Daytona Bike Week

Each March, tens of thousands of motorcyclists flock to Daytona Beach, Florida to show off their custom rides, swap stories with other bikers and celebrate the rebel spirit of the open road.

Considered the largest motorcycle event in the world, Bike Week attracts 500,000 enthusiasts from all over the world arriving on every type of motorcycle in the world; from Hondas and Kawasakis, to Ducatis and Triumphs, and of course Harley-Davidsons.

Motorcyclists began making the trek to Florida in 1937, when the first motorcycle race was held on the hard sands of Daytona Beach.

The race continued until World War II, when rationing of fuel, tires and engine parts put the event on hold.  Even without a race to attend, bikers continued to show up at Daytona each year for an unofficial party known as Bike Week.

By 1947, when racing on the beach continued, 176 riders were making the yearly pilgrimage to Daytona.  The event took on a rugged edge, with outlaw bikers raising havoc in the sleepy beach town.  Locals began to fear the yearly invasion and police began to crack down on the revelers.

Relations between bikers and the law continued to deteriorate, reaching a low point in 1986.  The next year a special task force was organized by the city in cooperation with the local chamber of commerce to improve relations and change the magnitude and scope of the event.

Today Bike Week has been transformed into a 10-day festival where motorcycle enthusiasts enjoy hundreds of events.  Through these riders we’ll get an inside view of the event.

Be prepared to attend the motorcycle exhibits, the concerts, the race at Daytona International Speedway, the spectacle of main street as well as all the behind the scenes parties.

Bike Week has become such a success that in 1992, organizers decided to offer a fall event that would give riders one last hurrah before the long, cold winter months, Biketoberfest. 

You'll discover why half-a-million people carve out one week in March to make the pilgrimage to Daytona for the madness of Bike Week.

Kentucky Derby Week

For just over two minutes on the first Saturday of May, the horseracing world holds its breath as the finest thoroughbreds in the world circle Churchill Downs to determine the winner of the first race of the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby.

Few people will ever know the thrill of owning or riding a thoroughbred in the crowned jewel event of horse racing, the Kentucky Derby, but covering the event for Reuters allowed me to  go where few have gone before.

I met the breeders, the trainers, the jockeys, the rich and famous owners, and the colorful fans as we follow the events from a series of exclusive parties held on fabled plantations to nostalgic steamboat races on the Ohio River.

And no Kentucky Derby is complete without mint juleps.  Over 80,000 mint juleps are served during Kentucky Derby Festival Week requiring 8,000 quarts of Julep mix, 150 Bushels of mint and 60 tons of snow ice.

The copious consumption of the sweet green juleps may explain such event as Bedlam In The Streets – an all out bed race down main street – and the Hat Parade where celebrants try to outdo each other with the most outlandish hats under the sun.

On race day, I discovered one of the best vantage spots to view the Derby - Trackside Village.  It’s a two-story venue set on the first right turn of the track where for just $3,350, a group of ten spectators can rub elbows with movie stars, politicians and corporate titans.

For those on a budget, the Churchill Downs infield offers another alternative to enjoy the race.  Since the first running of the Kentucky Derby in 1875, the 40-acre Churchill Downs infield has been a gathering place to exercise the first rite of spring.

Part Woodstock, part family reunion, the infield at Churchill Downs attracts 80,000 revelers each year for two days of festivities.  After a few hours of celebrating it began to look like the crowd no longer cared about the race or anything else except where to find another Julep, bottle of Jack or a beer. 

No matter where you end up, you’ll see why the Kentucky Derby is considered the best two-minutes in sports.

Californian's and Their Cars

California has been called the "Car Capitol" of the world.  Not because any cars are made here, but because people love their cars and drive them in droves.  Some think we are defined by our cars or our wheels.   That we sort of wear our cars here like someone would wear an expensive overcoat in New York.  Our cars are a way of showing the world who we are.

Californians have been nuts about cars right from the start of the motoring age.

No one knows what the first car in California was but it's clear some couldn't wait to have their auto itch scratched by an import from back east.  So they built their own.  A tradition of tinkering that's lasted until today.

These early cars were rather crude.  Mostly converted buggies or carriages.  The horses were put out to pasture, an engine was installed and some sort of steering device.  One early LA car used the wheel from an irrigation pump.  Innovation was the key.

While there were a few poor backyard builders, most early auto enthusiasts were rich.  Cars were expensive and they weren't being mass produced.  Cars were not really a practical means of transportation but more a device for adventure.

Bad roads, and finnicky engineering meant that any drive was an adventure.  Auto owners doubled as mechanics.

Someone who could fix the inevitable flat tires that would occur on an outing.

Henry Ford set out to make cars for the masses.   In the process he shaped our state.  It's said that Ford got the idea for the moving assembly line while watching how cattle were slaughtered and progressively dismembered in the stockyards in Chicago.  His breakthrough was to reverse the process and apply it to auto assembly.  Instead of packages of neatly wrapped parts of prime meats his factory took metal parts and turned them into Model T's.  By 1913, his Highland Park, Michigan plant was turning out a car every few minutes.

And Californians were being led to his dealerships by the siren call of the open road.  The commoners were discovering what the rich saw in the car.  Within a days drive you could take the family to the mountains, the beach, the desert or find a secluded spot to court a girl.  The world was shrinking and opening up at the same time. 

Bad roads made driving a problem but civic leaders formed groups like the California Auto Club to lobby for ways to bring order out of the chaos.  Roads were paved, traffic lights were invented, stripes painted on the roads and rules drawn up to regulate the impulses of harried drivers.

Roads improved in the cities but getting from one city to the next was still a difficult matter.  In 1911, a prize was offered to anyone who could drive from San Francisco to Reno, Nevada.  There were many attempts but finally one team made it.  It only took them eight days to make what is now a four to six hour trip.  Demonstrations like these and the efforts of others prodded the state to build and improve roads.

At the same time, another new invention, the movies, discovered the car.   The first films of the Keystone Cops showed them on foot or in wagons chasing bad guys.  But the Keystone force became mobile as more cars came into the state.  These slapstick law enforcers helped to further popularize the car and Los Angeles. 

Many of the early silent films were geared for the growing immigrant audiences around the country.  Since they were silent and you could pretty well make out the plot without the reader cards, you didn't need to understand English to enjoy the stories.   They were cheap and accessible.  Like cars. 

The vision of Los Angeles that was seen in these early silents was an open, sunny town.  This proved to be a lure to many who slipped into a theater on a cold day in New York and saw images of bright California skies flickering on the screen. 

Aided by the mobility of the car, Los Angeles started to grow out, not up like New York as the westward migration turned into a stampede.

