I blame the Hot Dog King. Every time the county Sheriff comes over to buy a dog from him he does his best Maxwell Smart imitation and calls out "Hello, Chief!" It never fails to crack the head sheriff up as well as those hangers on around the cart. It was because of that Don Adams thing that I had to look up information about the series and that led me to view Google images. Wait a minute, I asked myself. Who is that familiar looking dude in the background, the one wearing a KAOS hat? Come to find out it was my uncle Eddie, truly the bigger "movie star" of the family.
My father was in the industry for years, but it wasn't until the last years of his life that he found regular employment with the studios. He told years ago that this was just the way of the world when you choose to work for film and television, especially when you are new to the business. Somehow he felt that that somewhat nomadic lifestyle wasn't for me. He dissuaded me from going further into Hollywood once I was laid off from Disney. "Go back to school" was pretty much what he felt I needed to do, so I did and thanks to him never had to suffer the ups and downs of finding regular employment in the movie business like he did. In the end, though, he did become a highly respected camera dolly man, a grip's grip, and was a regular on the set of many a sitcom and television drama. I missed his wake but was told afterwards that it was a hell of a party, that it was grand roast of sort, filled with all sorts of Wally stories great and false and kinda true. Sorry to have missed that, to have missed talking about him with all the grips and cameramen and such.
But I was there with my uncle and my cousin when we hauled his ashes out to sea. To see my uncle Eddie then was to see my Abuelita again, a true stand in for Lillian Gish. It was the eyes, you see, true movie star eyes. But he wasn't a real big time actor, he was mostly into bit parts, stunts, second unit direction, and more, he was Don Adam's stand-in and stunt double for all the years that Get Smart ran on television. Somehow I missed all that, as it was overshadowed by my father's much larger shadow. Uncle was urbane, funny, a solid family man, a horseman, a motorcyclist, a true tough son of a bitch. He was kind, though, raised good kids. I met his boy when I was a boy, then participated in that boy's wedding as a sort of informal photographer. Somehow my wife at the time thought it would be a great time for a full out row. A very memorable occasion, that.
No matter, I look for my cousin Freddie at the end of every Hollywood movie I watch. As a matter of fact I tend to sit through film credits just because I want to honor all the people who pulled the picture together. My father once took me on location with him for the day. Of course I was in awe..there goes Tony Curtis, there goes...well, who ever. By the end of the day I was more in lust with the catering girl, another story entirely. At lunch he told me a truism that to this day I have always believed. When I asked him about his job, if it was exciting to work with all those movie stars, he looked at me with those haggard blue eyes of his and said to me "son, they're folks just like you and me, nothing more, nothing less. We're all just movie people, folks just working a job."
I watched "movie people" do their thing the rest of the day after that, not so much in awe anymore but just seeing how hard they worked, cobbling together sets on location, laying down cable and dolly tracks and the like. I watched the camera men set up, the costumers and the makeup people apply their arts, saw the actors stumble over and laugh and then get mighty serious with their lines. Movie people, indeed. Seeing how a film was made on that side of the camera was almost more exciting that seeing the finished product up on the screen.
As the years have gone by I managed to lose touch with my cousin and my uncle and all the other folks in the family who have managed to find regular employment in the industry. Thinking about them got me thinking that maybe I should go back to school, gett an additional masters in film just so I can hang out with all those cool and wonderful and hard working people who put movies and television shows together. Even if all I did was handle old reels or become an archivist or work a studio library I think I would be one of the happiest men alive. Sort of like the way my father was when he was in his element, the sort of way my uncle Eddie is when is he behind the camera, calling the shots, working with all the rest of those cool and decidedly wonderful movie people.
Action!
My Uncle Eddie, a family member who is a real life stunt guy:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0382554/
Stuntmen Movie Association bio:
The "Other" Maxwell Smart:
Get Smart Reunion:
http://www.wouldyoubelieve.com/gather.htmlWikipedia Entertainment Eddie Hice bio:
Wallace, just a mention, but still...
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