Indecent Exposure (60 page)
- To Alan Hirschfield, Monday's biggest and most depressing news was the announcement that Arthur Krim and his fellow defectors from United Artists had decided to affiliate with Warner Bros, instead of Columbia. The deal with Warner was very much like that which
Hirschfield
had devised and offered. Having begun his wooing of the Krim group three months before anyone else had even known they were leaving United Artists,
Hirschfield
was certain that they would have come to Columbia, were it not for the way the board had handled the Begelman affair. It was a major loss to Columbia both in money and prestige, and Hirschfield feared that other important relationships—such as those with IBM and Time—might suffer as well. His bitterness toward Herbert Allen found new depths. - Mired in Manhattan by the snow, Hirschfield dined Monday evening with Jean Vagnini, Columbia's attractive young public relations director. After a good deal of wine, they slipped into the Ziegfeld Theater and saw part of
Close Encounters.
By ten o'clock, they were on Fifty-fourth Street, giggling and throwing snowballs at each other. - The full Columbia board of directors met on Thursday, February
9,
for the first time since mid-January. After weeks of inconclusive argument, the issue of Alan Hirschfield's status with the company was discussed formally. Leo Jaffe stated that he felt it was time to begin negotiating a "new and extended employment agreement" with Hirschfield. - Herbert Allen angrily objected and waved a
Wall Street Journal
article whose headline indicated that
Begelman
's resignation represented a victory for Hirschfield. "This is a disgrace and a slur," Allen said. "We can't live with this." - James Wilmot said, "How can we consider giving him a new contract when he keeps embarrassing the board in public? He plays the white knight. We're still the black hats."
- Hirschfield said, "I can't be responsible for the way people perceive things."
It was suggested that Hirschfield would have an opportunity the following week to begin repairing his relationships with the board: his appearance before the New York Society of Security Analysts. If he could make a clear and unequivocal statement in that public forum that it had been
his
decision to reinstate Begelman in December, the board would consider the admission evidence of good faith. - "We can't keep having these divisive stories," Dan Lufkin said.
- Hirschfield
replied, "That's fine with me. We agreed weeks ago that no one would talk to the press, and somehow some of you made a mistake and talked to Dan Dorfman, and that story in
New York
magazine, as far as the record is concerned, is still the last definitive statement the board has made about me—you don't trust me, I'm on my way out, and if I didn't have a contract I'd be out tomorrow." - Hirschfield agreed to make the statement the board wanted at the analysts meeting, and the discussion returned to his new contract. Jaffe argued that the endorsement of Hirschfield implied by a new contract would put the company "in a better position to attract a new head of the motion-picture and television divisions and enhance the employees' feeling of solidarity." Herbert Allen asked if
Hirschfield
wanted to begin negotiations. Hirschfield replied that he was prepared to do so for the reasons stated by Jaffe. The board formally authorized Jaffe and Allen to negotiate with Hirschfield. - With the city still in the grip of the blizzard, it was a week of few meetings and lots of phone calls. Ray Stark, William Thompson, David Geffen, Mickey Rudin, Sam Conn, Clive Davis, Lord Delfont of EMI, Detective Elias of the Burbank police, Barbara Walters, Pet
er Gube
r, David
Begelman
, Marty Ransohoff, Sam Cohn again, William Thompson again, Jack Valcnti, Geffen again, Sid Sheinbe
rg of MCA-Universal, David Gerber, Dennis Stanfil
l of Fox, Leonard and Wendy Goldberg (separately), Ray Stark again, Geffen again, Barbara Walters again, Robert Daly of CBS,
Time, The Washington Post,
the
New York Post, The Hollywood Reporter,
the
Los Angeles Times, Variety . . . - Adler had a stealthy lunch with Bob Critchell of Philip Morris on Friday at La Caravelle. Even though it was only half a block from Columbia, few Columbia people went there, preferring La Cote Basque right downstairs in the Columbia building. Still, the two men worried about being seen together, especially by Herbert Allen, Critchell's old fraternity brother. They continued to exchange information and talk about how Philip Morris might get in on the coming video revolution by buying Columbia Pictures.
- David Begelman flew into New York that evening, conferred early Saturday morning with his New York lawyer, Gideon Cashman, and then the two of them proceeded to the Fifth Avenue apartment of Rupert Murdoch, the Australian tycoon who owned
New York
and
New West
magazines. Murdoch's lawyer, Howard Squadron, and the magazines' publisher, Joe Armstrong, were present as well. Aided by a number of documents, Begelman and Cashman attempted to refute Sid Luft's allegations, as presented in Jeanie Kasindorf's article on January 30. that Begelman had embezzled funds from Judy Garland. - When Gideon Cashman had announced Begelman's intention to sue, he had disseminated copies of a written statement, signed by Garland and notarized, releasing Begelman, as well as Freddie Fields, from any financial obligation to her. The st
atement had been signed in 1968,
and Cashman had noted that Garland subsequently resumed her client relationship with
Begelman
and Fields. - In Rupert Murdoch's apartment, in addition to the Garland statement, Begelman and Cashman gave Murdoch and his aides copies of three other letters purportedly signed by Garland. Two of the letters, dated in late 1962 and sent to Charles Renthal, her New York business manager, stated that thirteen checks, which the letters listed by number and amount, were drawn by David
Begelman
with Garland's "consent and knowledge and distributed in accordance with my instructions." The checks were among those later questioned by the Beverly Hills accountant, Oscar Steinberg, whose report was quoted by Jeanie Kasindorf in her article. - The other Garland letter, addressed to Fields and
Begelman
, was dated July 23, 1963, about a month after the date of the Steinberg report, and set forth a paragraph-by-paragraph acceptance of Fields and Begelman's explanation to her of each of Steinberg's questions. The letter also stated that Garland had no financial claim against Fields and Begelman and released them from obligation for any such claim. - The 1963 letter bore the signature of a purported witness to Garland's signature. The 1962 letters did not indicate that her signatures were witnessed. None of the letters was notarized.
