This post may not
be suitable for children of any age.
I have met a number
of interesting people during the course of my so-called career. And
many of them are in the news now and then. But recently someone I
know has been in the news in a very awkward way and I have been
debating what to say, if anything, about it.
A long time ago,
deGraf/Wahrman did two very long, involved theme park productions for
Harper Films and Landmark Entertainment. Landmark was founded by two
partners, Tony Christopher and Gary Goddard and we worked mostly with Gary. These two 70mm, stereo ridefilms for Harper and Landmark were among the last projects we did at deGraf/Wahrman. It wasn't a happy time for anyone, the client or us. By no means did these projects put us out of business, but it was certainly part of the bad feelings that seemed to be everywhere. The projects got done, they are beautiful. I do not have copies of either of them. But in spite of the awkwardness I can tell you that I enjoyed working with Landmark and Gary.
Gary is a complete character. He is larger than life and
filled with that sort of self esteem that can be measured by the ton. He directed Masters
of the Universe (1987) which was arguably ahead of its time and
plunged into creating a mammoth company called Landmark Entertainment
to provide design and production services to the themed entertainment
boom of the 1980s and 1990s. I know that something happened such that Gary was no longer associated but the company still seems to be there and doing well, at least as far as you can tell from an internet web page. I had and have confidence that Gary would transcend
whatever problems he might be experiencing and be back on the scene.
He has, he believes,
the common touch. The ability to conceive of and design and to
understand what the average man and woman, boy and girl, expects and
needs to see and experience in a themed environment.
Anyway, Gary seems
to be in the news these days in a big way. Unfortunately, it is not
the best news. There seems to be some accusations about sleeping
with ... well I dont know. It makes no sense to me. I just hope
that none of it is true, and that he goes on to use this
unplanned publicity to his advantage and achieve his creative destiny, whatever
that may be.
Gary Godard (left) and Bryan Singer out on the town
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