Hollywood’s first Technicolor movie starts with words on a screen play and goes to a great American story of a self-made soul from there. Janet Gaynor stars as a waif from North Dakota named Esther Blodgett. Wispy Esther loves the movies, I mean she really worships pictures as a means of envisioning a better life. For this, Esther is ridiculed by her spinster aunt and others in her family.
“Leave me alone”, she wearily pleads. Her grandmother, played by May Robson in one of her best performances, consoles young Esther, offering wisdom about being a pioneer in the West, forging a new way of life and loving her life and her husband no matter what the cost, even if it means breaking her heart, telling the story of her murdered husband who was downed by savage Indians to “make a new country”.
With that, A Star is Born unspools a wondrous, dangerous and glorious tale. Esther, aided by her granny’s savings, makes way for Hollywood to become a movie star. In lush pictures of the then-new American West, Los Angeles, land of motion pictures, co-writer and director William Wellman shows the Hollywood Bowl, the bright lights and boulevards and the shiny locomotives and airplanes made of hard, cold steel to transport America’s bravest pioneers to the world’s newest arts and industrial center.
As Esther Blodgett, who’ll change her name, Miss Gaynor (who co-starred in Mr. Wellman’s excellent Wings) fits the part for the time. Plucky and pert, the petite actress combines qualities of the ingenue with the womanly characteristics with which one associates a would-be rising actress. “No cowboys”, a sign says at the boarding house where she meets an aspiring filmmaker (Andy Devine, Stagecoach), indicating that the road to stardom is harsh and competitive and that it puts the artist under a kind of constant scrutiny for favor in a city built on sharp, if often snap, judgment.
The spunky young actress wants what she wants and she dares to think she might be the exception to the rule, which she dares to say out loud in a telling, foreshadowing scene which is easy to miss and dismiss in crediting Janet Gaynor’s performance. Having sighted the hand and footprints of movie stars such as Shirley Temple and Jean Harlow in the forecourt of the world-famous Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, she’s determined to go after what she wants. She even steps into the shoe prints of one of her heroes, matinee idol Norman Maine.
But Norman Maine, played with nuance, bite and melancholy by the great, handsome Frederic March (Inherit the Wind), who will meet the struggling actress a few scenes later at a movie producer’s party, is filling up on scotch and soda to the extreme. Maine’s story within a story, and that’s what it is, is a superficially humorous, cautionary depiction that’s often been proven true since this 1937 classic was made.
Whether Marilyn, Elvis or Whitney, the potential for great tragedy in the artist whose greatness lies in his or her sensitivity, authenticity and powers of keen insight and observation looms large in A Star is Born. This same tender and intelligent quality puts the artist supremely at risk, too. This is a theme which Wellman, a World War One veteran and fighter pilot, understands well as he applies his grasp to this masterpiece. And it’s best encapsulated in the simple plea “just one more look,” which, if you think about it, shows and tells the audience all it needs to know about this emotional movie and its memorable characters.
Among them are Oliver, played with empathy and precision by Adolphe Menjou (Man on a Tightrope), a producer with dollar signs in mind for movies and affection for humanity in his every action. Andy Devine’s and May Robson’s characters, too, are pivotal, especially Robson’s, to the stunning outcome of the climax that comes in a gentle scene on the beach. Each character accentuates the loving, passionate, sexually demonstrative coupling of Miss Gaynor and Mr. March. When Menjou’s motion picture businessman instructs his studio’s biggest star “you have to work it out for yourself”, he’s speaking with clarity and urgency and in the highest sense of the last two words.
Lionel Stander and a cast of extras are best described as the mob or the herd in Hollywood’s star machine, a mixture of wannabes and sycophants, representing the villainy of what makes and unmakes the movie star.
A Star is Born ends as it begins, with words written on the page, following a road trip, a wedding and a fast track toward some certain sense of loss, finally cut loose by what happens after the sound of a doorbell. It is followed, in a scene more chilling than anything in a horror movie, by a scream. Wonderfully, and achingly, if not overdoing the agony, A Star is Born fittingly caps the 2018 TCM Classic Film Festival, where I saw this film for the first time in nitrate at Sid Grauman’s Egyptian Theater.
It is a serious warning about what murders the best in man. It is framed, like this year’s festival theme, by the written word. And it emerges with an embittered, resurgent sense of man the unconquerable which is what this movie means.
The music swells up, A Star is Born tells us at The End. So, too, does the human spirit, in a powerfully poetic, cinematic deliverance for a hundred years and a lifetime, particularly when you feel like what glitters is gone for good.
