"A new country, a new career and a nom de plume for good measure" is the way Gordon Weaver, aka Scott Michel Long, describes his transition from the fast lane in Hollywood to the cobblestone streets of Ajijic, Mexico.
In his La La Land incarnation, he was known as one of the motion picture industry's chief architects of contemporary marketing, advertising, publicity, promotion, and audience research.
During his thirteen year tenure at Paramount Pictures, culminating with his position as President of World Wide Marketing, he orchestrated the creative, media, publicity and promotion campaigns for such diverse films as "The Godfather," Parts I and II, "The Great Gatsby," "Saturday Night Fever," "King Kong," "Flash Dance, "Footloose," "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Terms of Endearment," and "Reds".
Since moving to the tranquility of what he describes as "paradise," he has co-authored one published novel, "Burning Roses" and completed "Farmerville" a fable about a young white boy whose best friend in a highly segregated southern town was an African-American transvestite.
He began his career in 1963 at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a press agent and worked on the campaigns for "The Haunting," "How The West Was Won," "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," "Far From The Madding Crowd," "Doctor Zhivago," "Mutiny On The Bounty" and "The Fixer".
In 1968 as Vice President of Advertising for the new CBS film unit, Cinema Center Films, he was responsible for marketing the groundbreaking, "The Boys In The Band," "Little Big Man" with Dustin Hoffman and "A Man Called Horse," among others.
Joining Paramount in 1971, as Director of Publicity, he soon worked his way to the middle as Vice President of Publicity and was finally promoted almost to the top as Assistant to the Chairman of the Board and Vice President of Marketing.
In 1980 he left to form Barrich Productions which was financed by, and exclusive to, Paramount. While he never produced a movie at Barrich he did develop the first screen play for "Interview With A Vampire".
He also developed great empathy for all producers, writers, stars and
directors who have ever tried to get a movie made. "While this venture,"
he says "was a total, unmitigated disaster, it did give me a great
appreciation of just how difficult it is to get a movie made. Making a good
one must be even harder".
Subsequently he rejoined Paramount as Senior Vice-President of Marketing and was soon promoted to World Wide President of Marketing.
In September, 1984 Weaver was asked by Young & Rubicam Advertising to form Y & R Entertainment, their first entertainment unit. His primary client was the Walt Disney account which included theme parks, television, domestic and international movies, and home video.
At Disney he orchestrated the media and creative campaigns for such films as "Down And Out In Beverly Hills," "Ruthess People," "Outrageous Fortune," "Tin Men" and "The Color Of Money".
In the Fall of 1987, even though he now believes he should have known better, Weaver joined DeLaurentiis Entertainment as a member of the Office of the President, a position he held until April, 1988 when the company hit the skids and went bankrupt.
Desperately needing a change of scene as well as a reality check, he went to Calcutta, India, where he worked for a time at Mother Teresa's Mission for the Dying Destitute.
Believing he could apply Mother Teresa's precepts of "community, love and charity," to the motion picture business, he returned to America and formed The Gordon Weaver Company, an entertainment advertising agency in August, 1988. The company's clients included MGM/UA, Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers, Weintraub Entertainment, New Visions Pictures, Boulevard Films and The Limited Stores.
During this period he developed the creative, media, publicity and promotion campaigns for such films as "Rain Man," "Betrayed," "Child's Play," "True Believer" and "Immediate Family".
The Gordon Weaver Company bit the dust. While he was charitably paying bills on behalf of his clients some of his clients weren't paying their bills to him.
When he isn't working on long-form fiction, he writes travel and destination features for Mexico Connect, as well as magazines and newspapers in the United States, which he considers more satisfying than writing copy for motion picture campaigns.
"After all," he says, "once you've written 'King Kong, the most original, exciting motion picture event of all time.' you've pretty much reached the pinnacle of hype, flackery and puffery and it's all down hill from there".
To Contact Scott you can e-mail him at goatfarm@laguna.com.mx