Avalon Wants Sweet Sound of Applause

The mutiny may have been on the Bounty, but the 1935 movie was filmed off Santa Catalina Island, not in the South Pacific.

And when Gregory Peck stormed onto the beach in “MacArthur,” he was on Catalina, not in the Philippines.

Motion pictures and television production companies have taken advantage of the island’s rugged coastline, its primitive interior and its picturesque port of Avalon ever since a herd of buffalo was imported for a 1925 Western, “The Vanishing American.”

But rarely does the island, 22 miles off San Pedro, get credit, some officials say. In fact, they say they can’t remember when a film shot on Catalina said so in the closing credits, although they acknowledge that some may have.

“They’ll make a picture here, but when it comes out it’s supposed to be Mexico or New Mexico,” said Councilman George Scott (no relation to the actor). “I think the picture should say that it was made in Avalon, Santa Catalina Island.”

In the future, maybe the movies will, at least the ones shot in Avalon.

‘It’s About Time’

Scott and three of his four council colleagues voted this week to require film makers who use the city to list it in the credits and to require a $5,000 deposit to make sure they do.

A final vote on the measure, which would affect only films shot within the city limits, is scheduled for Sept. 15. If passed, it will take effect 30 days later.

“We are not getting any credit on any of the films, and it’s about time we do,” Mayor Irene Strobel said.

The lone dissenter, Councilman Hal Host, said he thinks the town deserves screen credit but thinks $5,000 is too high a deposit, especially for small production companies.

“I would never do it. It makes no sense,” said Reid Shane, production manager for New Horizons Picture Corp. in Brentwood. His company shot for a day in July at Catalina’s Airport-in-the-Sky while filming “The Nest,” a $700,000 feature about killer cockroaches menacing a New England island.

For such low-budget productions, he said, tying up $5,000 makes a difference. “It would have killed me,” Shane said. “It would have been cheaper for me to go to Washington (state) than to pay that money.”

A CBS production manager, Ken Swor, said the demand for screen credit bothers him more than the $5,000.

“To ask for it up front is kind of boxing in the company,” said Swor, who recently spent nearly two months in Avalon shooting a television movie called “Secret Witness,” set in a fictitious place called Rock Island.

“Screen credit is something that can be negotiated,” Swor said. “I don’t think anyone is really opposed to it. No one is trying to fool anyone after the movie is over.”

A spokesman for the California Film Commission agreed.

“I find it appalling,” said spokesman Michael Walbrecht. “Screen credit should be given when deserved, not just because you shot on their land.”

He said there is no standard procedure for determining whether a location should be listed in a film’s credits, adding that producers generally give credit when a town or state makes an extra effort to help a production, such as waiving fees or providing security. Avalon normally does not do that.

The commission, which tries to keep film productions in California, knows of no other city in the state that requires a deposit to assure screen credit, Walbrecht said. A commission representative will address the Avalon council at its Sept. 15 meeting, he said.

Despite the opposition, Scott, who has lived in Avalon for 23 years and has sat on the council for 16 years, said his city deserves screen credit.

“Other cities are not on an island in the Pacific,” he said. “People are using our beautiful scenery and saying it’s Rio. I want them to know that it’s Catalina.”