TELEPHONE INTERVIEW / INTERVIEW — TAPE #19, SIDE #2
Q: Mark Russell Bell
M: Maxine Mc Wethy (the mother in Centrahoma, Oklahoma)
I: Marie Todd (friend)
Q: “. . . as the ‘snowman,’ the ogre, giants, etc. In heraldry, the image takes the form of the supporter of an escutcheon, when its significance becomes analogous to that of the animals that normally fulfill this function — that is, they express, by virtue of their bilateral symmetry, the counterbalancing of base forces, while sustaining certain spiritual and sublimating elements (the heraldic symbols themselves). Sometimes one finds Wild Women of similar aspect and similar significance. Frazer has described some folklore customs which are unquestionably related to this fabulous woman . . .”
( . . . )
Q: Another memory I had in elementary school was of stepping on a nail in the playground. Michael, my brother, once gave me a book, H.R. Giger’s Necronomicon—I think it was a Christmas present—and some time after that I opened it up and saw something I hadn’t seen or, at least, noticed before. Apparently, Dali himself had signed it and written an inscription for Giger in my copy of the book. I don’t know if this happened before or after I received it. I’m not even sure if he did any autograph sessions for the book or not. I have a feeling it happened after I was given it.
[TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: WHEN I CONTACTED H.R. GIGER’S WEBMASTER, THOMAS RIEHN, IN DECEMBER 1997 VIA EMAIL, I WAS ADVISED THAT THIS DRAWING IS IN EVERY NECRONOMICON 1.]
Q: Also, for Christmas, 1993, Michael gave me a Dali wall calendar. Another incident I remember was once when I went shopping I came home and my next-door neighbor, Ravi, told me that while I had been away four policemen had come to my door because somebody had reported someone firing a bebe gun off the patio. Then, I thought, “Oh, they must have gone to the wrong condo.” But this could be something the spirit of an eight-year-old boy would do. Other strange things that I’ve experienced was the night before one of the earthquakes, my other next door neighbor’s black cat regurgitated right outside my sliding glass door. That was the big one. Several times I’ve had precognition of earthquakes — basically, I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep. In retrospect, it seemed like I was expecting something to happen because it’s very rare that I have trouble sleeping. In terms of the Methodist ministers in my family, during the time of the first Bell case, principal families included Rev. James and Rev. Thomas Gunn, who were the pioneers of Methodism there.
On Friday, August 18th after my return from Oklahoma in that period right before I began feeling overwhelmed, when I was looking for a sound facility that could help me hear the strange messages and sounds on my tapes I called Group IV Recording. I explained that I needed help and the sales representative I spoke to answered his phone saying, “This is Angel.” He referred me to the facility 52nd Street and I was directed to call back — and when I called there I was directed to call back Monday by Peter Thomas and at that time I could speak to Chris Solem. But, because I was dealing with microcassettes, it wasn’t something that they could help me with. James mentioned that once Fiona had unexpectedly received a deposit to her bank account — $6,000, I think. She told me that a famous actor may have given it to her but I consider that phenomena because, after all, He can work through people’s subconscious minds. I remember my camera became missing around the time I moved to Echo Park and I had thought my painter had stolen it; now I’m not so sure. My doormats kept disappearing and reappearing in the time just before I went to Oklahoma.
On several nights upon my return I heard strange, unearthly music — including at around 1:50 a.m. Friday August 18th, which created another parallel with something I had read about the Bell Witch case. That night, as I lay in bed, I was aware of some kind of electrical energy emanating from me. There was a sensation along the inside of my lower left leg and I think I weighed a few pounds less the next morning. I was scared that I was changing into something else like in that movie “The Fly” with Jeff Goldblum. This was another experience that led me to the belief that I was, in fact, the reincarnation of Jesus Christ the following morning.
I read in my The Columbia Viking Desk Encyclopedia a timeline that suggested the possibility that he could have been approximately my age when he started his ministry. I couldn’t get that flying saucer scene from “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” out of my mind (I had not seen the entire movie but saw this scene peeking into an auditorium at a triplex). Anyway, I had to immediately find out if I could cure people like the character played by Ellen Burstyn in “Resurrection.” So I said hello and shook the hands of a neighbor I sometimes see. I think he has muscular dystrophy. I told him what I had wanted to tell him for a long time — that I think he’s great and he told me his name. It might have been Rodrigo. Needless to say, no miracle occurred with him and several others I tried to heal by the laying on of hands. Miracles are something only God can accomplish.
When I called Michael, my brother, and told him I believed I was the reincarnation of Jesus — one of the things I said was, “I don’t understand what this means.” He replied, “Judgement Day.” He was joking but I said, “Oh my God, that’s a big job. My contact lens just fell out.” Occasionally, when I mention Judgement Day, a contact lens falls out and I have disposable lenses that haven’t done this more than a few times over many years. Anyway, after my brother replied “Judgement Day” and I made my response, he then said, “Who told you that?” I replied, “You did.” Michael is here with me. (“YOU KNOW”) I know that. I just wish — anyway. Around that time I called my friend Larry and told him my feelings and suspicion of a shared ancestry. I asked him to find out if there were any unexplained aspects to his father’s illness. Before his retirement, he had worked in some kind of secret service in Oklahoma, I think. I also asked Larry to find out if his father knew anything about Coalgate and UFOs. Larry had been the unit publicist on “Fire in the Sky.” I told Larry to be careful because I didn’t want the CIA showing up on my doorstep and that we are constantly being judged by a power that could destroy our world in an instant.
During James’s first visit to my condo after I returned from Oklahoma, he opened up a Carson McCullers book of short stories on my shelf and the page he opened it to was the beginning of the story “The Aliens.” Before my trip, the synchronicity placed two unsupervised children in front of my car when they tried to cross the street during a yellow light and I almost killed them; it was my message that we are not in control of our lives. I know if I had killed them my life would have been destroyed. This Higher Power seems to determine our predicaments and the road we take in relationship to our own choices. I was reminded about this the week after returning home when I was confronted by a sign on an ice cream truck that said, “WATCH OUT FOR CHILDREN.” The truck goes down our block almost every day yet I never had a close look at the sign before. I remember in Las Vegas I once saw a man with a stupendous pile of $100 black chips at a blackjack table. That was definitely Michael. And both my brother and I have had royal flushes on poker machines at the Rio but all in all, like everyone else, we have lost more than we won. I won’t gamble with the Spirit any more but I would go to Vegas for the weekend or something for a short vacation to relax and maybe see one of the shows. Come to think of it, I probably would end up at one of the slot machines or blackjack tables. [2021 Update: The only vacation I've had was when I visited relatives in Pennsylvania. After many more life experiences it has become apparent in regard to 'synchronicity' that chance or other people's actions seem to be factors. The definitive incident in this regard occurred several years ago when my car was struck from behind by a Hummer. The back of my Prius was smashed although I wasn't severely injured.] Everything I can tell you, you already know — yet my story is a demonstration of these truths. Before my trip, I thought I was joking at the time I quipped to James that one doesn’t choose, himself, to write a new Testament for mankind. This title was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office on May 18, 1995. The work consisted of my historical account of talking poltergeists and the novella-style version of “Wonder of the World.” A few months before going to Oklahoma, I went to my friend Andy’s Santa Monica apartment building for dinner and a big fire broke out on the floor just below almost immediately after I arrived. Someone told me it belonged to the son of Sidney Sheinberg and someone had died in the fire. I also remember when I returned home from seeing “The Godfather, Part III” a smoke alarm in my condo was blaring. I also had thought it strange when I told my mother about my trip to Oklahoma and she started weeping, saying, “You’ll find a new family.” Immediately following my return to Los Angeles, during a telephone conversation with my mother I asked Michael to give her some money so she would believe in him. Possibly, moments later she went to her mailbox and found a deposit record that money had been put into her account because she called me back a few minutes later and was asking strange things such as whether or not I knew the name of her bank. Even if something like this happened to her, she would never admit it.
