“THE SAGA OF THE SETH PARKER” or “THE INSATIABLE SEA” –
August 1, 2008 by admin
“THE SAGA OF THE SETH PARKER” or “THE INSATIABLE SEA” –
MY FEATURE LENGTH MOVIE SCRIPTS
This was my second dream, which has carried me along for many, many years. It started out as a true story manuscript written by my father, Russell Dickinson, in 1935. Too long for an article, too short for a book, I finally realized that it was ideal for a movie script, and I have crafted that into a wonderful screenplay, in several versions. But, who in Hollywood, is going to talk to a scriptwriter on social security? Right! So, here it sits! This fabulous and well-written (if I do say so myself) movie script gathers dust on my shelf, but gets better and better with age, as do I. Here is the back story on this dream:
It was the Depression Era and Dick Maury asked my father to join him in an around to world sailing venture on tiny little Cimba, a New England bluenose schooner. Dick wrote their adventures in serial form for Rudder Magazine, and, upon return, published the very popular, Saga of Cimba, which has recently been re-published by McGraw-Hill as a sailor’s classic. During their winter outfitting layover in Bermuda, Father met my mother, who was spending a year with her island relatives, and they corresponded throughout his journey, becoming engaged in the process.
Well, eighteen months at sea in cramped quarters took its toll between the two men, and Father decided to leave the voyage in Pago Pago, Samoa. He had no money for a steamer ticket home, so signed on as second mate aboard a very derelict, large wooden sailing vessel, the Seth Parker, which was to set sail for Hawaii. This had been a famous craft only a few years before, as it was the radio broadcast ship, opulently outfitted by Phillips Lord, whose alter-ego was the popular radio preacher, Seth Parker. In a Lake Woebegone sort of show, he caught the public’s imagination and decided to increase his popularity by sailing around the world, with guest celebrities aboard, broadcasting from many glamorous ports. Too bad he knew nothing of the sea! His expensive reconstruction made the ship quite un-seaworthy and a hurricane off Tahiti nearly sent them to the bottom. Phillips Lord immediately quit the venture and went on to Hollywood to create and produce “Gangbusters.”
I’m convinced that the Hawaiian company, to whom the ship was sold, intended for it to sink with all hands, so that a hefty insurance policy could be cashed in. It was the depression, after all. The story of that desperate voyage is beautifully enumerated in Father’s manuscript. Everything went wrong, helped along by a drug-addicted captain, who later turned out to be nothing more than a former stevedore. The ship was, literally, falling apart under their feet and they were running out of food, when the three officers decided to mutiny. It’s a beautiful, awful, cliffhanger story, that would sound simply too exaggerated to be believed if it were fiction. It will make a wonderful movie, if only I could catch the right person’s eye. First, I wrote it completely straight, not changing a factoid. Next, I wrote it as The Insatiable Sea, leaving all the truth in, but elaborating shamelessly on the characters’ back stories to add a bit of suspense.
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