Turning from his first feature film, St. Vincent, a comedy starring Bill Murray as an alcoholic who forms a bond with a boy, to a major motion picture about black women who broke NASA’s color barrier to do calculations for the manned space program, Hollywood screenwriter and director Theodore Melfimakes an important transition with Hidden Figures, which First Lady Michelle Obama screened last week at the White House.
Having recently seen Fox’s Hidden Figures, which debuts in movie theaters on Christmas Day and expands in January, I wanted to ask about the story, script, score, meaning and production. I spoke with Melfi, whom I had interviewed in Los Angeles in 2014 (read my interview with him about St. Vincenthere), in an exclusive interview by telephone on the day he attended the White House screening as the First Lady’s guest.
This is an edited transcript (with minor spoilers).
Scott Holleran: What was the hardest scene to shoot?
Theodore Melfi: Taraji [P. Henson, who portrays Katherine Johnson] blowing up at Kevin Costner’s character—because of the subject matter and it was the last two days of the shoot—day 41—and we were all so close and really happy and cohesive. So, to do that scene there was emotionally draining. Everyone there, all the white guys, and half the crew was crying. We did seven or eight takes. I was trying to contain her for longer as Taraji sometimes came in with all the energy.
Scott Holleran: Which scene differs most from your script and why?
Octavia Spencer, director Theodore Melfi, and Janelle Monae on set of ‘Hidden Figures’
Theodore Melfi: Any scene with the three women having fun with each other. Half the stuff at the barbecue was made up because they were having such fun. The banter over [Mahershala Ali’s character] was improvised. So was the scene at the beginning of the movie—with them chasing the cop car. I just let them go.
Scott Holleran: Is your movie about racism or exceptionalism?
Theodore Melfi: Exceptionalism. The movie’s [about] a meritocracy. NASA was one of the first places for merit in government work and it’s an actual place which was seen as progressive. It’s still seen that way today in terms of [inclusive] hires.
Scott Holleran: Did someone named Al Harrison, played in the picture by Kevin Costner, break down that barrier?
Theodore Melfi: I don’t know because he’s a composite character. When [Katherine’s] supervisor found out about the [fact of her having to run a distance to the race-segregated toilet] he did have it removed.
Scott Holleran: What is the womens’ and families’ estimate of the film?
Theodore Melfi: Katherine Johnson and her family are over the moon. She’s 98 years old and we screened it in her hometown of Hampton, Virginia. She came with her two daughters and they were crying. Afterwards, the family said that what they’re most grateful for is the treatment of her husband [played in the movie by Mahershala Ali], the family and kids and how they were sharing rooms. Also, those are direct quotes from him at the dinner table scene.
Scott Holleran: Have you seen 2016’s other movie involving racism in Virginia, Loving?
Theodore Melfi: Not yet. I’m looking forward to seeing it.
Scott Holleran: What did the other credited screenwriter, Allison Schroeder, add to the screenplay?
Theodore Melfi: Allison wrote the first draft of the screenplay. Then, I got my own pass and did my own thing with it. She had a movie that followed the women outside of NASA—there were a couple of Tupperware parties—and I wanted to balance it.
Scott Holleran: Why did you make John Glenn, who was 40, younger?
Theodore Melfi: It was his spirit. We tried guys that age and we couldn’t get that boyish spirit.
Scott Holleran: Your first two feature movies depict the physicality of the individual’s struggle to achieve. Why?
Melfi with Monae
Theodore Melfi: I do this thing called 50 questions that [my wife] Kim gave me. She got them from Larry Moss—this great acting teacher—and I answer these 50 questions for each character. I answer as if I’m the character. Then, I give that to each actor and I see how each actor feels about the character’s posture and [and physical movements, mannerisms, etc.] and I get into that. Then, I keep that posture and the way they walk [in the film]—like I told Janelle [Monae, who portrays Mary Jackson]; you kind of bounce and lead with your face. But Taraji [as Katherine] leads with her mind, so there’s a pressure on her shoulders which kinda pulls her down. Octavia Spencer [as Dorothy Vaughan] leads with her heart. [In St. Vincent], Bill Murray drags. The actor does the work. You don’t talk about it—it’s ingrained—and you’re free to let it go. Taraji P. Henson came up with the idea of running [to the bathroom] in high heels and that’s how she had to run. [Composer] Pharrell Williams wrote the song [“Runnin'”] after reading the script. He wrote that song before we started shooting.
Scott Holleran:What would Bill Murray’s character fromSt. Vincentsay about these three mathematically inclined NASA women?
Theodore Melfi: That he wishes they could do his taxes.
Scott Holleran: Who is your favorite astronaut?
Theodore Melfi: John Glenn because, even before he came to NASA, he was a Marine, he broke the land speed record and he was helping minorities and getting welfare off the ground. He was always the type to look you in the eye. He’s the best that this country can be.