LA is a late bloomer as far as cities go but this tardy development made it the first major city on earth whose shape was forged by the automobile.  LA's vast stretches of turf were knitted together by the car.

Hollywood's image factories continued to influence the auto world.   As the car became commonplace the cinema's stars wanted something different. 

They turned to specialty builders in Southern California.  All the major stars wanted to have custom cars.

The tradition continued through the Depression as a new raft of stars turned to custom builders like Pasadena's, Bohman and Schwartz to conjure up something unique for them to be seen in.

It didn't take Detroit long to catch on that there was something happening out here.  In 1928, General Motors Chairman sent out a search party to find out why so many Cadillacs were being shipped to one Los Angeles dealer.

The answer was simple.  Harley Earl.  Earl's neighbor, C. B. DeMille had instilled in the young man a sense of showmanship and Harley applied it to his car designs. 

GM had to have him.  They lured Earl back to Detroit and let him start the first auto design studio at a major manufacturer.   This forever changed the auto world. 

Earl instituted the annual design change.  Started to get rid of running boards.  Molded the headlights into the fenders and worked to lower the cars over the frame.  His was a modernist view of design.

To do this, he employed more artists than any enterprise since the Renaissance.  Hundreds of sculptors and painters were charged with turning sheet metal, leather and plastic into dream machines. 

He never left his California custom roots far behind.  Earl is credited with dreaming up the dream cars.  His one-of-a-kind show cars helped to stimulate America's appetite for new cars.

In the 1940's, Earl's auto alchemists had to put down their tools and pick up rifles as they headed to War.  The auto industry ground to a halt.  All new car production was stopped and the factories were converted to become the Arsenal of Democracy.

In California, the car craze was put on the back burner as the boys shipped out.

When the War ended, the returning heroes were itching to turn their savings and pent up desires into new auto realities.

Some couldn't wait for Detroit's factories to retool and decided to build their own.  This group of pioneers also enjoyed to race.  Others heard about their weekly races on California's high deserts lake beds and started to flock to the meets.  The Hot Rod movement took off.

California's Drive-Ins became the headquarters for the movement and the place to go if you wanted to pick up a race or a date.

Street racing became a problem.  The police and the newspapers joined hands to stamp out hot rodders. 

Fearing that their sport and lifestyle were threatened with extinction, California's hot rodders came up with a solution -- drag racing.   It was safe and it got the racers off the streets.  You could even charge for people to watch.  It caught on and spread all over the country.

Hollywood knew a trend when it saw one.  Moviemakers quickly took the hot rodders to heart and started to turn out drive-in movie fodder to lure the young make out artists into the theaters.  Hot cars, squealing tires, and giggling breasts.  It was a formula that worked. 

Detroit finally started to build cars again but many Californians weren't impressed.   The hot rodders thought they were too slow and another group, the sports car lovers, thought they were too cumbersome.

Right after the War, many returning GI's started to lust after mechanical brides --- cute little red MG TC's.  The theory is that they'd driven them while overseas but it's unclear if that's true.  What is certain is that these cars caught on in a big way in Southern California.  They were made to be driven on curvy roads with the top down.  They didn't go too fast but they were fun to drive. 

Jaguar and others saw how MG was pulling in buckets of solid American currency with its MG and decided that they'd also pursue the American market.  Jaguar's stunning XK-120 set hearts racing and upped the sports car ante.

Mercedes quickly rebuilt its War damaged factories.   After showing that it could once again race on the world stage they transformed their racecars into a stunning and fast road car.  The Gullwing Coupe is considered to be one of the most beautiful cars ever built.

Porsche also had its eyes on the US sports car world and its biggest market -- California.  The slippery Porsches were quickly grabbed up by California enthusiasts who found these Teutonic tyros were perfect for a trip up the coast, into the canyons or even to the office.

The winning exploits of Santa Monica's own Phil Hill, showed the world that Americans were more than just consumers.  We needed to be taken seriously on the track.

By the mid-50's some of California's hot rodders had infiltrated Detroit's auto companies and helped the automakers discover ways to make their cars faster.  With the advent of the Chevy V-8  Detroit began to give performance hungry buyers something to cheer about.

Californians flocked to these powerful Detroit Muscle and Pony cars.  T-Birds, Mustangs, GTO's, and Dodge Chargers all found a ready welcome mat in Southern California garages.

But there was a counter culture that rejected both the sleek sports car and the muscle cars.  For an increasing number of buyers the simple, rugged and inexpensive Volkswagen, and the few Japanese cars, represented what a car should be.  Even before the gas shortages they thought about fuel efficiency, quality and durability.  They were laughed at in Detroit but when OPEC shut down the oil pipeline many joined them.

Gas prices shot up and people flocked to the imports.  They discovered that not only were the Japanese cars fuel efficient they were well built.  Something complacent American car companies had ignored for years.

As the imports started to clog California's docks the Japanese companies set up administrative offices near the ports.  Eventually these offices would grow to include design centers and marketing departments that would add millions of dollars to the California economy

The design centers were built because it became clear that their cars were not very exciting and they needed to create cars that the California market would like.

While Detroit continued to dismiss the imports as not much of a threat,  the Japanese, and then the Europeans, began to aggressively recruit from California's Art Center Design program to tap into that unique California sensibility.

An early success story out of this Pacific Rim cultural cross-pollination is the Mazda Miata.  Created by Mark Jordan, the son of a former General Motors chief designer, Jordan set out to design what he thought an MG would look like today.  It reignited the sports car world and led to a slew of wonderful sports cars.  The BMW Z-3, the Porsche Boxster, the Mercedes SLK and a new Jaguar roadster.

The success of these cars helped to reconfirm California's importance in the auto world.  The trends start here and you can't ignore the California mind set.  The Prius caught on here first and both the electric Tesla and Fisker are products of California.  An automaker may survive without a California presence but it's not clear that they will thrive.  While we can't predict the future many feel we'll see it here first.

California is the home to eleven import car companies and design studios for most domestic manufacturers.  Almost every carmaker has a design studio here responsible for turning out cars for the world. 

It's an exciting place to be for a car lover.

Witness to War -- Episode Seven

"The problem is, in the world of CNN, the Sadam Husseins

of the future are going to have their television sets

turned on ..."

- General Norman Schwarzkopf

EPISODE SEVEN:

War at "Warp Speed"

Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo and beyond

            After the victory in the Gulf, the military and the media seemed to have made peace. 

            The "police action" in Somalia began as a friendly media circus.  The reporters, camera crews and technicians stormed ashore long before the troops.  The world watched as they waited with lights on for the triumphant onslaught.

            Anticipation was high.  Coming on the heels of victory in the Gulf, it was widely believed that this conflict could be quickly wrapped up, and the press would record the swift victory. 

            But when images of dead American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu reached the States, public support for the campaign disappeared.

