Madrid Nov. 18, 2024

By Peter Besas

Just yesterday I was surprised to receive an email from a certain Sam Wasson, but I quickly saw it was not a Spam message since it was titled “Bravo and Hal Scott”.

Hal, as former muggs doubtless know, was the Daily Variety sales manager for many years, known to some at the time as “Mr Hollywood”. Hal handled many of the big film accounts on the Coast and, I was told, at one point drove about the city in a Rolls Royce.

On my first visit to the City of Angels he was kind enough to chaperone me around the city and take me and my wife to some of its iconic restaurants. He was always gracious.

The writer of the email I received was Hal’s grandson, Sam Wasson, who had come across a book that I had published in 2000 called “Inside Variety” in which several sections appear based on interviews I made with Hal when I was researching the book. Sam queried me to see if I might still have the original recording of the interview with Hal so that he could hear his grandfather’s voice.

I thereupon rummaged through one of my closets, which are piled high with Variety memorabilia, including about 30 of the old cassette tapes from the time I was preparing my book, and sure enough came across the one from Hal that contains two interviews with him that I had done in Beverly Hills in 1994. On the same tape was an interview with former Daily Variety scribe Mike Kaplan.

In the interview with Hal, he recounts several anecdotes, one of which concerns the producer and showman Mike Todd who had recently completed his film “Around the World in 80 Days” and was married to Elizabeth Taylor. As a result of the meeting between Hal and Todd, the latter gave Hal a watch as a present which was inscribed “Because you’re a lousy salesman”, now in the possession of Sam. The anecdote, along with others concerning Hal and Variety can be found in “Inside Variety”.

Tomorrow I shall mail the cassette from Madrid to Sam in LA for the delectation of his mother and Hal’s brother.

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