Chapter 4

Los Angeles

On the morning of our LA trip, Cal and her Mum came round to see us off. Aunt Mary took me into the dining room, saying she had something to ask me.

“Are you worried about being away from Cal this summer?”

I wondered how she came to be so good at reading me.

“Yes, I don’t know what leaving her here would do to us.”

“Don’t be worried, she’ll still be here when you get back.”

“I’m not worried about that, I’m worried that she’ll think I’m abandoning her.”

“She won’t I promise you. She has something she wants to tell you.”

“What?”

“She wants to tell you herself.”

“OK.”

She left, and Cal came in.

“David,” she began, and flung her arms round me, holding me tight, “you know I love you right?”

“Yes,” I replied, apprehensive.

“Would you be terribly upset if I wasn’t here this summer?”

“Cal, we won’t be seeing each other much this summer if I go to LA, unless you come with me that is.”

“I don’t think Mum’s quite ready for that yet.”

“And you are?”

“Not really, although it would be nice.”

“You know my dream.”

“To be a world famous opera singer?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’ve got a chance to go to the Munich Summer School.”

“Then you should go, you need to follow your dream. You won’t know how good you can be unless you try it out.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Always?”

“Forever.”

“But I worry what being apart would do to us,” she said, rather dejectedly.

“Cal, do you think we’re destined to be together?”

“Yes, of course I do.”

“Then we will be. Regardless of what happens between now and then, we will be together. Forever.”

We kissed.

“What about money? I know you and your Mum aren’t exactly flush with cash.”

“I’m going to get a job to earn some spending money, and we’re looking at grants.”

“Accept the place. If I go ahead with this film, I’ll be able to pay for you.”

“No,” she said, firmly, “it’s not right for you to pay.”

“Cal, if I can’t pay for the girl I love to follow her dream, I’m not getting on that plane today.”

“What? You’ve got to.”

“Just like I’ve got to support you in your dream, just like you’ll support me in mine.”

“And what is your dream, David?”

“I don’t know yet, apart from being with you forever, but I’ll have one. Maybe it will be to be a world famous opera singer’s husband. I could let you keep me in the style to which my parents have never been rich enough for me to become accustomed.”

“Somehow I don’t see you as a kept man. Maybe you’ll become a world famous film star and keep me in riches.”

We kissed again, and went outside, where my Mum and Dad were waiting to get in the car and drive to Manchester airport for the 17 hour flight to LA. Cal came with us to the airport and we sat in the back seat holding hands.

We parked in the short stay car park, which had a price list based on buying the place rather than just parking there, and went into the check in hall. Dad and I queued at the Virgin Atlantic desk and exchanged our booking confirmation for boarding passes. We were due to arrive in LA at nine forty-five tonight, which was actually five forty-five a.m. tomorrow UK time after an eighteen hour flight with a refuelling stop in New York. When we had our boarding cards, and our luggage had been taken away we went and had a coffee and cake, then it was time for Dad and I to go through security. We said our goodbyes, and I kissed both Mum and Cal, one of them more thoroughly than the other.

“Book your place in Munich, don’t worry about the money,” I said to Cal as we turned to leave them. I looked back and saw Cal with tears running down her face. I almost turned back at that moment.

I’ve only ever flown on holiday flights before this so I wasn’t quite ready for Virgin Upper Class. We had individual seats, each in their own little cubicle, and instead of a fold down table, a proper table, and power points for laptops and the like. It was great not to be crushed in next to some sweaty fat bloke from Preston, no offence to the population of Preston at large intended.

Once we were seated, we were offered a choice of champagne or Bucks Fizz, although I had to ask my Dad what Bucks Fizz was, apparently it’s champagne and orange juice. Since I was under age they brought me a glass of sparkling water and orange juice.

My seat had its own TV screen, and a wide choice of recent and classic films to watch. I found a couple of Sam Goldfarb productions and made a note to watch those.

“I could get used to this,” my Dad said as he settled into the seat across the aisle from me.

“Me too,” I agreed, “can we fly like this next time we go to Spain?”

“I doubt they do this on flights to Marbella.”

“No, probably not.”

The captain came on the PA and welcomed us aboard, then instructed us to buckle up for take-off. As we taxied to the end of the runway, the cabin staff gave us the standard safety demo, and after a couple of minutes of waiting in the take-off queue, we heard the engines get louder and we started to run down the runway.

Then we were climbing towards the clouds. I’d brought my school copy of Pride and Prejudice with me, so I took it out and started to read. I immediately disagreed with the opening paragraph. I didn’t think that just because a man had a lot of money he needed a wife, I thought that he needed more than that, and that a wife wasn’t necessarily the answer. Perhaps it was just a result of Mrs Bennet’s narrow world view. By the time the attendant came round to take my choices from the lunch menu, I was well into the book and I had my favourites amongst the characters. I decided that if ever I was to act in a version of it, I’d want to be Mr. Bingham, and the character I’d least like Cal to turn into was Lydia.

Lunch was great, Oxtail soup, roast chicken breast with vegetables, and lemon meringue pie, followed by coffee and a cheeseboard. I was stuffed by the end of it. Dad had a couple of beers, and I settled for a diet coke. The cabin staff kept us well supplied with coffee and soft drinks. I decided to watch my first in flight movie, a mediaeval drama called the silver prince. It was one of Sam’s and was OK, but nothing special. I must have dozed off at the end of it, because I was awoken by the captain’s voice telling us that we would shortly be entering our final approach to New York, we’d been given landing cards, and apparently, those of us who weren’t American had to go through immigration here. We touched down shortly afterwards, and were soon on our way to the transit area immigration desks. Fortunately, a lot of the passengers were US citizens, so the queue wasn’t very long, and we were called to re-board the plane for the final leg of our journey, which would be just as long as hopping the Atlantic, apparently LA is actually further from New York, than London is.

