Meeting with Annie

January 24, 2016February 12, 2016 The Committee Movie

Great talk today with Mel Stewart’s widow (and Committee fan) Annie Dong-Stewart! Annie brought a picture of Mel being “saved” by Rev. Holey Moley aka John Brent. A nice detail that you can’t see here: the inside of the tamborine is inscribed with the phrase ” Every Soul is a Flower in Master’s Bouquet”.

Annie gave us an overview of Mel’s career, before, during, and after The Committee and described The Committee as a fan – the Satirathons were a particular favorite of hers. Thanks, Annie, for your time today and for helping us fill in Mel’s story.

2016 Cranna Selfie

January 3, 2016February 12, 2016 The Committee Movie

2016: State of the Production

January 1, 2016February 10, 2016 The Committee Movie

smothers neg — One of many film negatives from Jerry Wainwright’s trunk, courtesy of Ann Funston

What a great year. Amazing interviews, incredible discoveries. Rare books, and newly public recordings. The Committee’s story inspires us pretty constantly as we move forward, and guides us through depths of American history and culture that are new to us. As we go we’ve been sharing choice discoveries on our Facebook and Twitter feeds, which we then migrate them to our blog for long-term enjoyment. So be sure to connect with us if you haven’t yet, to follow along. And if you are moved to do so, share us with your friends!

Though a few crucial interviews are still outstanding, we are moving to the end of the “information-gathering” phase of our project and are now looking forward to shaping our story in the edit. This process is new to both of us – this is our first feature-length documentary film. We both started out with the understanding that this would be a process of discovery and digging – there are scant accounts of The Committee’s story, so we knew we’d be gathering its parts and assembling it one interview and archive discovery at a time.

We can safely say that the coming year will see us putting this story together and sharing our discoveries with you as they coalesce into the film we are all excited to see. We will also have a new trailer sooner than later which we’ll use along with our new website to push this project out further, seeking to put in place the financing and partnerships that will help us bring this film to fruition.

Thanks for your support and enthusiasm for our documentary on The Committee. The more we learn about them, the more their lasting influence is revealed. We can’t wait to share their full and amazing story with you!

If you want to connect with us directly, our email is listed below.

Jamie Wright (jamie@sfimprovfestival.com)
Sam Shaw (samshaw@sfimprovfestival.com)

Dan Barrows aka Beans Morocco.

December 29, 2015February 10, 2016 The Committee Movie

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Resplendent in his John Brent for Mayor campaign tee. Photo by Sam Willard.

Mork and Mindy Must-Read

December 3, 2015February 10, 2016 The Committee Movie

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io9’s Charlie Jane Anders has posted the Mork and Mindy deep-dive that we’ve been waiting for. Howard Storm’s Committee background made him the only M&M director Robin Williams could trust. We recommend the extended version of this piece.

Ruth.

November 19, 2015February 10, 2016 The Committee Movie

key magazine

Ruth Silveira came to The Committee through a production of “America Hurrah!” at The Committee Theater at 836 Montgomery. Ruth’s scene with Julie Payne, entitled “Cold Tea”, depicted the friendship of two women as it progresses from youth to old age, and is thought of by many as one of the best scenes performed on The Committee’s stage.

Phantasmagoria

November 2, 2015February 10, 2016 The Committee Movie

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Handbill for a Murray Roman and Frank Zappa-emceed benefit, featuring The Committee, Alice Cooper, Tim Buckley and more.

“Doctober” Trip to Los Angeles: Sturdy and Austin in the Can.

October 28, 2015February 11, 2016 The Committee Movie

pictured: Gary Austin

This month we’ve made a lot of progress: we located and secured an amazing trove of rare Committee-related photos and just this weekend wrapped up two more interviews, with Howard Hesseman aka Don Sturdy and Gary Austin.

Howard, of course, was an important member of The Committee’s ensemble – his work was captured both in The Committee’s feature A Session With The Committee and in numerous late night television appearances, from Dick Cavett to The Midnight Special. With a limited window of time available to us (many thanks to IO West for allowing us the use of the Del Close Theater on short notice), Howard was concise, comprehensive, and hilarious. We discussed Howard’s introduction to The Committee, the birth of “Don Sturdy”, seminal Committee sketches such as “Acid” and “20,000 Came Home”, the ABC/”Music Scene” deal and its fallout on the company, and the influence The Committee’s cast played on “WKRP in Cincinnati”.

