Re: Classic American West Coast Boxing
Posted: 30 Mar 2011, 19:04
1969, the "Real" Wonder Years on University Ave.CNorkusJr wrote:Great story Rick, I assume the "wonder Years" house was for exterior shots only and all interior stuff was in studio,not the house across from your moms. They would tie up the whole block for hours if they did,right ? Did the Arnold family shoot any scenes right on that block ? must have been real neat for the "regular" neigjhbors.Rick Farris wrote:"Little Brother" . . .
I took the day off work. I did it because I didn't feel like going, something I'd have never done when I was young.
I'm working with a few guys I broke in with, my buddies, we take care of each other.
The great thing is several of their sons are also working with us, the next generation. These kids grew up hearing our names, we get respect.
When you grow up in Burbank, you live close to many people who work in the film industry, cameramen, make-up artists, lighting techs, grips, actors, writers, etc.
Burbank is home to generations of film professionals, as well as the Warner Brothers Studios, Walt Disney Studios/ABC Headquarters, Universal Studios is located in Burbank's Toluca Lake area, NBC Studios where the "The Tonight Show" is taped several days a week, and the Columbia Studios Ranch facility. People like to live close to their work, and Burbank is the true Media Center of Southern Cal, as well as the rest of the world. Unlike most cities in Southern Cal, Burbank has no budget problems, it has movie studios.
The TV series, "The Wonder Years" was filmed on the street I grew up on. The "Arnold family" home location was directly across the street from my mothers house.
My mother said the location reps would pay all of the neighbors a $100 to park their cars in the garage instead of on the street or driveway. The series was a period production and the newer model cars would compromise the time period. The series was set in the late 60's (which would have been the time I lived there), but it was early 90's when the series was filmed.
My grandmother's home, on Catalina Street, was located in the middle of the block between Oak St. and Verdugo, a small 2 bedroom house on a big lot where I spent most my time as a kid. Around the corner on Oak St., about 3 blocks down is a small 2 bedroom home on a corner across fron Stevenson Elementary School. This was where actor/director Ron Howard grew up. We'd see him in the neighborhood, usually with his parents and younger brother, Clint. Clint was himself a child star of the series, "Gentle Ben". They boys were raised conservativly, and Ron Howard attended Burbank schools when not on the set. He married his high school girlfriend, attended USC Film School with George Lukas, Spielberg, etc. Ron Howard was unpretentious, drove a VW Beetle, stayed in the neighborhood until his late 20's. There was Happy Days, American Graffiti, The Shootist, and now he is an A List director/producer. One of the best film makers on the planet.
Little brother Clint, as a kid, was a cute little boy, and a brilliant actor. Before getting his own series, he appeared in an episode of the "Twilight Zone" and got great reviews.
Clint Howard was suddenly one of those hot kid actors, but unlike his brother, that's where things would end.
Teen years made the cute kid an awkward looking charactor, and he rarely worked. In recent years he's been seen in speaking rolls in all of his brother Ron's films, but that's about it.
Today we crossed paths again, as we did decades back, when he and Ron were at the slot car track (always with both mom and dad, charactor actor Rance Howard. In the early 60's, the slot car track was one of my boyhood haunts. It's where I got into a lot of fights, in the alley behind. Lots of trouble before I stepped into a junior golden gloves ring.
I once played Ronny Howard one-on-one when he challenged me to game of basketball. He and I were the only kids on the Verdugo Park Gym floor, but that was the only time I spoke with him directly, until I worked with him years later on "Far & Away". He was a year younger than me, both about the same size. He beat me in that game by two points. Today I saw Clint at a local spa where I go for saunas. It's in our old neighborhood. I live about 15 minutes away in Studio City, Clint tells me he lives just a few blocks away, same neighborhood where we grew up. We commented on the relaxation and benefits of our sauna visits. You pull the tag line running across the ceiling and water is sprayed onto the hot rocks, creating steam in a better way than when pumped thru pipes. It's where I go to escape, clean out the toxins. "I'm not a rich man," Clint Howard remarked, "but I can afford a few bucks for this once a week. A great way to regenerate myself."
His brother Ron is wealthy beyond belief. Two brothers, same direction, different destinations.
Clint was right about the benefits of "The Burbank Spa". I've been doing this since my 20's, regardless of my good habits or bad, I don't go long with out visiting my friends from Finland. It's a real Finnish Spa, and I've known the family for about twenty years now, used to date one of the sisters.
It's where I go to sweat the devil out.
This Sunday I'm going to take Don Fraser to the Burbank Spa. It's going to sweat the devil out of Don, as well.
I use to watch that show with my first wife because,like yourself, We grew up in that time period also. They did a good job with the story line portayel for those years.
Ron Howard, like Tom Hanks nowadays,whatever those two do is instant Gold for the industry. I like Hanks in his work with covering WW II stuff now.
I never worked on the show or was around when it filmed during the early to mid 90's.
However, an old girlfriend who was Fred Savich's make-up artist said they also shot the interior of the home.
They would tie the street up for at least three days of each episodes seven day shooting schedule.
The neighbors were paid not to do gardening or park cars on the street on the days they filmed.
No one seemed to mind. If they filmed on the street several times during a month, that's a lot of extra cash for a little inconvenience. The film company was considerate.
After the series ended, the owners of the house completely remodled it, so it is no longer recognizable.
Today it is a huge two-story house on a street of mostly single story homes. I drove up the street awhile back, things had changed a bit.
The home my parents once owned was relandscaped which gave it a different look, but it was all the same.
Forty-two years ago, about this time in 1969. The Quarry family got into a brawl with another family at El Monte Legion.
I went home that night to this house. 1969, a month later my 22-year-old cousin, an Army Captain, was killed in Viet Nam.
I went to Kansas City that year for the Golden Gloves, as well as San Diego for AAU Natl's.
Life was good, something like what they showed. The Charles Manson gang went on a killing spree, and in the same month Olivares won the bantam title and Rocky Marciano died in a plane crash in an Iowa corn field. I was 17. Boxing was great in L.A. back then. Really great, Frank remembers.