While working at Paramount, I occasionally thought it was strange how I could always meet my publicity assignment deadlines, no matter how much work I was given. I would go around saying, “My internal clock is broken.” I remember when Arthur Cohen came to the studio to be president of marketing. I went out of my way to make him feel welcome at the party where we were introduced to him but he was never as friendly as Barry London or Sidney Ganis had been to me although I had been just as valuable a resource for him as I had been for them. It might be that he’s just shy but when someone won’t even say “hello” to you in the elevator, you just know they’re from Madison Avenue or haven’t read enough Dickens. At my condo, I take every precaution possible against any kind of insect infestation yet these have occurred during brief periods. There have been swarms of flies. I once was horrified to see a beetle crawl in front of the TV while I was watching “Twin Peaks.” Once, ants started coming out of an electrical outlet. Worst of all were two brief plagues of cockroaches. I guess everyone has experienced these things upon occasion.
The most memorable instance of these events was once when a six-inches-long centipede came in through a heating duct while I happened to be glancing in that direction. There was a parallel to this in the Bell Witch case. I think Michael is the ultimate voyeur. “Rear Window,” “Vertigo” and “Sliver” were Paramount releases. Unfortunately, with each new clue or revelation Michael shows me, this New Age true-life mystery/adventure/ cybersex New Age romance only gets more baffling — from my early Blue Cross correspondence spelling the city as Los Angel to Fiona mentioning to me about turning on channel three to hear transmissions from other galaxies. Probably one of the most memorable incidents was on Halloween. I was driving home from therapy and a KROQ DJ said, “Uh oh, I’m hearing those voices again: “Beautiful Boy — your mind has a beautiful taste.” On November 16th after the second therapy session I taped, I went to lunch with my brother and he said that, “God has existed for all eternity and time is circular.” I dropped by the Martin Lawrence Gallery after that and Kostabi paintings flew off the wall. I occasionally cry into my pillow at night about the most ridiculous things, such as the fact that Michael doesn’t have someone more perfect than I to help Him with his book and prove His love.
My own weaknesses break my heart. I just can’t seem to let go of my ego although I don’t even really know what an ego is. Michael is always there to pick me up each time I fall. I just wish I didn’t do that so much. I lose faith in myself all the time but I don’t think He does. I think we each have to earn a place in His heart. When I consider how little I have suffered in life it is very hard to bear. Especially when so many of my friends are sick. I don’t want to be the one who takes away people’s sweet dreams about Jesus although the truth is that nobody else is there to redeem us. We must each do that for ourselves. Everything in this book I would change if I could. Why did you have to change me? Why couldn’t you accept me for the way I was? Why ask why? All those Egyptian gods. All those spirits in Oklahoma. Are you a split personality/We/Us because you can’t bear the thought of being alone? I got your joke in “Berlin Alexanderplatz.” I’m not Franz. I’m Mieze. You’re Reinhold. Everyone else is Franz.
( . . . )
Q: (sighs) Well, it’s a day later since I last talked into the tape recorder but I felt since this book is about total honesty I just had to record my thoughts. Last night I was transcribing — I’m up to tape #3, side #2, where I can hear a voice telling me I’ll die — which we all die. (“IT”) Even though it’s the whispery voice and it’s a voice that I don’t know if it’s what I should listen to or not. No matter — even though God has revealed Himself to me and shown Himself to be love incarnate, I still am very afraid of death. I don’t want to miss out on anything, I guess, in our world. I’m reminded there’s a difference between feeling and thinking. He leads us in life to experience certain events and meet people and I just don’t know what He expects of me. It seems like all the people in my life who I’ve been close to have left my life—in terms of my romantic involvements—for one reason or another. One person who made a sexual advance soon came down with cancer and died. Right now there’s an acquaintance I’m attracted to but I don’t know — I mean everyone is supposed to be an aspect of God so I don’t know what I want. I guess I just have to do what I’ve been talking about and that’s just put my trust in Him and intuitively do what I think He wants me to do and not to think so much about these things — and not torture myself over whether or not I’m doing the right thing all the time because somehow He’ll turn it into the right thing. Am I making any sense at all?
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: WHAT FOLLOWS WAS MEANT TO GO HERE ON THIS TAPE SIDE YET ON NOVEMBER 22ND I TAPED ON THE WRONG SIDE, ERASING WHAT HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY RECORDED ON THE FINAL PORTION OF TAPE #19, SIDE #1.)
Q: Good morning, Michael. I got up early today — oh my goodness, it’s five o’clock — a day later — to record some of my impressions. I haven’t made notes or anything. I’m just talking into my tape recorder again. The more I think about it the more I’m convinced that — even though I use the word Michael for God most of the time I really sincerely believe that Michael from Oklahoma, (“THIS”) the poltergeist/angel is definitely not God but He’s just a tool of God kind of like those disgruntled angels in “Berlin Alexanderplatz.” So thank you, Michael. I’m no longer in love with you quite the way I was when I thought you were God but you’re a good sport for putting up with me. I just hope you don’t watch me when I’m in the bathroom and stuff like that. I mean you know. It’s a hard job but someone has to do it. So yesterday was my first hour that I spent as a listener at the Southern California HIV/AIDS Hotline. Of course, my first call was an identical twin and almost before I realized what I was doing or saying I was telling the caller about cell transfer therapy because she started telling me that her husband was an identical twin and his identical twin was down to five T-cells. And this was something that we had never really discussed in class but it was something that I knew about, having seen a show on “Oprah” about it. So I was recommending it and Julie, who was observing me, freaked because I don’t think she knew much about it and she thought it was experimental. And I freaked too because when I mentioned it I hadn’t even really found out if the brothers were both amenable to doing this because you don’t want to raise people’s hope and then have the brother not be willing to do this. You have to be down to around fifty T-cells before they’re willing to do this.
Anyway, it all ended alright because even though I got the usual “We’ll talk after this conversation later” I ended the call after giving them the number for the Centers for Disease Control and telling the caller to get more information there. I learned the caller had heard of cellular therapy too and that was, in fact, the basis for her call. The minute I heard twin I sort of knew this so I guess I was following my intuition. So Julie and Faith sort of let it go. It might be something that they weren’t that familiar with but it was definitely something that in my heart I knew I had to discuss with this caller. I was a little nervous after that — it was just sort of surprising but I guess I shouldn’t be too much surprised by anything that happens because there are so many different ways of proving love. I am reminded of the miniseries “Tales of the City” that was on PBS. For some reason they can’t find funding to do the sequel — I can’t imagine why this is the case because that was definitely one of the best shows I’ve seen on TV in a long time. Have you noticed that a lot of the best films are television shows? “Forrest Gump” was nice but, for example, the “Mystery” presentation “A Dark Occluded Eye” was much better acted, better written, better directed — I mean there’s really no comparison in terms of substance. However, back to “Tales of the City.” Soon, hopefully,
I’ll pass my test and get to work on the Hotline — it reminds me a lot of the protagonist in that miniseries and I better understand why they had the “Vertigo” beginning even though it’s hard to articulate why exactly. I do very much identify with that character who was played by Laura Linney, who is also in Paramount’s “Congo” and “Primal Fear.” “Forrest Gump” was really unusual. (“WAS”) I had done all this work on “Forrest Gump” as a publicist. I had $20,000 in billings on this film alone. I edited the press kit and did special features, including for the Academy Award campaign for the make-up nomination. It was nominated for an Oscar for make-up and I think that if I hadn’t put that information together for the Academy branch they might have been overlooked. Some journalists thought that was a very unexpected nomination. I didn’t, though, because there is a lot of make-up in that film. It’s so good that you don’t even realize how much there is. But it takes a publicist to help point these things out sometimes.