            The murderous warlords of Somalia found out that the American public couldn't stomach images of dead U.S. soldiers on TV.  The Marines were ordered home even though they were close to victory.  Some blamed the press for snatching victory out of the military's hands.

            These images from Somalia made American leaders reluctant to engage in Rwanda and Bosnia. 

            But scenes of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia stiffened the resolve of the country.  Satellite photos of mass grave sites brought the horrors home. When it became clear that this might be repeated in Kosovo, a military campaign to save the Kosovars was contemplated.

            Once the air war began, public support soared as the world's television screens were filled with images of suffering refugees.   In Serbia, Russia and China, where scenes of the refugee camps were nonexistent, the public opposed the war.

            The power of the media to influence public policy and form a consensus was never clearer.  But there are problems.

            Today, the internet, cable television and digital home satellite technology gives the public almost immediate access to news and information.  Journalists are forced to step up the pace to feed the information machine.  Fact checking sometimes falls by the wayside as reporters scramble to keep ahead of the information avalanche.  At the same time, military and government leaders use the internet to send information directly into people's homes.

            With the internet, the viewer or reader now sits behind the editor's desk, trolling for news.  As a result, the roles of the professional correspondents and their counterparts in the military are changing.  They're both being forced to satisfy this seemingly insatiable appetite for news. 

            As the information age accelerates, we are left to question how newsgatherers, the military and the public will navigate across this rapidly changing terrain.  Will technology be tamed, information barriers broken and the public interest served?  Or, will truth continue to be the first casualty of war as information moves at "warp speed?"

Witness to War -- Episode Six

"If you let most commanders decide what should be

released to the public, the nightly news would be limited

to reruns of Kate Smith singing 'God Bless America'."

- Drew Middleton, New York Times

EPISODE SIX:

The Media Managers

The Falklands, Grenada and the Gulf 

             Margaret Thatcher learned from the American experience with the media in Vietnam.  

            In 1982, she made the British Navy adopt rules that denied access to neutral correspondents wanting to cover the battle to regain the Falkland Islands. 

            As President Reagan and the Pentagon looked on with admiration, Thatcher allowed only British reporters known to identify with the British cause to accompany the fleet.

            With little notice, the U.S. military took its cue from Thatcher and devised a similar system, so that when the Grenada invasion occurred in 1983, the American press was taken by surprise.

            Grenada marked a clear shift in the U.S. military's relationship with the press.  The majors and generals who felt they had been burned by the media in Vietnam were now in charge of controlling their hostile adversary. 

            The press protested, but the controls worked.  By the time George Bush launched the invasion of Panama in 1989, the Pentagon's media noose was effective and complete.

            Again, the press cried foul, but took what it was given and delivered what the administration wanted: nice, clean, sanitized images of war accompanied by handsome officers in combat gear to explain.

            Panama looked like an Army recruiting film, but the Persian Gulf War was the conflict that the military needed to shake off the Vietnam hangover.

            This time, commanders were determined not to let reporters run rampant in Kuwait and Iraq.  But they could do nothing about a CNN crew in Baghdad.

            As the cruise missiles augured into the city's center and smart bombs brought down bridges and buckled highways, President Bush, Sadam Hussein and the brass held their breath and watched Peter Arnett.  What would the press say?  How would the American public react? 

            Concerns evaporated when the daily press briefings became love-ins with the affable commander, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.  The American public loved it: video from the gun cameras of the planes, a smart bombing blowing out of the four walls of a Baghdad communications building and Patriot missiles knocking down SCUD missiles.

            When the War came to a halt after only 100 hours, America celebrated.  Almost every city held a parade for its returning soldiers. 

            It appeared that the military and the media had performed as a team.  But many journalists criticized the Pentagon's control of access to the troops.  They felt that relying solely on the daily showcase of favorable gun-camera films instead of their own first-hand observations affected their ability to adequately cover the war. 

            They vowed never to be shut out again.

Witness to War -- Episode Five

"We became caught between the traditional definitions of loyalty, patriotism, salute the flag and a higher definition, it seemed to me, of democracy, the need to tell the truth."

- David Halberstam

EPISODE FIVE:

The Changing of the Guard

The Cold War and Vietnam

            After a brief period of no press censorship, the situation became much the same in Korea as it had been in World War II. 

            When censorship was imposed, reporters grumbled about the restrictions and the military countered with complaints about purported bias.  But overall there was a sense of trust and unity of purpose. 

            It all came unraveled in Vietnam in the 1960's.

            Vietnam would be the most thoroughly covered War in history.  The reporting came at a time of national soul searching about the American way of life.  By the time the United States signed a peace agreement in 1973, the spirit of the nation had changed.  The confident, buoyant innocence that had marked the country since the end of World War II was gone and had been replaced by cynicism and distrust. 

            In 1962, when Peter Arnett first got to Vietnam there were only seven or eight reporters in the country.  The small band of correspondents began to see failure written all over the face of the war even before it escalated.

            The new breed of reporters felt they couldn't trust the official reports handed out in Saigon and began to rely almost exclusively on their own eyes and the experiences of the troops in the field. 

            An adversarial relationship quickly developed between the military, which had the support of the older generation of correspondents, and the young turks of the press.

                       

            As the war grew, so did the corps from television and newspapers -- there were soon 400 reporters in Vietnam -- and with them came increased criticism, to the consternation of Washington and the White House. 

            Lyndon Johnson believed they had been taken in by communist propaganda.  Television was particularly upsetting.  Vietnam was the first war seen on television.  Network news producers in New York demanded action, so the correspondents sent back graphic films of battles and wounded soldiers.

            Young people took to the streets in protest, clashing with police.  Four students were killed by National Guard troops during an anti-war protest at Kent State University in Ohio. 

            To counteract a tide of negative stories from Vietnam, the administration applied pressure on the Washington Press Corps.   To a large extent, the Capital Hill press bought the administration's line on Vietnam. 

            While the field reporters weren't supported by their counterparts in Washington their critical stories and attitudes were noticed by the Pentagon.  Reporters were seen as the enemy.

            Finally, in April, 1975, the last American helicopter pulled away from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon and the war ended.

            But the sting and divisions left by Vietnam remained for a generation.

            To many in the military, the media lost Vietnam. 

            They believed that most correspondents were biased and inaccurate and stressed defeats to erode public support. 

            Scarred by Vietnam, the Pentagon vowed that this would never happen again.  They began to take steps to limit the correspondents' freedom to write and film at will. 

           

Witness to War -- Episode Four

"In this nation of ours, the final political decisions rest with the people.  And the people, so that they may make up their minds, must be given the facts, even in time of war, or perhaps especially in time of war."

