By Tommy Bourgeois
Retired lawyer Fred Cantor has reinvented himself as a short-form documentary screenwriter and producer. His debut project was the 2017 release The High School That Rocked, directed by Christopher Casey Denton. It recounted the remarkable roster of bands—including the Doors, Young Rascals, Yardbirds, Cream, and the Remains—who performed at his Westport alma mater Staples High during Fred’s time there. His new release, which was screened at the ninth annual Ridgefield Independent Film Festival on May 18, is titled It’s a Hollywood Life. It was directed by Laurie Valentina Gomez Acosta and Maya Weldon Lagrimas. Its subject is Connecticut-based film critic Susan Simon Granger, born in 1938 into a family that wielded power during Hollywood’s Golden Age. As a child, she appeared in many films directed by her father S. Sylvan Simon, whose eventful life of only 41 years ended in 1951, by which time he’d become Columbia Pictures’ head of production. Her mother Harriet went on to marry legendary MGM producer Armand Deutsch, who adopted Susan and became her mentor. After continuing her acting career into early adulthood, Ms. Granger shifted her focus to journalism, which she studied at Mills College under Pierre Salinger, who later became President Kennedy’s press secretary, and at Penn, where she graduated with highest honors. Her criticism, richly informed by her background and subsequent knowledge of film production, has been widely published. Some of you may recall her appearing as a commentator on the Turner Classic Movies channel. Film scholar Steve Cubine, who hosts the podcast From Beneath the Hollywood Sign, writes of Fred’s latest offering, “It’s rare to get a unique, first-hand account of Hollywood during its Golden Age, but Granger offers just that. It’s a fascinating film that any classic cinema fan should see.”
Further on the theme of second careers, this news from Paul Mascia arrived in late April: “As an insurance specialist for 30-plus years, I’ve often found the mechanics of my business life repetitive and routine. That said, I’ve enjoyed interacting with my many diverse and interesting clients, so they are never dull, while my wife and five adult children and seven grandkids also keep me young.
“However, there’s a new development which I wanted to share with my classmates, something out of the ordinary. At the age of 70, I’ve written my first book, and my first piece of historical fiction. It has been about four years in the making and has facilitated a nice transition as I move into semi-retirement and can now take the time to rekindle my creative energies. The novella, Nazar’s Journey, will be published by Austin Macauley of London, NYC, Cambridge, and Sharjah, on May 24. It is about a heroic young man in the Nineveh Plains of Iraq in 2014. It will include nine thematic expressionist paintings, created specifically for the book by acclaimed Iraqi American artist Qais Al-Sindy, so I expect that it will be well received both internationally and domestically, given the huge number of Iraqis who have resettled here. The themes of the story and the paintings are global, so I trust people from different faiths and cultures will find the book inspiring.
“I plan to donate the proceeds to a charitable organization which assists displaced peoples in various situations of global conflict. The book touches on how wars wound individuals and families, the horror of terrorism and religious persecution, and the trauma of being forced to leave one’s homeland behind forever in the abrupt flight for security. There is tragedy in the story, but there is also beauty and hope.
“In the US, the book can be purchased at Barnes and Noble and at Amazon. It will also be marketed internationally, which I am very pleased with, since I would like readers from other cultures, as well, to find encouragement and healing in the story.”
Paul followed up a short time later with a salient Yale detail: “In senior year, I took a child developmental psychology class, and the professor gave us the option of writing a typical paper or a children’s story. I opted for the latter and created a short story about a boy amid the chaos of the Vietnam War. This boy was much younger than the Nazar of my novella, who is almost 14. It was illustrated by a friend, and my professor liked it, suggesting I get it published. But that never happened as I got distracted by life. Still, some significant elements of my story from almost 50 years ago contributed to Nazar’s Journey.”
Seasoned author Ben Yagoda’s books have covered a wide range of subjects, as evidenced by their titles. To name a few, Will Rogers: A Biography; About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made; The B-Side: The Death of Tin Pan Alley and the Rebirth of the Great American Song; Memoir: A History; When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It; and The Sound on the Page. I’ll step aside and let Ben tell you about his latest endeavor, which, somewhat surprisingly, is not a book. In early May he posted this news on the class Facebook page: “The first four episodes of my podcast The Lives They’re Living are now available pretty much wherever you get your podcasts. The idea for the show came from my forever habit of immediately turning to the obituaries when I opened up the New York Times. The obits I’m most drawn to are not of the great and mighty but of people who’d made important contributions or been in the public eye years back, or had led fascinating lives, but were for whatever reason a bit under the radar.
“Wouldn’t it be great, I mused, if I could tell these people’s stories while they were still among us? And so was born the podcast, where for each episode I talk to someone who can give expert testimony on the subject at hand. The first four episodes are: Michel Tisserand on Jules Feiffer, Gene Seymour on Ismael Reed, Laurie Gwen Shapiro on Abigail Thomas, and David Bianculli of Fresh Air with Terry Gross on Mason Williams.”
So now, dear classmates, courtesy of Fred, Paul, and Ben, respectively, we have something new to watch, something new to read, and something new to listen to. Get started!
A final note: 50th reunion cochairs Javade Chaudhri and Gunnar Knapp met in April at the home of Gunnar’s mother Barbara. This means the planning has begun in earnest. Please email me if you have a suggestion about panels, activities, souvenirs, etc., or—better yet—if you want to lend a hand with outreach to classmates. As I file this column, it’s just a little over a year away, and we need lots of hands on deck to ensure a well-attended, blockbuster event. Tempus fugit!