Fly By Night: The Secret Story of Steven Spielberg, Warner Bros, and the Twilight Zone Deaths

by Steven Chain

Overview

FLY BY NIGHT is about the helicopter crash on the set of "Twilight Zone: The Movie" – the Warner Bros. film co-produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis – that killed actor Vic Morrow, and two children who had been hired illegally.

Confidential sources in the studios and in the private worlds of Spielberg and Landis – and in the DA's office, the sheriff's office, Interpol and the FBI – and newly uncovered internal Warner Bros. documents – let the author show the cover-up that ensued, a $5-million-dollar scheme to keep Landis out of jail and Spielberg out of the headlines, resulting in an unbelievable acquittal by a jury that had fallen under the spell of Hollywood. From John Huston, Jackie Cooper, Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche to Chevy Chase, George Lucas, Dan Aykroyd and Carrie Fisher, both old and new Hollywood found themselves party to this unprecedented event.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781634243643
Publisher:	Trine Day
Publication date:	04/19/2022
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Steven Chain has been involved in every aspect of publishing, from the mailroom to a top position as a Publisher. He first distinguished himself as a muckraking journalist in the sixties at Ramparts magazine in San Francisco. Then, he worked with Warren Hinckle and Hunter Thompson in a freshly created monthly magazine called Scanlon's. After a short-lived success he went to Japan where he worked for Tokyo's largest magazines covering US military activities related to the Vietnam War and US-Japan Security Agreement. The author then returned to the US where he authored a best-selling psychology textbook in San Diego CA for Psychology Today. Next, after completing a business history of the McDonald's story, with the cooperation of its historic founder, Ray Kroc, he went on to write several other popular books under contract with the New York Publishing industry including Warner, Simon&Schuster, Bantam Books, McGraw Hill, and others. After accumulating valuable experience in shaping a commercially successful publishing project, the author evolved into a book packager with extensive ties to his New York clients with whom he published various titles spanning subject matter from health and nutrition to celebrity bios to financial planning. The author has worked in publishing in LA, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Minneapolis. He has worked successfully with the NY Times Syndicate, ABC's Good Morning America, and numerous local and national news media outlets. He graduated with a BA in Psychology from the University of California Santa Cruz.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1) Cold to the Touch 5

2) A Script is Born 9

3) Night for Night 14

4) The "Vietnamese" 21

5) "Ladies and Gentlemen, Vic Morrow!" 28

6) Schlock! 36

Century City

7) Ghosts from the Twilight Zone 61

8) Fly By Night 66

9) The Universal Bungalow 71

10) Silent Screening 77

11) Eulogy from a Stranger 83

12) Lunch at Hamptons 89

13) The Burbank Studios 92

14) More Funerals 98

15) LA Law 101

16) The Phalanx 107

17) The Rashomon Effect 114

18) Naked Broken Barbie Doll 121

19) The Powdermen 128

20) Hollywood Friends 138

21) "Oh My God, Cover it Up!" 146

22) The Making of DOCU/2:00 151

23) Summer of Spielberg 160

24) Audition at Franklin Canyon 165

25) Petty Cash 173

26) Spies Like Us 177

27) Studio Secrets 190

28) Wall of Fire 196

29) The Switch Theory 200

30) Nite-Sun 206

31) Dr. Fantasy 212

32) A Plea for Alan Smithee 223

33) Friendly Witnesses 234

34) The Propman 243

35) "The Son of a Bitch is crazy" 248

36) A Green Card for Trudy 258

37) Mrs. Beasly's Cookies 263

38) A Basic Truth of Filmmaking 273

39) Mock Jurors 277

City of Angels

40) A Southerner in Hollywood 287

41) The Dragon Lady 296

42) The Spielberg Letter 300

43) A Pigeon for "The Plan." 309

44) The Secret of the Baby Dummies 320

45) The Arnie Klein Show 334

46) "Malatropisms" 339

47) "Frank Knew What the Money Was For" 348

48) Schande for the Goyim 355

49) The Stumble 365

50) "Hello, Wingo" 375

51) A Safe Distance Away 386

52) The Liar's List 393

53) Last Rites 406

54) "It Ended Like a Frank Capra Movie" 409

Epilogue 417

Index 419