drivers are the highest paid people in this tour. And yet when the promotion, um, you don't promote a driver cause he's union and that's what it is, but you promote all the surrounding people and the little gate poppers, we call them the check the gates and this end up moving up to high end positions.

It's. And then when Universal branched out into Florida, half of the people left and went to Florida, so they were even scaled up higher. So, it's a fascinating evolution of the tour, and to fit me, of all things. Now, I was trespassing in Universal back in, uh, the 70s. Once I, once, we were already heavy into MGM, Desilu.

And actually, Desilu just gets torn down, we want to branch out, we got our driver's license, we go to other studios, it's so easy to trespass, they don't know my face, I can walk in the gates, you don't really have to climb, the first time we took a [00:05:00] tram ride, we paid admission, and we got off the tram up at Prop Plaza, And we snuck, snuck down into the lawn.

We just walked down this road called Appian Road. You end up in the Flash Flood and Jaws. And, and Western Town, which is the runaway train back in the day. And so, oh my god, it was like, that was one of my highlights, was to get on the runaway train. I'm a trespasser at this time. I had no idea I'd ever work there.

And so we would, we, there was two of us, me and I think it was Jimmy that day, we jumped on the, there's a train that's automated, the runaway train. So, so when a tram gets to a certain point, it triggers an automated train with a, with an engineer screaming, I can't stop, but he's just a dummy full of sawdust.

And the I can't stop is just a sound system projection. And so we were we pushed the [00:06:00] little engineer out of the way we got up there and we rode back and forth to about six different trams because it comes every two minutes. We're the engineer and and so so it was that cool. It was that cool. I mean, there's people would have pictures of me doing that if you're on the tram.

I would love to see how many pictures I'm in around the world from trams. Because whatever job I'm doing, the electrician on all the shows, trams drive by and they've taken pictures. So I must have more pictures of me out in the world than anyone. So, so what's funny there though about the, the tram pass and riding the train, then I get hired.

Uh, in 1984 by TORS, and to tram drive, and now they're still doing the runaway train, and now I'm a tram driver. And, and I'm getting an opposite effect. I'm the guy that has to get away because the train can't stop. When, just a couple years before, I was the engineer on the train [00:07:00] saying, doing the opposite thing.

So, like. When I was being trained at the, at the studio, we had, you get 40 hours to learn how to drive a tram and, um, with 175 people and it's, and it's usually the animations that you really got to perfect. And the people couldn't believe my stories because I had already been all over this place and done so much.

So it was like, while other new employees were just had to learn the lot and figure this place out. I had stories already. From all kinds of stuff. And, and, and that's the mid eighties. So it's, it's, uh, the early to mid eighties. So you, you, it's a different culture than the seventies of Donnie trust passion.

But my stuff really starts in the sixties and, and, you know, Steven began, did the, The MGM effect, and I'm so honored that he stuck me in like four pages of how it influenced Donnie and let me just tell you the influence because I [00:08:00] think it's magnificent is so I grew up in this house. I'm a stone's throw from MGM And so, uh, yeah, seriously.

So this studio I'm four years old, but I'm watching, you're not supposed to throw slingshots, you're supposed to fire them. Well, let's sleep. So fire. Yeah. So Dennis Jimenez has nothing on me. Trust me. Uh, but anyways, so, so I'm four years old. I watched combat with my dad. I'm just and now and I hear you combat started like 1960.

So living here, you're going to get gunfire all day long, sometimes more than other. And, uh, and by the way, the fence couldn't contain that lot. So as a, when you're in your family car doing anything, you're going to see. This lot, this fence, that's why my book is originally called The Hole in the Fence, the original book.

Um, this, so, [00:09:00] you, you, this fence, this little 10 foot barbed wire fence can't confine what's behind it. Big building looking down on the little residential community. Uh, you have the train station, you have Verona Square, which is Romeo and Juliet. And, and ironically, Maureen, who, who I want to also point out, there's three people heavily involved with.

Where this success I'm having with this subject, Maureen Miller, who grew up with me on this street, I've known since six years old, before we trespassed. And, and today, to this day now, we, we have reconnected. I also have two other people, Mike Escarza and his wife Krista, who we, you wouldn't be talking to me today, if they didn't help launch this stuff with me, because I'm not a techie guy as far as, I wasn't all that stuff, but, but it, uh, we tested the waters and the popularity is there.

People want to escape back to the [00:10:00] seventies before computers. So we're going to go back to the sixties again. Here's the rest of that story. So, uh, Hang on. Just, just to go good. Sorry. Did you had a question, Tom? Sorry. Well, I, I just wanted to throw in for our listeners, you know, And you say you, you heard in combat as you were watching one of the most popular shows on television at the time.

Yeah. Which was a World War II show. Right. Called Combat. But you also lived right next door to the lot where it was being shot, is that correct? That's exactly the point. And so you can't escape this place. It's part of the fabric of the neighborhood. If you live here, it's not just my house, it's the entire surrounding neighborhood.

You know, that's combat. Uh, you know, don't forget. I got to remind people just the, the, how the world was then. There, you only had like channels two to 13 and half of those were omitted. So you really didn't have a big selection, but compared to the day where you have thousands of options, two to [00:11:00] 13 was more than enough because every channel was a rerun or something being filmed now that was classic to this day.

It's not better today than it was back then. So there is something to say for not having too many choices and kind of focusing in on a select group of more quality experiences. We, we've talked a little bit, we've talked about that before. I think with Tom, we were talking about, Oh, it's this, it's a series and it's, you know, 10 episodes.

This is, well, you got to get through the first three episodes and then it gets really good. And I'm like, I gotta get through three hours of this before it's good Right. I agree with that. That's not the case and back then by the way, like andy griffith and There's like 40 episodes in a year. They got like a week to do each episode That's why I am such a rod serling fan because his stuff is just gold how he could mass produce such classics [00:12:00] Weekly, basically.

Uh, I don't want to lose thought on the combat. So yes, I live that close and what's on it's 1964 and I'm just, this was a heavy gunfire day and I'm in the very back end of my backyard, closest to the studio, and I'm setting up my old plastic soldiers that most boys grew up with in the sixties. So you have the green ones for them.

Yeah. And I had a GI Joe. Yeah. Oh, I had those too, but these were the little plastic guys. The little plastic men. The little green guys. The little green guys. The little green guys that showed up in Toy Story, yes. Oh, it's a Toy Story opening, so, so, I set up my guys in a thing, because there's all kinds of gunfire, there's a break in gunfire, I'm setting them up behind little dirt clods and broken twigs and little trenches, and then I stare at them.

And I stare at them with like, Billy Mummy eyes, you know, where you just want them to do something. Like do something and uh, for those of you who don't know billy moomy was the [00:13:00] Actor who played the child and lost its face Yes. And he also was in a twilight episode where he wishes people into a cornfield.

