became captain.
Despite my success in the team, my popularity among my peers and my success with the fresher girls, something was missing and I had begun to think about what line of work I wanted to be in after I graduated. So many undergrads seemed to drift into teaching for want of anything else to do and I knew I didnât want to do that. I stopped asking any of my friends and I began reading books.
I read a new book called
Anatomy of Britain
, by Anthony Sampson, and one about advertising by Vance Packard called
The Hidden Persuaders
. It seemed from Sampsonâs book that the job of account executive â the person in the advertising agency who looks after the client â consisted mainly of taking the client out for long lunches. Well, that sounded like a great job to me and I applied to J. Walter Thompson, the agency featured in Sampsonâs book, but they seemed mainly interested in Oxford and Cambridge graduates. So, I applied to the London offices of two other American agencies: Erwin Wasey and Hobson Bates. They both offered me a job â I believe mainly on the strength of my extra-curricular activities, like my time in Africa. Competition for places was fierce and both agencies had over 400 applicants for two or three vacancies. I chose Hobson Bates because there was no stipulation that I had to get a degree. This made my last few months at Durham reasonably stress-free, but I still wanted to graduate, so I had to put my head down and study hard.
I graduated as a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in the summer of â67. It was the Summer of Love and something was about to happen to my world.
Chapter 6
CinecittÃ
âWhich way went he that killed Tybalt?â
â Johnny Cigarini
During my summers in Rome, starting when I was at Dean Close School and throughout university, I worked as a film extra at Cinecittà , the film studios outside Rome. They were the studios used to film
Ben-Hur
,
Cleopatra
, much of the works of the great Fellini and more recently Scorseseâs
Gangs of New York
. Mussolini founded the studios for propaganda purposes under the slogan âIl cinema è lâarma plù forteâ (Cinema is the most powerful weapon). I would later come to disagree, of course, and replace âIl cinemaâ with âIl advertisingâ!
The studios were bombed during the war by the Allies, and following World War II, Cinecittà was used as a displacement persons camp for an estimated 3000 refugees. I was there when all that had come to pass and Cinecittà was on the rise. For me, it was a great job because it gave me some pocket money, but only took up two or three days a week, with the rest of the time to go to the beach. My sister Maria and her husband Peter were members of Gambrinus, an exclusive beach club at Ostia, not far from where they lived at EUR â the beautiful âfascist architectureâ suburb of Rome. Everyone at Gambrinus was shocked that I travelled from England by âauto-stopâ (hitchhiking); it was simply unheard of in Italy. I remember feeling quite proud when they were all so shocked. It even helped me stand out a little.
I wasnât your average common-or-garden film extra; I was what they called a âfigurazione specialeâ â a featured extra. Most of the films shot in Cinecittà were now American productions, and the producers didnât want to make it too obvious that they were shooting in Italy, so they employed non-Italians to stand near the main stars. I worked with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas in
Cast a Giant Shadow
, playing one of a group of generals. John Wayne was a friendly man and we would talk often. Kirk, however, always seemed to be in character, and just sat around silently jutting that famous dimpled chin of his. He had a son of around sixteen, who was working as a rather officious assistant director at the time. I met Michael Douglas years later, when we had a stoned evening with Chessy
Despite my success in the team, my popularity among my peers and my success with the fresher girls, something was missing and I had begun to think about what line of work I wanted to be in after I graduated. So many undergrads seemed to drift into teaching for want of anything else to do and I knew I didnât want to do that. I stopped asking any of my friends and I began reading books.
I read a new book called
Anatomy of Britain
, by Anthony Sampson, and one about advertising by Vance Packard called
The Hidden Persuaders
. It seemed from Sampsonâs book that the job of account executive â the person in the advertising agency who looks after the client â consisted mainly of taking the client out for long lunches. Well, that sounded like a great job to me and I applied to J. Walter Thompson, the agency featured in Sampsonâs book, but they seemed mainly interested in Oxford and Cambridge graduates. So, I applied to the London offices of two other American agencies: Erwin Wasey and Hobson Bates. They both offered me a job â I believe mainly on the strength of my extra-curricular activities, like my time in Africa. Competition for places was fierce and both agencies had over 400 applicants for two or three vacancies. I chose Hobson Bates because there was no stipulation that I had to get a degree. This made my last few months at Durham reasonably stress-free, but I still wanted to graduate, so I had to put my head down and study hard.
I graduated as a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in the summer of â67. It was the Summer of Love and something was about to happen to my world.
Chapter 6
CinecittÃ
âWhich way went he that killed Tybalt?â
â Johnny Cigarini
During my summers in Rome, starting when I was at Dean Close School and throughout university, I worked as a film extra at Cinecittà , the film studios outside Rome. They were the studios used to film
Ben-Hur
,
Cleopatra
, much of the works of the great Fellini and more recently Scorseseâs
Gangs of New York
. Mussolini founded the studios for propaganda purposes under the slogan âIl cinema è lâarma plù forteâ (Cinema is the most powerful weapon). I would later come to disagree, of course, and replace âIl cinemaâ with âIl advertisingâ!
The studios were bombed during the war by the Allies, and following World War II, Cinecittà was used as a displacement persons camp for an estimated 3000 refugees. I was there when all that had come to pass and Cinecittà was on the rise. For me, it was a great job because it gave me some pocket money, but only took up two or three days a week, with the rest of the time to go to the beach. My sister Maria and her husband Peter were members of Gambrinus, an exclusive beach club at Ostia, not far from where they lived at EUR â the beautiful âfascist architectureâ suburb of Rome. Everyone at Gambrinus was shocked that I travelled from England by âauto-stopâ (hitchhiking); it was simply unheard of in Italy. I remember feeling quite proud when they were all so shocked. It even helped me stand out a little.
I wasnât your average common-or-garden film extra; I was what they called a âfigurazione specialeâ â a featured extra. Most of the films shot in Cinecittà were now American productions, and the producers didnât want to make it too obvious that they were shooting in Italy, so they employed non-Italians to stand near the main stars. I worked with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas in
Cast a Giant Shadow
, playing one of a group of generals. John Wayne was a friendly man and we would talk often. Kirk, however, always seemed to be in character, and just sat around silently jutting that famous dimpled chin of his. He had a son of around sixteen, who was working as a rather officious assistant director at the time. I met Michael Douglas years later, when we had a stoned evening with Chessy
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