Bill’s Excellent Hollywood Adventure

Bill Wood is very pleased to be part of the Telling Stories series because that’s what he’s been doing since the invention of the typewriter. Most of the stories that he’s told have been lies (fiction), so it will take some adjustment for him to tell the truth for a change.

But 34 years as a writer in Hollywood has provided him with a wealth of tales - some of which sound like fiction, but are actually not. What happens when a 29-year-old guy - recently mustered out of the Army - and living on a subsistence basis in New York City, is suddenly called to go to Hollywood and Paramount Pictures as a contract writer with the immediate task of writing William Holden’s next movie, keeping in mind that Bill had never written a screenplay in his life and never had any intention of doing so. How did this happen? And what happened to Bill when he got there?
Well, for one thing the man we know as Bill Wood, the Jazz Guy on the Voice of Vashon, was William Wood back then, and if you want to know what happened to William Wood in Hollywood, think of it as sort of a cross between Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad and The Beverly Hillbillies. A fish-out-of water-tale in which the fish spends a good deal of time looking for the water and then has to learn how to swim all over again once he gets there. All in all an incredible tale of the pains and follies of Adjustment.

Bill’s Excellent Hollywood Adventure will begin at 4 pm on Sunday, March 9, at Bethel Church.  This talk is part of Vashon Community Care’s Telling Stories Speaker Series, by and about Vashon Locals. Ticket sales are by donation and are available in advance at Vashon Book Shop or VCC. All proceeds from this talk benefit Vashon Community Care Foundation. The Telling Stories Speaker Series is sponsored by the C. Green Family Partnership.