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Here’s the second leak of raw footage from the excellent 1997 Channel 4 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard. The film was made up of numerous interviews from people who had known Hubbard personally. But only a few minutes of each made it into the final documentary.
Jon Atack hooked us up with a source who is now making the full, uncut interviews from Secret Lives available. Last time, we got to see Hubbard’s literary agent, , reminisce about the man. And this time, another rare treat: A 28-minute interview with Barbara Klowden, who worked as Hubbard’s PR assistant but was also his lover. (In Russell Miller’s 1987 biography of Hubbard, Bare-Faced Messiah, Barbara is given the pseudonym “Barbara Kaye.”)
In 1950, with the success of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard interviewed Barbara and hired her to work public relations for the newly opened Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Los Angeles. As she explains in the clip, it was her job to fire off responses to columnists who said negative things about Hubbard or his book. She was 23 and had been a college psychology major (not, apparently, only 20 years old as previous accounts have it). Hubbard was 39, and his marriage to his second wife, Sara Northrup, was strained. Hubbard and Sara were already living apart.
Meanwhile, Hubbard had taken a liking to his young PR assistant, and they began sleeping together and then Hubbard wanted them to move in together. But that became dicey when Sara, baby Alexis in tow, showed up on the scene again.
The interviewer asks Barbara what attracted her to Hubbard, and she acknowledges that the founder of Scientology was not a physical specimen. “It’s the mind of the man that is most sexy,” she explains. “I felt so much under his spell.”
She says that at the time, she didn’t know about Hubbard’s first marriage and the two children he’d had with Polly Grubb. And because Hubbard was separated from Sara, Barbara didn’t think it was unusual that he asked her to move in with him — at the Chateau Marmont. But Sara soon arrived, and Barbara found the things she’d put in the apartment back on her desk at the Foundation.
Amazingly, Hubbard asked her to join him and Sara at dinner that night, and he told her later that Sara had made a suicide attempt. Barbara says she then received a telegram from Hubbard firing her.
Some other highlights from the interview: Hubbard told her that before he wrote Dianetics, he’d taken just one book out of the library to learn about psychology.
— “He talked about smashing his way into history, and starting a religion,” she says. “I saw him as a very unstable individual.”
— When she saw him in Palm Springs in 1951, he was depressed and suffering from a terrible case of writer’s block. She told him to write how he was feeling, and Hubbard wrote a single word: “apathy.” That seemed to inspire him, and he used “apathy” as a condition on what became the Tone Scale and then developed into his book Science of Survival.
— Hubbard discovered that while he was having an affair with Barbara, his wife Sara was sleeping with Miles Hollister (who she later married), and the two of them, Hubbard said, were plotting to have him committed to a mental institution. It was at that point that Hubbard absconded with Alexis and spent some time hiding out in Havana while Sara told the press about how unstable her famous husband was. Eventually she got Alexis back as she and Hubbard hammered out a divorce.
— After that mess, Barbara met Hubbard again in Wichita, where she says he was in another depressive state, with hair down to his shoulders and “fingernails like talons.”
— In Wichita, Hubbard was living with Don Purcell, a wealthy oil man, who was keeping Dianetics afloat. Hubbard proposed to Barbara, and paid cash for an engagement ring. But Barbara didn’t marry him. “I saw that I had a man there who had no prospects. He had psychiatric difficulties,” she says.
And how would she sum him up? Aware of the controversies that later swirled around the man and his organization, she says, “He was not a demon and he wasn’t a deity. He was a man with some psychiatric problems which led him to try to find some kind of way of dealing with his problems without going to a psychiatrist. And because of his quest to help himself, he was able to help many people.”
After her adventures with Hubbard, Barbara Jane Klowden (born January 23, 1927 and originally from Chicago) married Robert M. Snader, who was Hubbard’s age and had been born in 1911. In 1960 the Snaders had a daughter, Amy Beth, who went on to get a degree in computer science at UC Santa Cruz in 1983. Eight years later, in 1991, Amy Beth Snader accidentally fell to her death from a cliff in Kauai while on a biology field trip with a group from Cabrillo College. Her parents established a scholarship fund in her name at UCSC, and after Barbara died of cancer on November 25, 2002, her estate donated $1 million to the Amy Beth Snader scholarship fund, which goes to women in engineering at UCSC.
