FILM RETIREES' TABLE TALK BOOK-WORTHY.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

``I get a lot more smiles when I walk around the grounds now.''

- Betty Freeman 

Harold Gould laughed as he looked at the photos of himself acting with Woody Allen in a 1975 movie, ``Love and Death,'' and playing a con man in the 1973 film ``The Sting.''

``Now, this guy I recognize,'' said the award-winning character actor, now 81, marking Page 46 in the book ``Behind the Silver Screen.''

Like most of the 300 entertainment-industry people who live at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Retirement Community in Woodland Hills, Gould didn't know what to expect when he moved in last August, after selling his residence in Santa Monica.

``I knew everyone here had some type of career in the entertainment industry, and I was curious about who they were,'' Gould said. ``Thanks to Betty, I now know.''

Thanks to Betty Freeman, we all know.

Freeman, whose late husband, Charles, was an Oscar-winning sound man, and Lauren Dow, a volunteer at the home, have spent the last 2 1/2 years interviewing residents and writing this book filled with photos and thumbnail sketches of their lives and careers.

A few of the faces and names, like Gould's, you'll recognize from movies, but most you won't. They were the projectionists, writers, makeup artists, hairstylists, sound-effects experts, choreographers and costume designers who worked on some of the biggest pictures of Hollywood's golden era.

They were in the crews who worked behind the silver screen, such as prop man Jackie Ackerman, who created the delightfully twitching tail of the Cowardly Lion in the ``Wizard of Oz.''

``I would go up on the catwalks and let the fishing line drop down to prop man Harry Edwards, who tied the tail to the line,'' Ackerman said. ``Wherever the lion went, I had to follow with the fishing rod up on the catwalk, keeping the tail wagging at the same time. You had to know a little bit about coordination.''

Screen siren Audrey Totter talks about one of her most memorable scenes from the 1945 noir classic ``The Postman Always Rings Twice.''

Her car has stalled and actor John Garfield offers to fix it.

``I'm going to wait standing up,'' Totter tells Garfield. ``It's a hot day, and that's a leather seat. And I've got on a thin skirt.''

It was such stories, which Freeman was hearing over lunch and dinner in the dining rooms, that gave her the idea to write a book.

``So many of them were fascinating, poignant stories - like the man who had nine union cards because times were tough in Hollywood, and he had to feed his family,'' she said.

Freeman moved to the Motion Picture Home in 2002, a year after her husband died. She and Charles had lived together for 50 years in the same Sherman Oaks home. They raised three children there.

While he worked as one of Hollywood's top sound men, Betty was principal at three San Fernando Valley elementary and middle schools over a 20-year period.

``When I moved here, I met Lauren, who was teaching a ceramics class, and we became a team writing the book,'' Betty said.

Lauren Dow is currently visiting France with her husband, Tony Dow, who played Wally in the TV series ``Leave it to Beaver.''

Ken Scherer, chief executive officer of the Motion Picture & Television Fund Foundation, admits now that he wasn't looking forward to the meeting with Betty and Lauren about the book idea.

``I told Betty later that I was thinking the last thing I needed to do was meet with a resident who had a book idea, so I was looking for a way to end the meeting quickly,'' Scherer said.

``But Betty sat down and had me hooked in two minutes. They were fascinating stories.''

Only a few residents refused to talk about their lives behind the silver screen, Betty says.

``Maybe they just didn't trust me. I don't know. But I do know the book is now in the room of every resident here, and the people who didn't want to talk before want to know if they can be in the next book.

``One thing's for sure,'' Betty says. ``I get a lot more smiles when I walk around the grounds now.''

Dennis McCarthy, [phone]

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Character actor Harold Gould smiles as he chats Wednesday with Betty Freeman at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Retirement Community in Woodland Hills. A copy of a book she co-wrote is open to a photo of Gould.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer