This journal is friends locked. Sorry, but I don't want my blog entries ending up on those blog collection sites. I talk about communication, popular culture, metafandom, media, Man From U.N.C.L.E. and occasionally, some personal stuff. If you want to read this LJ, feel free to friend me but please introduce yourself first. I usually friend back.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Round Table hosted by Bill Koenig (92) - Spybrary - Spy Podcast
Round table discussion on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. with the Spy Command's Bill Koening and guests Cynthia Walker and Robert Short on the Spybrary Podcast.
Round table discussion on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. with the Spy Command's Bill Koening and guests Cynthia Walker and Robert Short on the Spybrary Podcast.
I have been meaning to post this for a few weeks now but have been ridiculously busy [see my LJ]
Derrick Early, a long-time MFU fan and part-time filmmaker, is making an MFU fan film. Should run a little under an hour. The script [I got a peek] and cast look good. He's been posting progress reports over on the Inner Circle community on Facebook, but I promised him I'd reach out to the communities here on LJ.
Derrick is crowdfunding the project. If you'd like to make a donation or hear him describe the project himself, go here.
Peronally, I think it's kind of cool and a promising project. I wanted to contribute more than just consulting and a donation but life has been nuts of late. Derrick says he'd like me to do a cameo as one of the U.N.C.L.E. chiefs but I'm not sure I'll even have time for that.
But in the meantime, check out the project ---and feel free to share.
You can contact Derrick at Ironcladjudge@aol.com or make a donation over Paypal.
Tomorrow would have been Norman Felton’s 104th birthday. Every year on this date, I post a remembrance of Norman because, I must confess, of all those connected with The Man from U.N.C.L.E. that I met and interacted with, he’s the one that I miss most.
I have written many times about his kindness, his efforts for social justice, his views against the death penalty and against nuclear proliferation, and his highly principled politics. Even though The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a fun show for Norman [and later Sam and everyone else], his ideas and concerns are really embedded in the foundation of the series’ concept. Considering what is happening in American politics and indeed, around the world, it was prescient.
That said, I also must confess that this year especially, I miss Norman’s philanthropy. He was very interested in education and particularly, media literacy. After meeting Marshall McLuhan at a conference, Norman became very conversant with McLuhan’s ideas about media being the message and the global village. When I became assistant director of the Center for Media Studies at Rutgers University right after receiving my Ph.D., Norman supplied us with significant funding to develop media literacy curriculum and to network with other education professionals.
The university where I teach now is small, private, Jesuit and services students primarily from working and middle class backgrounds. We are almost completely supported by tuition with little outside funding. The STEM and diversity efforts occasionally attract grants, but it’s really difficult to get funding for the needs of our Communication students. Despite the fact that we have the fifth largest number of majors in the university, my annual department budget is equivalent to my Master Card bill for Christmas.
Next fall, I have scheduled Screenwriting, a course my students absolutely love. I haven’t taught it for a while because a couple of years ago, the university moved to cloud-based computing, making it impossible to use our professional software program, Movie Magic, It must now be replaced with a new, updated program called Final Draft 10. However, to buy it and renew it for future years will cost $5,000. This is a sum far beyond the department’s regular operating budget.
So I have created a crowdfunding project for alumni and interested donors. A friend recently donated $20 in honor of Norman’s birthday and I thought that was an interesting idea. So if you or someone you know is so inclined to make a gift in Norman’s honor, follow this link to our crowdfunding page:
Since Robert Vaughn died the other day, I've been receiving so many nice consoling messages because everyone know how I felt about Mr. Vaughn and identified with his alter ego. I've also been seeing various tributes on the mass media and within fandom and a couple of folks have asked me to talk about my own experiences. We're talking decades here, so it's going to take more than one post. I'll try to write about everything but it may take all week so bear with me. Here's the first:
“This is Robert Vaughn. May I speak with ----?”
It’s quite a moment when you pick up the phone and hear the voice of the person who was your childhood idol asking to speak to you.
Now that he’s gone, You ask what he was to me: Well. Let me see.
He was what I was, And was not. And knew what I knew, And what I did not.
We were born and raised a half a world apart, But later formed in the same womb. United by blood, but we were not brothers; We were more than that.
We shared dreams, but not fantasies. Fears, but not nightmares. He felt when I thought, And thought, when I felt too much.
His silences spoke to me And his words made my silences possible. When he spoke to others, I didn’t listen. I didn’t have to.
He wanted more from life than I did, But was often content when I was not. He laughed more than I did, But railed against Fate, when I would not.
We knew what others whispered, imagined, And we smiled because it was beside the point. To be joined physically Would have been redundant.
We were already one: Brain, mind, heart, soul. We weren’t lovers But we loved.
We held each other close at arm’s length, And reached past death to grasp at life. A thousand times my hand gripped his, And still does, Though he has long since let mine go
Yes! It's that time of year again: My birthday weekend! And so, as I do unilaterally every year, I am declaring the Twelfth annual "Thank You For the Stories" Weekend.
Our fandom has survived over 50 years now, long enough to see a reboot [and it was pretty good, too; too bad it didn't make more money] and still survive!
And guess what? WE ARE STILL HERE!!! What has sustained us?
The fanfic. The stories. Always, the stories. And the multiple neighborhoods in our worldwide community.
This year, I believe it's even more important to harken back to the mythology of our youth which warned us what would happen if Thrush triumphed. Our guys fought to prevent that from happening. Indeed, the folks who created that show did the same. Norman Felton worked well into his 90s for a better world, supporting efforts against nuclear proliferation and the death penalty and for media literacy. I am proud to say he was my friend and mentor.
So I think it's time to continue the tradition in our fan fiction. We live in a world today that is shifting: is U.N.C.L.E. still in there pitching? I hope so. And you should be, too. Because if there was ever a figure who symbolized Thrush [think about all those fictional characters we saw], he has arrived in the orange flesh.
Without the fan writers and the fanfic, MFU conceivably would have been long dead and forgotten. But today, three days after potentially the most disastrous election in American history, it is even more important to tell the story of friendship, fairness, peace and global diversity.
The story of Solo and Kuryakin [and yes, let's include April too and all those female agents and agents of color] and the mythical organization they work for continues to be retold again and again. Every day. And should be, more than ever.
So we need to keep the writers writing---and keep in mind, there are new ones around these days!--- and the best way is to send feedback. Good, thoughtful feedback. It doesn't have to be entirely positive. In fact, writers love to have discussions.
So, this weekend, pick out three of your favorite writers, a few new ones, perhaps, as well as those who you've probably been reading for years. Both could use a little support now and then. Send them a private note telling them you’re out there. Just that. Even if you’ve never, ever done it before. Even if you write yourself. (And YES, if you’re reading this, I mean YOU).
Consider it "Thank You For the Stories Weekend." It should take you all of fifteen minutes to send three emails or post comments or kudos. If you have more time, write to five writers instead of three. It doesn’t have to be a long note. Don’t know what to say? Simply say hi. You might comment on a specific story but in general, just thank them for the hard, uncompensated work they’re doing, the pleasure they’ve shared, the fact that they’ve kept Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin [both versions] and the dream that is U.N.C.L.E. alive and well.
So I’d like to take the opportunity right now to say, personally, thanks to all the wonderful cousins who keep all our communities going and make it possible for all writers, both new and old, to share their work. Since I became chair of my academic department, you all know how busy and overwhelming my life has been. I literally have no hours to write. But I carry on the dream each day, promoting and supporting my diverse group of students. They never watched U.N.C.L.E. but Norman's dream can still live on and does. For what else is writing and reading but a kind of dialogue and so many stories begin with a conversation?
And finally, thanks to all my fellow writers and also anyone who has produced a web page, drabble, poem, story, puzzle, contest, rec, review, challenge, vid, icon, illo, graphic for MFU over the past year. Your contributions guarantee that the MFU community will continue to exist.