There’s one other detail about Barbara’s life that’s a little fascinating — just weeks after her death, a story in the Los Angeles Times called her a “former paramour” of the popular astrologer Sydney Omarr. (At some point Barbara and Robert Snader had divorced, according to an online record. Omarr dedicated a chapter to Barbara in a 1992 astrology book.) One thing’s for certain, Barbara Jane Klowden Snader lived a fascinating life, tinged with tragedy, and left behind a legacy that continues to benefit women in engineering today. She, at least, made a lasting contribution to science. (And yes, that’s a swipe at a certain science fiction hack.)
——————–
L. Ron Hubbard, Still Surfing the Galaxy
Twenty-nine years ago today, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard decided to leave behind his hale and healthy 74-year-old body in order to pursue indescribably advanced research into the “whole track” of existence, and has been surfing the galaxy ever since.
It then fell to Scientology naval space cadets David Miscavige and Pat Broeker, and attorney Earle Cooley to try and convince a crowd of Scientologists at the Hollywood Palladium three days later that Ron didn’t die, he’d gone full Operating Thetan.
We never get tired of watching this.
Wherever you are, L. Ron, we thank you at least for putting David Miscavige in the position to make that speech.
——————–
Bonus photos from our tipsters
One of our readers went to the USA Today website yesterday, and found that its home page was taken over entirely by , about its social betterment front groups. Now that’s gotta cost a pretty penny. We still think this is the ad Scientology will show in some markets during the Super Bowl, but if you spot something new at the church’s YouTube channel, let us know!
A little J&D between auditing sessions in the Italian town of Cervia, under the watchful eyes of Aslan! Oh wait, that’s another feline deity altogether.
This is not the first time this has been brought to our attention — that there’s a room at George Washington University dedicated to L. Ron Hubbard, an “alumnus” who dropped out his sophomore year after failing a class in “molecular and atomic physics” (which didn’t prevent him from claiming to be one of the country’s first “nuclear physicists”). Maybe someone at GWU could look into how much cold cash the Church of Scientology had to pay for this little geegaw.
The poster! We gotta snag one of these while we’re here in Park City…
“I just spent
to get to the state of Clear, and it makes this pastry at the Fort Harrison Hotel so worth it!”
Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!
OUR COUNTDOWN
1 day until Alex Gibney’s film Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief opens at the Sundance Film Festival at 2:30 pm on Sunday, January 25 in Park City, Utah
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on January 24, 2015 at 06:00
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Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s
| Scientology’s
| Scientology’s
The Underground Bunker’s
| The Underground BunkerFrom Wikiquote
that shows the untold story of the witches of , and how two young women named Galinda and Elphaba became
and . It shows Elphaba as the misunderstood girl that she is, and tells the story from her perspective.
Book by . Based on the best–selling novel
by . Music and lyrics by .
"So much happened before Dorothy dropped in."
[Noticing the whole student body is staring at her green tint] What? What are you all looking at? OH! Do I have something in my teeth? Is my underskirt showing? [Drops her suitcase] Alright, let's just get this over with. No, I am not seasick. Yes, I've always been green. No, I didn't eat grass as a child…
I don't cause commotions, I am one.
[to Glinda] Well, we can't all come and go by bubble!
[to Nessarose] There's no place like home.
[About Dorothy] I mean, who steals a dead woman's shoes? Must've been raised in a barn!
What could he get me? I clash with everything.
[To Dr. Dillamond] You shouldn't let statements like that bother you. I mean, I always do, but you shouldn't.
No good deed goes unpunished.
[To Madame Morrible] I'm her sister. I'm beautifully tragic
[Upon descending at the Munchkinland celebration of the Witch's demise] It's good to see me, isn't it? No need to respond! That was rhetorical.
[Commenting on one of Elphaba's outbursts] It seems the artichoke is steamed.
[Upon seeing Fiyero for the first time] Do you know who that is? It's that Winkie Prince whose reputation's so scandalacious.
[to Dr. Dillamond] I don't see why you can't just teach us history, instead of always harping on about the past.
[Talking about Fiyero] He's distant and moodified… and he's been thinking, which really worries me!
In solidarity, and to express my... outrage, I will no longer be known as GA-linda, but simply... Glinda.
Let the little girl go, and that poor little dog, Dodo.
I know you don't want to hear this, but someone has got to say it! You are out of control!
[With effort] I mean come on, they're just shoes. Let it go!
It's GA-linda. With a 'Ga'.
I'm Glinda. The 'Ga' is silent.
(after failing to transform Elphaba's dress into a ball gown) Oh, just wear the frock, it's pretty!
I will now transform your simple frock into a magnificent ball gown. [waves wand] Ball gown! [does not work, waves wand again] Ball gown!... [Galinda now slaps wand against her thigh] Hello? Is this thing on?
