On a recent trip to LA I was sent on a bit of a wild goose chase. An agent I met with at United Talent Agency wanted me to pitch a movie idea to former UTA agent, now producer Marty Bowen. That’s how I found myself arriving at Temple Hill Productions to meet with the native Texan and producer of the teen vampire sensation “Twilight.”
The Temple Hill production office was unassuming—no valet parked my car, no assistant offered to bring me an espresso while I waited. Marty Bowen soon appeared to shake my hand. Not very tall, handsome in baggy pants and Converse, he chatted me up in the easy way of Texans as he showed me to his office. From my own Texas upbringing, I could smell a rich kid who’d stepped off the expected path of business or investment banking and made good in the even more competitive world of moviemaking.
A giant map of Texas on one office wall, the chairs made of longhorn hide, Bowen was definitely playing up the Texan makin’ good in Hollywood thing.
A framed photo of a well-groomed older couple sat by his desk. They looked rich. “Those are my folks,” Bowen said. “My dad’s wearing pink pants.” That I had noticed.
I sat down on the couch and, after the requisite chitchat, launched into my movie pitch. Bowen remained polite and asked all the right questions, but I could tell his interest wasn’t sparked. Not until I described one of my characters as a “banty rooster.”
He sat up. Leaned forward. “Banty rooster? What’s that?”
“You know. It’s an expression to describe a man who’s short, but fierce. Banty roosters are tiny, but they don’t know it. My dad had a banty rooster and it terrorized all the other roosters, who were three times his size.”
Bowen was already out of his longhorn hide chair and at his computer, googling an image.
“Banty Rooster,” he said, as I came around the back of his desk to examine a photo of a fierce little banty he’d brought up on his computer screen. “That’s what I am.” He sounded proud. “A banty rooster.”
As he walked me out , I knew he wasn’t going to produce my film. That was okay with me. He wasn’t the person I’d gone to Hollywood to win over. But the visit had been interesting enough. And I couldn’t help but admire Bowen’s obvious pluck.
As we passed his assistant, Bowen stopped. “Hey,” Bowen said, addressing his protege. “I think we’re gonna change our name to ‘Banty Rooster Productions.’ ’Temple Hill’ sounds a little pretentious, don’tcha think?”
http://www.templehillent.com/martybowen
Banty Rooster in Hollywood
Nice to see that story in print, it’s a real jewel. From one Rooster to a writer writing about another, keep it comin’.
Rooster
Lady, you sure got it right about those banty roosters. My old Uncle Lester was five foot two and meaner than a swamp snake. He was a banty rooster all right. One fall morning he got kicked in the head by a little old sorrel mule named Jake. When he woke up he sort of stumbled back to the house, got his thirty-thirty, and shot that litle mule deader than Pappy Lee O’Daniel. Within a month Uncle Lester had grown two inches. We all just thought he must be a real late bloomer. But by Thanksgiving he was five-seven and a half and still growing. Just before Christmas he had hit five-nine so we decided it was time take him in to Plainview to see Doc Parsons. Doc said it was quite a puzzlement and way beyond anything he had learned or heard of in medical school. Said Lester needed to go see the Mayo Brothers up in Rochester, Minnesota. Lester rode a bus up there in mid January. By then he was just under five-ten. The Mayo doctors looked him over and said that mule kick must have injured his pituniary gland and caused the unusual growth. Said they couldn’t help him. He came back home, married a 6 foot widow woman named Norma, and was the nicest fellow you ever met for the rest of his life. He was a banty rooster no more, in size or temperment. When he died age ninety three he was six foot ten in his stocking feet, and that’s the god’s truth.
I always thought Banty Roosters were quite beautiful and had a lot more dignity than most other fowl. What a great article! I enjoyed reading it. Can’t wait to see some more.