The Old Man And The Sea    One of the earliest memories I have of my grandfather’s career, was at the age of 7 or 8 years old. I remember going down to San Diego harbor with my parents to wave goodbye, as my grandfather embarked during the making of the Hemingway classic, The Old Man And The Sea, starring Spencer Tracy.

My grandfather and film crew were headed by boat, to the coastal waters off Mexico, Central America, South America, the Galapagos, Perles and Cocos Islands, to film the marlin and shark sequences for the movie. Tied to the side of the boat on deck, was a very large, I assume, plastic Marlin skeleton. When I eventually saw the movie, I realized what the skeleton was used for. The skeleton would be filled up with fish parts and other things to attract sharks. A cage was used to film the underwater sequences, where Spencer Tracy ( an old, poor fisherman) was trying to fend off the sharks, from eating the giant Marlin he had caught. In the movie, he had fought this giant Marlin, by hand line, for days. Having been towed far out to sea, off his normal course, and not willing to cut the line to the largest fish he had ever hooked. It was the classic tale of man verses nature, as he tried to bring his catch back to port.

My grandfather always had some fascinating stories to tell of his many adventures while on location around the world. One of the more hair-raising stories happened in the early 30’s, filming the movie Eskimo. While on location in the Bering Sea off the coast of Russia, their boat had apparently come too close to the Russian coast. They were chased and fired upon by a Russian patrol boat. Fortunately, they were able to elude the Russian boat in a dense fog bank.

Another interesting observation my grandfather had made while on location for Eskimo, was to witness an indigenous band of Eskimo hunters. These hunters were so desperately wore out and hungry, after a successful whale hunt, that they immediately began cutting up the whale blubber and eating it raw.

One of the more grisly stories was of a Burmese elephant owner trying to impress the film crew, in order to get hired. The foolhardy elephant owner was showing my grandfather his command of one of his elephants. The elephant was not responding quickly enough to its owner’s commands. In a foolish display of prideful impatience, the owner inadvertently whacked the elephants trunk, with the sharp end of a machete, and severed it. The elephant had to be put down. My grandfather flew into a rage wanting to strangle the fellow, who needless to say was not hired. At that time Burma was known as British Siam, unfortunately I do not remember the name of the movie.

Walt Disney and MGM    I remember meeting Walt Disney sometime around 1955, when Disneyland first opened. Later in life I had read about my grandfather’s connection with Mr. Disney. Mr. Disney had a great deal of money, riding on the hopeful profits of his movie 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason. These hopeful profits were to be used to help fund the building of his dream theme park. When the fighting scenes with the giant squid were not going well, my grandfather was called in to get it right. The rest is history, the movie was a great success, which helped Mr. Disney fund the building of Disneyland.

In the summer of 1959, my grandfather was commissioned by MGM producer Aaron Rosenberg, to build a replica of the HMS Bounty, for a remake of Mutiny on the Bounty. Originally built in 1750, to a length of 90-feet, the new Bounty was to be 118-feet in length. After obtaining original building plans from the British admiralty library in London, my grandfather set off for Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. From there he supervised the building of the Bounty for eleven months, then set sail to Tahiti through the Panama Canal. Most of the filming would take place in Tahiti.

On Location during the making of Mutiny on the Bounty    The one movie that had the greatest impact on my life, personally speaking, was Mutiny on the Bounty, the 1962 version, starring Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard as Captain Bligh. My grandfather had also worked on the 1935 version starring Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian and Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh. When I was twelve years old, in the summer of 1961, my grandparents flew me down to Tahiti. They both had been living there for a little over a year, while my grandfather worked on the film. This was the only movie, where I was actually on location with my grandfather. The greatest adventure of my young life was about to unfold.