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That’s show biz
Job as film extra is fun for some, work for others
By BARBARA YOUNG
Staff Writer
FOR LARRY BRISKIN it was a
dream come true. Ray and Nancy
Scott fancied themselves as the “Hepburn and Tracey acting team of Skokie.” But for Cyndy Groffman, it was
just another job.
These Skokians landed bit parts in
the recently-completed CBS made-forTV movie docudrama, “Skokie,” that
retells the village’s efforts to stop a
neo-Nazi march in 1977-78. The film,
scheduled to air next spring, will describe the experiences of a fictional
family and Holocaust survivors living
in Skokie during the incident,
Her experience was enough to convince her that the way to stardom is no
easy street, but Nancy Scott said she’s
glad she got that “once-in-a-lifetime
chance to participate in the make-believe world of show business.”
“My husband and I working as couple was the biggest thrill,” she said.
“We’re nuts for the arts and he’s film
crazy. So it was just a lot of fun doing
something so meaningful together.”
SCOTT, WHO IS confined to a
wheelchair, said she decided to audition and to recommend her husband at
the same time, after reading about the
need for extras in a newspaper.
“What did I have to lose?” she
asked. “Maybe they would pick us and
maybe they wouldn’t, but I wouldn’t
know if I didn’t try.”
So, she took time off from her market research business and waited in
line with hundreds of other stardom
hopefuls at Centreast. Although she is
not certain why she was picked, she
thinks it might not have hurt when she
told the casting director, “a woman in
a wheelchair might be good for the
movie.” Scott, who has a warm sense
of humor, said she also thinks her “accurate” talent description required on
the audition application helped. She explains:
“I looked at that empty space
where you were supposed to describe
your talent, and I had to laugh. But I
felt like a nothing just leaving it blank.
So I wrote that I take good directions.
After all I couldn’t say I was a dancer.”
EVEN THOUGH SHE was encouraged about her chances for a shot at
the temporary acting job, she was still
surprised when she learned that she
had actually been chosen. But she was
even more surprised at how hard she
had to work for the $30 she was paid. It
(Continued on page 9)
Push comes to shove
LARR BRISKIN AND a few other extrasni "Skokie" decided that a major
Y
scene needed a little more authenticity.
So Briskin and the other extras playing Jewish Defense League members
added a little militancy to their roles.
The only trouble is they neglected to tell the movie’s director and other cast
members what they were planning. But as they say, “all’s well that ends well.”
Briskin and his cohorts were lucky because what c ould have ended in a free-forall brawl actually added some drama to the scene. And what’s more, the director liked it.
Briskin explains what happened:
“When the police went after the head of the JDL as they were supposed to,
we went after the police but we were not supposed to. The police (who were actual Skokie policemen) were surprised when we started pushing and shoving
them. So they pushed and shoved us back. The ones carrying clubs held them
up in warning.
“I’m sure they had no intention of hitting us but only wanted to hold us off,
just to be on the safe side.”
BRISKIN SAID THE reason those playing JDL members decided to take
matters into their own hands is because they were told to “act the way they
felt.”
That and the fact that some of those playing JDL members were actually
members who took part in the “siege” of 1977-78 was reason enough for the
“rebellion.”
Briskin said he’s too conservative to be a JDL member but it was easy for
him to act like one.
“I got all wrapped up in the dramatization,” he said. “It was quite moving.
When the police tried to subdue one of our members, it just seemed natural to
come to her defense.”
�Extras in ‘Skokie’ movie view it as work and play
LEONARD BRISKIN
CYNDY GROFFMAN
(Continued from page 3)
took eight hours to film one scene she
was in and 13 to film the other. (They
did stop to eat.)
In one scene she had to raise her
arm and clench her fist over and over.
“It was a real mental strain,” she
said. “You had to look at the director
all the time so you wouldn’t miss your
cue. The next day I felt like my arm
would fall off.
“But the most tiring part of all was
the waiting and waiting between
takes.”
All that waiting for the same scene
to be shot over and over didn’t surprise
Cyndy Groffman, however. She is a
professional extra, who spent six years
in California near Hollywood trying to
break into the acting business. She
wants to be a soap opera actress, so
when she’s not working odd jobs she’s
in front of a TV watching the likes of
“All My Children,” and “The Guiding
Light.”
GROFFMAN CAME BACK home to
Skokie three months ago because the
jobs just weren’t coming fast enough in
California. “I couldn’t support myself
acting out there,” she said. “I decided
my chances for a break in finding a job
in the soaps would be better if I took
some acting classes at the Goodman
Theater in Chicago.”
She didn’t make that decision lightly. She spent a great deal of time researching soap opera stars and found
that the majority of them got their
starts at Goodman.