Oh yeah. Remember that? It's that look, that's the look I gave. It's scary. Yeah. Okay. And so, and then, and then all of a sudden I'm like, I'm waiting for something to happen. You know, they're just, they're just plastic soldiers, but I want them to do something. Then the gunfire starts, and then, okay, now I'm throwing dirt all over him, trying to create even more effects.

Then it stops, and I stare at the dust nettles, and I thought, very cool. This is so cool. Then we do it again, and finally my mom walks out, and I go, Mom, where is all this gunfire coming from? And nonchalantly, she just goes, MGM, right over there, they film combat. And that was the moment that never, that I changed.

The seed, uh, incubation period took off, the seed germinated, however you want to describe it. Now I know that this place [00:14:00] so close to me is where they filmed this show. Uh, so that leads me to It's like five years old. I can go to that fence and look through the holes and I would look through the little not holes in the fence and see streets that I didn't know how they connect and you can see the rooftops without looking through a hole and that became the thing for the next few years just driving around MGM on my bicycle and looking through every hole and just wondering what goes on here.

I was hooked. I just didn't know how I was going to get to the next level. And, and, and then also, as we get a little older, we start going around Desilu, and my, my favorite show in the mid 60s is Batman, Adam Weston. I, I, I had a cape, a cape and a mask that I got with blue chip stamps, if anybody knows what blue chip stamps are.

And it takes like a million to get this costume. [00:15:00] And when I got it, And then we'd, we would ride our bikes to, over to Desilu. It's a little farther ride, but I had a friend that was a couple years older, Jimmy. So, so, my parents let me do, it was a different time, you did that stuff. And, and so we went to Desilu, and um, and I was fortunate enough to see, Yeah, and I was fortunate enough to see the Batmobile drive by, down a dirt road in the Desilu lot.

I was looking through the chain link fence, so saw that he's real. And then at another time, I got to see Batman, uh, I got to see the giant clams, which we didn't know was Batman, but we slam on our brakes and we looked and we're watching these clams get moved. And then I was signaled to come in and, and they let me and Jimmy get into a clam.

There was two clams, one for Batman and one for Robin. And we got to sit in them. And then. We didn't, we didn't get to see it on TV till like a month later because you're always like four weeks different from [00:16:00] when you film to when you hear. And, uh, and so I'm living this Batman dream. So I'm living my dreams and, and MGM after combat.

We call it, uh, War TV, MGM is War TV, because they ended up doing, following that with Rat Patrol, Garrison Guerrillas. Rat Patrol, yeah. Oh, Rat Patrol's my favorite. I love combat just as much, but, but, Rat Patrol with those jeeps, and the tank, they had the regular little transpo. It was a hatchback, a tank, uh, like a troop carrier, and then the two jeeps with the 50 So Rapatrol just was a very powerful image, and I had a Rapatrol lunch pail for elementary school.

Right, the jeeps going over the dunes in the desert, jumping up in the air. Oh, it's, it's, it's the It's even in some ways a better, uh, lead in than combat, even though I had a combat board game with [00:17:00] Vic Morrow with his machine and they all blend together. In fact, the crew went from the one show when it got canceled to the other.

So these guys have some incredible stories, but most of them are passing on now. And I feel like I gotta carry on these stories about this studio, because I'm still like at a good age where I can talk to people. Talk the talk and bring you there. And I saw it. That's why I was, I'm really good at it. And I want, I was blessed and I want to share these things with people, the inside out.

So how many, how many different studios did you end up? Either breaking into getting onto the lot well over time every one of them. There was nothing we couldn't do So yeah, we we it got so easy. The other studios didn't get challenged like we did culver city And so they didn't even seem to there wasn't that hard.

You could see where we always found the weak link in the chain where you could climb in, which is usually a [00:18:00] solid post. You know, they all have chain link and barbed wire. Basically, that's how you do it. And and we would, we could tell that nobody's sneaking in these students because there's no foot marks.

There's no metal. There's nothing. It's like, wow, they don't see anything out here. So, so we, We started doing every studio. I think I've mentioned before we And christmas day snuck on to the walton set 1975 And and so all the studios were still up and desilu was still up and mgm. So so we sneak in on christmas day I might have told you this story, but this is a, it's a jam and I appreciate Cammie Kotler.

Actually, she read it, the young star on that show at the time and she passed it all around the Walton cast. Uh, so they can hear this story. Oh yeah. She caught that. She's, that's why she's on the back of my book. We thank her so much for, for almost, uh, elevating us to a, to a different level. And so the whole cast of the [00:19:00] Walton's.

Which Walton? Which Walton child did she portray? The youngest one. The youngest one? The redhead one. The female Opie Taylor. Yeah, yeah. I could tell you a bunch of stories. She was much more active. She was much more active as the Series progressed and she got older, I think. Um, well that that's it. Oh, that makes a lot of sense.

I mean, how many years did that show run? Uh, actually I think canceled out in 81 and it went, it was already going on in 75. Uh, you know, I didn't necessarily watch that show because I was so into war TV and Hogan's heroes and all of this stuff. So, well, yeah, you're a guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I always like Go no, I was gonna say I always like the fact that the that Walton's mountain is was that is that mountain behind warner brothers?

Uh, the you know the backside of the hollywood You're hitting things that that can be touched [00:20:00] on even further. The original walton home was in desilu It's the mayberry rfd home. If you go back and go go over all through my book and all my stuff. Oh, yeah Move that building around. Yeah, but they didn't move it to warner brothers It's it was built The copy that don't.

So, so the original that maybe RFD technically is the Walton home, but it didn't get moved to Warner brothers. They, they, yeah. And, uh, you know, that ended up burning down, but that's a different story. I don't want to fall over the place, but I could tell you great stories on all the history. So I just want to go back to the 1975 on the, on the set of the Walton's on a Christmas day.

You know, it's the first time we had trespassed Warner brothers. And, uh, we got in right behind the Walton's house, the typical thing, chain link fence, barbed wire, and we, uh, you gotta climb the pole, and then you gotta be pretty slick on how you get over the barbed wire. But once you're in, you're, um, [00:21:00] you're in behind the Walton's shed, chicken coops and stuff.

And so you're in there, you look around, it's a slow process because you don't know what you're walking into. And you kind of want to stay next to the fences because just in case you got to get out of here. So we it's a slow process. We We check out the Walton's house. So there's that. Okay, and then we move on down into the western street called Laramie where they did Maverick.

I would later meet James Garner as Maverick in the 80s. But let's keep focused here. So we are now on the western street. Cars are parked everywhere and it's the Walton's. It's their main show at that time. And Duke's a hazard, I believe. Uh, so, so you have uh, I just got a new camera for Christmas. This is Christmas Day.

I have a brand new camera, a really fancy one, because my parents knew that this was my thing. And they, uh, they, they facilitated me. They enabled me, they bought me a VCR. Thank God they got a VHS, [00:22:00] not beta. And so I could record my TV shows as they played. And so. They bought me a fancy camera. This is day one and it's a Minolta SRP and I'm walking around with two other guys, Jimmy, uh, my best friend.