Pictured: Justin Chin (DP), Sam Shaw (Co-Writer, Co-Director), Howard Hesseman, Jamie Wright (Co-Writer, Co-Director)

On Sunday we met with Gary Austin, Committee castmember and founder of the The Groundlings. The Committee introduced Gary to improvisation and the pioneering work of Viola Spolin, and he carried this influence through The Groundlings to help shape generations of performers, scores of whom have swelled the ranks of Saturday Night Live.

Gary traced for us the path he took from Committee stage manager to performer, and helped us paint a picture of Committee performer Chris Ross, an improvisational genius who died from a drug overdose at the age of 25.

While we plan on another trip to LA in early 2016, we’re starting the winter in the editing room. Stay tuned.

Jerry Wainwright’s Trunk

October 21, 2015 The Committee Movie

There are two separate strands of inquiry that lead us to this trunk.

The first was inspired by Larry Hankin’s reference to a Tarot Card deck that featured members of The Committee. He couldn’t remember the name of the photographer. We chased this around for a while, but hit dead-ends and abandoned the search.

Our second, more direct, route was revealed via the tapes that we received from John Brent’s son Jeremy Paz. These tapes consisted of recorded interviews conducted by Peter Elbling in 1985 with members of The Committee, in remembrance of John Brent, who died that year.

Elbling’s interview with Howard Hesseman shed light on a production company that Howard ran with photographer Jerry Wainwright in 1970-71. Dubbed “Narcissistic Purposes Productions”, the company’s output included a series of theatrical still-lifes, featuring Committee members, that were used as artwork for the theater lobby. (We already had an example of this work on-hand: an 8×10 image of John Brent as mad scientist Dr. Servo de la Lune which was provided to us by Ruth Silveira. For some time we mistakenly took this image as an ad for a John Brent solo performance. This link from a year ago also shows how off the mark we were.)

Jerry Wainwright (1926-1997) was a prolific photographer who documented The Committee extensively. Wainwright later helped to bring to life the ethnic/hippie fashions trends of the day with his and Alexandra Jacopetti Hart’s book Native Funk and Flash.

To make a long story short, after a great visit with Jerry’s widow Ann, we left with the trunk pictured above.

Ann has entrusted us with a significant piece of history.

The trunk holds an overwhelming amount of negatives, a few printed photographs, a few contact sheets here and there. All are from the late 1960s/early 1970s.

Most of the negatives are 35mm, in paper sleeves. A few negatives are 4×5, and one appears to by 7×9. After crudely separating Committee-related material from his other work, here are some highlights.

19 4×5 negatives of Narcissistic Purposes stills, featuring Don Sturdy, John Brent, Ruth Silviera, Gary Austin, Julie Payne, Morgan Upton, Alan Myerson, and many more. The stills read like silent movie posters, with titles, loglines, etc. These are from 1970. (example)
The Tarot Card photo series, featuring members of The Committee.
studio portraits of John Brent, Larry Hankin, Morgan Upton, Ruth Silveira, Diann Hendrickson from the early ’70s.
Action shots of The Committee 1983 reunion/Bread and Roses benefit.
Action shots of The Committee at 622 Broadway
Country Joe and the Fish photographs, including Narcissistic Purposes Productions album cover
Congress of Wonders photos.
fashion photography

We took the Narcissistic Purposes negatives to the lab to be scanned immediately.

For the archive, our priority to make sure the material is safely stored (smaller boxes, new sleeves). We are determining the cost of developing the Committee-related negatives to contact sheets, but will soon start developing the material that intrigues most.

We intend to work closely with Ann and Wainwrights’ estate as we move forward to make use of the treasures in this trunk. If you have question or tips email samshaw@sfimprovfestival.com.

Wanted: Everett Cornell

September 22, 2015 The Committee Movie

“Everett Cornell, a dropout from both Roosevelt University and The American Conservatory of Music, comes from Chicago’s ‘middle ghetto’, where he was a member of The Blackstone Rangers. He gave up a serious study of the saxophone to study drama with The Committee Workshop. He joined the ranks of the review this past summer when Committee member Melvin Stewart left the company to start his Bantu Theater in the Hunter’s Point area of San Francisco..” – San Mateo Times, Nov. 8, 1968.

Cornell was one of four African-American members of The Committee ensemble. The pic below is from an extensive photo shoot that The Committee participated in when putting together The Music Scene television show.

Cornell was in The Committee for a couple years, but other than a few newspaper mentions and photos, we’ve completely lost his trail. If anyone has information about this actor, please let us know.