A belated entry, this, but here goes: Mike and I were friends starting around 7th grade at El Rodeo. The movie 'Super 8' from 2011 reminded me of the Super 8 films Mike and I collaborated on while we were still attending Beverly. He made a film called 'Lovers,' which I acted in and starred Scott Columby, and Mike directed my film project, 'Minions of the Law,' which starred myself and the late Jim Hayden. Both films were shown in the BHHS auditorium. Mike went on to study film at USC Film School and produced a number of quite sophisticated short films which he got his friends to perform in. One was a Laurel & Hardy spoof called 'Nightclubbers' in which Jim Hayden played the Oliver Hardy role to a T. I have all these films on a compilation disc Mike sent me some years back.
Mike gave up his creative pursuits to study law, got his law degree, and worked in that field for the rest of his professional life. I always felt he might have been happier had he stayed with his creative pursuits, which I feel his heart was really in. He was also a talented pianist and could never pass up a piano without inviting himself to play it for a while. He quite upset my grandmother once by taking it upon himself, without her permission, so seat himself behind her Steinway and pick out a few ditties. She thought it was very rude while I thought, That's Mike for you.
I wasn't much in touch with him from the time I moved to Portland, Oregon, back in 1990, and never saw him again after that move. We stayed in sporadic touch by phone and I became aware somewhere around 2005 that the Mike I knew was fading out. I don't want to comment on his specific problems, since I don't really know in full what they were and was only aware of some of their outward manifestations. Suffice it to say he was always a loyal friend and we had a good time when he came to visit me in Berlin when I was there working for Armed Forces Radio in the early '80's. One night we met an elderly German man in a bar who spoke good English and Mike--never being shy about asking the tough question (maybe this was what made him suitable to law)--asked him why the Germans fell for Hitler and Nazism. This was less than 40 years following the end of the war, mind you, and there were a lot of Germans still around who remembered those times and had fought on the German side. Mike, being Jewish, pressed his case in a friendly but persistent way. He basically got the 'we didn't know, we didn't see' response and we wound up in a disucssion for much of that night, shared a cab with this man (who introduced himself as 'Charlie' and who wound up paying the entire cab fare at his own insistence). We all parted on friendly terms, vowing to never forget and forge ahead on ideals of peace and international brother and sisterhood.
While in Berlin Mike and I also made a soujourn to the slum district of West Berlin, Kreutzberg, and brazened our way into the most notorious Punk Rock club in Europe at the time, SO36, which had been a haunt of Iggy Pop and David Bowie's a few years earlier. The club still exists, but looks in the photo online to be in a new location--or the building has been rehabilitated. Back in the early 80's the club was on the street level of a condemned building occupied by squatters and seemed to be the home of a number of the most extreme heroin addicted punk rockers in the city. But they left us alone and nodded off on beat up sofas which seemed to be the main furniture. The bartender served us two very straight looking Americans without much comment (this was not, by the way, where we met 'Charlie'), we had a couple of beers and bagged a visit to SO36 to our credit.
So I have a lot of fond memories of times spend with Mike making films, going to the Apple Pan, and hanging out in Berlin and in the South of France with him and his brother, Steve. I have vivid memories of those times, and only wish he were around in person to reminisce with him about them.
Gage Mace
A belated entry, this, but here goes: Mike and I were friends starting around 7th grade at El Rodeo. The movie 'Super 8' from 2011 reminded me of the Super 8 films Mike and I collaborated on while we were still attending Beverly. He made a film called 'Lovers,' which I acted in and starred Scott Columby, and Mike directed my film project, 'Minions of the Law,' which starred myself and the late Jim Hayden. Both films were shown in the BHHS auditorium. Mike went on to study film at USC Film School and produced a number of quite sophisticated short films which he got his friends to perform in. One was a Laurel & Hardy spoof called 'Nightclubbers' in which Jim Hayden played the Oliver Hardy role to a T. I have all these films on a compilation disc Mike sent me some years back.
Mike gave up his creative pursuits to study law, got his law degree, and worked in that field for the rest of his professional life. I always felt he might have been happier had he stayed with his creative pursuits, which I feel his heart was really in. He was also a talented pianist and could never pass up a piano without inviting himself to play it for a while. He quite upset my grandmother once by taking it upon himself, without her permission, so seat himself behind her Steinway and pick out a few ditties. She thought it was very rude while I thought, That's Mike for you.
I wasn't much in touch with him from the time I moved to Portland, Oregon, back in 1990, and never saw him again after that move. We stayed in sporadic touch by phone and I became aware somewhere around 2005 that the Mike I knew was fading out. I don't want to comment on his specific problems, since I don't really know in full what they were and was only aware of some of their outward manifestations. Suffice it to say he was always a loyal friend and we had a good time when he came to visit me in Berlin when I was there working for Armed Forces Radio in the early '80's. One night we met an elderly German man in a bar who spoke good English and Mike--never being shy about asking the tough question (maybe this was what made him suitable to law)--asked him why the Germans fell for Hitler and Nazism. This was less than 40 years following the end of the war, mind you, and there were a lot of Germans still around who remembered those times and had fought on the German side. Mike, being Jewish, pressed his case in a friendly but persistent way. He basically got the 'we didn't know, we didn't see' response and we wound up in a disucssion for much of that night, shared a cab with this man (who introduced himself as 'Charlie' and who wound up paying the entire cab fare at his own insistence). We all parted on friendly terms, vowing to never forget and forge ahead on ideals of peace and international brother and sisterhood.
While in Berlin Mike and I also made a soujourn to the slum district of West Berlin, Kreutzberg, and brazened our way into the most notorious Punk Rock club in Europe at the time, SO36, which had been a haunt of Iggy Pop and David Bowie's a few years earlier. The club still exists, but looks in the photo online to be in a new location--or the building has been rehabilitated. Back in the early 80's the club was on the street level of a condemned building occupied by squatters and seemed to be the home of a number of the most extreme heroin addicted punk rockers in the city. But they left us alone and nodded off on beat up sofas which seemed to be the main furniture. The bartender served us two very straight looking Americans without much comment (this was not, by the way, where we met 'Charlie'), we had a couple of beers and bagged a visit to SO36 to our credit.
So I have a lot of fond memories of times spend with Mike making films, going to the Apple Pan, and hanging out in Berlin and in the South of France with him and his brother, Steve. I have vivid memories of those times, and only wish he were around in person to reminisce with him about them.