He's a photographer. So he's teaching me how to use it. And Pat, who's a carp aficionado, a little Pat, really beautiful. We're, we're, we're still on the backlot here, right? Yeah. Universal backlot. So we have wandered from down a jungle road from. The Warner Walton house to the Laramie street. The, this is, this is the Warner brothers lot.

Uh, yeah, we are, we are all Warner right now. Yeah. I didn't mean to pick you up. I've been, I've spent, I spent a lot of time wandering around on Laramie. Uh, Laramie was great. It's no longer there, but Laramie was great. No, it's not Laramie. The Western street. Yeah. Western town. Yeah. And so it's famous. I, like I said, from the old black and white series, Maverick and whatever else you want [00:23:00] to, uh, research and apply it to.

But when I'm on this lot now, it's Walton's and Walton's stuff is everywhere. Cars are parked all over the lot and they have vintage cars from the show, picture cars, and they got the keys in them. So, that's interesting. So, so, so, Pat Rich, he's passed away now. So, so, Pat, Pat becomes obsessed with the cars and he's opening up all the doors and looking at stuff.

And I'm testing out my camera. So, I climb up above, uh, we call it the bank. It'll look straight down the Laramie Street towards the big mountain. And I'm up on the roof. And I take my first picture with this camera and it's the lengthwise of the street. It's a beautiful shot. And guess what happened? The roof collapses and I fall and I'm stuck in a way where there's like three stories with no floors to catch me.

So if this breaks through, I'm going to hit the dirt and there's no one to help because Jimmy's in [00:24:00] the saloon and Pat's in a car and I'm like in quicksand. And if I moved him, this thing's going to break. And the only thing that kept me from falling through was my camera strap, my camera holder. It's like I'm very, I'm in a really catch 22 situation.

The more I move, the more this can collapse. Thank God, I was able to do a little this, little that, and get out of that position. Get back down, and I couldn't wait to see. I wouldn't believe what just happened, but nobody cared. Jimmy just walked out of the saloon. Pat's now in the trunk and pulling out hats and coats.

And we're looking around. And so this is like Walton costumes. And so So we look at each other and the keys are in the ignition and Pat wants to drive. So we put on the, we put on the hats and we start driving the lot. It's a stick shift car. I'm not even old enough to drive yet. And I've never driven a stick shift.

So we take turns [00:25:00] and there's no one on the lot. This lot is deserted. It's Christmas. And what's that money? Gather. Yeah. Yeah. There's probably a run of the whole lot. You really did. Yeah. Completely. Are you good? Yeah. Yeah. Which we tend to do quite often and and so ironically, there's probably a Walton tv Christmas episode on television, but we're in the we are we are the Waltons on the Warner Brothers lot on this Christmas day.

So we're driving around, we take turns. I was the last one to to drive because I really don't know how to drive a stick at this time. I'm not old enough. I learn on the back lot. And, uh, so we're driving around dressed with hats and coats. If security would have saw us, it would have freaked their, their, I don't even know what to imagine.

But they didn't see us, and so we drove off the Western Street, through the jungles, back and forth. Then we got bold, and we went down there to New York Street. And, uh, And that's where you're getting close to security and all the states are right there. So you don't want to go much more that way. So [00:26:00] we wanted to investigate New York street.

So we parked in this little alley as not to not be seen, which is funny. So we've got this thirties car parked in the alley. We're the only car on New York street and we get out and walk it and we take pictures. So I got pictures of back my stuff. And then, and then, um, then it's my turn to drive. So they let me try to drive and I'm grinding gears and I'm.

I'm getting it down. I'm getting it first and second. And, and we're ripped. Yeah, I know. Oh no is right, because the next thing is, I'm jamming down the jungle road. I'm pretty happy that I'm getting this. But then I, I, I get out of gear and I'm in neutral and I can't get it in gear and now I'm panicking.

And the, and the little, uh, little site that's on the front of a hood is like a, like a sight on a gun. And, and here I am going fast towards the Walton's house and I can't get this thing this far, but I'm panicking cause I can't get it in gear. And I love this. Oh yeah. So here is the porch and it's like, Oh shit.

[00:27:00] And the car stalls out and stops just like Fucking five, excuse me, five feet from the porch. I, it was the moment of, oh my God. 'cause we almost crashed into the porch. I really, it was that close that that would've been bad. Well, it would've been bad for Yes, indeed. But it, uh, a variety of reasons. Right.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna separate this section and I'm gonna set this small recording to the head of security at Warner Brothers, who I know Rick Mack. And, and let Rick, uh, Rick pars it. Yeah, I got a feeling. Yeah. Well, okay. So we didn't crash it and we didn't damage it And by the way as as an aside, uh, the christmas episode of the waltons was actually the pilot for the waltons Uh, it was kind of a made for tv movie which they I, I don't know the process by which they decided to make it into a series, but that was pretty smart.

There was a difference who played the dad. That's more than [00:28:00] I know. So, you know that. And, uh, I do know how that house burned down by arson. And the arson guy was a fire guy for Glendale. Uh, and this is a true thing, so, oh yeah, that's, that's the guy that, that did all the burning stuff. He was the Yeah, yeah.

There's, there's a big, big story about that, that he killed four people. They made him worry about it. Okay. Got it. Thumbnail for me, and listeners who don't know. So then they had to do a Christmas episode. Now it's in the 80s, and they actually rebuilt this place on the ranch. Uh, the Columbia Ranch, which, uh, Back then it wasn't Warner Brothers, it was TVS, by the way.

Yeah, yeah. The Burbank Studios. And actually, I'll just, I know I go all over, but As a tram driver, back in the 80s, TBS rededicated itself to Warner Brothers and Warner Brothers brought over trams from Universal. So we gave tours in suits. I had to wear tux and we gave tours. Reagan was there. He was a president.

Everybody It was a, it was amazing. Amazing. It was a big, it was a big event. There [00:29:00] were, yeah. There were lots and lots of big stars there. I, I've seen all the old, uh, the old films of, yeah. It's called the top, the top 10 Parties of all time. Of all time of all time. So I, you can find this stuff. I write about it.

I'm, I'm pem of the back lots on YouTube, WordPress and Facebook. I recommend everybody go there. People binge on me. There's no cost and, and. On my YouTube, it's actual videos at Universal Studios behind the scenes. You could have got in trouble doing that at what the show's not out yet. It's a huge thing because they're where you're going to share it.

My, my filming was involved with my own personal. When I retire, I want to look at this stuff. It's part of the originality of who I am, which goes back to 1964 and combat. It just, it just kept going. It kept manifesting into more and more adventure. And I always knew I'd write a book. But, I, cause I took notes after everything.

It'd be three in the morning, [00:30:00] I get home, I'm, I took notes, I did a little paragraph shorthand, so I'd never forget this stuff. And, uh, And the thing is, I didn't start the book until I retired, which was just, or about seven years ago now. Uh, because I, I was still living the adventures. Because even being at work, I was getting paid to do these adventures.