Oh, look, it's tomorrow!
You just take that one road the whole time...I hope they don’t get lost. I’m so bad at giving directions.
It's dreadful, it is to have a house fall on you...
[To Mme.Morrible] Madame, have you ever considered how you'd fare in captivity? Cap-tiv-i-ty. Pri-son. Personally I don't think you'll not hold up very well, you see, my personal opinion is that you do not have 'what it takes.' I hope you prove me wrong...I doubt you will.
[after Elphaba casts a spell on their class] Alright, just don't move... and don't get mad at me!
What did you mean to do? And why was I the only one you didn't do it to?
There's no pretense here. I happen to be genuinely self-absorbed and deeply shallow.
It's not lying, it's looking at things another way!
Let the green girl go!
[To Elphaba] It's just... you've been Galindafied.
[To Elphaba] Maybe the driver saw green and thought it meant go.
[to Elphaba] I can't harbor a fugitive, I'm an unelected official!
I have a personal score to settle with Elph-- ...with The Witch!
[to Galinda] You're touching me!
[Welcoming new students to Shiz University] ...I know I speak for my fellow faculty members when I say we have nothing but the highest hopes for some of you.
[to Elphaba] Careful, dear. You mustn’t get wet.
[To Glinda] Smile, wave... and shut up.
My personal opinion is that you do not have what it takes. I hope you prove me wrong... [she begins to walk away] I doubt you will.
The truth isn't a thing of fact, or reason. It's simply what everyone agrees on.
Where I come from, we believe all sorts of things that aren't true. We call it history.
[after Elphaba discovers he's behind the anti-Animalism] Where I'm from, the best way to bring people together... is to give them a really good enemy.
Since once I had my own day in the sky, I say everyone deserves the chance to fly!
Madame Morrible: You must be Nessarose, you are tragically beautiful. [Turns to Elphaba and screams]
Elphaba: I'm the other daughter, Elphaba. I'm beautifully tragic.
Nessarose: Mmm…What's in the punch?
Boq: Lemons and melons and pears.
Nessarose: Oh my!
Galinda: And now, I will transform your simple frock into a beautiful ball gown! Ball gown!
[Pauses and nothing happens. Repeats twice]
Galinda: Hmm... Must be broken...
Elphaba: Want me to try?
Galinda: No no! Wear the frock! It's pretty!
Fiyero: Boy, you must think I'm really stupid, don't you?
Elphaba: No, not really stupid.
Elphaba: Oh look, you' it must have scratched you.
Fiyero: Yeah...or maybe it scratched me or something.
Fiyero: You know, I've been thinking—
Elphaba: Yes, I've heard.
Elphaba: You're the only friend I've ever had.
Glinda: And I've had so many friends. But only one—that mattered.
Galinda: Elphie – do you mind if I call you "Elphie"?
Elphaba: Well, it's a little perky.
Galinda: And you can call me –- Galinda!
Galinda: Now, let's tell each other a secret that we've never told anyone else before. I'll go first. Fiyero and I are getting married!
Elphaba: He's asked you already?
Galinda: Oh, he doesn't know yet.
Galinda: Really? Your first party ever?
Elphaba: Do funerals count?
[Glinda has just slapped Elphaba, who looks shocked for a moment, then cackles]
Elphaba: Feel better?
Glinda: Yes I do.
Elphaba: Good... [she slaps Glinda] So do I!
Dr. Dillamond: Miss Elphaba, don't worry about me, go along and enjoy your friends.
Elphaba: Oh, that's alright, I have no friends.
NO ONE MOURNS THE WICKED
Ensemble: No one mourns the Wicked!
Now at last, she's dead and gone!
Now at last, there's joy throughout the land!
Glinda: Are people born Wicked? Or do they have Wickedness thrust upon them?
DEAR OLD SHIZ
Ensemble: Ooooh hallowed halls and vine-draped walls
The proudliest sight there is!
When grey and sere our hair hath turned
We shall still revere the lessons learned
In our days at dear old Shiz!
Our daaaaays at dear ooold
Galinda: Oooooooooooooooold Shiz!
Ensemble: Dear Old Shiiizzzzzzzzzzzzz
THE WIZARD AND I
Elphaba: When I meet the Wizard
Once I prove my worth
And then I meet the Wizard
What I've waited for since...since birth
And with all his wizard wisdom
By my looks he won’t be blinded
Do you think the Wizard is dumb?
Or like Munchkins so small minded
He'll say to me I see who you truly are
A girl on whom I can rely
And that's how we'll begin
The Wizard and I!
