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April 22, 2002 AMERICAN CULTURE: WHEN THE STARS COME OUT TO SHINE -- OR PLEA BARGAIN By Tom Plate (C) 2002 Asia Pacific Media Network |
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Whether it’s a legendary film location site, a retrospective festival about a director or actor or (best of all) a juicy scandal involving a celebrity -- especially one that’s a former child star, as was Blake -- it’s either a Hollywood story or it’s probably no story. To illustrate the point, you wouldn’t think that the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel would win the designation of an historic site, as occurred some years ago. It’s little more than one of numerous attractive watering holes in L.A. But you’d be wrong -- as was the Sultan of Brunei when he purchased the venerable “Pink Lady” hotel and ordered a much-needed multimillion-dollar overhaul of this famous tourist attraction and vacation site. Not so fast, cried the Beverly Hills City Council, ever protective of its few urban monuments and traditions. Do what you need to do with the rest of the hotel, but leave the Polo architecturally and decoratively intact. The Polo was where Big Things Happened, as many a Hollywood biography reveals. At one time, almost as many big deals might go down there as at the Chicago Board of Trade. And so, the sultan was told, at the end of hotel makeover, the Polo must look exactly as it appeared to the eye when, through the decades, the moguls, agents and starlets would meet there to meal, wheel and deal. Why all this fuss for a bar? The answer goes straight to the nature of American culture and its collective memory. It is often said that Hollywood stars are American royalty, but in fact they are more than that, even ones as second-tier as Blake. Yes, they toil in the major industry of Southern California, and their work is America’s single most potent worldwide export. But even more, this industry’s work product -- works of art or commerce on film -- fills an emotional and historical void as wide as the Grand Canyon. For example, ask average U.S. college students about the Korean War and likely they will mention the ‘70s hit TV series “MASH” they saw in reruns. To be sure, Blake is no Marlon Brando (nor is O.J. Simpson, another accused wife murderer). But he is still a celebrity. That’s why it’s so revealing that media coverage of this star of the mediocre TV series “Baretta,” charged with the murder of his wife, rarely points out that Blake initially hit the American mass market as a child actor on the silent film classic series “Our Gang.” Blake played a very noisy “Baby Mickey.” In Los Angeles, a fallen child star has a tenacious grip on collective American memory, even though more than half the populace is too young to remember. From Judy Garland and the late Tommy Rettig of “Lassie” to countless others, Americans have a special place in their hearts for maturing kid stars gone wrong. Indeed, America is hard on the child actor. “Pretty Babies,” the classic 1983 account of Hollywood child actors by a child TV actress, Andrea Darvi, opens with this poignant quote by the great English novelist Anthony Trollope: “Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very young that it comes early.” For every Ron Howard -- a child star in “Happy Days” who just won the Oscar for directing “A Beautiful Mind” -- there are far more Robert Blakes. So when a grown-up child actor meets his special misfortune, Americans tend to feel more fortunate than ever. That's why the fallen-child-star story is almost as big a deal as the sinking of the “Titanic” -- the movie, of course. |
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This column has appeared in the following papers: Honolulu Advertiser, South China Morning Post, The Straits Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Korea Times, and Japan Times. |
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Bio Remarks: Tom Plate is a professor of Policy and Communication Studies at UCLA where he founded the Asia Pacific Media Network. He is a regular columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate International, the South China Morning Post, The Straits Times and the Honolulu Advertiser. He is a member of the World Economic Forum, the Pacific Council on International policy and the author of five books. He has worked at TIME, the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Mail of London. |
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Previous Columns: Odd Couples and Bad Practices (April 17, 2002) How to Solve the Middle East Crisis (April 15, 2002) Asia's Press is Getting Better -- But is it Improving Fast Enough? (April 10, 2002) Women Who Come and Go May Almost Be as Smart as Michelangelo (April 3, 2002) In Asia, Women Rule! (March 27, 2002) |
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