I had a cart launch at Universal. A backstage pass. I, I was to facilitate every show. So I had full access to everything. So I, I, I was blessed. This little trespassing kid was handed the keys to the kingdom. It was magic, and I documented it very well. But let's get back to that day, Christmas Day. So after the car stalls out, and we say, Okay, that's enough of this place.

Uh, we, we want to do another studio. So you have, uh, Walt Disney Studios. So we decided we're going to go there. And, uh, so I have all this film and I have film of us driving around, blah, blah, blah, [00:31:00] on my camera and now we're in Disney. And since we just drove cars, we want to look for the Herbie, the love bug.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! We were looking for that. So we climb in, same thing, chain link fence, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're all pretty much like that. And, uh, We do the little lot. It's a very small lot. We don't find cars. We don't find the things we're looking for. Uh, so we weren't that impressed by that lot.

And as we're going to leave, so as we're going to leave, I can't talk right now. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, sorry. Sorry. Somebody's at my door. But, um, so, uh, so we're now going to exit the lot. And it's that same day. It's that same day, and a guard's coming. And he's on a three wheel car, and he sees us. And so now, you can't climb these chain link fences because they wobble, and they got barbed wire.

Like, three people at a time. [00:32:00] You gotta, you can't do it that way. You, you gotta, so, Jimmy, Jimmy, and Yeah, Jimmy and Pat are ahead of me, so they're getting, and so I have to wait for them to climb, and the guards get closer. And I'm just thinking, hurry up you guys, hurry up, because I can't do the thing I gotta do.

And now he's, like, arrived, and I hit the fence, and I, and I'm not at the pole I like, but I, I'm able to reach up and grab the, uh, the stanchion that holds the barbed wire. So I'm pulling myself up on that. This camera's dangling from my shoulders and I'm able to flip, flip over that, that barbed wire trifecta and, and hit the side street.

So I like, and the guard can see everything. We're looking through chain link fence and we're looking at each other. And, and so I made it over. And while I was doing that, doing that hop over the bar where the guard reached up to pull me down and he got his arm stuck in the bar where, and he got all cut up and he's pissed off.

[00:33:00] And I'm looking face to face through the chain link fence. Then he looks down, he picks up and I didn't realize my camera's wrapped up and he's up my camera and it's brand new. This is the first day one. And so I go, I got to go turn myself in. I have to go get this camera back. So I'm going to give up.

You guys just go home. And then my buddy Pat said, no, I'll go turn myself in too. So only Jimmy left, and we go to the main gate, and we have to meet their security people, and their, uh, head of, their command officer was a female, in a little dive building. It's like a converted bathroom. Crack me up. And, uh, and I'm, uh, Got to meet her, and she wants, she's going through my camera, and they go, we're going to take your film.

And what's on that film is the Waltons driving around. So I'm thinking, oh geez, okay, so here we go. Uh, they took my film out, and then they were nice enough to, Just say, we're gonna call your parents, they have to come pick you up. And, [00:34:00] and so then I, she put me, so that was the extent, there was no arrest, no nothing.

Uh, I don't even think they ever actually visually developed the film, they would have had to develop it. And, uh, I just think they threw it out. It wasn't their lot, really, that, that I was taking pictures of, I was concerned, it was the Warner Brothers. Pictures that I was thinking of shit cars cars. So anyways, my parents come pick me up Uh as they were talking they keep me in the guard shack So they just go just wait at the guard shack a couple guards are there And your parents took my parents like an hour to get there Get there.

So we're spending a lot of time in the guard shack and you should not stick me in a guard shack because I'm an ace. I'm reading all the call sheets, all the schedules, all the stage openings, all this stuff. I'm just like, okay, I spent a lot of time in guard shacks at MGM because we talked to the guards who were There were military trained or police back training.

So the MGM guards were wonderful. And I learned how to, to pick apart a guard shack with all the [00:35:00] information without them even realizing what I'm doing. And so now we're at the, uh, Disney lot. I'm waiting for my. I'm talking to guards and I interview them like, so do you get many trespassers here? And I start talking about my stuff in Culver city.

And I now have a captive audience of guards listening to me. You should see what I do. Oh, it was that cool. It was that cool. And then my parents pull up and they didn't believe me. And, uh, there's a beautiful car of the day and they pick me up. They're not surprised. They're not even mad. They have to act like they're upset.

And they just, once we're in the car leaving, uh, we were Bob's big boy in Burbank. And we reflect and my dad, he wasn't even mad. He wanted to do more about the cars. He loves vintage cars. So, so that, that culminates. So wait a second, let me just get this straight. So your parents come to pick you up. They do a little bit of acting when they're picking you up.

They act like they're upset. And then you guys go to Bob's big boy to kind of [00:36:00] celebrate and discuss completely that because they already for, for, for get to get the picture, right? Tom it's universal. Almost across the street, Olive Avenue, is Warner Brothers, and then just down the street is Disney. And then, around the corner from Warner Brothers is Bob Big Boy.

Yeah, and then down, you know, down, uh, and the Smokehouse is right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is the name of George Clooney's production company because he named it after there. I mean, it's all like, like, it's all like right within, I don't know, a couple miles or something. It's just a concentration of that stuff.

So, well, that's what it is. And that's why, uh, So that's a Christmas Day. One will never forget. It's got shared around everywhere. Walden. Really love that story. So I have a, I have a, I have a question kind of Donny on, on the trespassing famous trespassers. Uh, I had heard rumor that Spielberg, Steven Spielberg had [00:37:00] trespassed on universal.

It's not a rumor. Um, early on. Well, it's not a rumor. And so what goes on that, that's part of the tour. And so we all our tour guys say that every time we go around. You gotta hear that I've heard that story 10,000 times. Mm-Hmm. . And who, uh, who else, who else are famous trespassers that you know of? Uh oh.

No know B Spielberg. I mean, I don't know who else you can say Bigger than Spielberg. Let's focus on that, right? Alright, well tell, I dunno if you've heard this, Tom. You know, let, let our listeners pretend they're on a tour of the lot. So tell us about Spielberg. Well, the Jaws, they're gonna, they talk about Steven Spielberg and, and the making of Jaws and that he's got a history here where he trespassed and set up offices.

It wasn't more to get chased by guards. He was actually doing a more, uh, a different approach where he, he knew he was going to be, uh, A filmmaker. A director. Yeah, and so he set up a little thing, is what I've been [00:38:00] told. A little office, which is totally easy to do. I have my own offices. I'm not, I'm not like overwhelmed by it.

And just find a vacant office and kind of make it your own. Yeah, we call them forts, okay? We call them forts. And that'll take you back into MGM and Desilu. Because a lot of stuff gets abandoned and you can easily set up so So, you know, i'm shaking any universal. Yeah, so steven has his own thing and it it builds himself You know, I know it's history that dual is his first show, right?

