I worked in showbiz for a quarter-century. One of my early jobs was on the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood. At that time, “Mork and Mindy” was a new hit (yes, I’m that old) and Robin Williams was an emerging star. Also a big comedic name at the time was Andy Kaufman – I actually attended one of his infamous “Milk and Cookies” live shows.
The Paramount lot, like many studios in the late seventies and certainly in earlier decades, was a hive of activity. Walking the lot from my distant parking spot gave me the chance to have chance encounters along the way. Yes, there were actors and extras in costume and I was young enough to still get a huge kick out of it.
Robert Evans had a deal on the lot after running the studio for many years. He had a PRIME parking spot where he parked his classic old Mercedes. I would walk past it to my building and ooh and ahh at his license plate that said, RE 13. The “13” was for the 13 Academy Awards that “Chinatown” won. The image of that car stuck with me as the epitome of “making it” and a decade later I got the same model when I had “sort of” made it myself. Granted it wasn’t the deluxe edition that Evans had and I could have had a personalized license plate, too – BS 00.
“Mork and Mindy” was a emerging hit from the Garry Marshall comedy factory that already had the hit “Happy Days” with young Ron Howard and new star, Henry Winkler. I worked with Ron Howard in the early 80’s and also had many encounters with his future partner and now major player in Hollywood, Brian Grazer who used to wander the lot seeking his own fame and fortune. He certainly “found” it with his persistence and ceaseless energy.
My job was in “development” for a small television company. That meant finding ideas for television projects whether they be in the news (we read newspapers in those days), current or past books, articles in magazines, or original ideas of our own. In this capacity I discovered a story that I thought would make an incredible movie – the story of The Elephant Man. Yes, David Lynch later made it into a marvelous film.
I also had an idea for TV series, set in a taxi station – that, too, later came to television in the form of “Taxi.” I even briefly believed my great ideas had been stolen. Anyone can have an idea, but bringing it to life is another story and I later realized that both the movie version of “The Elephant Man” and “Taxi” occurred completely independent of anything I had done.
I don’t know how it happened, but I thought that Robin Williams would make an excellent Joseph Merrick (aka The Elephant Man) and, somehow, I was able to arrange a meeting with Robin Williams. He came to MY office!
We sat opposite one another – having never met before – and I told him the story of Merrick in perhaps a ten-minute monologue. He sat attentively and digested every word. After, he asked some questions. He was shy. He spoke so quietly that I almost had to ask him to speak louder. The exchange was completely serious. In that meeting he declared he wanted to play the role.
If I was prescient about one thing, it was his capacity to act in a serious role. Obviously, my efforts went nowhere but I did have that meeting.
Herewith, my favorite Robin Williams bit – less than one minute:
