Darvin Jasper introduced our guest speaker tonight.
Caelum Vatnsdal is a filmmaker who has made movies, TV shows, documentaries and music videos, and a writer who writes mainly about movies. He is a frequent culture commentator on CBC.
A description in Nuna, an Icelandic publication that says Armed only with a love of horror movies, twenty years of experience in the film industry, a low animal cunning and a name like two racks of Scrabble, Caelum Vatnsdal has been working tirelessly to improve the state and status of the spooky movie. Vatnsdal has produced and directed award-winning music videos, films and documentaries, including the Gemini-nominated hit ‘There’s Something Out there’. He has collaborated extensively with director Guy Maddin, and is well known in horror circles for his work with magazines such as Fangoria and Rue Morgue, and his acclaimed book ‘They Came From Within: A History of Canadian Horror Cinema’.
Sharon and Darvin Jasper are good friends of Caelum’s parents and Darvin has known Caelum since he was a young kid chasing around his neighborhood with an 8mm camera working on his first movie.
Caelum was not absolutely sure what his topic would be tonight. On the spot he decided that his topic would be Dick Miller. Caelum has actually just completed a biography for the actor. A quick search on You Tube will provide many references on Dick. Caelum started to notice the actor early in his youth. At age ~ 14, Caelum would decide that Dick Miller was his favorite actor. He was an actor that was always somewhere on screen, usually in the corner of the shot. The movie ‘Rock All Night’ was his first starring role. He was actually in about 200 movies during his acting career. He was even in ‘The Untouchables’.
In 1995 Caelum produced a Fringe play called ‘A Bucket of Blood’. This was a movie that Dick Miller was in originally. After that he wanted to write a biography but was not sure who to write about. Then it came to him…Dick Miller of course!
He managed to track down a phone number that may have been Dick Miller’s at one time. So, he called it. A woman answered and talked to Caelum for a while, then she just yelled off into the distance during the call “some guy wants to write your biography”, the reply was “yah, sure”! The woman was Lainey Miller, Dick Miller’s wife of many years.
Dick was born in 1928 in the Bronx, N.Y. and acting was a job for him. Caelum found him to be a very nice guy and he had led a fascinating life. Caelum felt that this could be a good book to write. Dick was friends with many ‘stars’ of the time, Charlton Heston, Sammy Davis Jr., Steve McQueen. He even played drums with Thelonious Monk when they suddenly needed a drummer just prior to a show.
Dick Miller could be the person that invented the late-night TV talk show. This was at the dawn of TV and there was a show that had a singer come on and sing a song/s then talk for just a couple minutes with the host then leave. Well, Dick went to the host and suggested that he should talk longer with each guest… the next guest was Liberace! This idea was a success and took place three years before Tonight starring Jack Paar.
In 1951 Dick moved to Hollywood to be a writer of science fiction shows. He was interviewed by famous producer/director Roger Corman who gave Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola their start in Hollywood. He was looking for an actor, not a writer at the time. So, Dick said he was an actor!
His first movie ‘Apache Woman’ had him playing two roles. One was a cowboy, the other an Indian. The script almost had him having to shoot himself!
Dick would act in about 3 or4 films a year that each took only 2 or 3 days to film. This would give him an income of about $1000/ year. The rest of the time he would hang out at the beach or Schwab’s Drug Store. It was at Schwab’s that he met his future wife, Lainey.
While talking to Dick for research on the biography, Dick said that he was good friends with Jack Nicholson for about 10 years, “want his number?”. Caelum called the number and left a voice message. About two months later he got a call from a woman saying, “I have Jack Nicholson on the line for you”! This led to a nice talk with Jack about Dick.
The entire time that Caelum was writing the biography was a rush against time as Dick was not young and had many health issues. He really wanted to hand Dick the finished work and see his response. The book was published last October, and Caelum went to Dick’s 90th Birthday celebration (born on Dec. 25th) and sat next to Robert Forster. Dick had a great time at his 90th birthday party dancing all night long. One month later, on Jan 31st, 2019 Dick Miller passed away.
Dick Miller had a down to earth kind of style. He tried to be real in his acting roles. The directors noticed this, and his career snow balled over time.
Q/A
1.- Darvin Jasper asked Caelum to describe the movies that he had made.
A.- At age 22 he made his first real movie when he applied for and received a $22,000 grant from the Manitoba Arts Council. He made ‘Black as Hell, Strong as Death, Sweet as Love’. He has also made a lot of documentaries – Guy Madden / Sasquatch, They Came From Within, music videos for the Weakerthens. He is working on a new project with John Cassavetes (indie films).
2.-#1 Nancy Morris questioned if Dick’s rate of pay got any better over time? #2 Did he stay married to Lainey? #3 The films were all sort of corny..?
A.- #1 He never became a star. He had lean years where he had to go pick avocados just to have something to eat. In the mid 70’s work started to improve for him. He was in Terminator, Gremlins. #2 He met Lainey at Schwab’s Drug Store. She was 10 years younger than Dick. They married a few months after meeting and had been married up to his death. #3 The movies were made for fill. The Drive-inn Theatre was big at the time. Peoples taste has changed over time. They expect more from movie production now than in the past.
3.- Glenn Campbell inquired if Dick was paid any royalties for all the films he was in?
A.- The early films – no. In the 1960’s, Ronald Regan was the President of the Screen Actor Guild. He negotiated for residuals for the film actors. The deal was not great. Dick had held up a sign to Ronald Regan at the time that read ‘We got screwed’.
Roh Goenka thanked Caelum for his informative presentation. He was advised that a donation to ShelterBox will be made in his name, as a show of gratitude for his time here with us tonight.
President Mandy expressed that she felt the presentation was fascinating.