So, thanks everyone! Here's to us!
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers [and sisters]..."
I’ve posted this essay every year on his birthday but this year, I thought I might tell you a little about the man we lost.
I met Norman in the early 1990s, when he was already retired and advanced in age. So, I can’t tell you much about how he was as a producer, although I’ve read through literally hundreds of his memos and interviewed dozens of people. They all, without exception, say he was fair, loyal and determined and they came back to work for him again and again.
He was also kind, socially-minded, and highly principled.
I’m not sure many fans know of how Norman’s daughter, son-in-law and grandchild were brutally murdered in Detroit in 1982. You can read about it here and here.
I first heard the story from Doug Benton, the very courtly and now also deceased producer of GFU. What was really noteworthy was not the horrible murders, nor the manhunt for the killers that lasted years nor even the trial when the killers were convicted and nearly sentenced to the death penalty. It was that Norman and his wife, Aline, who were fervently against the death penalty, pleaded before the court for the murderers to be sentenced to life instead. Norman said that their deaths wouldn’t bring his daughter back and he didn’t believe in killing for revenge. Benton told me that he’d met only two saints in his life, “…and Norman is one of them.”
Norman and Aline were also against nuclear proliferation and great supporters of media education. Indeed, I knew Norman two ways: not only through MFU but also because he funded folks I knew running media literacy projects in California. When I finished my Ph.D., that summer, I visited Norman and gave him a bound copy of my dissertation. He asked what I wanted to do next. I told him I wanted to work with the Center for Media Studies at Rutgers U, designing media literacy curriculum. He asked how much I would need. I said about $12,000 to pay my salary for a year or two. He gave us over five times that much.
Once I asked Norman what his politics were. He said to me, “Did you ever hear of John Reed?” I did. He is the only American buried in the Kremlin [Warren Beatty played him in “Reds.”] Norman said, well, he belonged to the John Reed Society in college. Many years later, when he and I were standing on the deck of a very wealthy and exclusive Malibu beach club in the midst of a media literacy charity event, Norman leaned over to me and impishly whispered, “This is where the revolution begins.” It made me laugh out loud. I wasn’t surprised to see him out protesting the War in Iraq even when he was well past 90. You want to know why there’s a Russian hero in MFU? Or why Robert Vaughn was allowed to publicly protest the Vietnam War without much professional fallout? That’s why.
When Aline developed Alzeimer’s and died in the mid-1990s, Norman was beside himself. He went into a deep depression and his friends, George Lehr among them, worried about him. But two things happened. First, Norman got out of the senior citizen home where he’d been living and moved to Woodland Hills with an old friend, Denise Aubuchon, the widow of Jacques [remember "The Terbuf Affair"?] . The second was that George brought Norman to our Spy Con and he reconnected with many fans. This made him happy. He even joked about the x-rated zines he’d seen [and yes, I believe he knew about slash too] and encouraged us all to keep writing.
Even during the run of MFU, Norman cared about us, his young audiences. It’s because of him that the agents stopped smoking after first season, that the cigarette holder communicator was changed to a pen. It was his idea to have sleep darts and he wrote reams of memos reminding writers and directors to substitute darts for bullets whenever they could. When I asked him if he was concerned about TV violence, Norman nodded and said, “And I still am.”
When I first began to interview him, he expressed amazement that, of all his programs, it was MFU that had survived and endured. He pointed out all the socially-conscious shows he’d created, like Dr. Kildare, The Eleventh Hour, and Teacher, Teacher. But I told him that his ideas and politics were embedded in MFU and that he’d influenced younger audiences, not through those other shows, but through U.N.C.L.E. Eventually, he accepted that idea and it made him content.
Norman also encouraged the fandom right from the start. The archive at the University of Iowa is filled with folders containing letters from young fans. Many folks I know today as adults wrote Norman as children. And he wrote back. He provided financial support in the early days of U.N.C.L.E HQ and even donated several items for fan auctions. If you wrote to him in the 1980s or 1990s, he would send you a souvenir --- U.N.C.L.E. clippings or PR memorabilia. He also sent out bits of actual film. I have a strip of 35 mm color footage from “To Trap a Spy.” Eventually, of course, he ran out of stuff, but many of these items are scattered around fandom.
