Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546034
22 C I N E M O N T A G E U N I O N M A D E By Darrin Quigley M y p a t h i n t h i s c r a z y i n d u s - try hasn't been clean. It's been c r o o k e d , l o u d , f u n n y, p a i n - ful, sometimes ridiculous — and it has involved a lot of drinking. But this is my story. When I was about three years old, we moved to a city called Haverhill, about half an hour north of Boston. This town was where Louis B. Mayer, later the studio head at MGM, had his first theater, called the Gem. My own first taste of show business came when my father opened a nightclub called the Raven. The acts included nation- THE BOSTONIAN WHY JUST SEEING THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN WAS A TURN-ON ally recognized entertainers like Tiny Tim and David Brenner. There were also hyp- notists, musical acts, dancers — and some gangsters. One of my dad's friends was Alex Rocco, who had ties to the underworld and later became famous playing Moe Greene, the casino boss in "The Godfather." I remember the lights, the curtains, the smoke, and the excitement of the stage. Even at my young age, I could feel it. My friends and I loved horror movies. We filmed our own 8mm versions of "Frankenstein," "The Wolf Man," even "The Exorcist." When the "8s" came back from the phar- macy where we had them processed, we would sneak out around midnight and have a screening at the house of the director, an older kid who owned the equipment. I wanted to go to film school, but money was tight. Instead, I volunteered at the local P H OT O : M E R R I M AC K VA L L E Y L I F E Louis B. Mayer viewing what was once the Orpheum in 1954. Illustration by Bill Concannon