Scott Holleran: Is Kirsten Dunst’s character a villain?
Theodore Melfi: Her character is ignorant. That’s what the movie is for me. The movie is summed up in Octavia Spencer’s response to Dunst’s character: “…and I know you probably believe that.” That, to me, is the core of racism; people don’t even know how they treat blacks, gays, women, [and anyone they consider different]—because, if they did, most good people couldn’t sleep any more. [Kirsten Dunst’s character] Vivian Mitchell just doesn’t know that black people shouldn’t use a different water fountain because of her upbringing. So I don’t know whether she’s a villain. Not seeing is as bad as not doing something about [injustice] and, at some point, everyone is complicit. The same goes for Kevin Costner’s character. Yes, he does the right thing, but he should have known about [Katherine’s working conditions]. Necessity is the mother of breaking down that bathroom sign.
Scott Holleran: What is the single most admirable quality of these women and why?
Theodore Melfi: Fortitude. Because it shows an example for today to not [only] look left and right and backwards—you don’t get there—you have to go forward.
Scott Holleran: Is there a scene you would change?
Theodore Melfi: Yeah. I would probably change the scene when Mary [Janelle Monae’s character] comes into the capsule room to see [NASA’s] Karl Zielinski. I would recast that actor.
Melfi directing Taraji P. Henson on set of ‘Hidden Figures’
Scott Holleran: Taraji P. Henson has had critical and commercial success with her Empire character. How did you purge Cookie Lyon from Hidden Figures?
Theodore Melfi: I took Taraji to meet the real Katherine Johnson. I sat with her and pointed to her elegance, her quietness and her posture—and Taraji P. Henson just absorbed it all because when you’re sitting with Katherine Johnson, you’re sitting with royalty. I kept reminding her with inflection or mannerism to resist the urge to lash out or jolt. It was a more reserved time.
Scott Holleran: Had you seen her in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?
Theodore Melfi: Yes. That’s where I fell in love with her. That’s who she really is.
Scott Holleran: Janelle Monae’s appearing in another 2016 movie. Have you seen her in Moonlight?
Theodore Melfi: I haven’t. My screener’s at home [in Los Angeles]. Tonight, we’re going to the White House [for a screening of Hidden Figures]. Apparently, Michelle Obama saw the movie and loved it, so she wanted to show it.
Theodore Melfi: I did. What it did for me is show that she’s one of the best actors in the world. It also made me rediscover Kevin. He’s just a great actor.
Scott Holleran: You’ve depicted the unit cohesion these women accomplished at NASA. Were you aware of the need to portray similarities as well as differences?
Theodore Melfi: That is the original message of the script and the writing—it was, ‘let’s all get to the peak together or we don’t get there at all’—and they are extremely proud of their work and NASA. These women are extremely patriotic and they love America, so it was very important to me not to make NASA a bad guy—they were complicit in the times but they got out and made the change—and it’s almost biblical, like Jesus on the cross saying ‘forgive them for they know not what they do.” The movie opens on Christmas Day.
Scott Holleran: What advice do you have for a director making a racially-themed movie?
Theodore Melfi: Be honest. We’ve seen the brutality of [the] civil rights [struggle] and slavery but I was being honest and true about what happened in Hampton, Virginia. There was unconscious bias and systemic racism—not getting promotions and equal pay—and they had segregation. I would say just be as honest as you can without being slick in either direction. There’s a lot of footage of the protest scene with [the menacing] dogs, so I had to resist the urge to be too exciting. You have to work hard to be objective and subtle.
Having previously written a book about stand-up comics in the 1970s, Time magazine contributing editor and theater critic Richard Zoglin turned to one of the 20th century’s multimedia masters in his new biography, HOPE: Entertainer of the Century (Simon & Schuster, 2014). The Kansas City, Missouri, native, who lives in New York City, recently spoke with me about the legendary comedian. This is an edited transcript.
Scott Holleran: What was the first Bob Hope experience you had in life?
Richard Zoglin: Growing up with his movies watching the Road pictures. I grew up in Kansas City and I loved Bob Hope. I watched his specials growing up. He seems like such a constant presence.
Scott Holleran: As an editor and theater critic for Time magazine, did the publication’s archives aid your research?
Richard Zoglin: They did. Time has a library, though it’s not what it used to be. There were clips that are now withering still sitting in folders. They’ve started converting to digital but they still have those old paper files up until 1963. So the older files are still on paper. They’re so old that they crumble in your hands. The way Time used to work, a writer would take the files and turn it into a story. All those files are still there. The files at Time were the main thing. The [Bob Hope] TV shows are more tricky because the Hope family owns a lot of those. The Paley Center [in New York] was helpful. But the whole family cooperated with me. The movies are mostly out there on video in packages and the few that aren’t—there are four or five—I was able to track down. Here Come the Girls was one the family sent me. Ninety percent of my research was at the location where the family donated all his papers, scrapbooks, scripts and a huge amount of material, so I spent weeks at the annex of The Library of Congress in Culpepper, Virginia.
