Saturday, 04 July 2009

• Oshollywood: "That's Where I Paid Rent!"

  Although disguised, Oshkosh was the main star of the movie "Public Enemies" to me. Sorry, Johnny. You're hot, but this blog is much more about Sawdust city.

  I missed the premiere night of the movie for many reasons, but mostly involving Indio City Council. But yesterday, in my pinstriped vest and tie (in 100 degree weather), I stepped into the Palm Springs movie theater and saw the movie that brought back memories.

  With the first bank robbery located in Oshkosh's First National Bank (yup, it's that fabulous scene where Johnny Depp leaps over the desk with his tommy gun), I screamed "That's where I paid rent!"

  As I watched the movie, memories came back like the dark waves of trees that Johnny Depp had to run through during the entire movie. They were memories of my life as a Sawdust Boy.

  I remembered walking through the set, days before the movie was going to film. I was wearing a full-blown three-piece suit with a hat and interviewing people for an article that I was writing for The Oshkosh Northwestern. Our city's main street had been transformed into North Dakota thanks to the magic of Universal Studios.

  Vintage billboards lined up the tiny central park and covered up the historic sundial. I walked on cobblesetone roads made out of rubber that were especially rolled out for this scene. I saw the hippie-ish New Moon Cafe transformed into a 1920s restaurant called Skalsa and the "House of Heroes" comic book store become a men's clothing store. And the nearby record store The Exclusive Company was a Walgreens with a vintage neon blue Walgreens sign dangling out front.

  I remember that article came out on the first edition of a very vintage looking Oshkosh Northwestern, one that is in a box somewhere in San Francisco. The paper is printed in the classic style of newspaper with a hundred articles fitting on one page in more than nine columns. It would be the day before I hopped on a plane to Palm Springs, Calif. and fate would start turning its wheels toward The Desert Sun. I delivered this article to Rick Green, my to-be executive editor on that fateful day.

  I was not there for most of the filming because I was interviewing for a job in Palm Springs, Calif. but I did return in time for the last few days. I remembered crowds blocked by chainlink awning. The streets were closed to the public but people were walking around main street in awe. I remember the sound of gunshots during filming sounding like the clang of rocks hitting pans. My Sawdust City had become Hollywood.

  And, yes, I remember Johnny Depp in his bright orange jacket and blue shirt taking the time to shake everyone's hand...right outside my studio apartmenet building! He smiled and thanked everyone, including myself, for coming, as the cameras flashed and people pulled out their cell phone cameras. Of course, this lady has much more intimate memories of that experience.

  When I saw it on the screen, I remembered it all. The Oshkosh Library with its two lions. The Masonic Temple that was always empty and had magically become another bank where Depp dragged out two hostages from a bank robbery onto the rubber cobblestone. A quick glimpse of Main Street Oshkosh as Johnny drove in the getaway car with a smile on his face. And of course, the First National Bank building where I paid my $350 in rent every single month.

  But other memories also came back. The snow. That little studio with the heater I could not control. The Mr. Wisconsin competition. The old-fashioneds. Fish Fry Fridays. Christopher Allen's Club 1226. My two bofyriends. The two years that I had in Oshkosh and the stories of my own personal life that I have woven in. The streets that I have walked on, now eternally emblazoned on film so that the whole world can see that my small town America was once the center of the universe.

  Mark my words, the Universal Studio employees did their job, but I could still see beyond the magic to the Oshkosh, Wisc. that I spent two important years of my life at in a small town newspaper and a small-town life that allows me to enjoy and value the life that I have now in Palm Springs.

  As I prepare to go to work on Fourth of July for The Desert Sun, I quietly thank the Oshkosh Northwestern for everything. It never was destined to be my "anchor newspaper" but I was lucky to have experienced such an important moment in Oshkosh's history and to have been able to be part of the telling of its story.

  Goodbye blackbird, goodbye.

  And if Public Enemies does get an Oscar nomination this year, which I really hope it does, may the Sawdust City celebrate the success of being a historical Hollywood location. And I hope that when I do return to the state later this year, the city will have been transformed by this experience.

  Oh, and so this blog enetry isn't entirely heavy, guys with pin-striped three piece suits are H-O-T. Why don't we dress like that anymore?

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