Catch me if you can

[RonPrice]

Part 1:

Being an impostor has a long history with literally dozens, perhaps 100s, of examples. The first one in my lifetime that came to my knowledge was The Great Impostor. It was a 1961 movie based on the true story of an impostor named Ferdinand Waldo Demara. Loosely based on Robert Crichton's 1959 biography of the same name, it starred Tony Curtis in the title role. In 1959, I was 15, and an all-star baseball player in the little town where I had grown-up in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe. I was in love with at least two girls who knew nothing of my affections, and I joined the Baha'i Faith. I was the only youth between the cities of Toronto and Hamilton along Lake Ontario.

Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 American biographical crime drama film based on the life of Frank Abagnale. Before his 19th birthday, Abagnale successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars. I watched the film last night¹ more than a dozen years after it was released into cinemas. I was in the first years of my 70s after taking an early retirement, a sea-change, and reinventing myself as a writer and author, online blogger and journalist. After watching the film, I made a brief study of the history of impostors and, then, wrote this prose-poem.

Part 1.1:

The film deals with themes of broken homes and troubled childhoods, but these themes play a minor key in the overall plot with its fast pace and entertaining storyline. Abagnale posed as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor. His primary crime was check fraud; he became so experienced that the FBI eventually turned to him to help in catching other check forgers.

The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Development for the film started in 1980 when I was finally stabilized on medication for my bipolar disorder at the age of 35.

Progress on the film began to take-off in 1997 when the film rights to Abagnale’s book were sold to Spielberg's company DreamWorks. By then, in the late 1990s, I was heading for retirement at the age of 55 after a 50 year student and paid employment life, 1949 to 1999.

Part 2:

The film was a financial and critical success, and the real Abagnale reacted positively to it. Abagnale wrote back in 2002, before the film was released, that: "I feel it is necessary to make the following statement concerning the book and the film, Catch Me If You Can. The reasons for this statement is to provide clarification and accuracy. I wrote the book, Catch Me If You Can, in the late 1970s more than a dozen years after I had given-up my life of crime. The book was written from my perspective as a 16-year old in the early 1960s with the help of a co-writer. I'm now 54 and I sold the movie rights in 1980.

I was interviewed by the co-writer only about four times. I believe he did a great job of telling the story, but he also over dramatized and exaggerated some of the story. That was his style and what the editor wanted. He always reminded me that he was just telling a story and not writing my biography. This is one of the reasons that from the very beginning, I insisted the publisher put a disclaimer in the book and tapes.

It has been reported that I had written $10 million, $8 million and $5 million worth of bad checks. The actual amount was $2.5 million. I was never on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List as this is reserved for very violent criminals who pose a threat to society. All of the crimes I committed were when I was between the ages 16 and 21. I served time in prison in France, Sweden and the United States. In the U. S. Federal Court, I was sentenced as a youthful offender because of my age at the time the crimes were committed. Even so, I was given 12 years of which I served a total of five years. This was considered harsh punishment then and almost unheard of today.

Part 2.1:

I have been married for over 25 years and I am the proud father of three sons. When I was 28 years old, I thought it would be great to have a movie about my life, but when I was 28, like when I was 16, I was egotistical and self-centered. We all grow up. Hopefully we get wiser. Age brings wisdom and fatherhood changes one's life completely. I consider my past immoral, unethical and illegal. It is something I am not proud of. I am proud that I have been able to turn my life around and in the past 25 years, helped my government, my clients, thousands of corporations and consumers deal with the problems of white collar crime and fraud.

I know that Hollywood has made a number of changes to the story, but I am honoured that Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks participated in the making of the movie inspired by my life. It is important to understand that it is just a movie… not a biographical documentary.²-Ron Price with thanks to ¹ONE TV, 9:00-12:00 pm, 2/3/'15; and ²Frank W. Abagnale, Webpost, September 3, 2002

Part 2.2:

Making bio-pics, and writing

biographies, autobiographies,

memoires, journals & diaries

can result in exaggeration, &

over-dramatization. Writers,

& film-makers play with the

facts for the sake of reading

or viewing pleasure.¹ .....So

a documentary is not made

but, rather, a smooth-funny

and friendly film with color,

smartness, a brisk-tempo, &

every impulse subordinated

to the task of manufacturing

pleasure for millions & me!

¹ Abagnale reported. "I hope in the end the movie will be entertaining, exciting, and funny. I hope, too, that it will bring home an important message about family, childhood and divorce". Spielberg stated that: "there are many strands in the film that clearly say something about me; I can portray some of my autobiography through the telling of this light-hearted story".

Part 3.1:

As I wrote the above I was reminded of some of the sociological theory I taught in the last decade of my teaching career in the 1990s. I was reminded especially of dramaturgy, a sociological perspective starting from symbolic interactionism and commonly used in microsociological accounts of social interaction in everyday life. The term was first adapted into sociology from the theatre by Erving Goffman. He developed most of the related terminology and ideas in his 1959 book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Kenneth Burke, whom Goffman would later acknowledge as an influence, had earlier presented his notions of dramatism in 1945, which in turn derives from Shakespeare. However, the fundamental difference between Burke's and Goffman's view is that Burke believed that life was in fact theatre, whereas Goffman viewed theatre as a metaphor. If we imagine ourselves as directors observing what goes on in the theatre of everyday life, we are doing what Goffman called dramaturgical analysis, the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance.

Part 3.2:

In dramaturgical sociology it is argued that the elements of human interactions are dependent upon time, place, and audience. In other words, to Goffman, the self is a sense of who one is, a dramatic effect emerging from the immediate scene being presented. Goffman forms a theatrical metaphor in defining the method in which one human being presents itself to another based on cultural values, norms, and beliefs. The goal of this presentation of self is acceptance from the audience through carefully conducted performance. If the actor succeeds, the audience will view the actor as he or she wants to be viewed.

Dramaturgical theory suggests that a person's identity is not a stable and independent psychological entity, but rather, it is constantly remade as the person interacts with others. This process is sometimes called "impression management.

Ron Price

3/3/'15.

[Galahad]

Very intresting RonPrice

[RonPrice]

Thanks, Galahad, for your words of appreciation.-Ron Price, Australia