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Film Commissioner Cathy Anderson talks with EC

August 31st, 2009 by Scott Marks

For 22 years Cathy Anderson has headed up what she refers to as the “best-kept secret in San Diego.” From her downtown office overlooking the Spreckels Building, our town’s Film Commissioner — her daffodil yellow jacket perfectly complimenting the soft purple walls — strikes a satisfied and at times animated pose.

At a quick glance, one is reminded of Vivian Vance, Lucille Ball’s endearing sidekick. Anderson speaks softly and quickly, offering a savvy and intensely passionate insider’s take on the art of selling cinema. Here is a woman of action who loves her job and it shows. Not once during our 90-minute conversation did the ebullient Ms. Anderson stop smiling.

Wander around the Film Commission’s offices and you’ll find a veritable history of movie and television production in San Diego. In addition to a large lobby display from “Almost Famous,” there are dozens of posters, including ones from “Sideways,” “Anchorman,” and “Bruce Almighty,” and a sun-faded mini-poster from “Top Gun.” A prop door marked “Simon and Simon, Confidential Investigators” leans against a window in the board room. And Ms. Anderson could make a killing on eBay with all of the autographed memorabilia in her office.

The San Diego Film Commission (SDFC) was born 32 years ago when “Harry O” moved to town. The Emmy-winning cop show wanted to film here and quickly became enmeshed in reams of red tape just to trying to get a permit for a half day’s shoot. The production wound up staying in L.A.

It was former Mayor Pete Wilson who decided to create a one-stop shop endowed with an all-access pass to City Hall. The government -funded Film Commission was initially managed by the Chamber of Commerce. Cathy Anderson waged a decade-long battle to give the Commission its autonomy. Hers is a great, gutsy story of one individual’s battling against all odds to see a dream come true.

Anderson - who has met such celebs as Denzel Washington and Adam Lambert – spoke at length about several of the big movie and television productions that were filmed on her watch (”Traffic,” “Anchorman,” “Veronica Mars”), exactly what a Film Commission means to San Diego, and our Commish’s brief role as a stripper!

QUESTION: As the Film Commissioner, do you carry a badge?

ANSWER: (Laughs.) Uh, no. I’m not a police person.

What exactly does a Film Commission do?

First and foremost we are a permit office. We permit film production. Every day we are working on production of some kind whether it is print, music videos, student films, TV movies, features, industrials, documentaries or commercials. Beside that we are representing local resources in town and promoting work for locals.

How did you meet Adam Lambert?

With Adam, it was an usual situation. “American Idol” was coming here to film their home town piece because he was a finalist and went to school at Mt. Carmel (High School). Our challenge was that they had no budget for this. This sounds surprising, but isn’t if you understand that every dollar goes to the live shows, talent, special effects, rights to songs, etc. Most cities underwrite it. Stephen Scott on our staff worked on this project by hand delivering 400 flyers around the neighborhood around Mt. Carmel where one location was. Traffic and crowds were a huge impact. 10,000 fans showed up. The producers were so delighted that we would work with them on every element of the filming, keeping it all free, that Adam invited Stephen and me into his limo to chat with him (for) a few minutes. He was so gracious and humble. The charisma coming from him was amazing! I was truly impressed with his star power and his willingness to work with his fans.

On average, how many days work is provided for San Diegans throughout the year?

We average probably anywhere from around thirty to sixty thousand person days a year. If you get hired and work on a commercial for three days we look at that as three person days. There are 5,000 different kinds of jobs in the film industry, whether it’s computer work, science for special effects, accounting, etc.

This must affect a lot of business in San Diego that most people wouldn’t even consider.

It’s vendors like Costco, Home Depot, laundromats, dry cleaners, rug cleaning, you name it. When “Titanic” was here they would collect a couple hundred pairs of extras’ shoes each week and bring them to American Shoe Repair on Broadway to fix. They had to hire another person for that!

What did you do before heading up the SDFC?

I received my Master’s in film and my B.A. in theater. I was also a temporary elementary school teacher for a while.

What part of San Diego do you call home?

University City. Love it! I live in paradise.

Are you a native San Diegan?

No. I come from Northern California. I went to the theater program in Stockton. I was one of the strippers in “Gypsy.” (Laughs.) That was many years ago. I have a funny story for you. I was majoring in acting at San Diego State. Back then, they would put football players in the acting classes hoping to get an easy grade. It was so frustrating because I was soooo serious. There was one point where I was fed up and I told off these two guys: “I’m a serious actress and I know you’re not serious about this, but I am!” I was giving them this whole lecture. It was Carl Weathers and Fred Dryer. Years later I ran into Carl Weathers when he was directing an episode of “Silk Stalkings” and I said, “Do you remember me?” He said, “Oh, yes. How’s your acting career?”