- Paul Scott Mowrer, Editor, Chicago Daily News

EPISODE FOUR:

The Certainty of Evil 

World War II 

            When Hitler came to power in 1933, his 36-year-old Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, swiftly brought all media -- including writers, actors, filmmakers and publishers -- under his control.  

            One star to emerge from this Nazi structure was Leni Riefenstahl, a favorite of Hitler because of her German mountain films, a genre equivalent to the American western.

            Riefenstahl was selected to direct Hitler's pet project, a film of the gigantic 1934 Nazi Rally.  She was given a staff of 120 people and 30 cameras.  Special elevators were built to whisk a cameraman up 120 feet for panoramic sweeps of the torch-lit parade.

            The result was the epic and chilling propaganda film "Triumph of the Will."

            In 1936, two years after "Triumph of the Will," Spain erupted into civil war.  Franco's nationalists, with the assistance of Hitler and Mussolini, turned the conflict into a testing ground for German and Italian hardware and doctrine.

            Spain became the siren from which the press sounded warnings about the emerging fascists.

            Among those covering the Spanish Civil War were Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, Andre Malraux and John Dos Passos -- some of the world's finest writers.

                        

            What the correspondents saw in Spain, followed by Germany's lightening strikes across Europe, showed what a brutal and determined enemy it would be.

            Some reporters rode along with the Germans.  William Shirer of CBS Radio broadcast a live report back to the States as Hitler and Goering dictated the terms of the Armistice to the French.

            By 1940, Great Britain was facing Germany alone as Roosevelt raced to build a suitable arsenal and bring the U.S. into the war in 1941.

            Meanwhile, war correspondents like Edward R. Murrow reported from London's rooftops as the German Luftwaffe set the city ablaze.

            The overwhelming odds against Britain and the unquestioned evidence of Hitler's evil created an incubator for a mutual alliance between the press and governments.  News copy was submitted to censors without much fuss.  While Churchill privately described the British evacuation at Dunkirk as a "colossal military disaster," compliant reporters turned it into triumph under headlines that screamed, "Bloody Marvelous."

            The US. entered World War II, which became what Studs Turkel called "The Good War."  Good triumphed over evil, and the press willingly played its part.

            But the World War II war correspondents were destined to clash with a new generation in a place called Vietnam.

Witness to War -- Episode Three

 "The last war was the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery that has ever taken place on earth.  Any writer who said otherwise lied."

- Ernest Hemingway

EPISODE THREE:

The Price of Silence

World War I

            By the time the First World War rolled around in 1914, the military had realized that one way of imposing censorship was to absorb the correspondents into the military machine.

            The result was effective, but led to a disastrous silence.

            Only six British correspondents were allowed at the front during the World War I.  They wore uniforms and were given the rank of Captain, provided servants and guides and lived with the General Staff.

            The British needed the support of a queasy public unsure about the war, so they developed a propaganda machine so successful that it later served as the model for Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister.

            The British first dehumanized the Germans by calling them Huns and planting false stories about murders and mutilations of children.  British newspaper editors became willing allies in this deceit. 

            When America entered the War, the British and the French convinced General Pershing to use the censorship system.  The result was a totally controlled press.

            Even the famous Richard Harding Davis, whose yearly earnings of over $32,000 made him the highest paid correspondent in the world, couldn't buck the censors.  After a year of waiting to visit the front, he went home.

            Because of this rigorous censorship and sanitized reporting, it remains impossible to determine the real number of casualties in World War I.

            Most believe that the French lost about half a million men in the first four months of the war and over 5 million by 1918.

            The Allies lost over 600,000 men in one battle, the Somme, and more British officers died in the first few months than in all wars of the previous 100 years.

            The Germans faked their casualty figures, too.  By the best estimates, at Verdun alone 325,000 Germans were killed or wounded.  They stopped counting after that.

            Ernest Hemingway summed it all up: "The writers either wrote propaganda, shut up or went home."

            Keith Murdoch, the father of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, proved to be one of a very few correspondents willing to challenge the censors' grip.

            He arrived at Gallipoli to cover the British attempt to capture

Constantinople and knock Turkey out of the War. He soon found out that General Ian Hamilton, the commander, had bungled the mission.

            When Murdoch smuggled his report out of the country, Hamilton wired ahead to have him arrested at Marseilles. Murdoch was jailed and his dispatch was confiscated.  After his two day incarceration,  he went to London and dictated a story from memory.

            Hamilton was relieved of his command and the troops were evacuated from Gallipoli.

            Historians believe that the censored reporting of World War I helped perpetuate accounts of tragic mass slaughter.

            The German public was equally ill served by its own press. German readers were told that their armies hadn't been defeated in the field,  but were tricked by the Russian Communists and the Jews.

            Thus, a silenced press helped Hitler use these charges to justify his quest for power.

Witness to War -- Episode Two

"War not only creates a supply of news, but a demand for it"

- Anonymous editor

EPISODE TWO: 

The Golden Age

Prelude to World War I

    

            The telegraph and the increase of literacy during the period between the American Civil War and World War I launched "The Golden Age" of the press baron and war reporting.

            Newspaper reading was spurred by the massive population growth in the US and compulsory education in the UK.

            The number of British newspapers quickly doubled after the Education Acts of the 1870's, and existing papers saw their circulation shoot up.

            Editors in both countries noticed that reports of battles brought increased circulation, so they covered the Franco-Prussian War, the Sudan, Turkey, Khartoum, Serbia and China. 

            When there wasn't a war to report, they weren't averse to helping start one.

            When the American battleship Maine blew up in Havana's harbor, Spain insisted that it was an accident.  But publisher William Randolph Hearst saw an opportunity, and under a banner headline of "Remember the Maine," he whipped the American public into a frenzy.

            Richard Harding Davis, Hearst's star reporter, was sent off to Cuba and quickly became the quintessential war correspondent.

            Davis would make his name covering the Spanish American War with breathtaking accounts of Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain.  But when he first arrived, nothing was happening.  Hearst told him to file stories anyway.  Davis wrote vivid accounts about landings of troops, bombardments and fleet battles -- all totally false.  Not to be outdone, other papers rewrote the Davis accounts.

            While Hearst and his newspaper reporters got their war, a new medium was emerging -- film.

            Theodore Roosevelt recognized the publicity value of this new medium.  In 1898, the Vitagraph company's cameraman filmed the now famous Roosevelt charge up San Juan Hill.   Actually, it was staged on a nearby bump on the landscape, Kettle Hill.   Roosevelt cooperated by striking photogenic poses as the camera crew filmed the "charge.''   However, the footage didn't come close to the excitement of the written accounts.  So producers decided to add some footage of a naval battle that they staged in a bathtub, complete with miniature cardboard ships. 

            Meanwhile, the British were actively filming their own versions of wars using similar techniques.

