"The Late Gunnar Rugheimer"

Among the many admonitions presented to me by my parents as they prepared me for life as a grown-up was, "Norman, never say bad things about a dead person". Having never paid attention to any other parental advice, I choose to ignore this one as well.

The time is pilot season, 1974. Settings include New York, Los Angeles, and London. The players in this saga are:

- Gunnar Rugheimer, Controller of Purchased Programming, BBC. In my opinion, not a nice person.

- Leslie Halliwell, Granada Television UK, Head of Purchase Programming, ITV Network UK. A nice man, but at times difficult.

- Kenneth John Page, Head of European Sales for Columbia Pictures Television (based in the UK). One of the nicest, brightest, most effective people I have ever known, and a dear friend.

- Herb Lazarus, in charge of International Sales, Columbia Pictures Television. Bright, effective, and honest, and a dear friend as well.

- Carl Foreman, producer/writer/director. He wrote "Born Free".

- Sidney Cohen, Carl Foreman's NY based lawyer. Extremely bright, friendly, charming, and always a gentleman.

- Norman Horowitz, Head of Columbia Pictures Television distribution.

Columbia received an order from NBC for 13 episodes of "Born Free". There was no pilot for the series, but the producer had made a presentation for it by taking the finest moments from the two or three "Born Free" movies and cutting a ten minute highlight film. This "film" would make even the people who hated animals and sentimentality cry, especially when the "film" was accompanied by the magnificent "Born Free" music.

Gunnar Rugheimer screened the presentation and announced to Ken, Herb, and I, that he certainly wouldn't be interested in buying the series until he was shown "a proper pilot" (which wouldn't be available for about six months).

Leslie Halliwell, having seen the same presentation, loved it and negotiated a deal to license it for the ITV Network with Ken and Herb.

Gunnar returned to London and was castigated by his boss for not having purchased "Born Free". He called Carl Foreman and lied to him by telling him that ITV bought the show because they were willing to accept more other programs in the deal, while taking "Born Free" at a license fee less than he, Gunnar, was prepared to pay (not true!).

Carl Foreman called his attorney Sidney Cohen, in New York, to complain about how he was being disadvantaged by the machinations of the Columbia people. It was not easy for me to convince Sidney that we had indeed acted honorably and that Gunnar had in fact only offered more money (than Leslie) for the series sometime after we had closed the deal the ITV.

Gunnar announced to Herb and I that neither he, nor the BBC would ever again do business with Ken Page. Herb and I flew to London to meet with a very upset Rugheimer. Gunnar insisted that the BBC would only to business with Columbia if he could deal directly with Herb. We refused, and the details of that refusal are for another time. I was so upset that Gunnar tried to destroy Ken's career that I never could forgive him for this outrageous behavior.

I am sad that Gunnar died, but his death has neither served to make me forget how obnoxious (which I could tolerate) nor how venal he was (which I could not tolerate).

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