Scott Holleran: What was the biggest surprise in terms of valuable research?
Richard Zoglin: One of the big things, and it took a long time, was [obtaining an unpublished manuscript by] Bob’s older brother Jim, who had his own memoir. I had seen it quoted—it was [called] “Mother Had Hopes”—and I just stumbled on it while I was talking with a guy in England who had done a lot of research on Bob Hope’s genealogy. He had a copy and, though I had a tough time getting it sent over—he lives in a town on the west coast of England—he was willing to send it to me digitally. Someone told me that there were only three copies of [the manuscript] and I found that one. Jim was very perceptive about the house in England, and where the kids played, going to America, growing up in Cleveland, the jobs they had and where they worked. It was such a nice picture of life in turn of the century England and in Cleveland in the 1910s and early 1920s. There were personal anecdotes about Bob Hope doing Charlie Chaplin imitations.
Scott Holleran: You have written a book about stand-up comedy in the 1970s. If you could have one comedian with you while stranded on a desert island, who would it be?
Richard Zoglin: Albert Brooks. He’s just naturally so funny. He’s just so clever, insightful and subversive, making fun of stand-up comedy in a sort of anti-show business way, though David Letterman would be a close second. Almost everything he says is just naturally funny. One of the reasons I wrote this [biography of Bob Hope] is that, when I wrote the other book [on stand-up comedy], and I was asking comedians who they grew up liking, nobody mentioned Bob Hope. So, he was really off the radar for that generation. He was [considered] the old-fashioned kind of comedian. I thought that was a shame because Bob Hope basically invented their art form. I wanted to take the full measure of his achievements. I don’t think anyone can match him. He was kind of a rebel, he was kind of risque, he kind of expressed an anti-authoritarian viewpoint. He made fun of Army officers. Or just the fact that he was doing topical jokes making fun of the president when most comedians were doing vaudeville material. Jack Benny was making jokes about Rochester. Bob Hope was doing topical humor. He was the one comedian who was connected to what was going on in the world. It made him seem hip and a little avant garde. He was making fun of the government. He was making fun of Eleanor Roosevelt and paying taxes. That was pretty gutsy for that early time. When Mort Sahl came along, comedians all went further.
Scott Holleran: Is the lack of recognition due to the fact that Bob Hope doing topical humor made it look easy because he was skilled and that, in this sense, he is a victim of his own success?
Richard Zoglin: That’s exactly right. Also, as comedians got more personal, talking about their girlfriends, Bob Hope never went there, so he seemed very impersonal and old-fashioned in that way.
Scott Holleran: Which medium if any consistently gave Bob Hope his due?
Richard Zoglin: What people don’t realize is that he had such longevity. All those comedy stars, such as Jackie Gleason and Sid Caesar, had no longevity. Bob Hope did. That was a real achievement. So when people talk about the big comedy stars I’m afraid that people think of Lucille Ball and Sid Caesar but not Bob Hope because he did television specials, not a series. But, if you look at ratings, he had some of the highest rated shows in history. One of the five highest rated entertainment shows of all time, even today, is Bob Hope’s Christmas 1969 special [for U.S. Army troops in South Vietnam] which aired in 1970. Since then, it’s been surpassed by the last episode of All in the Family, the last episode of M*A*S*H and the last episode of Roots. He was a major television star over four decades. So, there is no one medium that really embraced him.
Scott Holleran: Are there any major figures whom you attempted and failed to reach for an interview that you think would have added to the biography?
Richard Zoglin: There was one that I did talk to but wanted to get back to him because I had a very superficial conversation with him. That was [Bob Hope comedy writer] Mort Lachman. Unfortunately, he died a short time after I talked to him. Very few people turned me down for an interview. I couldn’t get Doris Day [who performed on radio and toured with Bob Hope], though I didn’t expect to get her. [Lucille Ball’s daughter] Lucie Arnaz didn’t talk to me, but I don’t know how much she really knew about the relationship between Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. I talked to [comedienne and Bob Hope co-star] Phyllis Diller and [Bob Hope comedy writer] Larry Gelbart before they died. I talked to [actress and Bob Hope co-star] Jane Russell before she died.
Scott Holleran: If someone’s never heard of Bob Hope, but is inclined to grant him the benefit of the doubt based on your biography, what is the best work to watch or listen to as a start?
