Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 52 America's Dream

  "Ronnie", Meg took the ice cream in her hand and stuffed it into Ronald's mouth.

   Ronald licked and took his own cone.

  The two were at the pier in Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan, waiting for the boat.

  This is the southernmost tip of Manhattan Island, and the Statue of Liberty is not far from Liberty Island.

   Unlike the orange-colored passenger and cargo ferry to Staten Island. The ferries of the Circle Line Company pick up tourists, pure individual passengers, and painted in sky blue.

   Soon Ronald and Meg were in line, and they got on the boat and looked at the scenery from the deck.

  The Statue of Liberty is a federally-administered national park, and visiting the Statue of Liberty is free. But the ferry to the island required money, and the American capitalists were always able to take advantage of it.

  The first ship to land on was another small island, Ellis Island. This is the isolation point for new immigrants to land in the early years. Since the beginning of the last century, millions of immigrants have been isolated on the island in batches, looking at the new continent in their dreams.

  The only tall building that new immigrants can see on the island is the statue of the Goddess of Liberty Island next door. They looked through the pane, looking at the Statue of Liberty, and dreaming of their future America.

   This is reflected in many Hollywood movies.

   Ronald and Meg, also looking at the Statue of Liberty, were thinking of their American dreams.

  The ferry continued to move forward, looking at the getting closer and closer to the goddess statue on the boat, Ronald was a little disappointed, the goddess statue was in disrepair, it was a bit old and had a dirty appearance.

  After landing on the island at the pier, it is a long trail. Meg was seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time and seemed very excited.

   Ronald also kept looking up at the goddess, and the two walked slowly.

   A gust of wind blew, and Ronald seemed to see the goddess's right arm holding the torch shaking a few times, "Meg, look at the goddess's hand holding the torch, am I dazzled?"

   "Ah, it seems to be shaking." Meg also noticed.

  In 1886, the gift from the people of the hair country to the American people was nearly 100 years old, and the old one was really scary. Just like the land under your feet, many companies are also operating tremblingly, and they will...

   Ronald and Meg were too scared to climb up to visit. The two walked around the island and took a lot of group photos.

   Taking the ferry back to Lower Manhattan, the two walked into a movie theater and picked a movie about "The China Syndrome" to watch.

   Aside from the fact that the name is somewhat related to the two, and the female lead is Jane Fonda, there is a little magic about this movie.

The meaning of    "The China Syndrome" actually has nothing to do with China.

   is about an accident at a nuclear power plant in America, where the core melted and leaked. Harmful substances are not hindered, they can burn the earth through a hole, go straight to the country on the back of the earth, and leak the nuclear waste to the country on the opposite side of the earth.

   Therefore, this serious nuclear accident is called Huaguo Syndrome.

More than ten days after the movie was released, an accident occurred at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, causing an uproar across the country. Movies became prophets. All of a sudden it became famous and the box office was very good.

  Ronald went to buy Coke and popcorn, and when he came back, Meg was gone.

   looked around and found Meg Tilly staring blankly at a poster at the door.

   sneaked up behind her and found that Meg was looking at a New York City Ballet performance poster. In late April, the ballet's spring performance season is coming soon.

  This year, the New York City Ballet hired the principal dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov, from the American Ballet, and his figure is on the poster.

   In order to become an instant hit, all major movie theaters, shopping malls, and New York City Ballet all over the city spent a lot of money to put up posters and advertisements.

   "Baryshnikov, is he dancing well?" Ronald asked.

  "Ronnie", seeing that it was him, Meg simply leaned back on Ronald, and with Ronald crossed her arms around her, brought popcorn and Coke to her.

   "Mikhail is a talented ballet dancer. He used to be in the Leningrad Ballet of the Soviet Union. A few years ago, he took advantage of the opportunity to visit Canada and defected to America."

   "If you've seen him dance, you know he's very strong. In ballet school, he was the idol of all the girls and everyone wanted to be paired with him."

   It turned out to be him. No wonder Ronald felt familiar.

  The year before Christmas, Ronald, together with Aunt Karen, Donna, watched Bary Shinnikov dance "The Nutcracker" on CBS TV.

