Sheila, as always, this is so lovely. I feel like I'm sitting on that couch with the two of you. Whenever you find the words, they are always the right ones. xx
I really love this piece and its memories. (As well as its reminder to reject presentist thinking, which is hard to do.) I worked at New Line as script reader, freelance, but this was pre-Internet distribution of scripts, so I had to go up to the office, pick them up, and take the subway back with my coverage. I started at their office near Port Authority, but ended when they were up on 57th Street, where you worked. I remember once having lunch with Katrin Cartlige at the Brooklyn diner on that corner. Regarding AOL, one of my major life regrets is just letting that email account atrophy and then vanish after I switched to Gmail. So many memories represented through correspondence I wish I could retrieve.
There used to be a joke about New Line saying that even the janitor got a say in what got green lit. I had friends who were readers at Miramax and they hated it. They’d have to sit in the lobby for 30 minutes waiting for some assistant to come out and pick up their coverage and give them new scripts. At New Line you would just walk right in, and they had a big bin you’d rifle through and look for a script with a Post-it that had your name on it. You could stop and chat with the execs and then they would do these bagel breakfasts for us every three months where they would talk about what the company was looking for. I got tagged as the horror reader because at one of them I was the only one that had gone to the theater to see the latest Nightmare on Elm Street. Sorry but not surprised to hear that your job ended the way it did, but it sounded like you were there during the coolest time.
I think I probably just missed you. I read there from, I think, 1992 to 1995. I definitely started in the Port Authority days, so maybe it was even before that. I read 1400 scripts during that time. Among my fellow readers were the late screenwriter Rafael Moreu, who wrote “Hackers,” and now mega-producer Wyck Godfrey. Even though I was just a freelancer popping in and out, I really enjoyed that time and liked all the New Line folks. If you liked a script, you literally could just walk into an executive’s office and tell them how great it was. It was the New Line people who recommended me for a Sundance producing fellowship that I got and then who also gave me a script that Robin and I wound up producing, Jesse Peretz’s “First Love, Last Rites.” My boss was Janet Grillo, a director and producer who now teaches at NYU.
that sounds so cool. so much free-flowing energy and creativity - I remember feeling it, getting it through osmosis - we were the crazy internet kids down the stairs - and they "tolerated" us - didn't corporatize us into cubicles - we worked at these long tables and blasted Bjork and Fiona Apple. There was a mannequin which we dressed up - putting AOL merch on her just for fun. Crazy times - I am not sure how this AOL deal went, and our boss went on to ... bigger things elsewhere - and he tolerated us, but the new boss was not so nice. she wanted us to act like we were in a regular office. we worked our asses off. it was the transition time and most of us got the jobs the way I did - we were brought on by people who knew us. That all changed, of course - I got in just in time.
wow a New Line connection, Scott - so cool! We used to eat at that diner all the time. It was such a funny set up in retrospect: the New Line people were on the floor above us, and the floors were connected by a spiral staircase - that can't be true, can it? at any rate, you could get from floor to floor without an elevator. and the AOL Rainman people were on our own floor - and it was two totally different worlds. New Line people would come down to visit - and it was like corporate world entering crazy wild west world. We even had beers on Friday. We'd have to kind of get ourselves under control and stop blasting music when new Line execs would come down to visit, lol. So we probably didn't overlap? Or maybe we did? The timeline is a little muddy in my head, but it's all late 90s shenanigans.
This was right around when I first got online, but AOL didn't work in my rural hometown and that caused grief in one of the Yahoo! Groups I was in at the time (I wrote about that story of Nerdist a few years ago). It's wild how different the internet was then and what is morphed into now. Thank you for sharing this story!
oh man Yahoo Groups. I was in a Yahoo group devoted to Dean Stockwell fandom- and even had a Yahoo email at one point - I still might? Things change. Emails are lost. Servers go down. Future biographers are going to have a hell of a time piecing together people's lives.
As someone from a subsequent generation, just after yours -- one that entered the workforce after the dotcom bubble burst -- my mind boggles most at the notion that one could once pay rent building AOL pages and typing in chat rooms. Not in today's "gig economy."
I read your post on Jensen Ackles and thoroughly enjoyed it. He has redefined his career since Supernatural while honing his acting skills. He has a presence on film that few do. His eyes and facial expressions Tell the story without a need for words. You as a viewer can feel his pain. Although the Boys was a bit salty I gained even more respect for his abilities as an actor.
Sheila, as always, this is so lovely. I feel like I'm sitting on that couch with the two of you. Whenever you find the words, they are always the right ones. xx
Nice to hear from you again. Great story. It evokes a sense of that time perfectly.
In Amy's words...please keep typing. It IS so soothing. xoxox
I’ve read you for a long time. Your writing is one of the things I have turned to for comfort in times of duress. You hang tight Sheila.
so nice of you to say Ruth, thank you so much.
Happy hearing from you again!
Thank you!!
