officers - The Black Vault

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Hollywood Cqmes Calling·;. :·· ;·
for Man Who Filmed Be.~ti!lg ··
By LOUIS SAHAGUN
TIMES STAFF WRITER
Blinking nervously under the hot
camera lights and surrounded by news
reporters, the man who shot a video
that created the Los· Angeles Police
Department beating
.scandal announced
·Thursday that he is goh1g
Hollywood.
_ At the Los Angeles
Press Club, the plumbing
business manager
said he is negotiating
with an unnamed production
company to
make "The George Holliday
Life Story."
"I'm in it now, I might
as well," said Holliday,
31, who documented the
beating of Rodney G:
King on March 3 from
the balcony of his Lake
View Terrace apartment
with a minicam he
had bought to record
"home stuff."
George Holliday·
Asked what kind of a feature film
could be made about his 90-second
video, the soft-spoken Holliday said, "I
·don't know. That's what I can't figure
out myself."
His attorney, James Jordan, was
more direct when he told the assembled
media representatives: "You'd
have given your eyeteeth" to shoot
such a video.
"What fame and fortune we can get
for him we all feel he richly deserves,"
Jordan said. "We're going to explore all
the possibilities for him."
Those possibilities inclun.e'~ range of
~ommercial, movie and'ielevision offers,
Jordan said. The lawyer would not
elaborate ·on any of these offers,
though Holliday ·made it clear that he
has been ·besieged, describing himself
as "overwhelmed and emotioned out"
by a daily barrage of 30
tO 100 requests for media
interviews from
around the world.
"I haven't been able
· to make ·my own decisions,
!.can't go where I
want to go anymore,
and I'm b~ing deluged
with calls," said the sixyear
Southern California
resident. "I've
changed my phone
number twice."
. Holljday, the Canadian-born
son of an oil
company executive, became
a celebrity the
day he sold the video to
television station KTLA
Los Angeles Times
for $500. The tape was
broadcast internationallyby
CNN and other networks.
Holliday said he has grown "tired" of
the ·endless screenings of the videotape.
When it pops up on his set at
home, "I just change the chann~l."
In a statement read by Jordan,
Holliday was quoted as saying the
video "exposed . :. what many already
suspected."
"Police brutality is not an aberration
: but a fact of life. A fact that we would
never have realized was in our own
backyard.
"It is people (o~]!Om.laws wet:e
made, and this video;· hopefully,
will cause us to:jnsis~ that politicians,
judges imd i:~ps recognize
that the· arrogane .g'f power cor- •
rupts and that w~l .th~ Pf!Ople, will
not tolerate i~." . ·~i · ·. · ' .
Holliday· was less-~loquent when
he was asked ho'w he 'f~lt about the
Police Department: "I feel
bad .... ·. It is real·hard for them to
do their job now."· · ·
As .for those calling 'for· Police
Chief Daryl F. ;Gates to resign,
Title:
LOS ANGELES TI!1ES
FRI. MAR 29, 1991
FRONT SECTION, PAGE 3
HOLLYWOOD COMES CALLING
FOR MAN WHO FILMED BEATING
Character:
CIVIL RIGHTS
or
Classification: 80-33B
Submitting Office:
IDS ANGELES
lnd vi""'•
SEARCIIED
SERIALIZED
INDEXED
fJL£0
APR ~3 1991
FBI -
LOS ANGELES J
1/~
·. Holliday said, "If Mr. Gates is to
resign just over this incident, that
isn't right." ·
· Smiling ~dmir~ngly at her hus­
•band, Eug~nia Holliday, 27, told
reporters that the attention has I
been "overwhelming, but I'm
,_proud of George." ·
· Even with so many people
"knocking on our door that I can't
··-do my laundry,"·she said, "we don't
:regret it."
Her husband agreed.
"I love L.A.," he said.
FBI/DOJ