I think it's fit best show. I can't get over that show and he becomes friends with our our hierarchy and they, uh, and everything he touches is gold. So he immediately takes off off to his credentials, not through trespassing, but, but that's a really neat backlash or backstory is that he supposedly trespassed, uh, as, and there's a, there's a much, there's a much later thing speaking along those lines is that, and I've seen this as a video of Steven as a [00:39:00] tour guide, um, driving the tram or whatever.

I'd like to see that first of all, that's not that easy to do. I've not seen him drive a tram Well, it was it was made it was made it was made officially it was made officially by Universal and he's there giving the tour of a tram tour and and They're on the draws like thing, whatever, you know, where the, the shark comes out of the water is Spielberg is, is the guy doing the tour.

Oh, that's really, really funny. He wouldn't be a driver. He'd be the tour guide, the tour, the tour guide. Sorry. That's the guy. Yeah, exactly at universal and he did jaws at universal. Is that right? He did everything. Let me tell you Yeah, we're gonna that's his that's where his offices are I became friends with steve and spielberg you guys because i've worked on every show we did all his blockbusters drastic parks um back to the futures the uh, [00:40:00] um Minority report war of the youtube site, you're gonna see Steven Spielberg directing War of the Worlds.

I have footage of Steven Spielberg. We talked extraterrestrial, or we talked about John Lear, which is a friend of his, of the, the maker of the Lear Jet. And, and stuff that John Lear has said about extraterrestrials, because obviously he is extraterrestrial. Type of director. He embraces stuff. So, uh, you know, he's even autographed my daughter's autograph book.

He was so kind about that. Oh, we did a show. We were doing, um, Crystal Skulls and it was so funny. So I'm blowing, I got a little wind machine I'm operating on, uh, Harrison Ford and it's a really elaborate set on stage 27. It's a huge temple built from the floor to the ceiling to all the sides. Magnificent sets.

That we have here that they [00:41:00] get torn down. Talk about heartbreaking. But anyways, as, as, uh, this scene is Harrison Ford sneaking through this temple and there's an A native with a blowgun ready to shoot at a person to shoot the dart and, and Harrison Ford pops up and blows on the other end blowing that dart into the native.

And so that was like, wow, that's cool. I'm right there with Spielberg. I'm in face to face with these guys. So I'm living my dreams. But I'm not caught up in that. This is, I'm a professional. This is what I gotta, this is what I do. But what was funny that day, we had Transformers with Michael Bay going on on New York Street.

And that was its own debacle. Because Michael Bay is like an out of control dude. I'm just saying, the fire department came down and said, you do not have permits. I'm, I'm getting this end of the studio. Because I, I go back and forth. I'm, I'm all over everything. So they're having a problem with Michael Bay and that he's not following regulations the studio has.

We're, [00:42:00] we're not, anytime you do pyro you have to have it approved, you have to fire, and he wasn't doing it. So they came down to tell him, hey I can do whatever I want here, I rented the place. In the meantime something's blowing up and the fire department says you can't do this. So back to where Michael Bay comes on our stage.

So he's doing Transformer. He came down to visit Steve and Spielberg. So he comes down over the radios, Michael Bay is ready to enter the stage. So we just got finished with that scene. And Spielberg's laughing and rubbing his hands together, so he's such a gentleman. But on this moment, because Michael's gonna walk in, he starts cussing everybody out.

Because that's what Michael Bay does on his sets. So when Bay walks in, Spielberg's cussing out people. It's just to make fun of what Michael Bay does. So, so he walks in and he hears Spielberg cussing. There's a pause, there's a silence, and then everybody breaks into laughter because welcome Michael Bay.

Get a little taste of your own action. Um, so [00:43:00] that's the kind of life we lived here. I mean, I was on everything that Spielberg did. I've been in his office. I've been in it. We maintain it. I'm also facilities. So, um, When there's no one there, we do maintenance. There could be a strike where the industry shut down and we focus on other things at the studio.

So I can send you, I've been in Amblin a million times. I know everything about Amblin. I didn't have books at the time or I would have left him one on his desk. And just, uh, because I think you guys, I really think that that's where this is headed. That because he's a trespasser, because he Because of all the childhood stuff, going back to like the toy story with the plastic soldiers, he will love this.

So my goal is to get this presented to him, uh, and let, uh, or, um, Quentin Tarantino, cause this is almost like my series of books. There'll be a third, uh, uh, so it's an anthology of the decade of the seventies. So we, we really believe that Quentin [00:44:00] Tarantino, this is a once in a pot of time in Hollywood, the series.

There's criteria you have to get like a Netflix series. I surpassed it at every which way, including, you know, one of the things is who owns the rights, how many people we have to pay off. This is all me. This is it. I want to do this and I'm not going to put money in the way of it. I think we're sitting on a gold mine of fantastic, real Hollywood stories, just sampled a few, and I could go on for a week straight.

24 hours and it's not gonna stop. So we're I mean, I want to talk about mgm in my book And we just went all over the map Yeah, and and yeah, so your your dream is though that basically your childhood history you're You know running around every backlot in hollywood would become a weekly series Yeah. You know one of the other things like they just started out the Columbia ranch.

I've got a post on my [00:45:00] Facebook side is very popular. You can see, see, uh, get a taste of what I do. So go go to Facebook, uh, Venom of the back lots right now. And you'll see a dedication to the Columbia ranch. One of my favorite great people. Things over there was meeting Hal Needham and Burt Reynolds on Hoover.

And so when I'm on that set and that was a guest that day, cause I had a friend, by the way, that trespassed all the time, but he was also an actor, a background actor, he was a regular on happy days. And, uh, and so he was doing plus his family, his mom was a. Is, uh, background for decades before that, so they're film, they're film family.

And so we're on the set of Hooper, I'm not having a trespass this day. And I'm watching Chariot Races, and Tim is playing a cowboy actor. And so he's all dressed up in cowboy gear, and I'm, uh, sitting on the video stereo, where the video, uh, Replays are set up and Hal, Hal Deanum is the director. He just recently passed, [00:46:00] passed on.

We're talking about, uh, Hooper, which is the Burt Reynolds film about Stuckman. Yeah. Oh, it's the best film he ever did. Do you still hear me? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cause I thought I lost you. Okay. So, so I think it's his best film and I love all his films. So, so Hooper is for back lots too, by the way, it's all back lots.

It's a Warner back lot. It's the, uh, Columbia ranch. And there's a million scenes involving this. Well, it seems, it seems like, it seems like, uh, someone could, could make a, a documentary on you, Donnie. That, uh, would condense down the stuff, you know, which would lead to more, more stuff. But, you know what I mean.

Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, no, I do. And, and that, that's already reaching out to me, that kind of stuff right now. So, so, uh, I've been hesitant because I want to, I want to develop what I have to do and focus. And, uh, we're still ahead of the curve. I haven't released all my stories. I have a whole nother book load, [00:47:00] but what I'm giving you in advance into Hooper.