- Based on the letters and other material presented to the Murdoch group, Begelman and Cashman demanded a retraction of those portions of the Kasindorf article dealing with Begelman's handling of Judy Garland's funds. Murdoch's lawyer, Squadron, suggested that Begelman and Cashman put their request in writing and also write a letter of refutation to the editors of the magazines, which they would consider publishing.
Begelman
and Cashman held out for retraction.
Finally, it was agreed that the lawyers would discuss the matter further after Murdoch's people had examined the new material in detail.* - Begelman flew back to Los Angeles that evening.
- * * *
- *
In 1964, a year after the Garland letters to Field
and Begelman accepting thei
r explanation
and releasing them from any claims. Garland seemingly contradicted herself by testifying in a divorce deposition that she had not given Begelman permission to draw cash from her account during part of the period covered by the Kasindorf article. Whatever the truth—and it was impossible fifteen yean later to establish the truth beyond doubt—it is important to recall that Judy G
arland was unstable mentally and
physically, and was under the influence of sleeping pills, liquor, and other substances so much of the lime that the validity of anything she wrote, signed, said, or testified to is open to question in retrospect on that basis alone. - Hirschfield fretted through Monday and into Tuesday morning over his appearance before the New York security analysts, which was scheduled for noon Tuesday at the Banker's Club on lower Broadway near Wall Street. He dreaded answering the embarrassing questions that might be asked. He dreaded keeping his commitment to the board to take public responsibility for reinstating Begelman in December. He dreaded the necessity of portraying the management of Columbia Pictures Industries as stable and peaceful when, in fact, it was unstable and in turmoil.
- He interrupted his preparations to participate in a meeting at 10:
30 Tuesday morn
ing with Herbert Allen, Leo Jaffe, Irwin Kramer, and Matty Rosenhaus who wanted to be briefed on his plans for replacing
Begelman
.
"I have various people in mind,"
Hirschfield
said. "One option is to put a good administrative man in the slot but not replace David as such in a creative sense. If we go that route, it's possible that Joe Fischer might go out." - Matty Rosenhaus, who was in Florida listening on a speaker-phone, shouted, "You told us you were going to replace David!"
- "Matty, I never said I was going to replace David, as such," Hirschfield replied, "I said I was going to get somebody or somebodies to in effect administer what David was doing. It's possible that a different structure may be better than what we've had. But if I can get someone who is a strong overall executive in both administration and creative, I'll consider him."
- "You said you were going to replace
David'."
Matty shouted. - More than at any other time since the crisis began five months earlier, Alan Hirschfield lost his temper. "Matty, if you think you can do this job better, then you can come up and run the fucking company!" Hirschfield shouted into the phone. "You don't understand this business and you never have! If this is the kind of cooperation I'm going to get from you, I'm not going to take it any longer! I'm supposed to be making a presentation before the security analysts in an hour, and I'm not going to take any more of this shit. If you think I'm going to go downtown and talk to a bunch of people and feed them a lot of shit that I don't want to give them to begin with, then you've got another think coming! I've had it!"
Hirschfield slam
med down the phone, cutting Rose
nhaus's connection to everyone in the room, and strode out the door. The others were stunned. After a moment, Joe Fischer went after Hirschfield and finally found him sitting alone in the projection room on the other side of the building. Allen and Kramer came in after a few seconds. - "So why didn't the two of you open your mouths?" Hirschfield shouted at the two board members. "You were sitting there enjoying every minute of that. If you're such geniuses, why don't the two of you go down and make the fucking presentation at the analysts. Or why don't you fly Matty up here to do it. I'm sure the analysts would love to hear his view of the company and the movie industry."
- Hirschfield
walked out again and went back to his office. Fischer followed and said: "Don't pay any attention to these people. They're fucking fools. Don't let it get to you. You gotta make the presentation. It'll be good for you to do it." - "Let them make the fucking presentation!" Hirschfield said.
- Joe managed to calm Alan, and the two of them, together with the other Columbia officers attending the analysts luncheon, got in the limousine at
11
:30. Hirschfield finished the notes for his speech on the way downtown. Snow was falling but they managed to arrive on time. - Before everyone finished eating and he was to begin his speech,
Hirschfield
worked the tables, shaking hands and bantering with several of the Wall Street people whom he knew. It seemed miraculous to Fischer that Hirschfield had recovered from his near hysteria barely more than an hour earlier. With his speech to the analysts, however, Hirschfield again demonstrated his remarkable ability to mask his private feelings and get the most out of a public occasi
on. He had done it at the Brande
is dinner in September, with the first secret details of
Begelman
's embezzlements still fresh and frightening in his mind. He had done it at the
Close Encounters
premiere, immediately after being confronted with the board's threat to investigate his wife's employment record And he was doing it again now, with the enormity of his alienation from the board having just been confirmed by Matty
Rose
nhaus's long-distance shouts and the ugly scene at the office.
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