            In 1898, a producer used a suburban London back yard to film an attack on a British mission in China, and a golf course became a Boer War battleground in South Africa.

            Fakery paid.  The public's appetite for war was insatiable.

            The tragedy of the Golden Age was that few questioned the methods or the deceit.  But the military, stung by the occasional derisive report, began to censor the reporters' stories.

            Censorship went unchallenged, and the lack of serious, hard reporting let pass unnoticed a critical reality that occurred in South Africa during the Boer War: trench warfare did not work.  The lesson remained a secret until the slaughter of millions in World War I.  

Witness to War - Episode One

 

"Telegraph fully all news you can get and when there is no news, send rumors."

- Wilbur Storey, Chicago Times

EPISODE  ONE:

Dispatch From Danger

The Crimean War to the Civil War

            The first episode tells of the creation of the war correspondent through the story of a now obscure Irish journalist, William Howard Russell, who was sent to cover the Crimean War for the Times of London.

            Russell's account of the 1854 war spawned the poem the "Charge of The Light Brigade'' and gave newspaper readers the first glimpse of what life was like on the battlefield.

            He became overwhelmed by the plight of the troops, and reported how officers arrived at the front with French chefs, servants, good wine, their hunting dogs and shotguns, with some even bringing their wives, while wounded troops didn't have beds to lie upon.

            At the same time, the discipline was so strict that soldiers were flogged for having their top buttons undone.  Russell was shocked but didn't know if he should, "tell these things or hold my tongue."  

            He decided to report what he saw, and his stories began to reflect the despicable conditions imposed on the soldiers and the deficiencies of command.  The official outrage this engendered was not directed at the military, but at Russell. Prince Albert , the husband of Queen Victoria, launched a counter-propaganda effort to discredit "that miserable scribbler," as he called Russell. 

 

            Public support began to sag, and the government found it hard to convince mothers to send their boys into the breach.

            To counteract  Russell, the British government enlisted the support of an young nurse, Florence Nightingale, and shipped her to Crimea with a corps of well-scrubbed helpers and a photographer to record dashing officers, sanitized battlefields, and happy troops to show the public that everything was fine.

            But with Crimea the war correspondent had arrived.  When the American Civil War broke out five years later, Russell went to America and was joined by more than 500 other correspondents on the Northern side alone. Among them was  Matthew Brady, who left one of richest collections of war photographs ever assembled, though printing photographs in daily newspapers was still a generation away.

            After studying the slave market, Russell was disgusted with the South and firmly in the North's camp.  He minced no words, however, and his reporting of the Northern rout at Bull Run angered the Union Army and led to his banishment from later battles.

            The Civil War firmly secured the existence of the war correspondent.

            As Russell put it, "a luckless tribe was born."

            The names that would follow him include:  Rudyard Kipling, Stephen Crane, Winston Churchill, H. G. Wells,  Arthur Conan Doyle, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Andre Malraux, George Orwell, John Reed, Lowell Thomas, Evelyn Waugh, John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell, Edgar Snow, Edward R. Murrow, William Shirer, Walter Cronkite, and Irwin Shaw.

Witness To War -- Overview

Witness to War

A seven part series of one-hour programs about

the historic role of War Reporting

 

            Their dispatches have whipped up patriotic fervor, brought down governments, stopped wars, and soothed worried mothers. Their exploits have made best selling memoirs, reshaped history, and spawned epic films.

            From William Howard Russell in Crimea to Matthew Brady at Bull Run, and Ernie Pyle at Monte Casino to Peter Arnett in Baghdad, the war correspondent has always been a mythical, courageous figure who shines the light where the military censors demand darkness.

            But the behavior of the press in wartime has not always been that simple or even admirable.

            Many war correspondents have come away from the front tarnished by their failings, wounded by their capitulations to the military, and pummeled by the irreconcilable and diametrically opposed purposes and missions of the press and the military.

            The role of the press has always been to disclose, while that of the military is unencumbered secrecy in order to surprise its enemy and win.

            But armies have also used secrecy and censorship to cover up the incompetence of commanders, miscalculations that led to failed missions, pillage, murder and erroneous intelligence that caused catastrophic foreign policy decisions.

            The press has been just as heavy-handed.

            In one classic example, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst bullied Congress into starting the Spanish American War largely to fill his papers with sensational exclusive stories, and outsell his rival, Joseph Pulitzer.

            Sculptor and artist Frederic Remington, whom Hearst hired to sketch the war for the New York Journal, wired from Cuba: "EVERYTHING IS QUIET.  THERE IS NO TROUBLE HERE.  THERE WILL BE NO WAR.  I WISH TO RETURN."  Hearst cabled back: "PLEASE REMAIN.  YOU FURNISH PICTURES.  I WILL FURNISH WAR."

            Hearst got his war, and he and other newspapers owners grew rich as readers snapped up copies with the latest news from the front.  As their editors pushed for more war news to feed the public, the inherent conflict between the reporters and the military was often rubbed raw.

            "Witness to War" probes the development of this struggle.  We will see the images of war, from Matthew Brady's Civil War photographs to today's live satellite reports beamed from the front and hear the accounts of the battles written by some of the world's most famous correspondents and authors.

            We will come to know these fascinating war correspondents by bringing their dispatches to life as we explore this no-man's land "between the bullet and the lie" as George Orwell described it, where truth is the first casualty. 

Bone Wars – The Dinosaur Hunters

This is a proposal to produce a documentary about a story I stumbled on while shooting a travel show in Wyoming.  It's a great piece of history.

Bone Wars

This is a story of real skull-duggery.  It’s about the two most prominent paleontologists of the 19^th century and their monomaniacal, competitive pursuit of the glory to be found by uncovering the most sensational, new species of dinosaurs. 

It’s a story of adventure tempered by bribery, theft, politics, incursions into Indian territories, virulent personal attacks and ultimately the discoveries of Edward Drinker Cope and his rival Othniel Charles Marsh that changed our understanding of the world we live in.

Working with modern day dinosaur hunter and renowned paleontologist, Robert Bakker, Ph.D, we will go back to the scene of the crime, Como Bluff, near Medicine Bow, Wyoming.  Dr. Bakker will kick off our story at the site where the great dinosaur craze was born over one hundred years ago, when the first large bones were found by two bored railroad agents.  Word of this find soon made it to Cope and Marsh and their fevered quest began.

Their tireless collecting increased the knowledge of dinosaur species from 18 to over 130 as they unearthed previously unknown creatures such as Stegosaurus and Triceratops. Their pursuit of bones led them from the rich bone beds in Wyoming to Colorado, Nebraska, and New Mexico.

