MEMO

...5. Same goes for the Giant Chess Game pitting sixteen kids against the monsters of Pesticide, Oilslick, Nuclear Waste, etc...

...If the boys here are kind of divided, it's only because they remember how fast Haight-Ashbury fizzled out...

...In addition to starring in the "Laugh-In" television show, he is unofficial adviser to the Environmental Teach-In, unofficial spokesman for Keep America Beautiful, and unofficial crusader for the preservation of our natural resources...

...I mean, look at the hula hoop and Batman...

...cc: J VanG Sr...

...If we're going to use real-life conservationists, I think we should stick to known quantities like Charles A. Lindbergh and Arthur Godfrey...

...Well, Jamie, this about covers my reactions, and now that you know we see eye-to-eye I'm sure we'll end up with the kind of product that has made Cuyahoga famous...

...But how long will it stay hot...

...About your Supreme Court scene where mankind is on trial—I guess it's OK to make Justices out of Nelson, Nader, and Commoner, but who ever heard of names like Blatnik, Odum, and Yannecone...

...Also, shouldn't one of them be black...

...Also, they say stories like this don't usually work if you focus on more than one "heavy...

...Anyway you're better off being positive...

...4. Talked to the Art Department about building the giant X-Ray Machine that shows all the asbestos in your lungs, the DDT in your tissues, the Strontium 90 in your bones, etc...

...I'm all for the project, of course, but they say we would of had to start a pollution musical three years ago for our release date to coincide with all those cover stories in Newsweek, Life, and Time...

...It's just not an image-making date...

...3. I really flipped over Huntley-Brinkley giving the Dow Jones Environmental Averages—you know, "garbage steady, population up...

...Saying: "It may take longer to get there but at least you can open the window" is just plain smartass...

...But it may get a laugh if we score it with Smoke Gets In Your Eyes...

...There's no question the subject is hot right now...

...I mean, if they wouldn't do it at the White House, why would they do it there...

...8. I refuse to even discuss the business of the "haloed" automobile on a pedestal surrounded by a crowd of kneeling worshippers...

...DATE: 4/15/70 Dear Jamie: How proud your Dad must be to make his first official act as our new studio Board Chairman the submission of your fabulous script for a futuristic antipollution musical...

...9. Ditto the overcrowding scene where homeless mobs break into the Vatican for breathing-space...

...And, third, we need a family rating...

...etc...

...It's when you show things getting better that the script really starts to drag...

...My best to your Mom and Dad...

...7. The meeting where WIDESPAN members draft a Declaration of Interdependence might make it if you didn't go into that long song and dance about WIDESPAN standing for Wilderness Society-Izaac Walton League-Defenders of Wildlife-Environmental Defense Fund-Sierra Club-Population Crisis Commit-tee-Audubon Society-National Wildlife Federation...

...How does that grab you...

...Strangelove has already gone that route...

...They feel it's so expensive we should maybe just settle for a Miss Pollution Beauty Parade instead...

...Is he the guy from Newark...

...Sorry, but I just don't believe the kid when he tells his parents he's going off to join the Earth Corps...

...6. The connection between missile defense and pollution defense escapes me...

...I personally think your script is a beaut impact-wise —especially that "end of the world" scene where you cut from the alarm on the population-explosion machine to the polar ice cap melting and then zoom in on the drowning Statue of Liberty...

...I for one love the idea that "capture" means "death," especially when you angle up on those cropdusting planes—but who are we to argue with the budget boys...

...What the hell kind of a name is Joseph Wood Krotch...

...Second, I don't find such things amusing...

...First, it's unlikely...

...Maybe we could reset this someplace in South America...

...Do you major in Biology...

...Like when you say "Support Your Local Tree...

...But we ran a twelve-month check on the thirty-city Nielsens and think we should keep Cronkite on standby, just in case they drop...

...Nobody cares how the Smithsonian's super-data machine finally coordinates all those environmental research projects—unless maybe you get a broad like Julie Newmar to play the part of the machine, but they already did that on TV...

...I never really thought anybody could cover the entire subject in only 1,700 pages...

...Are you trying to suggest an anti-pollution missile...

...Names you can trust...

...And, believe me, I'm tickled pink with it...

...2. I'm not too sure about the part where modern art murals get painted by soot from factory chimneys...

...Love, (Uncle) Ollie Henry Gibson is both actor and poet...

...However, the following are some notes, suggestions, questions about where you go after that: 1. Isn't the parallel between the Santa Barbara oil well blowout in January '69 and Pearl Harbor a little heavy...

...Incidentally, I don't buy your commercial for lead-free gasoline...

...12...

...You got to move fast today...

...Why not just let it stand for WIDESPAN...

...Now that's the kind of slogan you pay good money for...

...I mean, "December Seventh" is kind of a catchy date that fits the picture—but "January Twenty-eighth" sounds real clumsy to say, if you follow me...

...Still, we're going to make the picture, so I don't want to be too negative as you've sure got a lot of ideas for a nineteen-year-old kid who's never written a screenplay before, let alone been inside a studio...

...Remember, we need a family rating...

...If so, I'm afraid Dr...

...His recently published book, A Flower Child's Garden of Verses, will soon be followed by a collection of ecological poems...