Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/629850
P E R S P E C T I V E | M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 6 55 There had been a great long bar in a restaurant in Los Angeles, down by Olivera Street at one time. And I had some photos of that and I thought, "Oh! Look at that marvelous bar." And so I wasn't content: after hours I started drawing the long bar. I couldn't resist. I got it all drawn in, and there was a little scene where there was a fight between the gal and the guy around that bar. I thought that would be quite a thing. She could hit him with the bucket, and they'd go from one end of that bar to the other. We'd really do a bar scene. Martin came in the morning, and took a look and said, "My God, John, do you know we're going to make this picture for about $350,000? You've got more money in that one bar, and we'll never get it. We'll never get it; just forget it." A few minutes later, Mr. Laemmle happened to be coming through the Art Department and he brought some people with him, including Jack Otterson. They happened to look at what I'd been doing, and there were questions, of course, about what this great long bar was. No one knew how they'd ever fit that into anything. The old man asked me, "What's that for?" And I said, "That's for your new picture, Destry Rides Again." And he said, "Well, there must be some mistake, because as I remember, it's just a little barroom." Anyway, we got to talking. We got into it about this big bar, and it began to grow, and pretty soon the old man got excited, really excited about it. He said, "I think that is marvelous. Maybe I'll go out, maybe we can get the money, maybe we can build that bar. Maybe we can do this thing, John." Anyway, to make a long story a little bit shorter, it did develop; they did talk it up. He went so far as to say, "Why don't we build it even if it doesn't fit the picture. We'll change the scene; we'll get a better gal." They had two or three little starlets there in the studio they were going to use. Instead, after two weeks, it ended up being Marlene Dietrich who played the little gal with the bucket at the bar. Then they felt the story wasn't right and they rewrote the story. Eventually, Destry Rides Again came out of that. Above: The long pool at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli was part of the emperor's retreat from Rome during the second and third decades of the 2nd century AD. "So I thought, 'Gee, that's going to be exciting. We're going to build a great Western street and we can go up to the saloon and those doors are going to open and that great long bar is going to be there with all the mirrors and all the Victoriana around it.' I thought, 'This is keen.'" So that gave me courage. I felt that you didn't always have to be handcuffed to the set, to the script or to the written word. I think that's a point that as we go along, money-wise, we have to think of. I think we have to behave ourselves, and not get out of line completely, but I think having some sense, in the area of drama and the right thing for the right situation is also necessary. Now I'll flip on you. You know, you fail a lot. Most of the time you fail in fact, but you have to give it a good analysis anyway; you try to see what's right for the story. What is the essential thing—and that doesn't always have to do with size; it can be line form, color—how any of these affects the set emotionally. You give all that consideration first, before you go into it. I always liked the little story in Hadrian's memoirs, when he had the three architects with him. They were building that vast pool, the one that seems to go on almost forever. One of the architects complained about how long it should be, and another one was complaining that it was costing too much money, and he said, "Well, maybe there's something to consider before the money you might save. I'll tell you right now. Don't worry about the money; let's just start to build it, and if a hundred meters is good, if two hundred meters, if three hundred meters, let's just do it. At some point, someone is going to say it's too long. It's too long and we'll start to bring it back, and perhaps when we bring it back, we'll find the right place—just right, huh? That's the place we want." I feel that way about a set and I feel that unless you are free, first of all, free to have that period of exploration where you go, regardless of money, regardless of cost, you won't find the proper place. Many times it will be smaller, and cost less money if you really have that kind of an open mind. ADG