Marsh’s work bolstered Darwin’s case for evolution and he became friends with both Darwin and Darwin’s chief defender, Thomas Henry Huxley.  Marsh added his own theories to the mix, proposing that birds were descended from dinosaurs.  Today, because of our guide, Robert Bakker, this is the most widely accepted theory of the origin of birds. 

Cope was a brilliant interpreter of fossils who endured numerous hardships and even personal danger in his pursuit of fossils in the American West. But he was also an extremely arrogant, abrasive and combative individual who managed to alienate many of his colleagues. He was a prodigious researcher who published more than 1400 papers and monographs on paleontology and other areas of natural history.

From 1877 to 1892, both paleontologists used their wealth and influence to finance their own expeditions and to procure services and fossils from dinosaur hunters.  Their spirited scientific shenanigans would end with their collections housed in most of the world’s largest museums with each embraced by their benefactor institutions; Marsh’s at the Peabody Museum and the Smithsonian while Cope’s was enshrined at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

By the end of the Bone Wars, Cope and Marsh were financially and socially ruined by their efforts to disgrace each other, but their contributions to science and the field of paleontology were massive; the scientists left behind tons of unopened boxes of fossils on their deaths. The feud between the two men led to over 142 new species of dinosaurs being discovered and described. The products of the Bone Wars resulted in an increase in knowledge of ancient life, and sparked the public's interest in dinosaurs, leading to continued fossil excavation in North America and around the world.

Our film will bring these two towering figures of science to life as we take the viewers on a journey into deep time.

Marsh’s Collections at the Smithsonian:

The Smithsonian’s largest collection of historical scientific illustrations consists of approximately 1250 drawings prepared under the direction of Othniel Charles Marsh in the late 19th century. Most were drawn by the artist, Frederick Berger. This collection includes preliminary sketches for drawings, carefully rendered ink wash illustrations of skulls and post-cranial material, large skeletal reconstructions of dinosaurs and extinct mammals, transfer drawings for stone lithographic printing, and the final printed unbound lithographs made from the ink wash drawings. The size of the individual pieces in the collection range from approximately 3 cm (less than 2 inches) to 183 cm (almost 6 feet) in width.

Marsh’s dinosaurs form the core of the dinosaur exhibition and research collections at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). The mounts of Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus and Triceratops on display in the NMNH dinosaur hall are just a few of the dinosaurs collected by O.C. Marsh’s team for the United States National Museum (now NMNH).

While Marsh’s main position was professor of paleontology at Yale University, he was also appointed United States Paleontologist for the U. S. Geological Survey from 1882-1892, and became Honorary Curator of the Department of Vertebrate Fossils at the United States National Museum in 1882. He held that position until his death in 1899.

Marsh was asked by then secretary of the Smithsonian, Spencer Baird, to collect vertebrate fossils for the Smithsonian Institution. It was Baird’s mission to build a collection of natural history objects for the U. S. National Museum. Baird contacted the best scientists he could find in the various natural sciences to fulfill his goal.

Marsh’s expeditions were funded by Yale University and by the U.S. Geological Survey. The vertebrate fossils collected by Marsh’s field crew were shipped from his field locality to his research laboratory at Yale University for study and publication. Collections funded by the U.S. Geological Survey were later transferred from Yale University to the U.S. National Museum and deposited into the collection as required by the 1879 Sundry Civil Act of Congress.

The Enchantress

This is the tease I wrote for a film inspired by a little known Robert Louis Stevenson story that combined with some of his travel writing parallels his life.

The Enchantress

            Sparkling water, grand chateaus, the royalty of Europe is at play.  Yachts, champagne, artists and casinos mix in the sumptuous pleasure capital of the Riviera, Monaco.

            Turn of the century France is a Mecca for those looking to throw off Victorian conventions.  There are enough counts, countesses and contessas to turn a blood bank blue.

            It's heaven on earth -- if you have the money.  Edward Hatfield, thirty years old, has always had the money but recently his luck at the tables has gone bad.  A handsome fellow, good manners, good education but now without a penny to his name, he is facing an unknown future.

            As he contemplates, robbery, suicide, begging or God knows what, a woman, Emmeline Croft, makes him an offer.

            Croft is a rich young, British heiress who has been told that she cannot have control of her inheritance until she is married.  She doesn't want to marry, she wants to be free.

            The executor of her trust, Hussey Ramley, is an unsavory sort, who has swindled a number of powerful people.  Not only has he bilked them out of their money he's lost it gambling.  He doesn't want her to marry.  He wants to control her money and use it to pay back his creditors by investing in their businesses.  He also wants the fees for managing the loot.

            On holiday in the south of France, Emeline learns of Hatfield's predicament.  She decides to solve his problem and her own.

            She lures him back to England with an offer to set him up for life with an income.  Hatfield sees a meal ticket and way to keep at his gambling ways with the insurance of a steady source of funds.  He's been rescued.

            He follows her to England and there she reveals her plan.  Her solicitor, Thomas Venable, has drawn up a contract for marriage. 

            In exchange for marrying Ms. Croft, Hatfield will receive an income but there will be no marriage commitment.  In fact, Ms. Croft never wants to see Hatfield after the ceremony.

            Hatfield is happy to sign but he's a bit wounded.  How could someone not want him?  But it's a way out of his dilemma.

            The Wedding.  It is a small ceremony, held in an old church in Scotland.  Hatfield sees Croft in her simple gown and unfortunately -- he cant' help it --- he falls in love.  Bad luck.  She is set on her course of action.  But he does talk her into a little kiss after the I do's.  She seems to respond but then she's off.

            Hatfield returns to Monte Carlo where he sees Ramley.  Ramley eventually determines the nature of the marriage and decides that he can regain control of Croft's fortune by showing the court that the marriage is a sham.

            The solicitor, Venable, is in a panic.  He contacts Hatfield.  He tells him that he has to go find Croft and make her fall in love.

            Hatfield is more than happy to comply.  But where to start?

###

           

 

Ota Benga -- The Last Slave in America

An overview of the story I wrote about the last slave in America.

 

Ota Benga

The Last Slave in America

Story: by Michael Rose

 

            Hard as it is to believe, a 23 year-old African pygmy male was captured in Africa, bought at a slave market and brought to this country in 1903 to be displayed at the St. Louis World's Fair.

            Ota Benga's captor, Phillip Vermeer, the grandson of a southern plantation owner, wanted to show the world that blacks were truly inferior.  It was a twisted attempt to morally vindicate the Confederacy and promote the "Back to Africa" movement. 

            What better way than to showcase a pygmy, the lowest form of humanity to Vermeer, and demonstrate once and for all the superiority of the white race over this near animal from the jungle.

            On display next to Ota was another unfortunate victim of America's racism, Geronimo.  Ota and Geronimo bonded when they were taken on a nighttime Ferris Wheel ride by malicious guards who hoped to scare the "savages." 