For many weeks I was doing news release after news release about the grosses and this was not easy. You have to be very meticulous and I know that on one of the early news releases I had handed it in correctly and then one of the other publicists had made a mistake with the producers’ names. So when you’re a freelancer, sometimes mistakes do occur that you’re not quite in control of, and you never know if you get blamed for them — well, I guess I wasn’t blamed for this one because I did so much work on the film. But when the film did win the campaign of the year award at the Publicist’s Guild luncheon they did name eight publicists but I wasn’t one of them. I don’t know if the reason is because you can only have eight people but I really felt, being a publicist — and Shaylee Dunn wasn’t mentioned either when she had done a lot of work as a publicist even though she’s more in the trailer area of the campaign. But she’s still a publicist and it just seemed like we had both been overlooked. Even though I was mentioned and that was very nice. In fact, sometimes when someone is slighted like that, they spend more time thanking you. So I really didn’t feel slighted because Blaise was very nice. He talked more about me than anything else about the film. This was another case of the writer not really being given the credit due, which is what happens a lot in Hollywood. I think the recent move by the writers to get their credit in a better position than the producers is very well-deserved. I mean I can’t imagine any producer wanting to be given more credit for a film than the writer who conceived it. If not for the writer the producers wouldn’t be making so much money. I’m not going to get started about that again. I just feel I had been slighted. For example, the publicists in the photo department were mentioned on the award so it seemed like a wide-ranging group of people that were included. And just the fact that I wasn’t on staff but a freelancer shouldn’t make a difference because I was doing the same work.
This seems important to mention in keeping with this book’s themes of people going unnoticed who contribute to others’ success and how difficult it is to understand why certain people are overlooked. Maybe Michael will prove talkative when I listen to this tape later. I appreciate the fact that he’s not talking to me directly like Joan of Arc and people like that — she was burned at the stake as a witch. I’m sure people would love to have an excuse to say, “He’s schizophrenic. He hears voices and —” You know? I don’t hear voices. I mean I wish he would be more direct in talking to me like the family in Oklahoma but maybe for physical reasons he can’t do that here. I mean maybe there needs to be a house set up like the one in Oklahoma. And there’s no Ark of the Covenant around so the Spirit(s) can’t really use that to communicate. I guess that’s why I’m getting the silent treatment. I’m sure he could communicate with me telepathically but then I’d be judged to be hearing voices and probably find myself back at CPC Alhambra. Probably lobotomies are still being performed somewhere in the United States. (“YOU KNOW”) That’s such an easy way of shutting up people who really scare you.
I’m sure there are a lot of people who think that they’re Jesus and nothing happens to them. They’re just considered eccentric but when people start believing you is when they get frightened. So, anyway, we’ll see if I can get those tapes from Alhambra. The billing from Blue Cross is still a mess and I’ve received all these bills from the ambulance company even though when my brother made arrangements for me to go to Alhambra nobody had ordered or requested an ambulance. They sent me something to sign saying that I would be responsible to pay for it if my insurance didn’t pay for it. Of course, I wouldn’t sign something like that because I don’t want to be responsible for paying for something that wasn’t authorized by anyone in the first place.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THIS PORTION ENDS TAPE #19, SIDE #1. SIDE #2 CONTINUES WITH A CONVERSATION WITH MAXINE.)
Q: Hi. I just called to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
M: Well, that’s sweet of you.
Q: Is the family all going to be together tomorrow?
M: Yeah.
Q: At whose house?
M: Mine.
Q: I’ve been getting up early and recording various observations because there’s so much on my mind. I never know if what I hear on the tape are warnings or if the spirits are leading me to think certain things just to see what I’ll do. Some of the messages are difficult to interpret. It’s a lot to deal with but I’ve given my life over to God and just will let things happen the way they are supposed to happen. And if anything does happen to me I wanted you to know too that I I’ve taken special precautions (“GOOD”) that the book will be in good hands. You just never know.
M: Uh-huh. (“ONE OF THE” “NO”)
Q: One of the voices said that I was going to die, which is something we all have to do. He didn’t say when.
M: Ooh.
Q: I know.
M: That’s kind of spooky.
Q: Well, that’s what He said about Bill though too and Bill’s still around. So, hopefully, I’ll still be around to finish the book.
M: Yeah, I hope so.
Q: I finished the first draft. It’s just a matter of fine-tuning it. Whenever it’s done it’s done. And I have been able to differentiate between Michael the angel and God because for a while I was wondering if he might be God’s alter ego. Like in the movie “Barbarella” or something. Did you ever see that movie?
M: Huh-uh.
Q: I didn’t think so. (“YOU DID”) Oh, by the way, did you know that the angel Michael is gay?
M: Is that right?
Q: Isn’t that weird? (“YOU BET”) I think it was one of the messages on tape #4, side #1. I was just sort of surprised. I usually can distinguish the background noises from the unattributed sounds but I only mention them in the transcript when I come up with a possible description of each one. For example, on tape #3, side #2 there was a lot of hammering going on. I think that was your outer door being fixed.
M: Could have been. Yeah.
Q: I remember that was going on that day so that wasn’t a spirit noise. Have you had any more phenomena?
M: Yeah. I had a great big old bowl of dressing that I fixed up. Me and Twyla were standing in here. She was holding Kim’s baby. And at about that time something went all over us. He threw that cornbread dressing all over us. That was about an hour ago.
Q: He seems to be very precocious with you.
M: So what are you doing for Thanksgiving?
Q: My mom doesn’t want to have Thanksgiving this year so I’m just going out with my brother and two friends.
M: Well, that’s good.
Q: It’ll be fun. So everything’s great. Has Twyla had any phenomena?
M: Yeah. Last night we did again.
Q: What happened?
M: Steve was in the living room sitting with Megan, trying to get her to sleep. We got the kids to bed and sat up until after twelve but I went on to bed and Twyla went in there and got in bed. He started throwing things at us. We never could find anything.
Q You heard the noises but didn’t see anything?
M: Well, something hit the bed but we couldn’t find anything.
Q: When I turned on the radio this morning, a disc jockey was mentioning that there had been a UFO sighting somewhere in the Midwest or something but he didn’t really go into detail.
M: Really?
Q: And I didn’t see anything in the newspaper. So that kind of makes me wonder what’s going on too. Did I tell you that I saw a UFO?
M: Um-uh.
Q: Over (“YEAH”) near Dodger Stadium. That’ll be in my book. One of the many, many —
M: I don’t doubt it.
Q: Oh, did you have any luck with that family tree?
M: Yeah, I’ve got it. She sent it to me but it’s got page one, two, four and five.
Q: There’s no page three?
M: Uh-uh. But I called Carlton’s cousin that lives in Edmond, Oklahoma. And she’s put all our names and grandkids and everything down on a computer and hers is updated so she’s going to send it to me after Thanksgiving. I’ll send you a copy of that.
Q: Is there any way of hurrying that up a little bit? If they’re 8 x 11″ you can give them to Twyla to have her husband fax them to me. Although it would be better to mail it to me because I have a wet paper fax machine.
M: Well, her oldest son is getting married around Thanksgiving so they’re going to Texas for that.
Q: Well, that’s okay. (“YEAH”) It’ll come when it comes and it’s no big deal anyway, frankly.