Where did the Film Commissioner title come from?

There’s a mother company called The Association of Film Commissions, International. It’s a membership based organization. What they do is to determine exactly that you are indeed a Film Commission. There is a difference between a permit office and a Film Commission and they want to make sure you’re true and blue. There were a lot of people that were directors of these new commissions that were appointed because they were a friend of the Mayor’s wife. In order to make sure they knew what they were doing they had to go through a training. That’s how they got the title Film Commissioner.

Did you fall victim to this rigorous training?

No. I was given the title based on my background. Otherwise, I’m CEO of this place.

Who is your boss? To whom do you answer?

Our Board of Directors. They are all experienced people, no so much in the industry, but in areas like legal and marketing that can make us better business-wise.

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Review: YOO HOO, MRS. GOLDBERG / Aviva Kempner (2009)

August 30th, 2009 by Scott Marks

YOO HOO, MRS. GOLDBERG (2009)
Written and Directed by Aviva Kempner
Starring: Gertrude Berg
Running Time:

Rating: ★★★½☆

Who invented the sitcom, was the first best actress Emmy winner and author of every script of her daily radio and weekly television show “Meet the Goldbergs” which numbered in the thousands? This Jewish, Tony award winning actress was the Oprah and Martha Stewart of her day and at a time when anti-Semitism ran roughshod across America, she was adored by both Jew and gentile alike. FDR credited her with getting America through the Depression.

While syndication has kept our love affair with Lucy alive and thriving, Gertrude Berg is an all but forgotten footnote in the annals of broadcast history.

“Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” an absorbing history lesson by Peabody award winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner (“The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg”) is well worth the schlep out to Landmark’s La Jolla Village Cinemas.

In the throes of the great depression, Gertrude Berg’s homespun charm and intimate exchanges with her audience netted her an astronomical $2,000 a week. Life Magazine noted, “For millions of Americans, listening to the show…is a happy ritual, like slipping on a pair of comfortable old shoes that never seem to wear out.”

“The Goldbergs” made its debut on NBC radio just one month after the market crash of 1929. Unlike earlier depictions of Jewish mothers as selfless, sentimental martyrs, Molly was a strong assertive modern woman. She brought her phenomenally successful creation Molly Goldberg to Broadway in 1948 and a year later began a five year run on CBS television.

Gerturde Berg was so strongly identified with Molly Goldberg that she told Edward R. Murrow, “When you live with a character as long as I have lived with Molly it gets a little confusing. I’m really Molly more hours through the day than I am Gertrude Berg.”

Onscreen she played a homey, down to earth Yiddisher mama, but when the cameras stopped rolling, Gertrude Berg was a perfectionist and a tyrant. No one was going to tamper with her characters and no one felt her wrath more than the House Un-American Activities Committee.

When her onscreen husband Philip Loeb’s name appeared in the “blacklist Bible” Red Channels, CBS and sponsor General Foods handed down an ultimatum: Ms. Berg had two days to rid the show of the suspected Communist. She tried everything in her power to save her co-star even going so far as meeting with Cardinal Spellman who asked that she convert to Catholicism in order to keep Phillip Loeb on the show.

Ms. Berg threatened to use her show as a platform to tell her listeners to boycott General Foods. The company placated her for a few months before withdrawing their sponsorship which eventually caused CBS to cancel the show. Sales of Sanka, Molly’s java of choice, dropped 60% when the show left the airwaves. (Ironically, Ms. Berg’s husband, a consummate engineer, was co-responsible for the invention of instant coffee during World War I.) Philip Loeb eventually committed suicide.

As a history lesson, “Yoo Hoo” can’t be beat, but as a work of cinema, Ms. Kempner’s presentation leaves something to be desired. Visually, it’s little more than a succession of clips intercut with talking head interview with critics, celebrities, family members and several surviving performers from the show.

The director also violates a law of cinema that is almost as egregious a pet hate as excessive close-ups, zoom lenses, wasted pans, and an inordinate use of the hand held camera. Instead of leasing archival photos or stock footage, Ms. Kempner will resort to presenting footage from narrative films as historical artifacts.

When the subject turns to the Florida hotel boom in the 1920s, she inserts footage of Groucho Marx from “The Cocoanuts.” A clip from Charlie Chaplin’s “The Immigrant” represents foreigners en route to Ellis Island. One can only imagine impressionable viewers thinking Chaplin emigrated from Italy to America.

As of today, there is only one collection of “The Goldbergs” available on DVD. Hopefully this documentary will change that.

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This review originally appeared in the Uptown News.

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Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical

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