            Vermeer became a sought after lecturer who regaled his audiences with tales of hunting down the wild pygmy while he pressed his case for the removal of America's blacks.

            The Fairgoers gawked and pointed at the curious little fellow whose differences and inability to communicate seemed to lend credibility to Vermeer.  When a concerned citizen asked the Fair's manager to give the little guy a blanket to ward off the evening chill, he balked, saying that he didn't want to upset the natural order of things.

            When the Fair closed, Vermeer was stuck with his pygmy.  But he had met a lot of influential people while on the lecture circuit. He eventually found a home for Ota.  The Monkey House of the Bronx Zoo was readied to become Ota's new cage.

               New York's black community rose up in protest and got organized. They hit the streets with pickets and speeches found lawyers and secured Ota a day in court .  There were still some who remembered slavery first-hand.  Some had worked on the Underground Railway spiriting scared runaway slaves to safety.  They were not going to let a latter- day Southern aristocrat put one of them in a cage.

            Ota learned enough English to aid in his defense and proved to the court that indeed he was a man not a beast.  Vermeer was vanquished and Ota was freed.  He lived out the rest of his days on one of his supporter's farms teaching children the ways of the forest.   Unfortunately, the trauma of learning that he’d never go home again was too much.  He committed suicide.

            This story lends itself to a three-act treatment with natural geographical act breaks; Africa, St. Louis and New York.  The characters are dynamic and rich.  It is full of adventure, pathos and the drama of misguided human desires.  It is a story that is both shocking and timely.  While it takes place in turn-of-the-century America, the issues it raises are still with us today.

###

Slippery

My brief treatment for a fictionalized account of the story of a young woman and the sea lion she rescues.

            In the summer of 1960 there really wasn't much happening in the suburbs.  Especially if you were a twelve year-old girl named Megan Flannagan.  Meg, that's what all the boys called her.  Actually, the girls called her that too.  But not many of either called her anything because she was a bit different.

            Hard to say how she was different.  But kids know when one of their tribe is somehow not quite one of them.  Meg, as many kids do, developed an attitude.  A kind of, to hell-with-them, air.

            She didn't want to play with the girls and the boys didn't want her to play with them.  It was an awkward and lonely age.  But she could fish.  The fish didn't care if she was a gawky girl on the verge of being a teenager.  They bit at her worm that dangled on her hook as if she were the most robust angler around.  Her grandfather had taught her everything he knew about fishing and showed her his secret fishing holes.  He was so confident in her skills, that he let her take his little twelve-foot fishing boat out everyday.  She coaxed its three horsepower motor to turn-over and trolled till it was time to come home.

            Her best friend was her dog, Bait.  Oh, and this pesky boy who the others boys really didn't want around anyway -- Tommy.  Tommy was a little puny and Megan thought he was a real bother but Tommy didn't have anyone else to hang around with and it was too much trouble to shoo him away.

            That same summer, just across Lake St. Clair from Meg's Michigan home, a former touring carnival operator, Cyril Skelton, was about to open his new amusement park, The Storybook Gardens, in London, Ontario Canada.

            Word had trickled down to nearly everyone who lived on the lake that something wonderful was about to appear in their neck of the woods.  Most kids couldn't wait for the park to open.  Tommy asked Meg if she'd ask her mom to take them up there for the opening.  Both of his parents worked and he desperately wanted to be there when the gates opened.  Of course, she thought it was stupid.  Who'd want to go on some mechanical ride that would just make you sick?  Well, Tommy did.  She rolled her eyes.

            The amusement park was the dream of a classic, carny hustler.  After years of knocking around as a small time con artist in one carnival after another, Skelton had scraped together enough money to open his own dream park.

             The centerpiece was going to be something truly unique -- a sea lion.  He'd hired a team to go out to California and capture a sea lion.   He was having it shipped back.

            The park's foreman was filling the specially built tank in preparation for the sea lion's arrival.  A sign announcing  the arrival was being put up.  Skelton had named his sea lion, Slippery.

            It was late and Skelton was heading home.  Tomorrow would be a big day.  Slippery was set to arrive and the following day, the park would open.

            Skelton inspected the tank, said goodnight to the foreman and slipped away.  The foreman was happy to see the old guy go.  He slipped his hand into his coat and took out a pint of Canadian Whiskey.  Something to help him while away the hours as the tank filled. 

            The next day the tank was half full when Skelton arrived.  The foreman had just woken up and luckily had remembered to hide his empty bottle.

            As he inspected the tank, a large truck arrived.  It was Slippery.  Within a few minutes, Slippery was dumped out of his specially constructed container and rolled into his new home, the still filling tank.

            Back at home, Meg's parents are asking her if she wants to go to the Storybook Gardens opening tomorrow.  She says she'd rather go fishing.  They worry about their strange child.  Tommy's with her and he says he'll go but they can't take him alone.  He needles her to go.  She pushes him away.

            It's night again.  And the tank is almost full.  Skelton is so nervous.  Tomorrow is his big day.  The foreman says it's all under control and Skelton leaves.  Once again the bottle comes out.  Slippery swims slowly around the tank, wondering where he is.

            The foreman drinks his pint and falls asleep but the water is still pouring into the tank.  It begins to spill over the side and cascade down the sheer cliff that drops into a river that leads into Lake St. Clair.

            Slippery swims over to the edge.  He sees the water falling over the side.  He pulls himself up, looks over, hesitates and pushes off.  Down he soars, like a crashing Zeppelin.  Fins out, whiskers back and eyes open – it’s quite a spectacle.  Within seconds he's splashed into the water.  A little shocked but he senses he's free.  What to do?  Swim.  And swim he does.

            The next morning, Skelton arrives to find his foreman still passed out.  He rouses him from his slumber and turns off the still gushing hose.  While he yells at the sleepy guard he looks for his sea lion.  He sees the cascading water, and realizes what happened.

            Skelton calls the Mounties.  They always get their man.  Why not a sea lion?  The Mounties think he’s a crank but finally agree to take on the challenge of finding the fugitive sea creature.

            A manhunt or a sea lion hunt ensues.  A flotilla of boats head off in hot pursuit carrying a gaggle of Mounties and veterinarians armed with rifles that shoot tranquilizer darts.  At their briefing they’d been told their mission: find trap and return the fleeing Slippery.  No one can be allowed to elude the reach of the Mounties --- the stability of our society depends on order.  The chaos caused by the sea lion must be stopped.

In the meantime, what to do about the grand opening?  Skelton works the press and creates a media circus.   The empty tank is on display for all to see.  Photos of the missing sea lion pop up around town.  Everyone is on the lookout for the run/swimaway.

