Runaway Production

I never cease to be astonished by the cavalier and indifferent attitude that Hollywood and Los Angeles project toward the movie industry.

Amid all the publicity and self-congratulatory hoopla over Disney’s new theme park and production facility in Orlando, Fla., did no one realize that what we have here is the most aggressive display of runaway production yet?

Of course, Hollywood studios have always been notorious for their lack of community involvement, but to see the unions, craft people and guilds yawn blithely while the industry drifts out of the city and the state is shocking.

These production facilities do not mean more production: They mean that production that was done here will not be in the future.

Disney/MGM and Universal, which also will soon open a theme park/production center in Florida, have not spent a billion dollars just to let facilities lie empty. They will be forced to use the facilities to justify the enormous expenditures.

Thank you, Disney, MCA and MGM for having such a sense of loyalty to this great city. Thank you for keeping the faith with the people who have made the industry great.

And when the dusts of unemployment blow down the streets of Hollywood, what difference could it make? Disney has created Hollywood in a theme park. A park without people, tradition or history. A park without a soul. A park without weeds, dreams or problems. A hollow replica of the great Dream Factory.

What else could we expect from the masters of the automaton? Certainly nothing so human as gratitude.

GERALD R. REED

Studio City