I’d like to recommend a great biography written in 2008 by Maureen McCormick. It is a brutally honest account of her life from childhood through the Brady Bunch ABC Series to a post cancellation tailspin through men, drugs, and psychological issues. However, its gem is the restoration through a new life in Christ, through a godly relationship, marriage, having a child and responsibility of taking care of parents and family through life’s crisis issues. The author does namedrop a lot in the book which is frankly proper in relationship to her trials and journeys. But this is an excellent biography how Maureen came to terms with being Marcia by being herself.
As I will write in an upcoming review I was blessed in my teens to know writer Barnaby Conrad through his friendship with my artist father Jim Myers. They were part of the NATC (National Association of Taurine Clubs) with what was my fathers and mothers ‘Ernest Hemingway period’ in the 1970s then Bullfight world of clubs, celebrities and followers. I’m just now enjoying an audio book by Conrad from 1994 titled “Name Dropping” from his years as a nightclub owner in San Francisco of the 1950s. Preserving the history requires naming those who lived in them.
McCormick also kept some names private but it was interesting and fascinating to learn of those she knew or crossed paths with in the places she had been both professionally and personally.
I came to the McCormick book honestly. I had been researching the life of Robert Evans and how he saved Paramount Pictures in 1970 from bankruptcy. It happened through what has been a favorite film of mine since my pre-teens of LOVE STORY with Ryan O’Neil and Ali McGraw. As a lifelong student of film production it was the last feature made under Evan’s initial hire to potentially save the studio. Because of it, it did save the studio. Made for $2.2 million dollars coming in $25,000 under budget Arthur Hiller spent some of his own money to shoot some B roll of silent scenes in Boston to enhance the edit of the story. It made back over $136 million dollars.
From Wikipedia: “Erich Segal originally wrote the screenplay and sold it to Paramount Pictures. While the film was being produced, Paramount wanted Segal to write a novel based on it, to be published on Valentine’s Day to help pre-publicize the release of the film. When the novel came out, it became a bestseller on its own in advance of the film. ”
As a novelist I have been re-reading the book by Eric Segal. It still holds up well some 50 years later and inspires my confidence as a writer how to continue writing towards publication. Lean and strong I may be able to accomplish my goals as Segal, McGraw and Evans did in their time.
Without LOVE STORY we might never had others that followed including Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Harold and Maude (1971), The Godfather (1972), Play It Again, Sam (1972), Paper Moon (1973), Serpico (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), Chinatown (1974), Nashville (1975), Marathon Man (1976), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978), and so many more.
Its an amazing story of film at Paramount and television. Under Evans the television side of the company exploded into the 1970s with series like the Brady Bunch, which for better or worse made McCormick’s career as one of the cast members.
My research over the weekend centered around how Ali McGraw had purchased the story as a vehicle for herself and how in promotion of the film the writer Eric Segal was encouraged to write a novel pre the film’s release. One boosted the other. As a writer budding novelist I’m encouraged to write some of the stories that are on my creative mind and heart. What significance might they have? Anywhere from none to something viral. I’d be happy if they start a new career that takes me another decade or two into time.
Viewing the TV Land feature on the Brady Bunch was just a bonus in a YouTube search for interviews with LOVE STORY and how I came to rediscover McCormick’s book from 2008. What I gained from reading McCormick’s biography is to ‘run my race and persevere at it.’ Even with the demons that lurk in the darkness of years that were the growing pains of my own life. Its 1 Corinthians 9:24: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” The prize as a story teller is to write the story. Then try to get it published. The prize though is completing the story.
Ordered on Amazon Saturday the book arrived early on Sunday morning and by late night even after a shift at work I managed to enjoy nearly the entire story.
It was an easy read and yet a wild ride at times into the darkness surfacing back into the light. McCormick came of age in the 1970s as did I though we are just a few years apart. Though our stories are different they are similar at the same time. She painted scenes in California I could easily remember names and faces I knew in the late 1970s to 1980s along similar or parallel paths in West Texas. Her characters were in LA and Hollywood while mine were in El Paso and Odessa Midland Texas. To quote Charles Dickens ‘they were the best of times and the worst of times.’ They were also what Thomas Paine wrote in ‘times that try men’s souls.’ They tried mine then and sometimes the negative voices that suggest ‘its too late now’ to be the story teller I hoped to become.
I had my dark periods from childhood to pre-teens as did McCormick. I had similar periods from my teens and early adult life as well. In some ways they still haunt me today though less as time advances. I can’t fault McCormick. ‘There by the grace of God go I.’
They did not end with McCormick either. Today’s generations of teens to twenty somethings are part of many situations that made the Lost Generations of the 1920s, Lost. The same could be said of each decade onward. Those who survive or thrive on are always the ones who share about what made the difference. For McCormick and myself they were ‘come to Jesus moments’ when choices are made in crisis points.
As a writer of Historical novels with a romantic weave those stories are always a part of a hero’s or heroine’s journey that separates those who live and others who die. For me I gained McCormick’s depth to the female leads and supporting characters that will translate as inspiration for my characters with layers in depth. For that I’m grateful.
This is also a book where McCormick comes to terms with doubts about her mother and grandmother and at the same time grow in her relationships going forward. It was as important for her own mother-daughter relationship with her mother to later to her daughter as a mother relationship. Steven Rogers, writer of STEEL MAGNOLIAS stated it this way: “The things that don’t kill us only make us stronger.” In some ways its biblical counsel of Philippians 4:3. “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Life lessons are as applicable now to today’s readers as they have been over the course of time.
I hope McCormick will blog chapters beyond her book ended at age 50 and how the stories have played out now into her 60s. Like what happened with her father, her brother Kevin and through her mother’s passing. What’s become of her other two brothers, husband and daughter. What’s become of cast mates from the Bunch and those she’s worked with, loved and valued. Her Twitter feed does offer windows inside and it looks like she, her husband and daughter along with family and friends are safely on firm ground and life. Its sometimes a time to say goodbyes to some and savor others still with us. And so it is for all Baby Boomers and the generations that came after us.
The book is still a great read now as it was 14 years ago. Its a book I recommend highly.