So Hooper, as we're watching this and I'm, so I'm aware of who Hal Needham is. I'm a, I'm amazed how many people who don't know who Hal Needham was or is, was, he just passed away. Bless his heart. So as, as we're doing this, I walk up to how he's going over the video replay of this chariot thing. We just filmed and I go, how, what, what, what was the greatest stunt you ever did yourself?

And he took the title away from directing and got pumped up and goes, well, I own the record for 23 car rolls on one cannon blast. So cannon blast is what projects the car onto its side because they load it up with reinforced steel and then they blast it and it'll flip the car. And I don't know how he did 23 rolls.

He must have rolled down a hill. And, and so he's so proud of his 23 that it's right when Burt Reynolds walks up and he goes, Hey, Al, tell them about your medical stay [00:48:00] afterwards. And then it's a, then he, he puts his hand on his head and he goes, Well, I broke my spleen, I broke my four ribs, Oh, the stuff he broke and then Bert gives you that little laugh that little mischievous laugh And and that is a memory that is one of my top because I love Bert Reynolds the longest yard Everything Bert did is so he was my 80s superstar.

I'm actually 78 on that. Yeah. Yeah, definitely yeah, and and uh So so I just wanted to give credit because there's no one I haven't met, you know I I don't want to brag about this. It's just factual Well I mean, we've had Betsy Universal that had Three living presidents. Uh, we had Apache gunships protecting this thing in the parking lot.

And what they forgot to do is add air conditioning. So it was a, uh, summer day and, and they're doing this event. No one, these are only Hollywood's top people, contributors, Lou Wasserman, all the big shots. You're not, this isn't for the [00:49:00] employees, but they didn't do the air. And they just, and just so, and just so Tom, you know, and our listeners know, you know, There are times where, where Burbank, Universal City is basically like next to Burbank.

It can get very hot in the valley. And where you're over on the west side in Santa Monica or Venice and it's beautiful, but it can be a hundred degrees in Burbank. Um, but it's only 75 or something in, in, uh, I live that because I live over at Culver City, Santa Monica at that time, Culver City, Culver City, where, where MGM used to be is the sweet spot.

It's a sweet spot. It's like, you go closer to the coast. It can be cold in the evening and cold. And then if you go further towards, uh, you keep down, keep going down Venice, it gets hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter in the summer. And it's. It's just, you know, crazy kind of condition. So I have to, a lot of times it's universal part of my career on the production and I've started noon and go to the last show leave.

So [00:50:00] we had unlimited hours. And, uh, so a lot of times I didn't even get up to 11 o'clock PM, uh, a is, uh, I just did a long night and here we go again. And. Just what, what Tom says and is that the closer you get the city, the hotter it gets. And it's, to belabor that point, we did a show, um, Gremlins, and everybody It was snow, but that was the hottest time.

Actually one of the hottest summer things we've dealt with And and we had to be in so you had to be in snow Fake snow with with jackets because you had to prove that you were in the cold. It was so warm So so the summers at the studio valley studios are very brutal. So to get back to the point of or this, uh, Dignitary tent Yeah, yeah.

So I get a call. We're just at lunch and they go, we need you right now. This is huge. And they go, you have to go bring up a generator and [00:51:00] bring up air conditioning ASAP and get into this tent. And so when I got there, you're going to go through the military basically. And they got it. They tear down all my equipment.

They're looking for. I mean, this was huge. This had so many people in it to Apache gunships are in the parking lot. So that's what's going on here. And so I get through the president there. You had a president there, three presidents. You had three presidents. You had everybody that was and Condoleezza, right.

And, uh, we, uh, Powell, uh, forget his name, uh, colon colon, Powell, colon. Thank you very much. Yeah. Just think of that. Yes. So that's, that's the stage. And then the audience is all Hollywood's biggest, biggest people. But I wasn't there to be a part of this. I had to get in there and then set up. So I had to go right to the president's and set up the ducking.

So the air, the gentlemen get their cooled [00:52:00] off. Uh, it's funny. The studio didn't counter that in factor that in ahead of time. That it's getting hot in there. And, and so that was, And I've got a really nice, uh, I would show you, uh, uh, accommodation from the studio or a, uh, Thanking me for, for getting that done in an efficient, timely way because it represents Universal Studio and we could have been very embarrassed.

So it's a really wonderful tribute to me and I, and I would show it to you. And, and, but it's just like an everyday thing. We've had the Pope there, you guys. They, they did, who hasn't been to Universal Studio? Studio, it is the entertainment capital of the world. And Lou Wasserman is a big contributor and, and I've met Lou in the Black Tower.

I've worked in the Black Tower. Lou Wasserman is was a gentleman. The last movie mogul was Lou Wasserman. And he didn't look down on his hourly employees. He, he looked at everybody as a family. It was a different time and place. Oh yeah, most definitely. At [00:53:00] different times. Yeah. And we were all. We all worked together and it totally, I've seen every Universal's had.

I've worked for every one of them, going from MCA Universal with Lou to, to, uh, to Vivendi, which was, uh, it's a, uh, that was something else. But then turned into, uh, City Grumps and Edgar Bronfman. Yeah, that's right. And it was so wonderful. So we got to maintain his house because you're, when you're the head of the studio, you have, you know, trades, go to your house and do stuff.

So you already got him on the payroll. So I'd be assigned days where we go to Edgar's house to on Malibu Beach, one on the lower and one on the upper because the lower one got flooded and one big storm. So any and the upper one was next to Richard Deere's house. This is Was the neighbor. So we got to look, be in a, you know, the, some of the riches people in the world.

Let's not forget, Seagrams Blows Universal Away. Universal's a subsidiary of Seagrams. The alcohol [00:54:00] world is the top of the thing. So we got to meet them. Yeah. Yeah. It was one mean, the bro men's, the bronfman's had their Seagram's fortune, and then at some point, uh, it was Bronfman Jr. Decided he wanted. He wanted to get into Hollywood.

And I have to say, this is really weird, but you know, I have, I have seated Bronfman's at tables at the four seasons because the four seasons was located in the Seagram's building and occasionally the Bronfman's would come by to get a bite and I was a page as close as I've got. Yeah, no, I don't. I love this.

And you know what, in this beach house had a security on the beach, a little guard shack and on the coast highway. Because this guy, and then we learned from the, the nannies and the, and the security that's there when the Broppins weren't there because they were all over New York, Montreal, all their places.

So they weren't always at the, at the residence. [00:55:00] And we learned just what goes on here. And we had questions about pictures where Edgar Jr. has. Uh, pictures with a, a black wife, which is fine, but we, we did some questioning, like, who, how come this doesn't match what's going on here? And we heard some stuff about seniors saying, you cannot do this, or we will, uh, you're not gonna get all the fortunes.