We were welcomed aboard with another fizzy drink and settled back into our seats. I adjusted my watch to LA time and got out my book.

Afternoon tea was served over Ohio (I was told), although the view out of the window seemed pretty much unchanging, and after that I watched my second Sam film. Cal would have love this one, it was a rom com of the boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl and happy ever after type. It won Oscars for both its leading stars. When it finished we were given more food, and after the meal we started our descent into LA.

Now, bear in mind I had left Manchester in freezing condition and had dressed accordingly. The average temperature in LA in January is 13, I was going to be warm.

Fortunately, by the time we cleared customs and emerged into the arrivals area it was well after 10pm, although my body thought it was time to get up, and after a little looking around Dad spotted a man holding up a card with my name on.

We walked over and introduced ourselves.

The man with the placard was the agent that Sam had spoken about. James Gordon was younger that I expected, about Dad’s age or a little younger, with a fresh, round face, and what I’d call kind eyes.

“Welcome to Tinsel town,” he greeted us, with a broad smile, “I assume you want to get right to bed after a flight that long?”

I certainly did, since I’d effectively lost a night on the flight.

James escorted out to a waiting car, put our luggage in the boot, or trunk as he called it, and headed towards the city centre. We drove along Wilshire Boulevard, and pulled up outside the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. It certainly beat the sort of package tour hotel I was used to on family holidays. This was luxury. We got checked in, and James took us up to our room.

“Listen guys, why don’t you two get a good night’s sleep, and I’ll join you for breakfast in the morning.”

“Thanks James,” my Dad answered, “I’m whacked, and I think David is about out on his feet.”

James shook hands with both of us, and left.

I went into the bathroom, took a quick shower, put my pyjamas on, and climbed into bed. It wasn’t long before I discovered that my Mum was right, Dad snored.

I was wakened by the phone ringing. Dad picked it up.

“Good morning James.”

There was a silence while James Gordon said something to my Dad.

“Very well, see you in 30 minutes.”

“Come on sleepy head, James is meeting us in the dining room in thirty minutes.”

We quickly got ourselves ready and arrived downstairs with five minutes to spare. James was waiting for us.

“Okay guys, before you go off and meet with Disney, we need to settle a few things. Firstly, David, do you want me to represent you in the USA?”

“What are your fees?” Dad asked.

“As Sam told you I believe, 25% on all contracts I obtain for you, 10% for facilitating others, where I’m needed to do that.”

Dad had done some research.

“That sounds fair. What do you need from us?”

“I’d suggest that you set up two corporations, one in your native UK, a limited company I think you call them, and another in the US. It makes it easier to do business if a US corporation is a party to the contract. I have a number of Delaware based corporations I’d be happy to let you have at cost, although you’d have to sort out your own UK Company.”

“We can do that online today,” Dad confirmed.

“Then the other thing you’ll need is an attorney, a lawyer.”

“We have one in the UK, but not in the USA.”

“Then what do we do about signing the contract with Disney?”

“Simple, don’t sign.”

“But that’s surely the point of us being here.”

“No, this is a meeting, Disney’s guys will try to get you to sign, but just stonewall, tell them, you need to run it past your lawyer. They’ll then recommend one locally, don’t take their recommendation, I have arranged for one to join us this morning. He’s very good, and he represents a goodly number of Disney’s younger clients.”

“Won’t that be expensive?”

“Yes but you won’t be paying.”

“Who will?”

“Sam. Believe me, David, he wants you in this picture, hell Disney want you in it, or they wouldn’t have flown you out here. Basically, guys, we’re in the driving seat. Have you got your copy of their proposed contract with you?”

“Yes.”

“Good, lose it.”

“What?”

“Lose it, you forgot to pack it, the dog ate it, anything.”

“Why?”

“Because we’ll do this on a standard SAG contract. That way they don’t have any tricky clauses in there to trip us up.”

“You know, James, I’m starting to like you,” my Dad said.

“Probably comes of us sharing a name. Now let’s eat.”

We had breakfast, and James left, promising to return in time to meet Disney.

Dad and I decided to have a walk up Wilshire Boulevard until it was time for the meeting. We walked along to Rodeo Drive, and turned down to look at the shops that were down there. They were impressive, and that was just the price tags.

We got back to the hotel just before noon, and had lunch, before heading back to our room to wait for the studio executives to arrive. James returned just before one and had with him George Talbot, who he introduced as a Hollywood contract attorney. We shook hands all round and sat down in the lounge area of the room to discuss what would happen.

“Okay,” James began, “how it will work is this, first they’ll ask you a lot of questions, about home, school, hobbies, whether you have a special girl, that sort of thing. That’s so they can write a biography for press releases. Don’t be too surprised if what you see in the press bears no resemblance to realty, this is a publicity exercise. Then they’ll tell you about the film, and your role in it. At this point they’ll probably try and underplay the importance, with a view to reducing what they pay you. Let me handle that. Then they’ll offer you a contract, with whatever payment we’ve negotiated by then. At that point let George take over, he’ll go through the contract and just cross out any clauses he don’t like?”