Donnie Norden: More Stories of Hollywood Trespassing

Movie Reviews and Serious Nonsense

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Tom and Greg go for a sequel of sorts with our second interview with Donnie Norden Phantom of the Backlots.
Some of Donnie's own words to describe his adventures
From that first time I poked my 10-year-old head through a hole in the tall fence surrounding the MGM backlot near my house in Culver City, I became intrigued, maybe obsessed. I began a coming-of-age journey through the studio back lots and through movies and TV shows past and present – the history, the romance, the fantasy, and how it all looked real. People watch movies to escape everyday life; it became my everyday life.

To most people, movies made the world seem enormous and impossible; to me, the back lots made the world seem smaller and workable. For a kid, the back lot was heaven. And it was only two blocks away. I spent much of the next decade on the back lots. I learned how to make plans, and make them work. I learned to be a leader among the many kids I took along as guests. I learned to drink beer. I dabbled in drugs. I lost my virginity. I learned how to have fun, and the costs of having too much fun. I learned the value of hard work – and the value of getting out of hard work. I learned to be a man. And I learned what I wanted to do with my life – I wanted to be on the back lots, and be part of the magic.

This is not only my story. It’s also the story of a major chapter in Hollywood history – the demise of the traditional, powerful studio system. As I explored them, the lots were literally being sold out from under the moviemakers – and me – as takeover specialists swept in like vultures, picked the studios clean for quick investments, and then spit out the bare bones.

Podcast music:
Intro music Kamihamiha! - Alien Warfare Stems by Kamihamiha (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/Kamihamiha/60882

Movie Reviews and Serious Nonsense is a King Dyro Production ©2024

Movie Reviews and Serious Nonsense is a King Dyro Production ©2024