![]() She showed it to the president of Westport Bank & Trust. Her brother-in-law wrote a business plan. When Klein’s record department closed in 1985, she decided to open her own store. Sally’s Place is at 190 Main Street - on the right, just past Avery Place. Had he known he’d make an early exit - sudden death from arterial sclerosis - he might have taken time to thank his home town. Had Westport not provided a welcoming setting for developing his interests, he might not have had the resilience to persevere in Hollywood. He picked up the pieces, and built a reputation as an “editor’s editor.” He worked on dozens of films, and co-produced and directed the documentary “The Resurrection of Victor Jara.” It screens at the Havana Film Festival this month. It found a producer, and would be John’s 1st feature film as a writer and director.īut just as things were looking up, John felt the producers wrecked it. They co-wrote “Conversations in Public Places,” a finalist in the Motion Picture Academy’s Nichol Screenwriting Competition. In Los Angeles John met and dated 1976 Staples grad Alice Horrigan. John’s perfectionism and quiet ways were a blessing to his work, but at times a liability in a town where schmoozing often trumps talent. John moved to Hollywood, and worked for legendary filmmaker Roger Corman. They also filmed a man running for his life down the Longshore entrance, demonstrated the laws of physics with “William Tell” and arrows in science class, and shot a sci-fi fantasy about robots at Compo Beach. ![]() They filmed cowboys riding horses down Main Street for “Basura del Oeste” (“Garbage of the West”), for Scott’s Spanish class, exploding blood squibs that Scott fashioned from firecrackers for realistic gunshot wounds. He and lifelong friend Scott Deaver turned Staples into something of an incubator for classroom filmmaking. They made movies and held festivals at Staples, Saugatuck Congregational Church and the Seabury Center, with themes like “A Day of Comedy” and science fiction billed as “The Ultimate in Screen Horror.” So he and Kent Hickenlooper formed their own Compo Film Center. There was no film program at Staples High School when John was 15. From then on he used film for many assignments. For Ed Clark’s 6th grade “Projected Art” class, John created an animated chess game. In the 1970s Westport was one such town, and John Travers - who died in Hollywood last month at 57 - was one of those kids.Īs a young boy he loved horror movies. A vibrant town has creative teachers and students.
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