Word, words …and a small visit to 4/20 land

September 8, 2021, 10:39 am , by Newsroom

Billy Wilder is best known as a Hollywood director. But, says Richard Lutz, he had another ace up his sleeve

SOME Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard and The Apartment come to mind when the name Billy Wilder surfaces.

But the film maker actually started life as a young reporter in the 1920’s knocking out columns in Vienna and then in Berlin during The Weimar Republic.

I’ve been reading some of his copy, many nearly a century old, that still has a zip that makes stories jump off the page.

So, rather than a dreary scroll of dusty pieces, they still grab you. One day he’s interviewing billionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt or jazz giant Paul Whiteman or movie star Adolphe Menjou. The next day he’s attending the 100th birthday party of a Berlin grande dame or interviewing Germany’s best poker player. The articles gloriously popped out of his fruitful head. There are titles such as ‘Why Don’t Matches Smell That Way Anymore’ or ‘Ode to a Coffee-house’ or his picaresque memories of being a beer hall dancer for hire.

They are, given the clunker or two, witty, cheeky, fast paced, and obviously first draft stories pounded out at speed with a knack for using words well (‘It didn’t run through my mind,’ he explained about a story, ‘…as galloped through it.’)

Wilder moved over to the nascent field of movie reviews (about a flawed production, he wrote: ‘It’s best to draw a veil of silence over the film’s contents. Which are unadulterated kitsch..’) and then surfaced in Hollywood to join others escaping the claws of European fascism.

Film became his game, first explained in a 1929 article ‘Here We Are at a Studio’. But despite the American successes, those early articles now published (in a collection called ‘Billy Wilder on Assignment’) remain startlingly fresh, as much as Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon disguised as musicians in a jazz age all girl band. And that’s because words survive if used well. And evaporate when handled slapdash or haphazardly.

For instance, on the west coast of the States recently (cf; Applescat) for a family bash, I read instructions about our Oregon apartment. It warns: ‘4/20 or tobacco only outside is OK.’

Oh, that’s great. My 4/20 is approved for external use only.

But what the heck is 4/20? Billy W would have had a field day with that one. The tobacco consumption I understand. But 4/20…? I furrow into Wiki-thing. It turns out to be a freshly minted expression about smoking dope, my geriatric researches reveal. Seemingly, April 4th (4/20) is Smoke Pot Day, especially in the marijuana infused legalised western states of Washington, Oregon and California where doorstep deliveries includes your favourite weed:

So, saying it with words, new words, has now seemingly extended to numbers. I guess you’re invited to my next 8/21 (my birthday) or send flowers on my 2/14, our annual wedding bash.

Even the pronunciation of words is a problem. Forget neologisms. It seems simple enunciation is an obstacle sometimes. Movie critics in the States recently have called for sub-titles after watching Kenneth Branagh’s movie of his early life in Belfast. Seemingly, the Northern Irish dialect was just too much for their collective ears. The critics’ moan was dismissed by The Belfast Telegraph: ‘Our accents are nothing to be ashamed of.’ it thundered. ‘They’re part of us.’

And with that paean to the power of words, both new or 100 years old or mouthed with a hard edged Antrim accent, we glibly move on to the sci-fi world of the pandemic where millions of words have been spent and we still don’t know what’ll happen by Christmas, no less next week.

One thing is certain: I ain’t leaving Britain’s swampy shore for a while after that quick trip to 4/20 land. The round trip included four Covid tests costing a total of £528 ($618); sudden demands for extra information a day before a 19 hour journey; and, the uncertainty that I’d forgotten some vital document or other. Plus my luggage disappeared over The Atlantic. As they say in Spanish: ‘C’est la vie.’