THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1995

An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: At the 1995 SBWC Bob Kane explained how he finally got his moment in the limelight with the resurgence of the Batman franchise. He opened his 4:00 pm lecture on Wednesday afternoon talking about growing up in the Bronx to the sound of Bing Crosby’s voice—“ba ba ba boom!”

Kane came up with the concept for Batman in 1939.

Speaking after a weekend when a Batman movie garnered $53 million Kane had a lot to say about Hollywood.

“Hollywood had a strange habit,” he began. “You bring them a concept and they buy it, and then they bring in ten other writers to change it for you.”

Kane expressed praise for all the Batman movies, and for the ‘60s television show based on his characters. He encouraged the audience to stay true to their characters and passions, no matter what. Regarding the movie industry itself, he said, “They speak with forked tongues in Hollywood. If you’re a failure there you’re treated like a leper.

“You’ve got to stick to your guns. You should never stop working and being creative. Being creative is like breathing. When you stop, you die.”

In his Santa Barbara News-Press article on the lecture, Daniel M. Jimenez talked with thirteen-year-old Billy Eckerson and his eleven-year-old brother Brent, both wearing Batman paraphernalia.

“Batman is more like a detective than Superman,” Billy said, echoing the argument that fans had been having for more than fifty years. Billy said he wants to create comics when he grows up.

Batman made his first appearance in Detective Comics No. 27 in May of 1939 with “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” starring “The Bat Man.” When the first printing sold out immediately, subsequent issues built a following almost as big as Superman. A year later Kane approached his publishers about adding a teen-aged side kick named Robin. Despite his bosses grumbling that mothers wouldn’t approve of a young boy running around at night with the caped crusader, sales of Batman with Robin outsold Batman alone, five to one.

In 1995, a copy of that original Batman Detective Comics No. 27 was worth $150,000, depending on condition.

THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1994

An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: In the June 17, 1994 welcoming Friday issue of Write Right ON! Jan Curran quoted Ray Bradbury:

“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life.

 “I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories. May you be in love for the next 20,000 days, and out of that love, remake a world.”

Ray opened the 22^nd SBWC, as he had for the previous 21 years, and waxed eloquent on the subject of “Why Aren’t You Home Writing?”

By 1994 the SBWC was a well-established, premiere event for west coast literati, across the country and in other parts of the world. Australia was always well represented as well as England and the far east, but if you were to ask any of the participants, students, staff, or featured speaker you would get a variety of explanations for success.

In a Santa Barbara Independent article on June 16, 1994, Bill Greenwald wrote, “There’s something about the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference — a feeling, an ambiance you can’t describe. It’s a sense of being right there in the   middle of the literary swirl.” Greenwald continued, “It’s not intended for dilettantes who want to impress themselves by going to a writer’s convention, but the 22 year-old Santa Barbara institution is so multifaceted that even they will get something they didn’t expect.”

Barnaby Conrad, SBWC director and cofounder said, “We try to make it so no one who can write gets away unnoticed. Most beginners feel they have no chance to meet other writers. Here they have a chance to rub shoulders with famous writers and get professional advice.”

Columnist and former Los Angeles Times arts editor Charles Champlin said, “First, it gives you a chance to think about what you do and why you do it. It renews you. Writing is a lonely business. It [the SBWC] engenders a family feeling. There’s a terrific spirit throughout the conference.”

 Chuck Champlin  - Veteran SBWC Workshop Leader

 Ray Bradbury had this to say: “I think what makes the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference different is that it’s more relaxed than others, not as pompous and self-conscious.” When asked how he prepared for each of his 22 appearances as opening speaker he said, “I just get up there and explode and have a lot of fun."

Ray was quoted as saying, “Last year I told you to stop watching the local news,” gesticulating with a finger the size of bratwurst. “Today I tell you to fire the people standing in the way of your writing!”

Sparky Schulz, returned from a one-year hiatus to follow Ray on Sunday afternoon, speaking on the topic “Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and Me.” It was a homecoming for frequent SBWC attendees.

Sparky was always asked where he got ideas for Snoopy and Charlie Brown. “An idea comes from your whole life. You don’t just create characters out of nothing and force ideas out of them. It has to come from your own life.”

He told the audience about a memory of reading that crunching wintergreen flavored Lifesavers candy would produce sparks. He said it followed that if one chewed them in the dark, the sparks would be visible.

“This is where cartoon ideas come from,” said the Peanuts creator, because although he was unsuccessful in making sparks, he still used the idea in a strip with Snoopy and Charlie Brown. “It takes maturity. You have to live. You have to suffer before you can cartoon these things.”

 Sparky

1994 was the year that Bob Kane, creator of Batman, became a friend of the SBWC.  He passed through workshops, parties and SBWC events always accompanied by a bevy of devotees and a stunning companion who turned out to be Elizabeth, his wife. Although not scheduled as a speaker it was obvious that he loved being part of the maelstrom of creativity at the Miramar, and would be wooed to return to tell the Batman story at a future conference.

THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE

The brainchild of Y. Armando Nieto, a long time SBWC volunteer,  known to veteran conference participants as "Mando",  The History of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference project has evolved on two fronts in the form of a book and film titled with same name.

As seen in the byline, the book was written in a three way collaboration between Mando, long time SBWC workshop leader Matt Pallamary, and founder Mary Conrad, along with the deeply appreciated help and graphics support from veteran humor workshop leader Ernie Witham.