Richard Zoglin: It’s a good question. I’ve been thinking of the answer because I’m doing an event with Dick Cavett. I would say it would be a movie. The best example are the Road pictures. There are three or four I would pick; The Road to Zanzibar, The Road to Morocco, The Road to Utopia and I’d probably put The Road to Rio near the top. The patter between Hope and [Bing] Crosby is so great. The downside of The Road to Zanzibar is that the musical numbers aren’t the best, so The Road to Morocco might be more well rounded in terms of music. It has “Moonlight Becomes You”. But The Road to Zanzibar might be the best for the back and forth. Other than that, my personal favorite would be Sorrowful Jones. Also, look at [Bob Hope’s work in] The Seven Little Foys, where he does some good dramatic work.
Scott Holleran: Is vaudeville comedian Frank Fay the most influential comedian to Bob Hope?
Richard Zoglin: Yes. He was the only one that Bob Hope modeled himself after to the degree that he did. Frank Fay is still very different than Bob Hope. He’s more sophisticated with an almost aristocratic kind of air. But that kind of conversational, spontaneous comedy was [typical of Frank Fay], so if you had to say someone, it’s Frank Fay. Also, Will Rogers, though Hope wasn’t as political.
Scott Holleran: You write that Bob Hope was “resourceful, vigilant, watchful of money, and always on the move.” Which quality is fundamental to Hope’s success?
Richard Zoglin: Both resourceful and always on the move. [Bob Hope’s ability to see] where the audience was going in terms of medium, from vaudeville to radio to TV and movies—no one else did that and he was willing to give it a try. I think his ability to be resourceful is fundamental; the way he figured out how to market and promote himself and deal with the press in a more sophisticated way. He was smarter about the culture, the presidency and the media. He realized the power of his brand.
Scott Holleran: Were you granted full access to his letters and correspondence?
Richard Zoglin: Yes.
Scott Holleran: Is Hedda Hopper right to call Bob Hope “our American Noel Coward”?
Richard Zoglin: [Pauses] I’m not sure I would compare him to Noel Coward. Maybe so. He was a very good, light comedian. Bob Hope is much more of a populist.
Scott Holleran: Was Bob Hope a workaholic, bipolar or somehow psychologically or mentally deficient?
Richard Zoglin: A workaholic? Definitely. He might have been using his work to distract himself from his private life. He didn’t spend much time with his family and maybe that was a failing. But in terms of any mental deficiency, I don’t think there was anything serious, unless you say someone who’s not introspective is not healthy because he was not introspective. He was a happy guy. He didn’t seem to have serious doubts or anxiety. Maybe he was limited but he knew what he was and he was comfortable in his own skin.
Scott Holleran: You have written that he understood the power of his celebrity as an agent for helping others. Do you attribute these activities, such as performing for the troops, to altruism if by altruism one means self-sacrifice?
Richard Zoglin: To some degree and there is also an element that he knew it was good for his career. I don’t discount that he knew that his celebrity would enable him to do good. But he also made sure people knew about these acts. I think both elements were there. I don’t think he only did it for good reasons but I don’t think he did it [strictly] for promotionalism. It gave him great pleasure to entertain the troops and it satisfied his patriotism to serve the troops. He got great satisfaction from cheering up these men and leaving them feeling better, making them more capable of defending the country and alleviating the loneliness and the hardship that they went through. That was a good feeling to him. I don’t know whether you call that altruism. But it made Bob Hope feel good about [doing and having done] it.
Scott Holleran: Bob Hope had ghostwriters according to your biography. Is there one book by Bob Hope that you think best captures his true convictions?
Richard Zoglin: I do think [Bob Hope’s memoir] Have Tux, Will Travel is certainly good in terms of giving some real insights to playing vaudeville. I know there were things he left out but what it does tell is honest and revealing. That’s the best. His book I Never Left Home is a good expression of Bob Hope and how he felt about seeing all the troops and how much it meant him.
Scott Holleran: Hope supported the military from D-Day and the Marshall plan through the Gulf War. To your knowledge, did Bob Hope ever openly and explicitly challenge the United States government on any single issue?
Richard Zoglin: No. He respected authority.
Scott Holleran: Is it true to say that Bob Hope was political only in the most superficial sense?
Richard Zoglin: Yes. I don’t think he was a very sophisticated political thinker. He had a simplified view of the world. His viewpoint was: America was at war and we should support the war.
Scott Holleran: Where are the souvenirs Bob Hope brought back from World War 2, such as Hitler’s stationery from the Berlin bunker and a photo of General Patton urinating in [Nazi Germany’s] Rhine River?
Richard Zoglin: I think a lot of them are still at [Bob Hope’s] house. I think the family still has those.
Scott Holleran: He was condemned by the Catholic Church in Catholic media. Did this have an impact on his devout Catholic wife Dolores?