M: She’s said it’d be after Thanksgiving. She’ll send it to me.
Q: Will you maybe send it to me overnight or two-day mail?
M: Sure.
Q: Okay. What about that book I recommended to you? Did you have any luck finding that?
M: I haven’t even been anywhere.
Q: Oh. (“OH”) It’s going to be hard to find. Well, have a good Thanksgiving.
M: Oh, you, too. Tell your brother I said, “Hi.”
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING TAPED CONVERSATION IS WITH MY FRIEND MARIE.)
Q: Even though my subscription to Variety expired a month ago, I’m still getting it and today I noticed that “Welcome to Jericho” is now being called “Last Man Standing.”
I: Oh cool.
Q: I just got off the phone with my mom.
I: I didn’t get today’s Variety.
Q: It just says “Last Man Standing” (formerly “Welcome to Jericho”). It’s just in their film production chart. I just happened to notice it. Anyway, I just called my mom and she started her usual routine. So I put down the phone and I went downstairs —
I: Did she start ranting?
Q: Yeah. So I went down to get your number and when I came back and picked up the receiver a few minutes later she was still ranting.
I: Well, people like that just do monologues. I do the same thing when I’m on the phone with somebody like that. I put it down, go do whatever it is I need to do and come back and they’re still on the same speech. They don’t even know you aren’t there.
Q: Guess what happened? I came back and picked up the phone and she said, “I guess you can’t stand the truth when you hear it.” And I said, “Well, it doesn’t really matter because I just went downstairs and came back.” So she said, “You’re lying.” And I said, “Well, why?” And she replied, “Because I heard you breathing.” I said, “Oh, well, that was Michael.”
I: So then what did she say?
Q: She didn’t know what to say. I said, “Do you hear me breathing now?” I had mentioned the fact that I received a call from my Uncle Bob’s wife, Jeanne, and (“YEAH”) she wanted our addresses because one of our uncles’ wife died suddenly and for some reason he wanted to get in touch with us. That’s what Jeanne said, anyway. So my mom asked, “Well, do you tell them about Michael — meaning the angel. And I had to be honest and I said, “Yes.”
I: So what did she say to that?
Q: She said that I had taken away the last little bit of self-respect she had in being part of the Russell family.
I: In you and your brother, you mean?
Q: I guess. I don’t know where she’s coming from.
I: I think she’s probably flustered because you’re having contact with your father and that she —
Q: That’s true.
I: — can’t have any kind of human relationship with him.
Q: That’s probably it.
I: That’s probably why. She probably feels betrayed and angry that she’s not controlling — you know how they get.
Q: It was so funny because (“YOU KNOW”) I firmly concluded that Michael the angel is different from God and then when something like this happens it makes me wonder. Today, I went to the gym in Glendale and, as I was going to the parking lot, a dime fell on the sidewalk. I’m used to picking them up and putting them in my pocket. But then I sort of began resenting it (“YOU KNOW”) driving home so I just threw it out the window because I don’t need to be patronized with dimes and pennies. (“YOU KNOW”) I’m happy just to be alive but — you know.
I: You feel like you’re awareness is insulted or something because you don’t need to be reminded in that way.
Q: Right.
I: Well, that makes sense.
Q: And guess what? (“YEAH”) I told this to Maxine today too but apparently Michael the angel is gay. I can’t quite figure that one out. So, anyway, I just wanted to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
I: Happy Thanksgiving to you too.
Q: Have you had anything else interesting happen since we last spoke?
I: Since I saw you on Sunday? Not really.
Q: I thought it was interesting what you were mentioning to me about the costume for that movie.
I: Oh, “Barbarella”?
Q: I meant “Last Man Standing” but I was thinking about “Barbarella” too. In fact, I mentioned that movie to Maxine today.
I: Oh, it’s wonderful.
Q: Why did you bring it up just now? What parallels do you see with the phenomena (“YEAH”) and “Barbarella”?
I: You started talking about costumes in that movie and there’s the angel that flies Jane Fonda around in “Barbarella.” And Duran-Duran and all —
Q: And what about — I vaguely remember the duality of the evil queen. What other character did the same actress play because it’s been so long since I’ve seen the movie? Didn’t the same actress play two different characters?
I: I’m having a mental block at the moment.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: “BARBARELLA” WAS RELEASED IN THE UNITED STATES BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES.)
I: I’ve been watching “The Wizard of Oz” that was done at Lincoln Center with Roger Daltrey, Jackson Browne and all these people on the TV so my music head’s bending in another direction at the moment.
Q: Are you going to see your family tomorrow?
I: No, I’m going to see “Toy Story” with some friends in the morning. And then I’m going to a dinner party in West Hollywood later in the afternoon.
Q: That sounds like fun.
I: I’m just going to social butterfly around with different people. How about yourself?
Q: Marie, what I was going to mention to you too is that — remember when you mentioned to me about the costumes in that film that was formerly titled “Welcome to Jericho”? Didn’t you mention (“YEAH”) that you were the only one that they let wear silver or something?
I: Oh, I had this necklace. I love old jewelry. I think it’s fascinating they gave me different jewelry and this one necklace was silver with black and I think maybe it had some pearl in it. It was antiquey and enchanted-looking to match the era of the movie. Ruby, the wardrobe lady, said that I was the only person she put in silver. So I thought that was kind of fun. It’s more mystical jewelry. I love mystical jewelry.
Q: I sort of wish they hadn’t changed the title because “Last Man Standing” is a lot more ominous than “Welcome to Jericho.”
I: The Steven Segal movie I worked on, “Out for Justice” — when I was working on it the working title was “The Price of Our Blood.”
Q: So you never know what the final title will be.
I: When I auditioned it was called “Gundown” and then the title got changed to “Welcome to Jericho” and now it’s “Last Man Standing.” (“HMM”) It might change again.
Q: Did you hear that John Travolta is going to star in a movie about an angel named Michael in a film about journalists who go and find this angel living in a small, rural town in Iowa. I read about it in the trades. And I think that William Hurt, (“YOU KNOW”) who was in “Altered States,” is also going to be in it.
I: Oh, that should be great. Who’s directing it?
Q: I can’t remember. I was going to say Penny Marshall but she’s doing something else. She’s doing a remake of “The Bishop’s Wife” which also had an angel named Michael in it. (“YOU KNOW”) It’s just interesting that there are all these different projects that tie-in with my case. And have you heard that new Beatles song — that’s right, you said you weren’t going to rush out to get that.
I: No, but I saw “The Beatles Anthology” on television and then they played the song “Free as a Bird” on the news right after that.
Q: What did you think?
I: I liked it.
Q: What is the song about?
I: Well, you know, being free. And that same Sunday I went to an art exhibit at Hotel Nico in Beverly Hills that featured the art of John Lennon. (“DID AN”)
Q: Anything impress you particularly or —
I: There’s a lot of humor in his artwork. It was very whimsical. That’s what I liked about it. There were also lyric sheets and artwork from his ‘Bag One’ — I believe that’s what it’s called — portfolio from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There was maybe eighty different pieces there of various things.
Q: I haven’t been getting out much. When I first came back from Oklahoma and started telling people various things I said, “Well, this is really going to kill my social life.” And I couldn’t have been more right. Not that I really mind because what I’m doing is so interesting — working on the book.
I: Well, you’ve been having a social life with all the people you’ve been interviewing for your book.
Q: That’s right. (“HUH”)
I: That’s communication.
