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In February 1973, Stephen Schneider, a young climatologist, was doing research in the ML Library when an unusual-looking man walked in.
In Steve's recollection, the visitor was: "A nebbish!* Short, balding, reddish hair, and freckles. Saddle shoes, green corduroys, hands deep in trench coat pockets, taking in the scientific scene through thick, black-rimmed glasses. Probably the new visiting scientist from Brooklyn being shown around. Must be the one coming to study the effects of droughts on the world food supply. But where have I seen that body before? At Columbia University ? On College Bowl? Can't be . . . it is. It's Woody Allen!"
Sure enough, Woody Allen had come to town with some of his production team to scout out the Mesa Lab as a potential backdrop for his latest comedy, Sleeper , a science-fiction farce set in 22nd-century Colorado . Henry Lansford was NCAR's public information officer at the time, and he got to accompany the Hollywood entourage around the building. Saddle shoes and screen persona notwithstanding, the comedian's demeanor was serious and low-key. "He just asked a few questions about the building," Henry recalled.
Apparently impressed, the production company returned in early May to film two scenes at the Mesa Lab. A casting call was issued for NCAR staff who wanted to work as silent extras in the film. Because of union rules, a speaking part would net vastly more than the $20 a day--minus 15% for agent's commission--paid to extras. The Damon Room turned into "Casting Central," and would-be actors were scrutinized for the proper futuristic "look." Former CGD scientist Bob Chervin was one of those turned down after being told that "hairy faces were not part of Woody Allen's vision of the future." Staff photographer Ginger Hein (now with Health, Environment, and Safety Services), who was "very pregnant at the time," was also unsuccessful. Though denied her chance in front of the camera, Ginger spent the next three days behind her own camera, recording the mayhem.
The lucky dozen or so employees who got their day in the sun were instructed to take vacation time for their absence from work. NSF charged a small fee to the production company for use of federal property--money that went straight into the U.S. Treasury, according to a Staff Notes Monthly article at the time.
In this film, Woody plays Miles Monroe, owner of the Happy Carrot Health Food Store in Greenwich Village . Monroe checks into St. Vincent 's Hospital in 1973 for peptic ulcer surgery and, when something goes awry, is consigned by his cousin to frozen oblivion. Inexplicably, the capsule containing his frozen body (enshrouded in tinfoil) is discovered two hundred years later in the post-nuclear-war Rocky Mountain West, an area now called the "Central Parallel of the American Federation."
A true stranger in a strange land, Miles awakens to a society where people's brains get "electronically simplified," where "deep fat and hot fudge are known for their health-giving properties." He is advised that tobacco is one of the healthiest things for the body. The doctors who discover Miles oppose the Big Brother government of 2173 and want to use him to uncover the government's sinister plans for the "Aires Project."
This latter-day Rip van Winkle literally flies through a multitude of misadventures, including a stint as a robot, before finally saving American civilization. Very much the "shlemiel," or classic Yiddish fool character descended from the Purim pranksters of medieval times, Miles Monroe is a little man who bumbles his way to success, using his wit and moral sanity rather than strength.
NCAR's Steve Schneider recall's Woody Allen as a director. "Most of the extras [came] away with respect for Woody Allen as an artist and human being. He acts, directs, confers with his peers, and deals with his subordinates with humor and patience." Allen's costar, Diane Keaton, asked them what it felt like to have a Ph.D. Diane Rabson June 1998
*Nebbish: Yiddish for "weakling, a nobody."
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