Richard Zoglin: I never got any sense that she—she was always a sounding board for him and he would run things by her and she would say no. Maybe she said ‘I told you so’. I’m sure it did affect her but I don’t know how she felt about those instances.
Scott Holleran: Is it true that his wife Dolores was raided by police for gambling in a charity event on behalf of a group of nuns?
Richard Zoglin: Yes, though I’m sure she didn’t realize it was illegal. Somebody blew the whistle. The police came and confiscated their gambling games.
Scott Holleran: You write that Bob Hope’s singing voice was a crystal-clear tenor effective at “slicing through the confusion” and that his physical comedy has precision and clarity. It’s a rare evaluation in the biography. In retrospect, as a critic, are you interested in reviewing more of Bob Hope’s work?
Richard Zoglin: I do review the films and shows on the page. But, yes, I would like to do full scale reviews. I would enjoy doing that.
Scott Holleran: Tell me about the time Bob Hope went on strike at Paramount.
Richard Zoglin: He wanted to set up his own production company and share in the profit. He thought he could make more money by co-producing and this was a new idea. There had been a couple of stars like [James] Cagney [who had obtained producing deals] but this was new. Paramount didn’t want to [enter into a deal] so he didn’t show up and he would not go back to work for several months. Finally, Paramount caved. Now, that’s basically the model today.
Musician, producer and photographer Brett Goldsmith recently talked with me from Melbourne, Australia, about his new work with Olivia Newton-John, Hotel Sessions. The record is an extended play (EP) collection of previously unreleased demo tracks that he made with his famous aunt between 2002 and 2011 at various Melbourne hotels (read my review here.)
Goldsmith, 52, is the son of Olivia Newton-John’s late sister, Rona Newton-John, to whom Hotel Sessions is dedicated. Hotel Sessions is available at the Flamingo Las Vegas, where ONJ is an artist in residence for her premiere residency program, Summer Nights, as CD and digital download on her Web site and soon for downloading on iTunes. This is an edited transcript.
Scott Holleran: What would Rona Newton-John, to whom Hotel Sessions is dedicated, think of the record?
Brett Goldsmith: I think she would like it. My mother was a fan of Olivia’s. She was a big fan of Olivia’s voice. Being a fashion model and hanging out with rock stars, my mom Rona was a super cool kind of chick. I think she would especially like [the song I co-wrote with Olivia Newton-John] “End in Peace”. I would send my records for her reaction and she would criticize them in terms of my songwriting and my voice, which she told me she thought was getting better. A couple of lyrics were written while she was alive. I think she would like certain parts of Hotel Sessions. She would be the first to say what she didn’t like.
Scott Holleran: Do you consider this record a tribute to your mother?
Brett Goldsmith: I do now, yeah. It was almost like this record was never going to come out. The inspiration [for release] was Olivia cancelling her [impending] Las Vegas show after Rona’s death. Then, we said let’s make this happen and put this in some sort of cohesive order. We figured Rona would like that we were working together. Some of the songs mean a lot to us. Hotel Sessions was originally for me to put my production sound on Olivia’s voice. That’s how it was originally conceived.
Scott Holleran: How did Hotel Sessions evolve into an extended play record?
Brett Goldsmith: I had made an album in 2002 called Drive Time, which I’d made in a room on my own featuring songs I had written [that were] recorded by eight different vocalists—all Australian—and I was thinking it would be great if [my aunt] Olivia sang “Best of My Love”. She sang it and then went back to L.A. to [her manager and the record’s executive producer] Mark Hartley—or I sent her a mix—and she wanted to re-record the vocal and do another performance, so I went [to L.A] and did the vocal. While we were there, we wrote “End in Peace” in Malibu. After that, I think Mark Hartley turned to me and said how would you feel about taking a few of these songs and turning it into an Olivia record? I didn’t have to think about that for very long. So, Mark was very instrumental. I had pretty much let it go, storing these songs for whatever reason. I thought one day it might come to fruition. When Rona passed [due to brain cancer on May 24, 2013, in Los Angeles], I don’t think Olivia wanted to sing for while. So Mark was instrumental in pulling this together. Her publicist Michael Caprio and his partner, Randy Slovacek, also helped put Hotel Sessions on track. Randy in particular with his input and enthusiasm was a champion for making it happen. I shot the cover, we added dance remixes from David Hornos as DayBeat, because he had a good groove about him, and Mark went along with all that. It was very organic.
Scott Holleran: When was your cover photo taken?
