by Larry Brody
NOTE FROM LB:
In a way I didn’t realize when I first wrote it, the following poem commemorates the moment of my baptism as Kid Hollywood. So brave I was! So bold! So proud!
But, as I didn’t even think to ask myself at the time, of what?
Kid Hollywood Acknowledges His Co-Opting
Kid Hollywood got his first fan letter
One day in ’72. It was an angry letter,
And its fury impressed him. “How dare you
Say a woman who’s pregnant and almost
Certain to have a baby with the same thing
Woody Guthrie had not have an abortion? How
Dare you write a script where she chooses to
‘See it through?’ Don’t you know what it’s like
To be a condemned one? Someone should
Come to your house in Hollywood and abort you!”
Immediately, Kid Hollywood wrote back an apology. He
explained that to his great shame and embarrasssment
Every word in his script had been rewritten
By the show’s producer, changing every line,
Of dialog, every idea, even the theme.
He explained that when he saw the result he
Had burned the producer’s version of the
Script in the fireplace of his new home
And sent the ashes back to the show.
A year later, after another TV series, violent and
Known for being chockablock with crime, aired a different
Script with the Kid’s name on it, a copycat crime was
Committed within a few nights. Every word, idea,
Concept, and meaning had also been rewritten,
But this time Kid Hollywood felt very proud.
His crime had been committed!
He had influenced behavior! He’d made a mark!
Still, there was one regret. He wrote his own angry
Letter, (yes, its fury impressed him)
To all the networks, asking, “How dare you not
Give me my credit, when you condemned the
Show on the Eleven O’Clock News?”
Larry Brody is the head dood at TVWriter™. Although the book whose cover you see above is for sale on Kindle, he is posting at least one poem a week here at TVWriter™ because, “As the Navajo Dog herself once pointed out to me, ‘Art has to be free. If you create it for money, you compromise your artistic vision by trying to please those who are paying. If you don’t accept money, you can be yourself. Like your art, you too are free.’”
Who is the Navajo Dog? Keep coming back and you’ll see.