Q: And I have Michael communicating to me on the tapes. So that’s interesting. Anyway, I’m in heaven. That’s one of the strange things. Even though life is sort of a hell when you think of homeless people and the problems in the world, once you’ve seen this love our world becomes heaven because you know it’s there. The hard part is how to convey this love to other people and trying to motivate others. Some people make the mistake of thinking that the best way of serving God is by communicating a particular belief system to others. God isn’t best served by making some ministry richer. You help God when you assist in some way people in need, our planet or its many wondrous life forms.
( . . . )
Q: Another memory I had in elementary school was of stepping on a nail in the playground. Michael, my brother, once gave me a book, H.R. Giger’s Necronomicon—I think it was a Christmas present—and some time after that I opened it up and saw something I hadn’t seen or, at least, noticed before. Apparently, Dali himself had signed it and written an inscription for Giger in my copy of the book. I don’t know if this happened before or after I received it. I’m not even sure if he did any autograph sessions for the book or not. I have a feeling it happened after I was given it.
[TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: WHEN I CONTACTED H.R. GIGER’S WEBMASTER, THOMAS RIEHN, IN DECEMBER 1997 VIA EMAIL, I WAS ADVISED THAT THIS DRAWING IS IN EVERY NECRONOMICON 1.]
Q: Also, for Christmas, 1993, Michael gave me a Dali wall calendar. Another incident I remember was once when I went shopping I came home and my next-door neighbor, Ravi, told me that while I had been away four policemen had come to my door because somebody had reported someone firing a bebe gun off the patio. Then, I thought, “Oh, they must have gone to the wrong condo.” But this could be something the spirit of an eight-year-old boy would do. Other strange things that I’ve experienced was the night before one of the earthquakes, my other next door neighbor’s black cat regurgitated right outside my sliding glass door. That was the big one. Several times I’ve had precognition of earthquakes — basically, I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep. In retrospect, it seemed like I was expecting something to happen because it’s very rare that I have trouble sleeping. In terms of the Methodist ministers in my family, during the time of the first Bell case, principal families included Rev. James and Rev. Thomas Gunn, who were the pioneers of Methodism there.
On Friday, August 18th after my return from Oklahoma in that period right before I began feeling overwhelmed, when I was looking for a sound facility that could help me hear the strange messages and sounds on my tapes I called Group IV Recording. I explained that I needed help and the sales representative I spoke to answered his phone saying, “This is Angel.” He referred me to the facility 52nd Street and I was directed to call back — and when I called there I was directed to call back Monday by Peter Thomas and at that time I could speak to Chris Solem. But, because I was dealing with microcassettes, it wasn’t something that they could help me with. James mentioned that once Fiona had unexpectedly received a deposit to her bank account — $6,000, I think. She told me that a famous actor may have given it to her but I consider that phenomena because, after all, He can work through people’s subconscious minds. I remember my camera became missing around the time I moved to Echo Park and I had thought my painter had stolen it; now I’m not so sure. My doormats kept disappearing and reappearing in the time just before I went to Oklahoma.
On several nights upon my return I heard strange, unearthly music — including at around 1:50 a.m. Friday August 18th, which created another parallel with something I had read about the Bell Witch case. That night, as I lay in bed, I was aware of some kind of electrical energy emanating from me. There was a sensation along the inside of my lower left leg and I think I weighed a few pounds less the next morning. I was scared that I was changing into something else like in that movie “The Fly” with Jeff Goldblum. This was another experience that led me to the belief that I was, in fact, the reincarnation of Jesus Christ the following morning.
I read in my The Columbia Viking Desk Encyclopedia a timeline that suggested the possibility that he could have been approximately my age when he started his ministry. I couldn’t get that flying saucer scene from “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” out of my mind (I had not seen the entire movie but saw this scene peeking into an auditorium at a triplex). Anyway, I had to immediately find out if I could cure people like the character played by Ellen Burstyn in “Resurrection.” So I said hello and shook the hands of a neighbor I sometimes see. I think he has muscular dystrophy. I told him what I had wanted to tell him for a long time — that I think he’s great and he told me his name. It might have been Rodrigo. Needless to say, no miracle occurred with him and several others I tried to heal by the laying on of hands. Miracles are something only God can accomplish.
When I called Michael, my brother, and told him I believed I was the reincarnation of Jesus — one of the things I said was, “I don’t understand what this means.” He replied, “Judgement Day.” He was joking but I said, “Oh my God, that’s a big job. My contact lens just fell out.” Occasionally, when I mention Judgement Day, a contact lens falls out and I have disposable lenses that haven’t done this more than a few times over many years. Anyway, after my brother replied “Judgement Day” and I made my response, he then said, “Who told you that?” I replied, “You did.” Michael is here with me. (“YOU KNOW”) I know that. I just wish — anyway. Around that time I called my friend Larry and told him my feelings and suspicion of a shared ancestry. I asked him to find out if there were any unexplained aspects to his father’s illness. Before his retirement, he had worked in some kind of secret service in Oklahoma, I think. I also asked Larry to find out if his father knew anything about Coalgate and UFOs. Larry had been the unit publicist on “Fire in the Sky.” I told Larry to be careful because I didn’t want the CIA showing up on my doorstep and that we are constantly being judged by a power that could destroy our world in an instant.
During James’s first visit to my condo after I returned from Oklahoma, he opened up a Carson McCullers book of short stories on my shelf and the page he opened it to was the beginning of the story “The Aliens.” Before my trip, the synchronicity placed two unsupervised children in front of my car when they tried to cross the street during a yellow light and I almost killed them; it was my message that we are not in control of our lives. I know if I had killed them my life would have been destroyed. This Higher Power seems to determine our predicaments and the road we take in relationship to our own choices. I was reminded about this the week after returning home when I was confronted by a sign on an ice cream truck that said, “WATCH OUT FOR CHILDREN.” The truck goes down our block almost every day yet I never had a close look at the sign before. I remember in Las Vegas I once saw a man with a stupendous pile of $100 black chips at a blackjack table. That was definitely Michael. And both my brother and I have had royal flushes on poker machines at the Rio but all in all, like everyone else, we have lost more than we won. I won’t gamble with the Spirit any more but I would go to Vegas for the weekend or something for a short vacation to relax and maybe see one of the shows. Come to think of it, I probably would end up at one of the slot machines or blackjack tables. [2021 Update: The only vacation I've had was when I visited relatives in Pennsylvania. After many more life experiences it has become apparent in regard to 'synchronicity' that chance or other people's actions seem to be factors. The definitive incident in this regard occurred several years ago when my car was struck from behind by a Hummer. The back of my Prius was smashed although I wasn't severely injured.] Everything I can tell you, you already know — yet my story is a demonstration of these truths. Before my trip, I thought I was joking at the time I quipped to James that one doesn’t choose, himself, to write a new Testament for mankind. This title was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office on May 18, 1995. The work consisted of my historical account of talking poltergeists and the novella-style version of “Wonder of the World.” A few months before going to Oklahoma, I went to my friend Andy’s Santa Monica apartment building for dinner and a big fire broke out on the floor just below almost immediately after I arrived. Someone told me it belonged to the son of Sidney Sheinberg and someone had died in the fire. I also remember when I returned home from seeing “The Godfather, Part III” a smoke alarm in my condo was blaring. I also had thought it strange when I told my mother about my trip to Oklahoma and she started weeping, saying, “You’ll find a new family.” Immediately following my return to Los Angeles, during a telephone conversation with my mother I asked Michael to give her some money so she would believe in him. Possibly, moments later she went to her mailbox and found a deposit record that money had been put into her account because she called me back a few minutes later and was asking strange things such as whether or not I knew the name of her bank. Even if something like this happened to her, she would never admit it.