Brett Goldsmith: After Mom died. It wasn’t planned. Unless I’m shooting [photographs for] a fashion story—that’s all premeditated—it’s improvisational. Olivia had asked me to find an image for the cover. I was actually at a soccer match—and I’m not that into soccer—and I saw this flock of seagulls. My iPhone was actually on the HDR setting—which means it takes two or three images in one hit and you get a flock of seagulls—and I happened to get that shot. So, I didn’t lay the images together. The double image was some weird anomaly. The phone was in portrait [not landscape mode] and [the image was] super grainy. And the city shots [on the back and inside the compact disc packaging] were taken during the same soccer match when the iPhone was pointing at Melbourne. I remember [looking out and] thinking that the city [Olivia’s hometown] would be a great shot. When I sent the images to Olivia, she loved them. There was no manipulation of the image, though. It just looked so haunting.
Scott Holleran: How was working as a producer for Olivia Newton-John?
Brett Goldsmith: Like most artists, Olivia knows exactly what she wants. She left me alone – she respects me as a photographer and as a musician – to work. The same goes with production. In fact, there wasn’t a moment when she questioned my grooves, arrangement or production. We’re talking about a singer with absolutely perfect pitch. I think I know what she wants, I know where the vibrato works and I know she has an incredible ear. When you’re cutting vocals with Olivia Newton-John, you’d better be on your best behavior. She’s a serious singer.
Scott Holleran: Are there any unreleased songs not included on the CD?
Brett Goldsmith: I did record one other song written for Olivia—but I got another engineer to come into the hotel and unfortunately he distorted the vocal. It sits in my computer. There were meant to be more songs.
Scott Holleran: Do you have plans for another ONJ collaboration?
Brett Goldsmith: Olivia’s the artist, I’m the producer and it’s her call. If she rings me up, of course I would jump at the chance. I would actually like to do a kind of modern country record or something in that type of genre.
Scott Holleran: You’re also a singer and your own music album includes the original version of “Ordinary Life”. Why no duet with Olivia on Hotel Sessions?
Brett Goldsmith: I never thought about that. I mean, Olivia sings duets with [singers such as] Tony Bennett. Every time we recorded in one of the hotels, I would literally go pull it apart. I would bring a Macintosh, a pre-amplifier, microphone, microphone stand and headphone and engineer and record her vocal in a hotel. I would hear the room as it is and record one song at a time. Because her time was so limited and frankly I was not sure if she was recording these songs as a favor – I could only do a couple of songs in Melbourne at different hotels while she was in town for the hospital in order to raise money, so it wasn’t a priority. I had these songs sitting on my hard drive and, as formats would change, [keeping up with upgrading technology] was crazy. In fact, I just found some video footage [of the hotel recording sessions]. I had happened to record some footage of Olivia and I’m there coaxing her through the vocals—she didn’t like her vocal—she wanted to record it more like the way I had done it. I knew I could get a beautifully tuned, unedited performance and maybe some harmonies. I think I managed to do that under tough circumstances.
Scott Holleran: On your version of “Ordinary Life”, you sing a different lyric than Olivia sings on Hotel Sessions. Why change the lyric?
Brett Goldsmith: I wrote that song reflectively talking about myself. When we got to sit down, she changed a lot of lyrics—we did it together just before we tracked the vocal, to change perspective [to reflect] her age and feeling. When I get up and sing, I sing whatever comes out. It starts with a melody. I never really think about it once I have the first verse. Olivia wanted to change a few things.
Scott Holleran: Had you recorded with Olivia before Hotel Sessions?
Brett Goldsmith: I did the world leg of her Physical tour and I’ve been in the studio with her, though not with musicians, bands and producers. We recorded “End in Peace” at a home studio in L.A. Olivia bought my first guitar for me and encouraged me to become a musician. She’d told me: ‘you’re a great songwriter’. I wish I had been in the studio during her country records in the 1970s. I’ve never really thought about this until you asked.
Scott Holleran: Is it possible that Olivia will perform the Hotel Sessions songs during her show in Las Vegas?
Brett Goldsmith: I really hope so. I would love that. If she put them in a set, that would be awesome. There’s no going back years later and fixing this or that. I’m glad it’s been released as demos, other than “Ordinary Life”.
Scott Holleran: Let’s talk about the impetus for each song on Hotel Sessions. What made way for “Ordinary Life”?
Brett Goldsmith: The whole point of the lyric is feeling pretty ordinary. The flipside is feeling pretty extraordinary. We all have ordinary types of days. The idea is that you can get through them, no matter how mundane [things seem]—you have an extraordinary story. We tend to feel ordinary based on fear of the unknown—I’ve had those days and all have been scary and worked out just fine. You remake yourself. Making records of my own is another reinvention. Now, I’m a photographer. But I was not until after I was 40 years old. Every one can remake oneself.
Scott Holleran: What is the impetus for “Best of My Love”?
