Indecent Exposure (42 page)
- The phone calls into Bungalow 8 from New York became a barrage on Tuesday. The big rumor of the day was that Ray Stark had informed Columbia Pictures that he would not continue negotiations toward a new contract until he knew who would replace David Begelman as president of the studio. The inference was that if Stark did not approve of the replacement, he might not renew his contract. There were rumors that other producers, as well, might leave. And apart from the rumors, it appeared that the board's anger at
Hirschfield
was deepening. Irwin Kramer wanted studio vice president Jim Johnson and controller Lou Phillips removed from their jobs.
Hirschfield
had promised Johnson just the previous Friday that no one except
Begelman
would be fired. - In the middle of the afternoon, Joe Fischer said privately to Hirschfield: "Listen, this is crazy. You're obviously totally distracted. You're not listening to people here. You're not asking the right questions. You're running to the phone every fifteen minutes. I think you'd better call this off, go back to New York, and try to get a handle on what's happening there."
- Hirschfield agreed. Meetings scheduled for the next two days with executives of the television division were canceled, and he returned to New York
on Wednesday, leaving 80-dcgree
sunshine and arriving at Kennedy late in
the evening in a cold, 40-dcgree
drizzle. - THIRTY-ONE
- Ray Stark indeed had been busy on
Begelman
's behalf. As Stark later told an investigator for the Securities and Exchange Commission. "I called everyone I knew and said I thought the guy was sick, and if there was anything you can do to retain his services, because he has been a fabulous asset to the company during the period he was there . . ." - "Let me ask you this," the SEC investigator said. "You said you were calling everybody. Do you mean the creative community, or within Columbia Pictures, exactly what do you mean?"
- "Just within the people I knew at Columbia," Stark answered.
- Since the people Stark knew at Columbia were the ones making the decision, he hardly needed to call anyone else. Apart from the influence implicit in his close friendship with Herbert Allen, Stark's pictures had generated in excess of $200 million for the corporation— far more than any other producer—and on that basis alone the board of directors was prone to listen to him. Thus, while Ray Stark concentrated on the Columbia board, others in Hollywood had been lobbying indirectly through the
"creative community." Sue Menge
rs, Begelman's longtime close friend who had become one of the two most powerful agents on the coa
st after starting as his proteg
e, urged her clients, friends, and acquaintances to send telegrams to Alan Hirschfield and the board. Barbra Streisand, Mel Brook
s, and many others agreed. Menge
rs dispatched telegrams for s
ome of them from her office at I
CM, even sending a wire on behalf of an actor whom she had not consulted. Jack Nicholson. He was not pleased.
Another lobbyist operating secretly from inside the Columbia studio was William Tennant, a production vice president, who closely coordinated his efforts with Mongers and Stark. A former agent representing Mike Nichols, Bo Goldman, John Schlcsinger, Roman Polanski,* and others, Tennant had been hired by David
Begelman
in 1976 and had become very friendly not only with Ray Stark
and David but also with Gladyce
Begelman
, with whom h
e frequently lunched at La Serre
. Tennant fed information to Stark about the supposed deteriorating state of the studio in the absence of Begelman's leadership—information that Stark could then relay directly to Herbert Allen and other board members. Billy Tennant also generated a sizable number of letters and telegrams supporting
Begelman
's restoration. (Few if any of the people who wrote or wired the board of directors knew what David
Begelman
had done to warrant suspension. They merely expressed general admiration for his ability as an executive. And not every person who was asked to send an - *
W
hen Roman Polanski's wife. Sharon Tate, and her friends were slaughtered by t
he Charles Manson gang in Benedict
Canyo
n abo
ve Beverly Mills in August 1969. Bill Tennant was one of the first people summoned to the sce
ne and identified the
bodies
. - expression of support did so. Richard Dreyfuss waffled. Mike Nichols flatly refused.)
- Alan
Hirschfield
had told no one except his secretary and Joe Fischer that he was returning two days early, so he was able to spend a few hours Thursday, December
1,
in his office, quietly appraising the crisis before stepping back into it. Although some problems seemed less threatening at close range than from afar, this one was worse. He was astonished at the change from only a week earlier when the board of directors, albeit angrily and grudgingly, had seemed to acquiesce in his refusal to reinstate Begelman. Now, it was as if his decision, and the board's promise, had never been made. Somehow Begelman's crimes had been forgotten, and the focus of the dispute had shifted to him, the intransigent Hirschfield. The crisis of authority in the corporation which he had sensed in recent days seemed less and less abstract. It was clear that Herbert Allen had increased the scope and intensity of his pressure. - To Hirschfield's horror, he began getting signals on Thursday that his own job might be in jeopardy. The first indication came in a telephone conversation with William Thompson of the First National Bank of Boston, with whom Herbert had spoken within the past twenty-four hours. According to Thompson, Herbert had said of Hirschfield:
- "We're going to get him for the way he's handled this situation."
- "How can you get rid of Hirschfield at the same time you get rid of Begelman?" Thompson claimed to have asked Allen.
- "If we don't get him now, we'll get him in six months. He can be replaced in three days," Herbert reportedly replied.*
- No sooner had Hirschfield spoken with Thompson than Irwin Kramer called. "Look, I just thought you ought to know that you're in trouble," Kramer said. "Herbert and Matty are really pissed. It won't go away. If you don't come around, there are going to be problems, big problems."