In creating U.N.C.L.E. and forging a relationship with us, the fans, he was innovative and way ahead of his time. In my book, I argue that U.N.C.L.E. was the Ur-text of fandom and we can thank Norman for that. Even before Gene Roddenberry, Norman engaged with the fans.
Finally, the Norman I knew was an absolute gentleman, and admittedly, a little old-fashioned. He felt bad about GFU because he remembered that, at the time, he was so half-hearted about a female protagonist in action/adventure. He said he hated to hear the corporate execs say leering things about what might happen to the character. Decades later, with Buffy and others on television, he said he could see how it should have worked and he was sorry for being so short-sighted.
Norman became hard of hearing and so, in his later years, I couldn’t talk to him over the phone. I last visited him in 2007 and by then, he was growing frail and losing concentration and focus. This is the first year he’s not around to receive my flowers on his birthday. But I did dedicate my book to him, one of the important people in my life, who influenced so much my past, present and future.
Happy Birthday, Norman Felton. You will be remembered.
As I do unilaterally every year [yes, the week of my own birthday ---deal] I am declaring the Eleventh annual "Thank You For the Stories" Weekend.
Our fandom has survived 50 years now, long enough to see a reboot [and it was pretty good, too; too bad it didn't make more money].
And what has sustained us all these years? What is the life blood of this --or any--fandom?
The fanfic. The stories. Always, the stories.
As I've said before, the folks at the WB should probably send residual checks to all the fan writers who kept that damn property alive for half a century and will continue to do so. Because, without the fan writers and the fanfic, MFU conceivably would have been long dead and forgotten. But it's not, and even though the reboot wasn't as successful as we'd hoped, there's still a growing group of fan writers creating stories for the new version.
The story of Solo and Kuryakin and the mythical organization they work for continues to be retold again and again. Every day.
So we need to keep the writers writing---and keep in mind, there are new ones around these days!--- and the best way is to send feedback. Good, thoughtful feedback. It doesn't have to be entirely positive. In fact, writers love to have discussions.
So, this weekend, pick out three of your favorite writers, a few new ones, perhaps, as well as those who you've probably been reading for years. Both could use a little support now and then. Send them a private note telling them you’re out there. Just that. Even if you’ve never, ever done it before. Even if you write yourself. (And YES, if you’re reading this, I mean YOU).
Consider it "Thank You For the Stories Weekend." It should take you all of fifteen minutes to send three emails. If you have more time, write to five writers instead of three. It doesn’t have to be a long note. Don’t know what to say? Simply say hi. You might comment on a specific story but in general, just thank them for the hard, uncompensated work they’re doing, the pleasure they’ve shared, the fact that they’ve kept Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin [both versions] and the dream that is U.N.C.L.E. alive and well.
So I’d like to take the opportunity right now to say, personally, thanks to all the wonderful cousins who keep all our communities going and make it possible for all writers, both new and old, to share their work. Last year's 50th anniversary celebration and this year's Creature Feature Weekend were wonderful, along with the writing/reading communities! Considering how old we are, the fact that we have new communities and new writers appearing all the time is a miracle. For what else is writing and reading but a kind of dialogue and so many stories begin with a conversation.?
And finally, thanks to all my fellow writers and also anyone who has produced a web page, drabble, poem, story, puzzle, contest, rec, review, challenge, vid, icon, illo, graphic for MFU over the past year. Your contributions guarantee that the MFU community will continue to exist.
![[sticky post]](/%20https://www.npmjs.com/package/ocr-https-l-stat.livejournal.net/img/icon_sticky.png?v=11043 "[sticky post]")
Welcome! @ 05:04 pm
We are working on the last volume, Vol. 5, now. If you're new or just catching up, series starts here:
hopeful
busy
melancholy
cranky
