A short excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle reports on the early event that season.

The first tropical depression was reported June 20, 1945 in the Western Caribbean and later grew into a Tropical Storm as it moved in a northeasterly direction past the western tip of Cuba. The storm continued in a north northeasterly direction across the Gulf of Mexico more than a hundred miles off the West Coast of Florida. As it crossed the warm gulf waters it grew in intensity to a Category 3 hurricane showing winds of 115 miles per hour. Then taking a bead on the North West Coast of Florida the first hurricane of the season made landfall after crossing Dead Mans Bay and slammed into a mostly unpopulated area of North Florida. Soon after coming ashore its wind intensity dropped off to that of a Tropical Storm as it proceeded in an east northeasterly direction across Northern Florida. The storm passed between Jacksonville and the Georgia State line where it made its way to the Atlantic in the vicinity of St. Mary's, and Cumberland Island, Georgia. From there it proceeded up the East Coast as a Tropical Storm with winds around 60 miles per hour. It also carried heavy rains that caused some flooding in low-lying areas all along the East Coast. By July 1st the storm had blown itself out over the cool waters of the North Atlantic, the sometime Hurricane and sometime Tropical Storm number I had traveled some twenty four hundred miles. And although it had made life miserable for hundreds of thousands of people there was one consolation -- there were no fatalities as citizens were given a timely warning and they were able to prepare accordingly as the storm approached. (Stay tuned for that potential storm moving west from Africa.)

Hollywood Lures Talent from New York and Europe:

As the talkies grew into sophisticated motion pictures producers, artists, writers and directors came in from Europe, beginning with a trickle and later becoming a flood as war clouds began to hang heavy, prior to World War II. Garbo, Lubitsch and Wilder were probably the best-known talent in those early days to make their way from Europe to Hollywood.

Ernst Lubitsch, as an innovative writer/producer director, probably did more and got less public recognition in that silent to sound transition period than any person. Having a German heritage and the name Ernst during that hateful Hitler era did little for his PR image. The style he developed in pictures was referred to as The Lubitsch Touch. There was a self-censoring moral code put in place by industry leaders, following a spate of Hollywood scandals and this code left little room for, on screen, indiscretion. Most filmmakers felt handcuffed by these restrictive Hays Office rules. Not so Lubitsch. This master of bedroom comedy didn't have to resort to the filth of an X Rated film to get his point across.

Camera moves in on a highly charged seduction scene, the picture of smoldering passion and steamy kisses have gone too; CUT. Camera moves just outside the bedroom door. The French maid, her ear glued to that door and her flushed face reflecting embarrassed excitement at madam's indiscretion and misbehavior. The results are, in the minds eye of the audience, a scene played out vicariously through the maid and the door. As part of the audience, a dirty mind sees a dirty picture and likewise those with cleaner thoughts. Subtlety was a large part of The Lubitsch Touch.

In those early years of sound pictures, creative writing was not Hollywood's strong suit, mass production was. Like Detroit, Hollywood churned out the product in assembly line fashion while playing the game of hype and copycat. Copy the box-office winners and spend big publicity bucks to put the best face on the losers. Studio working quarters for writers were barracks type buildings and inside these buildings were tiny, cubicle like, work rooms. Parker and Benchley were probably the only writers in Hollywood already trained for that kind of hutch. Nobody liked it. Some rebelled at it while others just stewed and bridled. William Faulkner told his story editor that he couldn't write under those restrictive conditions. “I'm going home where I can get some work done," and he left. The powers at be decided to leave well enough alone and figured he'd bring in some pages from time to time. A week went by and no pages then two weeks, still nothing and they began to worry. Call his apartment; no answer. Send someone out there and see if he's all right. Faulkner was well enough, there had just been a misunderstanding of what he meant by going home to work. He was home all right, and working in Oxford Mississippi.

Writers Corner:

While we're on the subject of Lubitsch here's a short bit out of Garson Kanin's Hollywood. In a conversation with Billy Wilder Kanin told about the way George S. Kaufman, Carol Reed and other writers would begin work on a story with lots of enthusiasm. And that lasted for a while, but later on they'd begin to find fault, then pick it apart and eventually abandon the project. "Not me," said Billy. "I always come back to it so I can tear it down and abandon it again."
"You know who did not work like that?"
"Who?"
"Our hero, Ernst Lubitsch. He always concentrated on the affirmative aspects and kept looking for what was good and sort of ignoring the bad, sweeping it under the carpet and finally he'd built so much strength that the weaknesses didn't seem to matter."
"We can't all be Lubitsch," Billy said.
"We can try."

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter. Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

www.tombarnes39.com
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