While working at Paramount, I occasionally thought it was strange how I could always meet my publicity assignment deadlines, no matter how much work I was given. I would go around saying, “My internal clock is broken.” I remember when Arthur Cohen came to the studio to be president of marketing. I went out of my way to make him feel welcome at the party where we were introduced to him but he was never as friendly as Barry London or Sidney Ganis had been to me although I had been just as valuable a resource for him as I had been for them. It might be that he’s just shy but when someone won’t even say “hello” to you in the elevator, you just know they’re from Madison Avenue or haven’t read enough Dickens. At my condo, I take every precaution possible against any kind of insect infestation yet these have occurred during brief periods. There have been swarms of flies. I once was horrified to see a beetle crawl in front of the TV while I was watching “Twin Peaks.” Once, ants started coming out of an electrical outlet. Worst of all were two brief plagues of cockroaches. I guess everyone has experienced these things upon occasion.
The most memorable instance of these events was once when a six-inches-long centipede came in through a heating duct while I happened to be glancing in that direction. There was a parallel to this in the Bell Witch case. I think Michael is the ultimate voyeur. “Rear Window,” “Vertigo” and “Sliver” were Paramount releases. Unfortunately, with each new clue or revelation Michael shows me, this New Age true-life mystery/adventure/ cybersex New Age romance only gets more baffling — from my early Blue Cross correspondence spelling the city as Los Angel to Fiona mentioning to me about turning on channel three to hear transmissions from other galaxies. Probably one of the most memorable incidents was on Halloween. I was driving home from therapy and a KROQ DJ said, “Uh oh, I’m hearing those voices again: “Beautiful Boy — your mind has a beautiful taste.” On November 16th after the second therapy session I taped, I went to lunch with my brother and he said that, “God has existed for all eternity and time is circular.” I dropped by the Martin Lawrence Gallery after that and Kostabi paintings flew off the wall. I occasionally cry into my pillow at night about the most ridiculous things, such as the fact that Michael doesn’t have someone more perfect than I to help Him with his book and prove His love.
My own weaknesses break my heart. I just can’t seem to let go of my ego although I don’t even really know what an ego is. Michael is always there to pick me up each time I fall. I just wish I didn’t do that so much. I lose faith in myself all the time but I don’t think He does. I think we each have to earn a place in His heart. When I consider how little I have suffered in life it is very hard to bear. Especially when so many of my friends are sick. I don’t want to be the one who takes away people’s sweet dreams about Jesus although the truth is that nobody else is there to redeem us. We must each do that for ourselves. Everything in this book I would change if I could. Why did you have to change me? Why couldn’t you accept me for the way I was? Why ask why? All those Egyptian gods. All those spirits in Oklahoma. Are you a split personality/We/Us because you can’t bear the thought of being alone? I got your joke in “Berlin Alexanderplatz.” I’m not Franz. I’m Mieze. You’re Reinhold. Everyone else is Franz.
( . . . )
Q: (sighs) Well, it’s a day later since I last talked into the tape recorder but I felt since this book is about total honesty I just had to record my thoughts. Last night I was transcribing — I’m up to tape #3, side #2, where I can hear a voice telling me I’ll die — which we all die. (“IT”) Even though it’s the whispery voice and it’s a voice that I don’t know if it’s what I should listen to or not. No matter — even though God has revealed Himself to me and shown Himself to be love incarnate, I still am very afraid of death. I don’t want to miss out on anything, I guess, in our world. I’m reminded there’s a difference between feeling and thinking. He leads us in life to experience certain events and meet people and I just don’t know what He expects of me. It seems like all the people in my life who I’ve been close to have left my life—in terms of my romantic involvements—for one reason or another. One person who made a sexual advance soon came down with cancer and died. Right now there’s an acquaintance I’m attracted to but I don’t know — I mean everyone is supposed to be an aspect of God so I don’t know what I want. I guess I just have to do what I’ve been talking about and that’s just put my trust in Him and intuitively do what I think He wants me to do and not to think so much about these things — and not torture myself over whether or not I’m doing the right thing all the time because somehow He’ll turn it into the right thing. Am I making any sense at all?
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: WHAT FOLLOWS WAS MEANT TO GO HERE ON THIS TAPE SIDE YET ON NOVEMBER 22ND I TAPED ON THE WRONG SIDE, ERASING WHAT HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY RECORDED ON THE FINAL PORTION OF TAPE #19, SIDE #1.)
Q: Good morning, Michael. I got up early today — oh my goodness, it’s five o’clock — a day later — to record some of my impressions. I haven’t made notes or anything. I’m just talking into my tape recorder again. The more I think about it the more I’m convinced that — even though I use the word Michael for God most of the time I really sincerely believe that Michael from Oklahoma, (“THIS”) the poltergeist/angel is definitely not God but He’s just a tool of God kind of like those disgruntled angels in “Berlin Alexanderplatz.” So thank you, Michael. I’m no longer in love with you quite the way I was when I thought you were God but you’re a good sport for putting up with me. I just hope you don’t watch me when I’m in the bathroom and stuff like that. I mean you know. It’s a hard job but someone has to do it. So yesterday was my first hour that I spent as a listener at the Southern California HIV/AIDS Hotline. Of course, my first call was an identical twin and almost before I realized what I was doing or saying I was telling the caller about cell transfer therapy because she started telling me that her husband was an identical twin and his identical twin was down to five T-cells. And this was something that we had never really discussed in class but it was something that I knew about, having seen a show on “Oprah” about it. So I was recommending it and Julie, who was observing me, freaked because I don’t think she knew much about it and she thought it was experimental. And I freaked too because when I mentioned it I hadn’t even really found out if the brothers were both amenable to doing this because you don’t want to raise people’s hope and then have the brother not be willing to do this. You have to be down to around fifty T-cells before they’re willing to do this.
Anyway, it all ended alright because even though I got the usual “We’ll talk after this conversation later” I ended the call after giving them the number for the Centers for Disease Control and telling the caller to get more information there. I learned the caller had heard of cellular therapy too and that was, in fact, the basis for her call. The minute I heard twin I sort of knew this so I guess I was following my intuition. So Julie and Faith sort of let it go. It might be something that they weren’t that familiar with but it was definitely something that in my heart I knew I had to discuss with this caller. I was a little nervous after that — it was just sort of surprising but I guess I shouldn’t be too much surprised by anything that happens because there are so many different ways of proving love. I am reminded of the miniseries “Tales of the City” that was on PBS. For some reason they can’t find funding to do the sequel — I can’t imagine why this is the case because that was definitely one of the best shows I’ve seen on TV in a long time. Have you noticed that a lot of the best films are television shows? “Forrest Gump” was nice but, for example, the “Mystery” presentation “A Dark Occluded Eye” was much better acted, better written, better directed — I mean there’s really no comparison in terms of substance. However, back to “Tales of the City.” Soon, hopefully,
I’ll pass my test and get to work on the Hotline — it reminds me a lot of the protagonist in that miniseries and I better understand why they had the “Vertigo” beginning even though it’s hard to articulate why exactly. I do very much identify with that character who was played by Laura Linney, who is also in Paramount’s “Congo” and “Primal Fear.” “Forrest Gump” was really unusual. (“WAS”) I had done all this work on “Forrest Gump” as a publicist. I had $20,000 in billings on this film alone. I edited the press kit and did special features, including for the Academy Award campaign for the make-up nomination. It was nominated for an Oscar for make-up and I think that if I hadn’t put that information together for the Academy branch they might have been overlooked. Some journalists thought that was a very unexpected nomination. I didn’t, though, because there is a lot of make-up in that film. It’s so good that you don’t even realize how much there is. But it takes a publicist to help point these things out sometimes.
