About
The origins of On The Tinsel Front
Many years ago I stumbled upon the fact that, during World War II, Ted Geisel, aka “Dr. Seuss,” was a captain in the U.S. Army Signal Corp unit run by director “Major” Frank Capra and was stationed at “Fort Fox,” the wartime nickname for the Fox Studio at Western and Sunset. Among the many things Geisel did in this capacity was create and oversee the animated training film series Private SNAFU, which instructed soldiers about the right course of action by showing a hapless, incompetent private do everything wrong.
Not only was Geisel aided in the writing of Private SNAFU by Philip D. Eastman and Munro Leaf, the series was realized on screen by soon-to-be legendary Looney Tunes animators Chuck Jones, Fritz Freleng, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin and George Gordon. (Pvt. SNAFU was voiced by the inimitable Mel Blanc.) Amazed by this assemblage of brilliant and hilarious talents, I wished I could have been a fly on the wall of those rooms as they came up with a wacky way to instruct soldiers while making them laugh.
Meanwhile, I was learning that many other well known figures were in similar fun and intriguing situations across Hollywood during the war. The Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, for instance, was home to the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) “First Motion Picture Unit” (FMPU), a training film operation created in the wake of Winning Your Wings, the 1942 film starring Jimmy Stewart that was produced and distributed to recruit the 100,000 pilots that would be needed to win the war. One of the officers at the FMPU was an actor named Ronald Reagan.
And so the idea for On The Tinsel Front was born. What if, I wondered, a young soldier with no film experience or ambition was plopped into wartime Hollywood? As my father-in-law flew P-47s over Europe during the war, it seemed fitting that my fish-out-of-water hero fail as a pilot cadet before being inexplicably assigned to some Los Angeles USAAF base with a mysterious acronym.
While my attempt to write Tinsel Front as a novel didn’t get far, I always had it in the back of my mind that it would make a great scripted podcast, especially since I had a gifted actor friend, Brian Stanton, who could give “Ollie” the perfect voice. And so, after I retired from the film business, I set out to make this podcast series. It’s been a long haul of writing, recording, editing and sound design, but I am excited to finally share this first season with you. I hope you find this period of Hollywood history as fascinating and entertaining as I do.
Christopher Bomba
Christopher Bomba is a native Angeleno and a child of the film industry. His father was a sound editor. His English mother came to the USA while working for British film producer Sir Alexander Korda. After earning a degree in theatre from Santa Clara University, Chris entered the movie business, where he worked for 47 years, principally in feature film story development. Becoming a story analyst (or “reader”) at Lorimar Productions in the 1970s, his made his way up to VP of Production at MGM, where he oversaw the original OVERBOARD (1987). After stints at the Walt Disney Company, Fox 2000 and Lynda Obst Productions, he spent the last 20+ years of his career as a story analyst at 20th Century Fox, where he evaluated every draft of NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 1,2 & 3, WAR OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, FORD v. FERRARI and many other films. A life-long writer, he’s penned essays, short stories, screenplays and stage plays. Some of his writing can be found at Chris Bomba Stories, Etc.