Oh, so, uh, That was a thing, and I almost don't like talking about it, because I love the, I've never met Senior, but Junior is a super nice man. We love him. We love him so much that we wanted him, and he was forced into making a business decision from his dad, just, is where I'm going with this. Uh, So we wanted him to be our leader for the rest of the way.

It turns out, and they were going to build Seagram's world headquarter behind stage 12. We saw the plans. We thought, man, this just got better. [00:56:00] And he threw parties on Christmas that you would not believe. Million, multi million dollar parties. You can bring your entire family, six desks, and food everywhere.

Trinx, of course, non stop. He brought in a circus. He brought in snow. It was the ultimate parties, even. Oh my gosh. Yeah, no, millions of dollars. Money was not an object. We loved them. And, and then they mysteriously just cancelled the, uh, moving forward with the World Headquarters. And they just took our music library, Universal Music Library, and moved on.

And sadly, they The follower was the antichrist. It was general electric and general electric was going to tear down the whole studio All the back lot and built condiment condominiums and so it was a major change. Oh, no, this is legit This is legit. So they're the Ge is a real estate. They're not just their engines and electricity They they make billions in real estate [00:57:00] and they make submarines.

They make nuclear submarines Yeah, I mean, well, we, we will, they have an, they have an atomics, they have an atomics. It's G general electric atomics. I think that's where you go. And really, really they do listen, they don't have a face at universal. So when Christmas came with them. They didn't even put up any lights.

They don't acknowledge Christmas. They were going to tear down the entire back lot. They don't care about the tour. This would have made 10 times the money and, and build, build lots like 467 acres or something like that. And they were going to keep the stages and build condos everywhere. You had to change the whole face of Burbank because you had to have more streets widened.

It was a massive scope. And then, uh, And so we hated GE, and then here comes NBCUniversal. And they shuffled the property they have where Johnny Carson was on. They take over our lot [00:58:00] and that development gets canceled. Cause gee, cause NBC wants a studio. They want to do the tour. You know, the, I watched city walk get built.

I used to do this little parking lot and then it turns into a, uh, a megaplex city walk is a destination and they toured, they tore down the amphitheater, the universal amphitheater too. That's why you're. Which hosted some major major acts. Oh, I'll tell you about that a little amphitheater We loved it And so my best friend at Universal was in charge of the electrical on the amputator and I'm in charge of the shows and so we Intertwined and we had full access to everything.

So so I've been in the green room for the big bands I've even when I was hit tours we operate the transportation Universal tour drivers that operate the transportation at the amphitheater So I was assigned Robert plant one night and I that was such a trip. So I had to drive his costume get him picked up the cleaners Go to a house and pick up some stuff [00:59:00] I don't know what it was a little package that had to get him go get his liquor that he prefers and the Cigarettes and all the things that he needs So I got a good taste of Robert Plant.

You got to be kidding me. I was like, my idol, Ed Zeppelin. So, so yeah, the amphitheater, about 6, 000 people, the ultimate concert venue. There were big, big acts that big, big, big acts that, that play there. Danny, the top, the top stop. And it's so, it's ironic. So it. filtered down to latino bands and we like all the time and we're saying what happened to our star acts what's going on here And they go, you know how much alcohol gets drunk at these drank at these at these latino concerts They made so much money on that that It kind of filtered into that.

And so when they were going to tear down the amphitheater, we were broken hearted, but they said, we're going to rebuild it in a different part of the lot, which, okay, I get that then. And they built Harry Potter, the castle [01:00:00] when they started the Harry Potter development they said the sword which Harry Potter wings around is going to Dominate the mouse ears in other words.

Oh, by the way, Universal and Disney hate each other So they look they look towards each other across the because Universal sits a little higher and There's a whole kind of There's a whole kind of another thing there, Tom, that you'd be interested in. There's a reason that, uh, the, the big WB is on the side of 16.

It's, it's a, it's a, uh, uh, uh, uh, FU over to universal. And there's, you know, it says back and forth stuff in the Disney. Yeah, the water. I don't know. There's a whole kind of history of that job. Well, universal had their own famous on universal city Just said universal city. No studios universal city. It outlooked over the valley.

So it looked the opposite way They just tore that down and they're building a uh, they tore down that Iconic [01:01:00] sign and they're building a so they're ruining the lot. They tore down our phantom stage 28 the most amazing Downstage ever in hollywood the original phantom of the opera silent movie They tore that down to build like a super marios or whatever this crap is They've made it a full on theme park.

So as much as we thank nbc for saving us from ge They are they are making it more of a studio theme park And taking away iconic things from the studio. Uh, which is hard to digest. It's not even a fun place to work at this point in time. NBC is like overmatched with movies. It seems. They stopped making big features on our lot and it's all sound stages with their TV shows.

And the TV shows Well that's, that's the same. That's the same at Warner Brothers, pretty much, and Disney, too. You know, it's television. They just tore down the ranch. They tore down the Columbia Ranch, which is as iconic as any of the LODs. And they're all sound stages. They [01:02:00] didn't even keep a little, little section.

It's really hard to swallow. The way Hollywood has transfigured it, uh, what's going to be AI heavy green screens and you don't need back lots. And so, but you do, because we worked so many things. You had Spider Man, you have like anything that's a big feature. We did all our Spider Man's Disney can't handle these big shows, all the parts of the Caribbean, which is Disney came to us because they can't handle it on their little lot.

So universal, uh, actually takes on. Yeah. Disney often to get them and so when you do even a show that's really heavy with um cgi and stuff You generally have ground action Filming so you have actors you have cars you have stuff and then you can you can cgi the backgrounds and stuff Oh, we did all the batmans by the way I mean, I can't go tell you how many things that i've that this little trespassing donnie grew up And was [01:03:00] like a heavyweight on all these shows.

It was i'm gonna I'm going to, I'm going to interrupt here and say we're, we're at, we're at an hour now, so we, I want to kind of start to wrap up just so we don't go too long on the episode. Um, I think, uh, what I'd like to say to our listeners is if you have questions for, for Donnie, there's, there's a lot of places and we'll have those links where you can, you know, post questions of Donnie on Facebook and, and watch his YouTube channel.

Um, and those type of things. We'll post your link on my site because I yeah, that would be great So, you know, I actually hear you and then they can and talk to me and ask me directly what the hell I want to Because I like to have that kind of site. I'm interactive. I want to talk I really feel talking to me is even better than me typing all these things.

I I'm all for this next stage of Content development because to be honest with you guys. [01:04:00] I really want to do Podcast, not just me blabbing all the time, but on my stories to where they're narrated with sound effects. I think we're getting to that point. Oh, it's, it's, if you read my stories, they're little vignettes.

I want you to understand why vignettes is really good is because they're little screenplays. The only thing we have to develop is, is, uh, uh, the words, the stories are there. I paint descriptions that everything's in place and then you would do more dialogue, uh, and you do this actual screenplay. And they, they, they follow perfectly.