Real Writers ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I really love this piece and its memories. (As well as its reminder to reject presentist thinking, which is hard to do.) I worked at New Line as script reader, freelance, but this was pre-Internet distribution of scripts, so I had to go up to the office, pick them up, and take the subway back with my coverage. I started at their office near Port Authority, but ended when they were up on 57th Street, where you worked. I remember once having lunch with Katrin Cartlige at the Brooklyn diner on that corner. Regarding AOL, one of my major life regrets is just letting that email account atrophy and then vanish after I switched to Gmail. So many memories represented through correspondence I wish I could retrieve.
There used to be a joke about New Line saying that even the janitor got a say in what got green lit. I had friends who were readers at Miramax and they hated it. They’d have to sit in the lobby for 30 minutes waiting for some assistant to come out and pick up their coverage and give them new scripts. At New Line you would just walk right in, and they had a big bin you’d rifle through and look for a script with a Post-it that had your name on it. You could stop and chat with the execs and then they would do these bagel breakfasts for us every three months where they would talk about what the company was looking for. I got tagged as the horror reader because at one of them I was the only one that had gone to the theater to see the latest Nightmare on Elm Street. Sorry but not surprised to hear that your job ended the way it did, but it sounded like you were there during the coolest time.
I think I probably just missed you. I read there from, I think, 1992 to 1995. I definitely started in the Port Authority days, so maybe it was even before that. I read 1400 scripts during that time. Among my fellow readers were the late screenwriter Rafael Moreu, who wrote “Hackers,” and now mega-producer Wyck Godfrey. Even though I was just a freelancer popping in and out, I really enjoyed that time and liked all the New Line folks. If you liked a script, you literally could just walk into an executive’s office and tell them how great it was. It was the New Line people who recommended me for a Sundance producing fellowship that I got and then who also gave me a script that Robin and I wound up producing, Jesse Peretz’s “First Love, Last Rites.” My boss was Janet Grillo, a director and producer who now teaches at NYU.
that sounds so cool. so much free-flowing energy and creativity - I remember feeling it, getting it through osmosis - we were the crazy internet kids down the stairs - and they "tolerated" us - didn't corporatize us into cubicles - we worked at these long tables and blasted Bjork and Fiona Apple. There was a mannequin which we dressed up - putting AOL merch on her just for fun. Crazy times - I am not sure how this AOL deal went, and our boss went on to ... bigger things elsewhere - and he tolerated us, but the new boss was not so nice. she wanted us to act like we were in a regular office. we worked our asses off. it was the transition time and most of us got the jobs the way I did - we were brought on by people who knew us. That all changed, of course - I got in just in time.
wow a New Line connection, Scott - so cool! We used to eat at that diner all the time. It was such a funny set up in retrospect: the New Line people were on the floor above us, and the floors were connected by a spiral staircase - that can't be true, can it? at any rate, you could get from floor to floor without an elevator. and the AOL Rainman people were on our own floor - and it was two totally different worlds. New Line people would come down to visit - and it was like corporate world entering crazy wild west world. We even had beers on Friday. We'd have to kind of get ourselves under control and stop blasting music when new Line execs would come down to visit, lol. So we probably didn't overlap? Or maybe we did? The timeline is a little muddy in my head, but it's all late 90s shenanigans.
This is so effin funny. A “New Yorker” piece. Title: Where are all the People?
lol!!!
This was right around when I first got online, but AOL didn't work in my rural hometown and that caused grief in one of the Yahoo! Groups I was in at the time (I wrote about that story of Nerdist a few years ago). It's wild how different the internet was then and what is morphed into now. Thank you for sharing this story!
oh man Yahoo Groups. I was in a Yahoo group devoted to Dean Stockwell fandom- and even had a Yahoo email at one point - I still might? Things change. Emails are lost. Servers go down. Future biographers are going to have a hell of a time piecing together people's lives.
I still have a Yahoo! account I created in 1999 somehow. lots of old friendships and memories live in that inbox.
same. I don't ever check it anymore but it is connected to some of my accounts - like amazon, for example. It's been around forever!
The bleak slut from the North!!! LMAO
As someone from a subsequent generation, just after yours -- one that entered the workforce after the dotcom bubble burst -- my mind boggles most at the notion that one could once pay rent building AOL pages and typing in chat rooms. Not in today's "gig economy."
It’s wild right? I actually could pay my bills doing stupid fun shit. 30 bucks an hour sometimes!! Insane
I read your post on Jensen Ackles and thoroughly enjoyed it. He has redefined his career since Supernatural while honing his acting skills. He has a presence on film that few do. His eyes and facial expressions Tell the story without a need for words. You as a viewer can feel his pain. Although the Boys was a bit salty I gained even more respect for his abilities as an actor.
We have the same dislike of AI, thank you
I’m glad you found words. Because this whole piece is like a big, heaping serving of comfort food from Red’s.
Also: “I felt like the bleak slut from the North.”
Lmao
I was this gloomy black silhouette standing on the AOL corner as a cheery little shuttle went by. I was like "this cannot last."
This was wonderful! Thanks.
thank you John!
Love this so much!!
thank you!! fun memories.
This is lovely.
thank you!