Although she is used to working
with other professional acting extras,
Groffman said she enjoyed working
with the “Skokie” cast.
“They had such feeling,” she said of
the amateur extras. “You just couldn’t
help feeling something too, because
their sincerity was so touching.”
One thing that stands out in her
mind, she said, is when one woman refused to carry a poster that had the
name of a German prison camp misspelled. She said the woman brought
the matter to the attention of “Skokie”
star Danny Kaye and he had it corrected.
NOT ONLY WAS GROFFMAN unlike the other extras because she is a
professional, there is something else
different about her - Robert “Buzz”
Berger, the movie’s producer, is her
cousin.
However, she said she didn’t get the
part through him. She auditioned just
like everybody else.
“I didn’t want to use him,” she
said. “This is my acting career and I
want to make it on my own, Besides,
that’s the only way you can last in the
business.”
She knows that serious actresses
must be willing to take any role, no
matter how small, just to keep working. Her only disappointment in her experience in “Skokie,” is over the pay.
“The job could have paid more,” she
said. “In California I got $50.”
IN REAL LIFE Larry Briskin is a
vice president in his family’s manufacturing business. But as a Jewish Defense League member in “Skokie,” he
was somebody else, albeit briefly. “It
was the fulfillment of a fantasy,” he
said. “I can hardly wait to see the
movie on TV.
Briskin thinks he was picked for the
movie because he looks like the character Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.”
AS IN ANY MOVIE, many scenes
end up on the cutting room floor, after
the editing is done. But the Skokie residents feel pretty sure the scenes they
appeared in will survive the fatal slice.
“The scene in front of village hall
where we wait for the Nazis to come
and the synagogue scene are the two
major action scenes in the movie,”
explained Scott.
While the scenes may survive, they
all realize that their faces may get lost
in the crowds and the scene may flash
by their TV screens so fast they won’t
recognize themselves.
That won’t happen to Scott, though,
who says she and her husband have already planned to buy a Beta Max video
recorder so they can tape the show
when it comes on.
�Extra work, extra fun
EXTRAS FOR THE FILM, "SKOKIE," wait between shooting of scenes at movie “demonstration”’ against neo-Nazis at Village Hall. One extra, playing the
role of a reporter, interviews film policemen, who are real Skokie policemen.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Attempted Nazi March in Skokie, 1977 and 1978, Digital Collection
Description
An account of the resource
<p>During the late 1970s, a small group of neo-Nazis based in Chicago attempted to hold a rally in the Village of Skokie, Illinois, a community that was known to have a large Jewish population. Local officials resisted the group’s efforts through by passing a series of ordinances aimed at preventing demonstrations or parades by hate groups. The ordinances were ultimately overturned following a series of state and federal lawsuits because they infringed on the group’s First Amendment rights and the neo-Nazis were issued a permit to demonstrate in Skokie. However, instead of facing the growing number of organized counter-demonstrators, the group held rallies in Federal Plaza and in Marquette Park in Chicago. <br /><br />Visit <a title="Attempted Nazi March in Skokie" href="https://skokiehistory.omeka.net/exhibits/show/attempted-nazi-march/timeline">Skokie Public Library's online exhibit</a> to see the events as they unfolded. The library's digital collection, seen here, includes newspaper articles, editorials, recordings from the Skokie Village Board of Trustees meetings, a memoir written by a local clergywoman, and two documentary films.</p>
<p>For further information, you can find more resources in the library. If you have questions or comments send us an <a title="email Skokie Public Library" href="mailto:tellus@skokielibrary.info">email </a>or call us at 847-673-3733.</p>
Relation
A related resource
<h3><a title="Attempted Nazi March in Skokie" href="https://skokiehistory.omeka.net/exhibits/show/attempted-nazi-march/timeline">Attempted Nazi March in Skokie online exhibit</a></h3>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Skokie History
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Skokie Public Library
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
That's show biz : Job as film extra is fun for some, work for others
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Young, Barbara
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Extras for the made-for-television film "Skokie" describe how they got their parts. Includes photograph of extras in a scene from the film and photograph of Leonard Briskin and of Cyndy Groffman.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
12/11/1980
Subject
The topic of the resource
Demonstrations -- Illinois -- Skokie
National Socialist Party of America
Skokie (Motion picture)
Briskin, Leonard
Groffman, Cyndy
Scott, Nancy
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Skokie Life, Thursday, December 11, 1980, Lerner Community Newspapers, Lincolnwood, IL
Rights Holder
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©Lerner Publications
Rights
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In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
csl801211a.pdf
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1970s (1970-1979)
1980s (1980-1989)
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Skokie Public Library, Reference Department
newspaper clippings
skokie movie
tv movie