The film, the book, and the conference itself would never have existed if it were not for the efforts of Barnaby and Mary Conrad, the founders of the SBWC.

Barnaby was the well known and loved face and "front man"of the conference, but it was Mary's tireless devotion and work behind the scenes that made the SBWC a reality.

Enter Lisa Angle, the talented filmmaker and producer of Literary Gumbo who conference attendees usually see behind a camera at the conference filming keynoters, who came up with the suggestion to make a documentary film of the conference which has been entered into the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Add to that Mando's nephew, Hollywood special effects wizard Andras Kavalecz who generously donated his time and considerable talents to the film and the many SBWC "old timers" who came to be interviewed for the film, among them, Fannie Flagg and Catherine Ryan Hyde, with a special shout out of appreciation to Chris Mitchum who flew in from Boston over the weekend and flew right back in a "turn and burn", specifically for the twenty minute interview!

And one more shout out of appreciation to Canadian recording artist André Nobels for his generous musical contribution to the film's soundtrack.

http://www.andrenobels.com/

Here is the film's trailer for your viewing pleasure and enticement.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCFQ2nhNZlc[/embed]

THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1993

An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary: SBWC Chief of Staff Paul Lazarus introduced Robert B. Parker, he highlighted Parker’s background as a tenured professor at Northeastern University in Boston. Lazarus explained that although a tenured professor, Parker was only teaching one Wednesday class a week when he left the university to write full time. When asked why he left academia where he only had to teach on Wednesdays, Parker replied, “Yeah, but it was every Wednesday.” His Spenser thrillers were hailed by the Washington Post as “a seminal and exceptional series in the history of American hard-boiled detective fiction.”

Parker was a big, affable man with an “elegant mustache,” according to one newspaper account of his visit to the SBWC. With his doctorate in English Literature, he created the well-read Spenser, a Boston detective whose cases comprised twenty-four novels and a television series. That same newspaper account noted that the purchase and subsequent loss of a handgun was the only genre related research Parker conducted in developing his character’s character.

On his writing process: “I write five pages five days a week.”

On his struggle as a beginning writer: “None, I’m sorry to say. I wrote my first book and sent it off to Houghton Mifflin because they were the closest. Three weeks later they wrote me to say they wanted to publish it,” and the Spenser series was born with publication of The Godwulf Manuscript.

Parker was sheepish in explaining that his wife Joan was responsible for much of his success; for encouraging his pursuit of a doctorate to get a better job, and negotiating with agents and publishers. “Trust me,” he explained, “if you have to get into an argument with one of us you want it to be me and not Joan.”

On what mystery writer he read: “I don’t read much at all. I have a Phd, so I don’t have to,” he joked, but seriously, he explained that he saved his creative juices for writing. “I like Dutch, because of the way he sounds,” referring to Elmore Leonard. He also admitted to reading non-fiction.

On Robert Urich who portrayed Spenser in the TV series: “No, I didn’t imagine Urich as Spenser. If I thought of anyone it would probably be a young Robert Mitchum, or now, an older Robert Mitchum.”

Robert Mitchum

SBWC workshop leader Matt Pallamary always had an affinity for the Spenser books and television series because he grew up in Dorchester, a tough Irish Catholic neighborhood, a setting where many scenes from and many of the Spenser stories took place. Best selling Crime writer Dennis Lehane is also from Dorchester.

When Matt met Parker this first time in Santa Barbara the exchange went something like this:

"Hi Bob, it's nice to meet you. I grew up in Dorchester and I have always enjoyed Spenser."

Parker sat back, eyes wide in an exaggerated gesture and said,  "Dorchester? What the f*ck are you doing here?"

THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA BARBARA WRITERS CONFERENCE — 1992

An excerpt from the upcoming book by Armando Nieto, Mary Conrad, and Matt Pallamary:

Ray Bradbury spoke on Friday night about belief in oneself and to never lose faith. “When you make your first sale you need to celebrate, because it may be a year before you make another.”

He told how as a boy he opened an envelope on the lawn of his mother’s house and let out a yell when he read a letter telling him of his first sale. “My mother and I hugged each other and danced around the yard!” he said. For which he received a free subscription to the magazine.

He didn’t make another sale for more than a year.

Ray said that when his family moved to Los Angeles he was thirteen years old and he discovered the places in local museums where Hollywood memorabilia was housed. He searched out those places and wrote letters to cartoonists, pulp fiction writers, and the people who made magic in B movies, and he spent hours and days reading stories about everything, haunting the libraries.

He said he didn’t go to college. “I went to libraries, and I stayed there,” he said. “And when I was 27 years old I graduated from the library!”

He also spoke about his time in Ireland with movie director John Huston, who was filming his classic “Moby Dick.” As he told the story behind Green Shadows, White Whale, writer Bradbury painted a picture of his time in Ireland chasing Huston’s dream of an epic screenplay worthy of the concept in the director’s mind. Waving his arms and drawing out the pub owner and cab driver from the pages of his novel and memory he filled the auditorium with images of Irish fog, warm Guinness, and cold rain.

He got the gig, writing the screenplay for Moby Dick, when John Huston invited him to his hotel in Los Angeles and asked, “Well Ray, what are you doing for the next year?” When Ray answered, “nothing,” Huston continued, “Well, tell you what. Why don’t you go home tonight, read as much as you can of the book [Moby Dick], come back tomorrow and help me kill the white whale?”

Bradbury did go home and said to his wife, “Maggie, pray for me. I have to read a book tonight and give a book report in the morning.”