- "I can't believe this! What kind of people are you! A week ago, and the week before that, you committed yourselves to support my decision, like it or not. Now it's like those promises were never made. You're not only going back on your word, you're using the
- *
Recoiling this conversation later, Herbert All
en said that his remarks did not
co
nstitute an explicit threat to f
ir
e Hirschfield, but rather were part of an attempt to convince Thompson that Hirschfie
ld had behaved badly and was naive if he thought he could win a fight with the board of directors
. - dirtiest kind of blackmail tactics. How dare you drag my wife into this thing!"
- "We have every right and responsibility to examine the outside business connections of key executives," Kramer said.
- "Bullshit! You know fucking well that's bullshit, that Berte is above reproach, that I'm above reproach, and that this is nothing more than the slimiest kind of blackmail!"
"I know no such thing. All I'm telling you is that if you don't change your mind, you're in big trouble." - Hirschfield
hung up, incredulous. - He spent the rest of the day conferring by phone with some of his principal allies—David Geffen in Malibu, Give Davis at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and Dan Melnick at The Burbank Studios.
- Clivc Davis took it upon himself to speak directly to Herbert Allen and telephoned him from Beverly Hills.
- "From what I know," Davis said, "I suspect that you may be laboring under a misapprehension, not only of Alan's motives in this immediate situation centering on David, but of Alan's overall abilities and the major role he has played in the success of this company."
- "Tell me about it," Herbert said.
- "The impression is abroad that Alan wants to 'Go Hollywood,' that he wants to run the studio himself, and is seizing on David's problems to banish David and inject himself directl
y into the creative area that h
as been David's province. Nothing could be further from the truth. Of course Alan is mesmerized by show business. Everybody is. Of course he likes to give advice on films. He frequently offers his opinion to me on recordings. But none of that means that he wants to impose his judgment on us. He knows that he must ultimately defer to my judgments, just as he knows that he must defer to David or whoever is in charge of the studio. But his interest in the creative side of the business, far from being a detriment, is in fact a major reason for our success. It's very advantageous to have someone at the head of the company who knows how to create a viable and healthy creative atmosphere. To the extent that you don't have that, the corporation can be in serious tr
ouble. Alan has been very far-se
eing
in this sense. He is very good at getting creative executives together and establishing rapport and closeness. In no way was he gleeful when the Begelman problem arose. On the contrary, it was a bombshell to Alan. It was traumatic. I remember how he was at the time of the Brandeis dinner. It was like he was hit by a bombshell." - Their discussion lasted for a full hour, but Herbert rejected Clive's reasoning, and Clive reported back to Alan that Herbert seemed uncharacteristically unable or unwilling to discuss the subject rationally.
- Thursday's final blow came in the evening when Norman Hirschfield, who was in Manhattan on business, telephoned Alan at home to report that Herbert had called and asked Norman to "talk sense" to Alan. "Can't you get Alan to see it our way?" he quoted Herbert as saying. The deteriorating relationship between Alan and Herbert had deeply distressed Norman, who had always been very proud of his son's success in business, and had been particularly gratified that it had been achieved in conjunction with the Allen family, whose role in Norman's own business and personal life had been so crucial for so many years. His own son's well-being was one of the few things, in fact, that mattered more to Norman Hirschfield than his relationship with the
Allens
. He had been a close friend of Charlie and Herbert senior for half a century and had known, liked, and befriended their children, Herbert junior in particular, since they were infants. The Hirschfields and the
Allens
had had too many good times together—and had made too much money together—-for the implications of a serious breach between Alan and Herbert to be anything less than staggering to Norman. - Herbert's attempt to enlist Norman's influence infuriated Alan, who considered it another illicit pressure tactic. A family relationship, Alan felt, no matter how deep and enduring, was irrelevant to a decision of whether a thief should be running the two largest divisions of Columbia Pictures Industries. In lengthy conversations on the phone that evening and in Alan's office the next morning, Norman tried to act as a peacemaker and mediator. While he backed Alan's position on the Begelman issue, he urged him to consider carefully the ramifications of his decision and to try to shape a solution that would not damage irreparably his relationship with Herbert.
"These are tough people, rough people, and you're making a difficult bed for yourself if you get on a collision course with them," Norman said on Friday morning. "Herbert wouldn't admit it in so many words, but he feels you owe him your allegiance. He feels that he
made
you, that everything you have, you made through Allen & Company. 'By God, I put him here, and his allegiance ought to be to me!' That's the way he feels." - "Bullshit," said Alan.
- After leaving his son, Norman had a talk with Charlie Allen. A frail, balding man of medium height, with delicate features, white hair, and the same slightly sunken eyes o
f his brother and nephew, the se
venty-four-year-old patriarch of Allen & Company listened patiently to his old friend. - "Charlie, you've got to make your voice heard here," Norman pleaded. "There's a lot between us. It's my son and your nephew, not a couple of outsiders."
- "It'll all work itself out somehow," Charlie said quietly. "You can't rush these things."
- "Well, you and I have to help," Norman insisted. "No matter how bad it is, we ought to close ranks. It's in the family. We've done too much together to let this come between us."
- "Let's give it time," Charlie said. "They'll work it out."
- Herbert Allen strode into
Hirschfield
's office and closed the door. "Have you reconsidered your decision, Alan?" "No, my decision stands."
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