Rob Patrick and the Beginning of Everything

by James O’Barr

If Your Heart Hurts, Rub a Little Dirt On It

Audio artist Rob Patrick, long-time program director of the Olympia Film Society, has been awarded a fellowship by the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts. One of the few such fellowships granted to out-of-state applicants, it has enabled Patrick to complete an experimental audio documentary. “If Your Heart Hurts, Rub a Little Dirt On It: MGM and the Beginning of Everything” is a free-form sound portrait of movie-making in the Hollywood studios during the 1930’s, and of some of the women who became stars during that decade.

In an interview with Oly Arts, Patrick said, “The thirties, were what many consider Hollywood’s golden age. You had the introduction of synchronized sound, the consolidation of the studio system, with writers, directors and actors working as contract players, and later in the decade, Technicolor, and the revolutionary animation of the Disneys. Then there was the Depression, with audiences going to movies in record-breaking numbers, demanding all kinds of escapist fare to deal with the grim realities of everyday life.” So what about the title, and why the focus on MGM? “Well, I think I heard that line in one of those early thirties comedies — it might have been a movie you’ve probably never heard of — “Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men” with Zazu Pitts and Charlie Farrell. But the line stung my brain and wouldn’t go away, and I just had to use it, maybe because it sounds so much like the snarky humor and the irreverent sensibility of that era. But that also speaks to one of the things about those movies I find so compelling. Whether it was comedy, drama, westerns, musicals, or anything else, the writing that went into the dialogue was always exceptional, and sometimes unforgettable. As for my singling out MGM, each of the major studios had a distinct style, and I am most drawn to MGM’s, with their glamorous, high-budget dramas and musicals, and the classy, beautifully lit sets. Also, they produced more high-profile films starring women, and maintained a more female-centric star system during the 1930s than the other major studios. There was, of course, Garbo, but I was particularly interested in focusing on Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford, and their relationship with the legendary producer, Irving Thalberg.”

Another reason Patrick is interested in the films of this period, he said, is that “the sheer number of films made in those years was astounding. There were five major studios—MGM, Paramount, Warner Brothers, 20^th Century Fox, and RKO, and three smaller outfits, Columbia, Universal, and United Artists. And then there was Disney, which since the early ’20s had been making animated shorts, until they hit it big in 1937 with ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’ But, like I said, you probably never heard of Aggie Appleby … or a great many of the movies made during that time, because most of them were low-budget entertainments, and all of them, low-budget or high, were filmed on highly perishable nitrate film stock. So a lot of those films have been lost, or are in danger of being lost if they’re not preserved. And that’s what’s so valuable about the Library for the Performing Arts, which is dedicated to keeping a documentary record of our cultural history expressed in music, dance, film and video, and theater. I guess that’s what I’ve tried to do with ‘If Your Heart Hurts…’, help preserve some of that history.”

Which brings us back to, well, the beginning of everything. When asked why he included that in the title, Patrick says it’s a nod to the beginning of his fellowship, the beginning of sound-era stardom, the beginning of the good times, and the beginning of bad ones. His proposal to the Library of the Performing Arts, he says, was to create “an experimental sound portrait focused on Depression era movie-making, bringing together voice acting, commentary, and original music in a narratively adventurous, mood-based structure.” To accomplish this, he brought together a cast of 20, including friends, colleagues, and acquaintances from across the country. Among the many are Alison Roman and Fran Hoepfner on the East Coast, Olympia’s Sam Miller and Portland’s Ruby Mullen (who co-wrote the musical score) on the West Coast, and Courtney LeSueur, who designed the poster, down South in Alabama.

What happens to the work, according to Patrick, ultimately depends on how the Library for the Performing Arts wants to make use of it. Meanwhile, he’s in talks with Zach Havekost, of the Olympia Timberland Library’s Film Club, about hosting a presentation at the library. And, not to forget that Patrick is the program director of the Olympia Film Society, you can keep your eye on the OFS web site, or the Capitol Theater marquee, for the upcoming showing of MGM’s somewhat controversial WWII / Women’s Army Corp classic, “Keep Your Powder Dry,” starring Lana Turner, Laraine Day, and the redoubtable Agnes Moorehead.

Scheduled dates are 9/17, 9/20, and 9/23, with Rob Patrick providing an introduction on the 20^th.