You're going to live the decades through me, the entire decade of the seventies in my subject matter. And it's, that's what we're trying to do. So the next level will be podcasts. And I want to do them as stories, not me just talking about this. I want the sound effects. I, I want people to like go to bed at night.

You hit this story and you. And and I'm so [01:05:00] I've gotten this following down and people like cry. They they're so thankful. I can take them out of reality and bring them back and I have a, I have a, yeah, I have a, uh, sort of podcast. Well, I have a friend who writes books and, and she does, um, radio play style things of some of her stories, which is exactly what you're talking about, where, you know, they have a, they have a podcast.

Two or three people doing parts and they do sound effects and like the old classic CBS radio theater. That's where I see the next level of my development with this subject, right? shorts Short little things like use of the vignette and and a little bit Like, like Chicken Man, Tom, or, or Like Chicken Man?

Yeah, short little, little comedy bits. No, sorry. Well, well, my adventures in there, they're, they're hair raising, and, and Donny, you could be everywhere, you could be everywhere. Everywhere. Well, there's, there's no [01:06:00] real limits to this, because, well, like I say, once you get past podcasts, I, I could see Now it's just getting the eye on the prize.

I could see a Quentin Tarantino saying, I want to do, uh, once upon a time in Hollywood, the series, I'm the series. I mean, everything you watch in that classic show, which a big section has done at universal, um, on the Western street, one of the few remaining in Hollywood, the only remaining Hollywood. So you have great scenes there.

You, you, you know, they do Bruce Lee in that, that feature. Bruce Lee lived right around the street from Desilu, in case people don't know. His house is still there, so when they did the Green Hornet, you had Bruce Lee, and then right around the corner from, oh, by the way, Charles Manson squatted, I could just go on, I know I'm all over, but Charles Manson was a squatter right across the street from Stalag 13 in an abandoned house, and in between that abandoned house and Stalag 13, I discovered two years back now, Marion Davies trailer.

Lost in a backyard for a [01:07:00] hundred years, so I have that trailer. I have the, I have the mirrors. I have all the stuff inside, which is time travel. You're going back to the 20s. Her personal stuff. So that's at my house. Too bad you guys aren't close. You could, we could do a live thing here, but you wouldn't see it.

We could do a, we could do a live, uh, video thing when Tom and I have that. Well, you would love that! We've been talking about that, yeah. We've been talking about it. Yeah. Yeah, cool. Andy Griffith's daughter. Andy Griffith's daughter and Ronnie Shell came to visit me. Think about this. Think about how I grow up, you know, uh, watching Gomer.

Then I actually find their sets and I think, Oh my God! And then an hour, 50 years later, and Ronnie Shell was nice enough to come to my house and then we went over to Desi Lou in his car and we parked where Desi Lou's car. Gomer Pyle's Barracks 4, and he probably hadn't been there in God knows how long, and may never go back.

But I saw the twinkle in his eye, and he gave me a break in of Desilu [01:08:00] history, that is just amazing. Unsurpassed, and to think that all these, and, and, and Andy Griffith's daughter was there, we had a Mayberry group, we had Ronnie Schell, they worked together on some, uh, return to Mayberry thing that they're doing, so they all knew each other, and here they're coming to me for like a tour of what was, uh, And I'm this kid that grew up watching these shows, and now they're in my yard.

Bruce Billson, by the way, who's a famous, legendary director, I don't think it's enough, uh, uh, credit. He got involved, so he, he, by the way, so Bruce Billson is the director, assistant director on Andy Griffith. As a kid, I'd see his name all the time, and I'm thinking, I, I, I read credits. I'd love to see Desi Lou and all that.

Danny Thomas. So I'd see Bruce Bilson as an ad, and then I watch Hogan's Heroes and he is now the director. And I'm thinking, whoa, who's this Bruce Bilson guy? He must have been fun. And next thing you know, [01:09:00] I, I've been, I was provided his, uh, phone number, talked to him and he shared. He shared things with me that are so just priceless.

This guy, I look up to him. He's the top TV director of, uh, the 60s, 70s. He went into get smart of American style. He's a real gentleman. And I can't, I can't, I can't tell you how amazing my life has been. Did it's gone from little Donnie watching TV, like every normal kid, even though I could hear stuff going on combat 64.

So I, and then to actually sneak onto these lots and. Connect dots. Oh my God. There's like, well, Don, Donnie, we gotta, we gotta wind up here. So I want to, I want to say, I want to say some of, some of this stuff is for a future episode. Uh, I think there's, there's stuff to mind where we're maybe we're a bit more specific to say, we're Desilu or something.

So, so that's, uh, that's a [01:10:00] future, future episode. Uh, whatever we call it. Uh, yeah, it's a universal load up. I wasn't going to go there. But, but Desilu should be its own, MGM should be its own, and, and yeah, the overlap, I think, I think a number of these could work really well. We can always bring in, you know, a secondary guest at the same time, either Steve Bingham or somebody else to add a little bit here and there.

And I think it's actually, and I'm, I'm thrilled that we were able to talk to you again today, Donnie. And I know Tom is, is excited about that. Thanks a lot. Oh, yeah, I do want to wrap things up and say, thank you very much. And, uh, we look forward to Memorial Day weekend people of this country. So, uh, yes, indeed.

I would love to do this again. We barely scratched the surface. Because there's just so much, there's so much in every studio. I think we should break it down into studios almost. And, and, um, people [01:11:00] follow up on, on these discussions and I will send you books if you send me an address to send them to you so you can, yeah, I'll send you, we'll send you, yeah, we'll send you mine and Tom's address and we'll talk.

We'd like to see, see the book. Fantastic. We'll, and love that. Me and Maureen will autograph it. And don't forget, I had a, a female counterpart that did all these trespasses with me. She, she's a jam. Well, we need to potentially bring her on, maybe on the next one we talk about. That's love. I would love we do that.

So we talked about a little history of Dei Lou and, and what people, what, you know, some amazing stuff that they did under that name and who they are. But that's another episode. Yeah, and people can buy that book right now and get to all those stories before we ever do that podcast. So the latest book is Phantom of the Back, the other Bit of Visitor.

The Adventure Continues by Donny Norton, and my sidekick will be Maureen Miller. And I thank you guys for this. Thank you, Donny. Afternoon, and we will thank you, Donnie. Excellent. You have a good one. Excellent. Thank you very much. Enjoy the [01:12:00] rest of your Memorial day. You too, you guys. Okay. All right. We'll see you Donnie.

Thanks. See you guys later. Bye. Bye. Well, that was our show with Dotting Norton. Donnie has a lot of adventures and I'm sure we'll talk to him again. We really enjoyed talking with Donnie this time. Both Tom and I had a great time and I'm sure Donnie did. And I hope you had a great time listening. We'll have more adventures and more Hollywood in our next episode.

You've been listening to Movie Reviews and Serious Nonsense, a podcast with Greg Diaro and Tom Burka. We'd love to hear from you, so please, Check our website and send us a message. This has been a King Dairo production. Copyright 2024.