HENRY LANSFORD
Writing and Consulting
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This is an impressively large audience, and I'm a little curious about why all of these people have gathered here tonight.
I suspect that some of you may be cineastes or Woody Allen fans who hope you're about to see an early masterpiece of Woody's comic genius. I hope you won't be disappointed. The American Film Institute released a list of the 100 funniest American films this week, and I'm sorry to report that "Sleeper" was Number 80. Four of Woody's other films were ranked higher on the list. "Annie Hall" was in the top five.
I know that some of you must be here for the same reason I am--because of the modest role that the National Center for Atmospheric Research had in "Sleeper" and the small but noteworthy part that "Sleeper" played in some events of the second decade of NCAR's 40-year history.
I came to NCAR in 1965 as a scientific editor. In 1966 I was given the job of starting up an information office for the Center. We didn't use the term public relations because it sounded a little too Madison Avenue, but PR was what I did for NCAR for the next 12 years. My office was the center's interface with the news media, the local community, and other elements of the real world outside the scientific community.
NCAR was an exhilarating place to work in the 1960s. Walt Roberts, the Center's founding director, was a charismatic and inspiring leader. Federal funding for scientific research was generous, mainly because the Soviets had taken the lead in the space race by successfully launching the world's first artificial satellite. I believe most of us at NCAR felt that we were working together toward goals that were very important to the nation and to humanity. I don't think that I'm exaggerating when I say that we frequently found ourselves feeling downright euphoric about what we were doing.
One of my duties as information officer was to work with television and movie crews that came to NCAR. Most of them were there to shoot serious scientific documentaries for programs like "Nova," but there were a few lighter episodes. "Sleeper" was one of those.
Early in 1973, we got a call from one of Woody Allen's associates. He wanted to know if Woody and a few colleagues could pay us a visit to check out the NCAR Mesa Lab as a potential location for a science fiction comedy. Woody was to be the director as well as the star of the film, which was set 200 years in the future. The Mesa Lab was one of several futuristic-looking buildings in the Boulder-Denver area that the team wanted to reconnoiter.
We thought this sounded like a really fun project. Yes, we said, come on out and look us over. I had never met a professional comedian, much less a really big star like Woody Allen, and I expected to hear some very funny stuff as we walked around the lab and the site together. I was quickly disillusioned. I have a photograph of Woody and me strolling side by side across the NCAR grounds, and we couldn't have looked more serious if we had been discussing how we were going to achieve world peace. For this occasion at least, he was 100% director and 0% comedian. He asked a lot of practical questions about things such as whether his crew could have access to one of NCAR's towers. Then he said his people would get back to us and headed back to his native habitat beyond the Hudson River.
A few weeks later, we got another phone call. Woody had decided that he wanted to shoot most of the movie in the Denver-Boulder area and would like to use NCAR as one of the principal locations. The crew came out in early May, and science at NCAR pretty much came to a screeching halt for the two or three days that they were there. A casting call went out for extras, and the management decided that it was OK for NCAR staff to participate as long as they took vacation time to do it. About 20 NCAR staff members and other local people were hired for $20 a day, minus a three dollar commission for the talent agency. Many other NCAR people hung around outside the lab watching the actors, director and camera crew at work. We had a wonderful time, with the exception of a couple of curmudgeonly scientists who were grumpy about all the commotion and distractions.
Now let me tell you why this episode has a little more historic significance than you might suppose. I said that the 60s were a euphoric time for NCAR. But as we moved into our second decade, the 70s, things weren't so happy. Federal funding for research was dwindling. Public perception of science and scientists was not as positive as it had been in the early post-Sputnik years. NCAR had moved from youth into maturity and found itself facing a mid-life crisis.
In 1972 an evaluation committee of scientists from universities and other institutions issued a report that was highly critical of many aspects of the Center's organization and research. As a result, a massive reorganization was undertaken. NCAR scientists and other staff members were subjected to rigorous reviews of their qualifications and accomplishments. When the "Sleeper" crew showed up in May 1973, morale at NCAR was at an all-time low.
The "Sleeper" episode certainly didn't solve any of our problems, but I think for most of us it marked a sort of turning point. Harriet Barker, who retired as a UCAR vice president last year, worked for NCAR's director, John Firor, in the early 70s. She tells a story that illustrates this point very well.
Douglas Lilly was a senior scientist at NCAR in its early years. I wouldn't say that Doug was totally without a sense of humor, but even in the best of times he wasn't exactly a stand-up comic. In 1973, like many other NCAR scientists, he was grim and angry most of the time about all the frustrating things that were going on.
In one scene in "Sleeper," Woody's character, Miles Monroe, was supposed to be suspended from the NCAR north tower on computer tape. Woody was actually hoisted up with a winch for some close-up shots, but a stunt man replaced him for most of this sequence.
As Harriet tells it, Doug and another person were walking down a hall when the "Sleeper" stunt man suddenly dropped past a window at the end of the hall. As the body plummeted by the window, Doug turned to the other guy and said "Well, I guess he flunked his review." Overhearing this, Harriet went back to the director's office and said to John: "I think we're finally over the hump with this thing. I just heard Doug Lilly make a joke about it "
I think that NCAR's experience with "Sleeper" was sort of like the aging boomer who responds to his mid-life crisis by going out and buying a little red sport car. It didn't solve our problems, but it reminded us that everything in the world wasn't as grim as the trials we had been going through. "Sleeper" revived our sense of humor and started us on our way to feeling good about ourselves again.
My hope tonight is that watching "Sleeper" on the screen is going to make this audience feel at least half as good as we felt when we watched Woody and his crew shooting it back in 1973.
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© 2000 Henry Lansford all rights reserved
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