   Host Charlie Rose also briefly introduced his story of running to the "free world" in order to realize his "America dream".

   "Since he is so talented, he should also be the chief dancer in the Leningrad Ballet, why should he defect?" Ronald looked at the poster, the dancer who used to be Meg's idol, a little strange.

   "I heard that he wanted to dance the innovative modern ballet, but Leningrad only let him dance the classical ballet."

   "However, some people say that he is too short, only 5 feet 4 (1.65 meters), and he is not worthy of the female dancers of the Souville Union, so he can only play supporting roles"

   Meg was gossiping and giggling.

  Ronald knew that she was still regretful and missed her professional ballet career, so he joked:

   "Ha, yes, you're taller than him. He can't match you up to the prince and princess in the Nutcracker."

   "And my height, hey...is more suitable for playing a prince."

   "Hahaha..." Meg was amused by him and reached out and hit Ronald.

   "But even if I wasn't injured, I wouldn't go to the New York City Ballet." Meg was in a better mood and took the initiative to talk about her ballet dreams.

   "Why? Aren't they the best ballet company in New York?" Ronaldo asked.

"Balanchine, the dance director of the City of New York, was also a Russian and went into exile in America after World War I. More than ten years ago, he received an $8 million grant from the Ford Foundation, mainly to create new ballets. Waltz, jazz, Even the Stars and Stripes is a ballet."

"So many of the dancers who go to the New York City Dance Company are rich second-generations who bought them with money. They don't have the strength to rehearse real classical ballet plays, so they can only dance these..." Meg made a "rubbish" Mouth.

   "And my dream is to dance all the classical ballet characters, Gisele, Coppélia, Sleeping Beauty, and Black Swan..."

   "I want to hear the audience yelling Bravo at me on stages in New York, Leningrad, London, and Paris!"

   "I want to be famous! I want to be famous all over the world!"

   Meg got out of Ronald, facing the poster of Baryshnikov, stood on tiptoe, raised her arms, took a ballet pose, and said her dream aloud.

  Ronald saw the burning fire of ambition in this girl's eyes.

  …

  The movie was well-made, and all kinds of coincidences and arrangements made the audience nervous about the nuclear leak. Jane Fonda is as good as ever, and so is her co-star Michael Douglas.

Now is the era when the whole people talk about nuclear discoloration. The haze of the Cold War is shrouded in everyone's heads, and some people have begun to frantically oppose nuclear. Anything related to nuclear, including nuclear missiles, nuclear submarines, nuclear tests, and nuclear power plants, are all in the sequence of opposition. .

  It is estimated that the box office of this movie will be good.

   After watching the movie, the two went shopping in Chinatown in Lower Manhattan. Ronald had just moved in for a day, and many daily necessities had not been prepared yet, and Meg Tilly helped to buy them all.

   Meg's taste is very high, and the things she chooses are always inexpensive, but together they enhance the aesthetic quality.

   Like a snow-white tablecloth with scarlet napkins. Another example is the floor lamp for the bedroom, with a translucent lampshade.

   Ronald, who was carrying a lot of things, went to the china shop with Meg again.

  Meg went shopping for red wine glasses and china tableware, while Ronald was chatting with the boss in a bored way.

   The boss's English is as bad as Ronald's Cantonese. Can only communicate with sporadic words and gestures.

   asked the boss if he had any good black tea. The boss quietly took out a package of tea leaves from under the counter: "Domestic, good tea." Ronald only understood a few words.

   Put it under the nose and smell it, it really smells fresh.

   "Qimen or Wuyi Mountain?"

   "Qimen", the boss turned the tea bag over and pointed to the label to show him.

   Sure enough, the words of Qimen State-run Tea Factory are written in imitation Song Dynasty. Ronald threw down the $10 "heavy money" and bought two packs to try it out.

   "I'll buy another candlestick, you give me two candles, and I can have candlelight dinner at night". Ronald gestured to the candle on the counter.

  The shop owner took out the candlestick and raised his thumb, indicating that Ronald was very romantic.

   (end of this chapter)