PORT TOWNSEND— Bob Rosen has been to four Academy Awards ceremonies, but he found Sunday night’s Oscar party at Port Townsend’s American Legion Hall to be a more relaxing experience.
“The Oscars are very tense,” Rosen said.
“Everyone in the room is very nervous, and you need to be careful what you say about a certain film because the person behind you may have worked on its competition.”
It is an honor to be nominated, but, Rosen notes: “All of the nominees really want to win,”
Rosen’s life is now far removed from Hollywood.
Although East Jefferson County SEmD with its many relocated retirees SEmD is home to people from all walks of life, it still may surprise people visiting the Quilcene Community Center that the guy stacking chairs worked on some of their favorite films and television shows.
It used to be Hollywood
As volunteer director of the center, Rosen answers the phone, plans senior recreation programs and has overseen renovations to the building that was showing some wear and tear.
Before then, over a period of 47 years, Rosen, 74, worked on all levels of the motion picture business, moving up from being the kid who got coffee and ran the copy machine to the guy who traveled the country scouting locations and persuading companies to allow use of their trademarked equipment as weapons of destruction.
Rosen’s last movies before retiring starred Leslie Nielsen and were filmed in Vancouver, B.C., prompting him to establish a home in Friday Harbor.
But one day, he visited the small coffee shop in town and discovered he knew all the people present; not as local acquaintances but from Hollywood.
So he decided to look for some place different, and settled on bucolic Quilcene.
Speaks at Port Townsend Library
He traced this journey last week during a presentation at the Port Townsend Library, where about 50 people gathered to hear random tales of a bygone time from someone who was there at the creation of some significant cultural milestones.
The “producer” designation isn’t always easily explained, especially today when agents and analysts are given the title as payment for some small contribution to the film.
In some cases, the transition from peon to producer can be meteoric.
Rosen began his work on 1962’s “Mutiny on the Bounty” as the 23rd assistant director who was “bringing coffee to people who had never had coffee brought to them before.” He became the third assistant director only because he was one of the few crew members who didn’t get seasick.
Other advancements depended on chance and circumstance, being in the right place at the right time.
Rosen’s biggest credit could be “Black Sunday,” a disaster movie that was set (and filmed) at the Super Bowl and written by Thomas Harris, who went on to write “The Silence of the Lambs.”
Rosen’s output was diverse, working on “Little Big Man,” “The Crow” and three fractured comedies starring Nielsen.
‘Gilligan’s Island’
But the credit that prompts the most reverent reaction was his work on “Gilligan’s Island,” the lowbrow comedy that “the network didn’t want, but try as they might, they could not kill it.”
Rosen said the CBS network deliberately tried to sabotage the show, which was clearly for children, by showing it at 9 p.m.
Rosen said that “Gilligan’s Island” succeeded because each member of the cast became their character.
Once Rosen said he thought he overheard the cast rehearsing, but it turned out they were just having discussions with each other while staying in character.
Rosen was a close friend of the late Quilcene fire chief Bob Wilson, and served as a fire commissioner for a short time.
He expects to continue and expand his involvement in developing the community center, and will soon raise funds for the construction of an outdoor theater for music and plays.
Rosen stays in touch with many of his Hollywood colleagues, saying “there are a lot of people that I haven’t seen for a while that I would love to have up here and talk.”
However, he has not invited any of them to move to the area, lest it become Hollywood or even Friday Harbor.
“I’m not discouraging anyone from moving up here,” he said.
“But I’m not encouraging them either.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.