The day I got a letter from Mae West inviting me to come up and see her.

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August 17, 2021

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“Do you know what was in the pops we gave those kids from Texas?”

“No,” I replied.

“Know what we gave you? We gave you an elephant knockout pill.”

“What’s that?”

“Something used to knock out an elephant. In a few moments you won’t be able to move.”

I decided that if I was not going to be able to move I had better get someplace where I did not mind not moving.

I composed myself. Then I wrote a letter to film star Mae West who I had learned lived just down the street from where I was staying.

I wrote that I knew she was a great revolutionary as revolutionaries always go to jail and I knew she had gone to jail. Then I added I was amazed I could get the words on paper because of the drug I had been given. I put the letter into an envelope, addressed and then walked down to the Ravenswood Apartments where she lived. I left it at the front desk.

Then I found a park bench where I could sit while the drug I had been given passed through me.

When told what I had been given I had reflected on the words of Jesus in THE NEW TESTAMENT which I had just read five times through on the bus from Toronto Hollywood. Jesus said at the end of Mark’s Gospel that if we trusted in his word and were given any deadly thing it would not harm us.

It was, to say, the least, an interesting night.

About a month later I was stopped by the police. They asked what I had done in Toronto. I told them I had shown films at Rochdale College in Toronto. The police said, “Do you mean Canada’s Communist training centre.”

In that instant I knew that if the police in Hollywood, the most unhip place on earth, knew about Rochdale then Rochdale had to be the hippest place on earth. I determined to return to Toronto and become part of Rochdale.

When I got back to where I was crashing I found a car in the driveway with Ontario plates. Inside the house I learned I had my ride back to Toronto.

I also found a manila envelope with an autographed picture of Mae West in her about to be released film, MYRA BRECKENRIDGE plus an invitation to come up and see her.

I wrote her a note of thanks explaining I was going back to Toronto to be part of Rochdale College.

A week later I walked into Rochdale College in Toronto. Waiting for me was a perfumed letter from Mae West.

I spoke with Rochdale’s then president Peter Turner whom I had first me in 1968 when Rochdale opened. He was living with Judith Merril, the mother of modern SF. Judy was a Rochdale resource person.

“I want to be part of this,” I said to Peter who asked, “What can you do?”

I said, “I can give you a film program.”

Peter said, “Then you are Director of Cinema Studies.”

I gave Rochdale College the finest film study program on earth

Naturally that included the films of Mae West.

I learned a lot from her. Still learn from.

She was a master.–Reg Hartt

https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-male-orators/reference