Once I'm with the Wizard
My whole life will change
'Cause once you're with the Wizard
No one thinks you're strange
No father is not proud of you
No sister acts ashamed
And all of Oz has to love you
When by the Wizard you're acclaimed!
And this gift or this curse I have inside
Maybe at last I'll know why
When we are hand in hand
The Wizard and I
Elphaba: And one day he'll say to me, 'Elphaba,
Girl who is so superior,
Shouldn't a girl who's so good inside
Have a matching exterior?
And since folks here, to an absurd degree,
Seem fixated on your verdigris,
Would it be all right by you
If I "degreenify" you?'
But of course that's not important to me
'Well all right why not!?'
I'll reply
Oh what a pair we'll be
The Wizard and I
Yes what a pair we'll be
The Wizard and--
My future is unlimited
And I've just had a vision almost like a prophecy
It sounds truly crazy
And true the vision's hazy
But I swear some day there'll be
A celebration throughout Oz
That's all to do with me!
And I'll stand there with the Wizard
Feeling things I've never felt
And though I'd never show it
I'd be so happy I could melt
And so it will be for the rest of my life
And I'll want nothing else 'til I die
Held in such high esteem
When people see me they will scream
For half of Oz's fav'rite team
The Wizard
WHAT IS THIS FEELING?
Galinda Dearest, darlingest Momsie and Popsical…
Elphaba My dear Father…
Both There's been some confusion over rooming here at Shiz...
Elphaba But of course, I'll care for Nessa...
Galinda But of course, I'll rise above it...
Both For I know that's how you' yes, there's been some confusion, for you see, my roommate is...
Galinda ...unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe...
Elphaba [Looks out at audience with a pained look]...BLONDE.
Elphaba and Galinda: Loathing!
Unadulterated Loathing!
For your face, your voice, your clothing.
Let's just say I loathe it all!
Every little trait how ever small,
Makes my very flesh begin to crawl!
With simple utter loathing
There's a strange exhilaration
In such total detestation
It's so pure, so strong!
Though I do admit it came on fast,
Still I do believe that it can last,
And I will be loathing, for forever,
Loathing, truly deeply
Loathing you,
My whole life long!
DANCING THROUGH LIFE
Fiyero: The trouble with schools is they always try to teach the wrong lesson
Believe me, I've been kicked out of enough of them to know...
Galinda: It's really, uh, sharp, don't you think?
You know black is this year's pink!
Boq: Listen, Nessa?
Nessa: Yes?
Boq: Uh, Nessa? I've got something to confess,
a reason why, well, why
I asked you here tonight.
Now I know it isn't fair...
Nessa: Oh, Boq, I know why.
Boq: You do?
Nessa: It's because I'm in this chair,
and you felt sorry for me.
Well isn't that right?
Boq: No! No! It's because, uh because...
Because you are so beautiful!
Nessa: Oh, Boq! I think you're wonderful!
And we deserve each other,
don't you see this is our chance?
And we deserve each other, don't we, Boq?
Boq: You know what? Let's dance!
Nessa: What?!
Boq: Let's dance!
Glinda: Whenever I see someone less fortunate than I,
And let's face it - who isn't less fortunate than I?
My tender heart tends to start to bleed
And when someone needs a makeover, I simply have to take over
I know, I know, exactly what they need.
And even in your case
Though it's the toughest case I've yet to face
Don't worry, I'm determined to succeed!
Follow my lead, and yes indeed
You will be
You're gonna be Popular!
You'll hang with the right cohort,
You'll be good at sports,
Know the slang you've got to know.
So let's start cuz you've got an awfully long way to go!
When I see depressing creatures
With unprepossessing features
I remind them on their own behalf to think of
Celebrated heads of state or especially great communicators -
Did they have brains or knowledge? Don't make me laugh!
They were Popular! Please!
It's all about Popular!
It's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed
So it's very shrewd to be
Very very Popular, like me." -
Glinda: Why, Miss Elphaba, look at you! You're... beautiful!
Elphaba: [obviously uncomfortable] ...I have to go. [rushes out]
Galinda: You're welcome.
Glinda: And though you protest your disinterest
I know clandestinely
You're gonna grin and bear it
Your newfound popularity!
I'M NOT THAT GIRL
Elphaba: I wasn't born for the rose and pearl
There's a girl I know,
He loves her so...
I'm not that girl.
Elphaba: Don't wish. Don't start.
Wishing only wounds the heart.