            It's a terrifying journey for this lost sea lion.  Dodging motorboats, skiers, fisherman, freighters and the Mountie’s boats -- it’s one hazard after another.  After traveling for two days he’s in pretty bad shape.  Eels have nibbled on him, he weak from not eating and he’s tired from constantly swimming.  But he’s eluded his hunters and finally finds refuge in a little cove. 

            Meg just happens to like fishing in that same cove.  She spies the frightened sea lion, befriends him (a few tasty fish slipped to the poor thing doesn't hurt) and with Tommy's help, they lead him back to her boathouse.  She plans to nurse him back to health.  She makes Tommy swear not to tell.

            Tommy is not the best one to rely on if you want a secret kept.  He has so little to share with anyone that he’s just too excited, he can’t keep it to himself.  He tries but it’s inevitable that he’ll let it slip.  While reading comic books at the drug store, Tommy overhears Liz, the most popular girl in school, telling her friends that she thinks the sea lion is dead.  They can’t live in fresh water.  Tommy, defending Slippery’s honor and prowess, blurts out his secret.  Liz and her gang, shocked to hear from the nerdy little boy, mercilessly pump him for all the details.  They decide they have to tell the Police.  The local cops, working with the Mounties, track down Slippery in her boathouse and take him to the local veterinarian for safekeeping.

            Meg could kill Tommy.  Her parents are angry that she hid this from them but they are kind of proud of her too.  She's just bluer than blue.  She doesn't even want to fish.  She goes to visit her granddad, a retired judge, who lived in a cottage on the lake.  Her grandfather sympathizes and looks for a way to console his young granddaughter. 

            He explains “ferae naturae”, the ancient law that animals found in the sea belong to the finder.  So, by rights, Slippery is hers.  All she has to do is go to court and claim her property.  She’s thrilled but she needs help.  Granddad agrees to help.

            Their work begins.  There is research to be done, legal documents to prepare and papers to file – all in order to make the case to a judge.  Slippery is in the custody of the vet until the case is decided.

            She enlists her parents and pretty soon everyone in the family is working on Meg’s legal case.  She begins to gain confidence in her ability to spring Slippery.  She works hard and hardly sleeps from excitement.  She can save Slippery.  She can restore him to freedom.

            The US Ambassador to Canada and the Canadian Ambassador to the US meet with the judge and implore him to return the sea lion to Skelton, lest 16 million Canadians rise up to claim their sea lion.  This could be an international incident.  The Governor is no help, he doesn’t want to get into it.  The judge retreats to his study and looks up the state’s wildlife laws.  He finds a way out.  Since sea lions are not listed as a species in his state, he rules that it’s just a property dispute and that Slippery must be returned to Skelton.  A slippery decision at best.

            Meg watches as Skelton and his henchmen load Slippery into the back of a Storybook Gardens panel truck and driven away.  She is devastated.  She feels like she let Slippery down.  It’s not fair. He won’t be free.  He’ll be on display.  He’ll be imprisoned in a tank, swimming in custody.  He’ll be dependent on Skelton to feed him and take care of him.  She knows this will not be healthy for the fun-loving sea lion.    Not even her beloved Granddad can comfort her. 

            The only good news is that the other kids think what she did is kind off cool.  She went to court and talked to a judge and everything.  For the first time she gets some friendly comments from the local swells.

            While this is nice, she still is plenty steamed at Tommy and he has to do something to dig himself out of this hole.

            While watching the triumphant televised return of Slippery to Storybook Gardens, Tommy gets angry.  He convinces Meg that they should somehow take matters into their own hands, he just doesn’t know how. 

            A million plans are hatched and rejected until they see a news report about a sit-down strike in South Carolina.  Why not organize a protest?  We could shut down the gardens and set Slippery free.

            They spring into action.  Within weeks they've gotten enough kids to join them in their crusade.  Funds from lemonade stands, pooled allowances, the sale of the odd baseball glove, wages from baby sitting goes into the Slippery freedom fund. 

Kids arrive at the boathouse on a regular basis to put together picket signs.  Meg’s parents are delighted, but somewhat puzzled by their daughter’s newfound popularity.

            Meanwhile, reports emerge that a lonely, despondent Slippery is not eating.  His health worsens while he listlessly watches a four-foot wall being built around his pool.  The kids decide they have to act now, but they have to get across the border into Canada.  They need an adult who can act as field trip leader.  Granddad to the rescue.

            At sunrise, Granddad  and the group gather at the Greyhound Station.  They board the bus and head off on a mission to free Slippery. 

            Skelton arrives to find his park surrounded by a gaggle of shouting, little picketers.

            He tries to get rid of them.  He upbraids Granddad who shrugs his shoulders and picks up a picket sign.  Skelton tries to bribe the kids with free passes and when that doesn't work he calls the cops.  Of course, reporters appear dreaming of wonderful headlines.  “Kids' park owner has kids arrested.”  This story has it all – kids, animals and conflict.  What could be better? 

            Meg's parents are not happy.  Meg is grounded, as are her cohorts.  The border is off limits to American kids.  She sits at home and watches TV.  But what's this, Canadian kids turn out to picket the next day.  It's like spontaneous combustion.  Picketing is more fun than riding the pukey carnival rides.

            She and Tommy take her boat across the lake to the Canadian side.  They sneak back to Storybook Gardens.  They are amazed by what they see.  It has become a movement.  No one is going into the park. It’s ringed by sign-toting, chanting kids.  The rides are idle and Skelton will go broke if he doesn't give in.

            Skelton spots Meg and Tommy and calls the cops.  The picketers run to her defense and she slips into the park.  She’s headed for Slippery’s pool as Skelton is surrounded by an angry mob of youngsters. 

            Slippery sees her and perks up immediately.  She tosses him a bucket full of sardines and he eagerly slurps them up.  She jumps into the tank.  He swims up to her and gives her a whiskery kiss, which she wipes off with a “yuck!”

            Skelton has escaped from his captors and is headed for the pool as Meg tries to hoist Slippery over the wall.  She fails and within minutes, she’s cornered.  The cops have arrived and Skelton is demanding that they arrest her.

            The rest of the kids have entered the pool area, followed by news crews.  Skelton is questioned by the reporters.  What’s he going to do?  Have a twelve-year old arrested? You want to put her on display too, they ask?

            Meg rises to the occasion and tells Skelton that he has only one choice ---- let Slippery go or have his park boycotted forever.   The kids shout their support.  Slippery barks his support.  All eyes are on Skelton.  Just then a sign over Slippery’s pool comes partially unhinged and squeaks it approval.

            Eventually he does.  He ships Slippery back to his California home and reopens with a new name --- Slippery's.  The kids can't get enough.  Even Meg takes a ride on a roller coaster.

###