Brett Goldsmith: It’s a love song, really, with a bit of heartbreak. It’s a story about people who give their all and get nothing back. I had that Emotions record [an entirely different song, “Best of My Love” on their Rejoice album] and it reminds me of [producer and musician] Nile Rodgers. So, I wondered if I could sing that title and lyric. I had to sing that [other] song in order to find Olivia to sing [mine]. I’m not a big fan of my own vocals—but she kicked it.
Scott Holleran: What is the impetus for “End in Peace”?
Brett Goldsmith: I watched 9/11 happen. It was overwhelming. I’m Australian—not American—and everyone was so sad about what happened. That’s all I had. When I went to L.A. to re-record the vocal for “Best of My Love”, we wrote “End in Peace”. I didn’t want to tell Olivia [what moved me to write the tune] because I am not an American. It was not really my place to say something but 9/11 was the impetus. I gave it to Olivia. Within an hour, I was sitting around the pool, playing verse chords and that’s when she wrote it. It happened quickly and I didn’t preempt her writing with my meaning. I’ve never even told her that. I didn’t think it was appropriate.
Scott Holleran: What is the impetus for “Bow River”?
Brett Goldsmith: The song is written by Ian Moss [of the Australian band Cold Chisel] and I came up with the idea to completely change the groove. I slowed it down. I recorded the whole music track in a particular key, then I rang up Olivia and she ended up nailing the vocal. It was originally done by Cold Chisel. Their song was literally in double time. Who knows what they think of it.
Scott Holleran: What is the impetus for the cover of Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings”?
Brett Goldsmith: I wish I had more originals but I just had an idea to produce a version of that song even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the original. I must have picked up my guitar and I think it was in A minor with no singer in mind. I got a groove and I thought this record was really cool. So I flew it over without the vocal. They liked it and it ended up being on there because that’s all I had. The five you have on the record is the five I had.
Scott Holleran: How did David Hornos, as mixer DayBeat, become involved for the dance remixes?
Brett Goldsmith: Unbeknownst to me he had been recording and remixing Olivia’s songs. He had actually sent them but I didn’t know it [because his messages were unopened]. There had been some other dance remixes [of Olivia’s songs] I’d heard. Most of them including mine were awful. Then David’s [messages] turned up and I was quite embarrassed and said what have you got. He’d done a remix of “Broken Wings” and he mixed his beats and added piano. I gave him the vocal and he got it back in two weeks. Then I also sent him the vocals for “Best of My Love”. He did a great job.
Scott Holleran: Your parents, nightclub entrepreneur Brian Goldsmith and Rona Newton-John, divorced when you were three years old and your dad owned music clubs and bars in Australia. Did having access to your father’s businesses influence you?
Brett Goldsmith: Yes—in everything. You couldn’t find a 14-year-old collecting every vinyl record [like I did]. My dad having the hippest clubs when I was 14 or 15 years old, I was playing my record collection—from Kool and the Gang to orchestral music—and my music to an audience and seeing them out on the dance floor. It was amazing. Between the experience of his nightclubs and his encouragement for me to become a musician and letting me be who I am was really encouraging. I went to a stuck-up private school—it was sort of Ivy league and people became lawyers and doctors—and my dad was great. Between Olivia and him, I felt very encouraged [to pursue a career in the arts]. That and I’m really good at reading manuals.
Scott Holleran: Some people might not realize that growing up privileged with an aunt who’s Olivia Newton-John might not always be so fabulous—
Brett Goldsmith: —That’s true. My sister Tottie and I had a band called the Chantoozies—we were a kind of cheesy Bananarama type band—and we had a couple of hits in Australia. We toured for years. I got to write those songs and it was my dad who paid for our first video. So, there’s no doubt that our upbringing was privileged and, yes, there is a lot of pressure to live up to expectations. I can certainly see how difficult it is. Privilege and money can be the kiss of death. And there are people out there that just up and go about their lives without much money. So, it’s a personal drive that everyone needs to have—you have to eat well and get sleep—and if you wind up in the wrong place, know that there are people who want to help.
Scott Holleran: We’re coming up on Mother’s Day in the U.S. What to you is your mother Rona’s legacy?
Brett Goldsmith: She was the coolest. She is known by people who didn’t know her as being beautiful—and my mother was beautiful—but within and behind that beauty was a great fashionista and reader and writer and movie watcher who had talents of her own. Some of them were fulfilled and some were unfulfilled, just like all of us. Her legacy is that she was witty, sarcastic, brutal, funny and cool—she didn’t brag—and she lived a life and married interesting men, met presidents and traveled with Olivia and was a super cool chick. She had style and she loved my photography—she was a model and I started as a fashion photographer—and she was a fan of mine. And I am a fan of hers.
Author’s Note
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