For many weeks I was doing news release after news release about the grosses and this was not easy. You have to be very meticulous and I know that on one of the early news releases I had handed it in correctly and then one of the other publicists had made a mistake with the producers’ names. So when you’re a freelancer, sometimes mistakes do occur that you’re not quite in control of, and you never know if you get blamed for them — well, I guess I wasn’t blamed for this one because I did so much work on the film. But when the film did win the campaign of the year award at the Publicist’s Guild luncheon they did name eight publicists but I wasn’t one of them. I don’t know if the reason is because you can only have eight people but I really felt, being a publicist — and Shaylee Dunn wasn’t mentioned either when she had done a lot of work as a publicist even though she’s more in the trailer area of the campaign. But she’s still a publicist and it just seemed like we had both been overlooked. Even though I was mentioned and that was very nice. In fact, sometimes when someone is slighted like that, they spend more time thanking you. So I really didn’t feel slighted because Blaise was very nice. He talked more about me than anything else about the film. This was another case of the writer not really being given the credit due, which is what happens a lot in Hollywood. I think the recent move by the writers to get their credit in a better position than the producers is very well-deserved. I mean I can’t imagine any producer wanting to be given more credit for a film than the writer who conceived it. If not for the writer the producers wouldn’t be making so much money. I’m not going to get started about that again. I just feel I had been slighted. For example, the publicists in the photo department were mentioned on the award so it seemed like a wide-ranging group of people that were included. And just the fact that I wasn’t on staff but a freelancer shouldn’t make a difference because I was doing the same work.
This seems important to mention in keeping with this book’s themes of people going unnoticed who contribute to others’ success and how difficult it is to understand why certain people are overlooked. Maybe Michael will prove talkative when I listen to this tape later. I appreciate the fact that he’s not talking to me directly like Joan of Arc and people like that — she was burned at the stake as a witch. I’m sure people would love to have an excuse to say, “He’s schizophrenic. He hears voices and —” You know? I don’t hear voices. I mean I wish he would be more direct in talking to me like the family in Oklahoma but maybe for physical reasons he can’t do that here. I mean maybe there needs to be a house set up like the one in Oklahoma. And there’s no Ark of the Covenant around so the Spirit(s) can’t really use that to communicate. I guess that’s why I’m getting the silent treatment. I’m sure he could communicate with me telepathically but then I’d be judged to be hearing voices and probably find myself back at CPC Alhambra. Probably lobotomies are still being performed somewhere in the United States. (“YOU KNOW”) That’s such an easy way of shutting up people who really scare you.
I’m sure there are a lot of people who think that they’re Jesus and nothing happens to them. They’re just considered eccentric but when people start believing you is when they get frightened. So, anyway, we’ll see if I can get those tapes from Alhambra. The billing from Blue Cross is still a mess and I’ve received all these bills from the ambulance company even though when my brother made arrangements for me to go to Alhambra nobody had ordered or requested an ambulance. They sent me something to sign saying that I would be responsible to pay for it if my insurance didn’t pay for it. Of course, I wouldn’t sign something like that because I don’t want to be responsible for paying for something that wasn’t authorized by anyone in the first place.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THIS PORTION ENDS TAPE #19, SIDE #1. SIDE #2 CONTINUES WITH A CONVERSATION WITH MAXINE.)
Q: Hi. I just called to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
M: Well, that’s sweet of you.
Q: Is the family all going to be together tomorrow?
M: Yeah.
Q: At whose house?
M: Mine.
Q: I’ve been getting up early and recording various observations because there’s so much on my mind. I never know if what I hear on the tape are warnings or if the spirits are leading me to think certain things just to see what I’ll do. Some of the messages are difficult to interpret. It’s a lot to deal with but I’ve given my life over to God and just will let things happen the way they are supposed to happen. And if anything does happen to me I wanted you to know too that I I’ve taken special precautions (“GOOD”) that the book will be in good hands. You just never know.
M: Uh-huh. (“ONE OF THE” “NO”)
Q: One of the voices said that I was going to die, which is something we all have to do. He didn’t say when.
M: Ooh.
Q: I know.
M: That’s kind of spooky.
Q: Well, that’s what He said about Bill though too and Bill’s still around. So, hopefully, I’ll still be around to finish the book.
M: Yeah, I hope so.
Q: I finished the first draft. It’s just a matter of fine-tuning it. Whenever it’s done it’s done. And I have been able to differentiate between Michael the angel and God because for a while I was wondering if he might be God’s alter ego. Like in the movie “Barbarella” or something. Did you ever see that movie?
M: Huh-uh.
Q: I didn’t think so. (“YOU DID”) Oh, by the way, did you know that the angel Michael is gay?
M: Is that right?
Q: Isn’t that weird? (“YOU BET”) I think it was one of the messages on tape #4, side #1. I was just sort of surprised. I usually can distinguish the background noises from the unattributed sounds but I only mention them in the transcript when I come up with a possible description of each one. For example, on tape #3, side #2 there was a lot of hammering going on. I think that was your outer door being fixed.
M: Could have been. Yeah.
Q: I remember that was going on that day so that wasn’t a spirit noise. Have you had any more phenomena?
M: Yeah. I had a great big old bowl of dressing that I fixed up. Me and Twyla were standing in here. She was holding Kim’s baby. And at about that time something went all over us. He threw that cornbread dressing all over us. That was about an hour ago.
Q: He seems to be very precocious with you.
M: So what are you doing for Thanksgiving?
Q: My mom doesn’t want to have Thanksgiving this year so I’m just going out with my brother and two friends.
M: Well, that’s good.
Q: It’ll be fun. So everything’s great. Has Twyla had any phenomena?
M: Yeah. Last night we did again.
Q: What happened?
M: Steve was in the living room sitting with Megan, trying to get her to sleep. We got the kids to bed and sat up until after twelve but I went on to bed and Twyla went in there and got in bed. He started throwing things at us. We never could find anything.
Q You heard the noises but didn’t see anything?
M: Well, something hit the bed but we couldn’t find anything.
Q: When I turned on the radio this morning, a disc jockey was mentioning that there had been a UFO sighting somewhere in the Midwest or something but he didn’t really go into detail.
M: Really?
Q: And I didn’t see anything in the newspaper. So that kind of makes me wonder what’s going on too. Did I tell you that I saw a UFO?
M: Um-uh.
Q: Over (“YEAH”) near Dodger Stadium. That’ll be in my book. One of the many, many —
M: I don’t doubt it.
Q: Oh, did you have any luck with that family tree?
M: Yeah, I’ve got it. She sent it to me but it’s got page one, two, four and five.
Q: There’s no page three?
M: Uh-uh. But I called Carlton’s cousin that lives in Edmond, Oklahoma. And she’s put all our names and grandkids and everything down on a computer and hers is updated so she’s going to send it to me after Thanksgiving. I’ll send you a copy of that.
Q: Is there any way of hurrying that up a little bit? If they’re 8 x 11″ you can give them to Twyla to have her husband fax them to me. Although it would be better to mail it to me because I have a wet paper fax machine.
M: Well, her oldest son is getting married around Thanksgiving so they’re going to Texas for that.
Q: Well, that’s okay. (“YEAH”) It’ll come when it comes and it’s no big deal anyway, frankly.
M: She’s said it’d be after Thanksgiving. She’ll send it to me.
Q: Will you maybe send it to me overnight or two-day mail?
M: Sure.
Q: Okay. What about that book I recommended to you? Did you have any luck finding that?
M: I haven’t even been anywhere.
Q: Oh. (“OH”) It’s going to be hard to find. Well, have a good Thanksgiving.
