By Tommy Bourgeois
My last installment began with news of two classmates’ nonfiction books, Alex Beam’s The Feud, published late last year, and Chris Whipple’s The Gatekeepers, just out in April. This time, I’m happy to detail—or, better yet, let the producers detail—two classmates’ documentary films. The first, as we say in Hollywood, is “in the can”; the second, “in development” or, more optimistically, “in pre-production.”
Fred Cantor writes, “Like many of our classmates, I became a movie buff at a young age. But my understanding of and appreciation for film were greatly enhanced by my experiences at Yale, taking a film course with Standish Lawder and attending numerous screenings at the Yale Film Society and the Law School Film Society. So I’m excited to report that in early June I will be having a homecoming of sorts: a documentary short I produced and wrote the narration script for, The High School That Rocked!, will be screened at Yale as part of the New Haven Documentary Film Festival. It tells the story of how six legendary bands now enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame all performed at my hometown high school in Westport, Connecticut, between 1966 and 1968, creating indelible memories for local students. My school might not have had the cachet of Exeter or Andover, but I think we make the case that it was the coolest high school in America. We recently had our festival premiere at Film Fest 52—and, according to the programming director, set a festival attendance record—and have been fortunate in generating a fair amount of favorable press coverage so far. The Yale screening is tentatively scheduled for June 3, so if you’re in the area and want to relive a slice of the ’60s, I would love to see you there.” (Editor’s note: you can check the schedule as the date approaches at nhdocs.com.) “P.S.: The feature exhibit of the Westport Historical Society this summer will be based on the film, and I’ll be cocurating the exhibit. So I would love to see you at the WHS as well.”
Fred’s name shows up again in the following account from Wendy Goodman-Thum: “In the fall of 1973, every morning brought front-page news of Watergate revelations or Nixonian treachery, but tucked into a small box in the back of the September 28 issue of the Yale Daily News was a notice about the formation of the women’s swim team. Anna Ranieri ’76 and I were sitting at breakfast in Saybrook, and kind of dared each other to go.
“Captain Bonnie Jackson Kestner ’74 and Captain Rosanne Marcus Riddick ’76 were the real pioneers; Coach Ed Bettendorf, who had swum for Yale with Don Schollander, drilled us as equals to the men. When it turned out I had a knack for the butterfly, he suggested lifting weights. He introduced us to interval training at a time when Title IX was just being implemented. Spring of 1974 we were granted varsity status, and we cheered from the practice pool to the locker room. This was longer than you might think, because the locker room had only circuitous access to the practice pool. The men’s locker room was directly in between. We had to go up, around, over, down, and back again in those days. The first warm-up was the pre-practice sprint through Payne Whitney.
“I did not win a single race, but loved competing in the exhibition pool, which held so many records and so much Yale history. I loved learning to compete in ways women had not competed before. After graduation, I would be offered jobs over other candidates by male bosses who stated categorically that swimming for Yale made the difference—even without winning a race. In a practical way, this was better.
“A recent directing assignment reminded me of this time and the advantages Yale had given me, which gave rise to the idea that I might try to produce a documentary about these early days. The athletic department and Coach Jim Henry were incredibly helpful. Yale sent out word about my efforts in a blast e-mail, and the next morning, I heard from Bonnie, who will always be my captain. She threw her support behind it, and the project began to grow.
“Fred Cantor, my fellow member of the Saybrook mafia, contacted me to offer invaluable help. He reached out to Peter Kaufman, who made the introduction to Michael Schwarz (both of them JE mafia), whose fame as a documentary filmmaker was already justly deserved. Michael brought the concept to its present form and offered to executive-produce my film through his Kikim Media. I could not hope for better.
“I decided to create a series of regional mini-reunions to jump-start memories about this time and also to generate conversation about the ways that women learned to compete because of Title IX. The first is the west coast reunion, in early April at Stanford, organized by Anna and Nancy Cahill ’79; we hope to see Liz Moore (SM) there, though she has voiced interest in the first east coast reunion. For that, I have already deputized Ellen Moriarty, daughter of coaching legend Phil Moriarty, to help with planning. Anyone who wishes to help with these, or who might have pertinent memorabilia, photos, footage, please be in touch. I like to say it’s everyone’s documentary; I’m just producing it.
“I had originally thought this documentary might make a nice companion piece for the election of the first American woman president; now, there are fascinating parallels to political events of the Watergate era that also bring us back to the 1970s. We did not know where the investigations would take us then. What we do know is that our democratic system survived. With the intelligence, dedication, and perseverance of men and women equally now—in government, law, and journalism especially—it still pays to root for us.”
From film to stage: After a string of successes on Broadway and across the pond, producer Catherine Schreiber’s current project is a comedic British import, The Play That Goes Wrong, still in previews as this goes to press and set to open at the Lyceum Theater on April 2. One of her collaborators is film (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and television (Lost, Person of Interest, Westworld) titan J. J. Abrams. Getting back to Hollywood terminology, this notice will serve as a teaser. Tune in next time for more news of Catherine’s adventures on Broadway.
One last item from the mailbag: Erroll McDonald, vice president/executive editor in the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and a trustee of Pen America, recently became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he ran into our treasurer Nancy Young at an event featuring Joe Biden.
In other news, classmates again gathered on both coasts to observe the Chinese New Year. Meeting at the Midtown Peking Duck House were David and Catherine Cuthell, Jaime A. El Koury, John Friedman, Andy Gould, Charles Kaplan, Lisa Kaslow, Peter Kaufman, Charles Keefe, John Levine, Jeff McAulay and Patricia Bouley, Andrea Kaliski Miller, Al Moras, B. K. Munguia, Mark Peters, Nancy Ross, Michael Eric Stein, Laurie Stevens, and organizer Nancy Young. On the Left Coast, my son Matt joined Arthur Greenwald, Bruce Kagan, Seth Walworth and your faithful reporter at Ocean Star Seafood in Monterey Park.
As always, I welcome your news.