M: Oh, you, too. Tell your brother I said, “Hi.”
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING TAPED CONVERSATION IS WITH MY FRIEND MARIE.)
Q: Even though my subscription to Variety expired a month ago, I’m still getting it and today I noticed that “Welcome to Jericho” is now being called “Last Man Standing.”
I: Oh cool.
Q: I just got off the phone with my mom.
I: I didn’t get today’s Variety.
Q: It just says “Last Man Standing” (formerly “Welcome to Jericho”). It’s just in their film production chart. I just happened to notice it. Anyway, I just called my mom and she started her usual routine. So I put down the phone and I went downstairs —
I: Did she start ranting?
Q: Yeah. So I went down to get your number and when I came back and picked up the receiver a few minutes later she was still ranting.
I: Well, people like that just do monologues. I do the same thing when I’m on the phone with somebody like that. I put it down, go do whatever it is I need to do and come back and they’re still on the same speech. They don’t even know you aren’t there.
Q: Guess what happened? I came back and picked up the phone and she said, “I guess you can’t stand the truth when you hear it.” And I said, “Well, it doesn’t really matter because I just went downstairs and came back.” So she said, “You’re lying.” And I said, “Well, why?” And she replied, “Because I heard you breathing.” I said, “Oh, well, that was Michael.”
I: So then what did she say?
Q: She didn’t know what to say. I said, “Do you hear me breathing now?” I had mentioned the fact that I received a call from my Uncle Bob’s wife, Jeanne, and (“YEAH”) she wanted our addresses because one of our uncles’ wife died suddenly and for some reason he wanted to get in touch with us. That’s what Jeanne said, anyway. So my mom asked, “Well, do you tell them about Michael — meaning the angel. And I had to be honest and I said, “Yes.”
I: So what did she say to that?
Q: She said that I had taken away the last little bit of self-respect she had in being part of the Russell family.
I: In you and your brother, you mean?
Q: I guess. I don’t know where she’s coming from.
I: I think she’s probably flustered because you’re having contact with your father and that she —
Q: That’s true.
I: — can’t have any kind of human relationship with him.
Q: That’s probably it.
I: That’s probably why. She probably feels betrayed and angry that she’s not controlling — you know how they get.
Q: It was so funny because (“YOU KNOW”) I firmly concluded that Michael the angel is different from God and then when something like this happens it makes me wonder. Today, I went to the gym in Glendale and, as I was going to the parking lot, a dime fell on the sidewalk. I’m used to picking them up and putting them in my pocket. But then I sort of began resenting it (“YOU KNOW”) driving home so I just threw it out the window because I don’t need to be patronized with dimes and pennies. (“YOU KNOW”) I’m happy just to be alive but — you know.
I: You feel like you’re awareness is insulted or something because you don’t need to be reminded in that way.
Q: Right.
I: Well, that makes sense.
Q: And guess what? (“YEAH”) I told this to Maxine today too but apparently Michael the angel is gay. I can’t quite figure that one out. So, anyway, I just wanted to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.
I: Happy Thanksgiving to you too.
Q: Have you had anything else interesting happen since we last spoke?
I: Since I saw you on Sunday? Not really.
Q: I thought it was interesting what you were mentioning to me about the costume for that movie.
I: Oh, “Barbarella”?
Q: I meant “Last Man Standing” but I was thinking about “Barbarella” too. In fact, I mentioned that movie to Maxine today.
I: Oh, it’s wonderful.
Q: Why did you bring it up just now? What parallels do you see with the phenomena (“YEAH”) and “Barbarella”?
I: You started talking about costumes in that movie and there’s the angel that flies Jane Fonda around in “Barbarella.” And Duran-Duran and all —
Q: And what about — I vaguely remember the duality of the evil queen. What other character did the same actress play because it’s been so long since I’ve seen the movie? Didn’t the same actress play two different characters?
I: I’m having a mental block at the moment.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: “BARBARELLA” WAS RELEASED IN THE UNITED STATES BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES.)
I: I’ve been watching “The Wizard of Oz” that was done at Lincoln Center with Roger Daltrey, Jackson Browne and all these people on the TV so my music head’s bending in another direction at the moment.
Q: Are you going to see your family tomorrow?
I: No, I’m going to see “Toy Story” with some friends in the morning. And then I’m going to a dinner party in West Hollywood later in the afternoon.
Q: That sounds like fun.
I: I’m just going to social butterfly around with different people. How about yourself?
Q: Marie, what I was going to mention to you too is that — remember when you mentioned to me about the costumes in that film that was formerly titled “Welcome to Jericho”? Didn’t you mention (“YEAH”) that you were the only one that they let wear silver or something?
I: Oh, I had this necklace. I love old jewelry. I think it’s fascinating they gave me different jewelry and this one necklace was silver with black and I think maybe it had some pearl in it. It was antiquey and enchanted-looking to match the era of the movie. Ruby, the wardrobe lady, said that I was the only person she put in silver. So I thought that was kind of fun. It’s more mystical jewelry. I love mystical jewelry.
Q: I sort of wish they hadn’t changed the title because “Last Man Standing” is a lot more ominous than “Welcome to Jericho.”
I: The Steven Segal movie I worked on, “Out for Justice” — when I was working on it the working title was “The Price of Our Blood.”
Q: So you never know what the final title will be.
I: When I auditioned it was called “Gundown” and then the title got changed to “Welcome to Jericho” and now it’s “Last Man Standing.” (“HMM”) It might change again.
Q: Did you hear that John Travolta is going to star in a movie about an angel named Michael in a film about journalists who go and find this angel living in a small, rural town in Iowa. I read about it in the trades. And I think that William Hurt, (“YOU KNOW”) who was in “Altered States,” is also going to be in it.
I: Oh, that should be great. Who’s directing it?
Q: I can’t remember. I was going to say Penny Marshall but she’s doing something else. She’s doing a remake of “The Bishop’s Wife” which also had an angel named Michael in it. (“YOU KNOW”) It’s just interesting that there are all these different projects that tie-in with my case. And have you heard that new Beatles song — that’s right, you said you weren’t going to rush out to get that.
I: No, but I saw “The Beatles Anthology” on television and then they played the song “Free as a Bird” on the news right after that.
Q: What did you think?
I: I liked it.
Q: What is the song about?
I: Well, you know, being free. And that same Sunday I went to an art exhibit at Hotel Nico in Beverly Hills that featured the art of John Lennon. (“DID AN”)
Q: Anything impress you particularly or —
I: There’s a lot of humor in his artwork. It was very whimsical. That’s what I liked about it. There were also lyric sheets and artwork from his ‘Bag One’ — I believe that’s what it’s called — portfolio from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There was maybe eighty different pieces there of various things.
Q: I haven’t been getting out much. When I first came back from Oklahoma and started telling people various things I said, “Well, this is really going to kill my social life.” And I couldn’t have been more right. Not that I really mind because what I’m doing is so interesting — working on the book.
I: Well, you’ve been having a social life with all the people you’ve been interviewing for your book.
Q: That’s right. (“HUH”)
I: That’s communication.
Q: And I have Michael communicating to me on the tapes. So that’s interesting. Anyway, I’m in heaven. That’s one of the strange things. Even though life is sort of a hell when you think of homeless people and the problems in the world, once you’ve seen this love our world becomes heaven because you know it’s there. The hard part is how to convey this love to other people and trying to motivate others. Some people make the mistake of thinking that the best way of serving God is by communicating a particular belief system to others. God isn’t best served by making some ministry richer. You help God when you assist in some way people in need, our planet or its many wondrous life forms.
Tape 19 Side 1