A SENTIMENTAL MAN
The Wizard: I am a sentimental man, who always longed to be a father
The Wizard: So Elphaba, I'd like to raise you high
'Cause I think everyone deserves the chance to fly
And helping you with your ascent allows me to feel so parental
For I am...
A sentimental man
DEFYING GRAVITY
Elphaba: Something has changed within me.
Something is not the same.
I'm through with playing by the rules
of someone else's game.
Too late for second-guessing -
Too late to go back to sleep.
It's time to trust my instincts,
close my eyes, and leap...
Elphaba: It's time to try defying gravity
I think I’ll try defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!
Glinda: Can't I make you understand?
You're having delusions of grandeur
Elphaba: I'm through accepting limits
'Cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Elphaba: So if you care to find me, look to the western sky!
As somebody told me lately, everyone deserves the chance to FLY!
And if I'm flying solo, at least I'
To those who ground me, take a message back from me...
...tell them how I am Defying Gravity!
I'm flying high, Defying Gravity!
And soon I'll match them in renown!
And nobody in all of Oz,
No Wizard that there is or was,
Is ever gonna bring me down!
Glinda: I hope you're happy!
Ensemble: Look at her! She's wicked! Get her!
Elphaba: Bring me down!
Ensemble: No one mourns the Wicked,
so we've got to bring her...
Elphaba: Ahhhhh!
Ensemble: Down!
THE WICKED WITCH OF THE EAST
Nessarose: First of all, I can' I'm an unelected official! And secondly, why should I help you? You fly around Oz, trying to rescue Animals you've never even met, and not once have you ever thought to use your powers to rescue ME!
Nessarose: All of my life I've depended on you, how do you think that feels?
All my life I've depended on you and this hideous chair with wheels!
Scrounging for scraps of pity to pick up,
and longing to kick up my heels.
Nessarose: [to Boq] Lost your heart? Well we'll see about that!
Did you think I'd let you leave me here flat?
You're going to lose your heart to me, I tell you!
If I have to... I have to, magic spell you!
Nessarose: Save him, please, just save him.
My poor Boq, my sweet, my brave him.
Don't leave me 'till my sorry life has ceased.
Alone and loveless here,
With just the girl in the mirror!
Just her and me,
the Wicked Witch of the East!
We deserve each other!
The Wizard: Elphaba, where I come from, we believe all sorts of things that aren't true. We call it history.
The Wizard: A man's called a traitor, or a liberator.
A rich man's a thief, or a philanthropist.
Is one a crusader, or ruthless invader,
it's all in which label is able to persist.
The Wizard: They call me wonderful, so I am wonderful. In fact, it's so much who I am, it's part of my name...
Elphaba: [to The Wizard] You and I are nothing alike and I will fight you until the day I die!
AS LONG AS YOU'RE MINE
Fiyero: Maybe I'm brainless,
Maybe I'm wise
But you've got me seeing
Through different eyes.
Elphaba and Fiyero: Just for this moment
As long as you're mine
Come be how you want to
And see how bright we shine
Fiyero: What is it?
Elphaba: It's just for the first time I feel...(whispered) wicked.
NO GOOD DEED
Elphaba: Fiyero!
Elphaba: Eleka nahmen ahmen atum atum eleka nahmen
Eleka nahmen ahmen atum atum eleka nahmen
Let his flesh not be torn, let his blood leave no stain
Though they beat him, let him feel no pain
Let his bones never break, and however they try to destroy him
let him never die, let him never die!
Elphaba:Eleka nahmen ahmen atum atum eleka nahmen
Eleka nahmen ahmen atum atum eleka
Oh what is this chanting???
I don't even know what I am reading.
There is one trick I have yet to try.
Fiyero, where are you already dead or bleeding??
One more disaster I can add to my generous supply!
No Good Deed goes unpunished,
No act of charity goes unresented.
No good deed goes unpunished
that's my new creed.
Elphaba: One question haunts and hurts,
too much, too much to mention
was I really seeking good?
or just seeking attention?
Is that all good deeds are
when looked at with an ice cold eye
if that's all good deeds are
maybe that's the reason why
no good deed goes unpunished.
Elphaba: All right, enough! So be it! So be it then...
Let all Oz be agreed, I'm wicked through and through!
Since I cannot succeed, Fiyero, saving you,
I promise no good deed, will I attempt to do AGAIN! Ever again!
No good deed, will I do again!
Glinda: I've heard it said
that people come into our lives for a reason,
bringing something we must learn,
and we are led
to those who help us most to grow
if we let them, and we help them in return.
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true,
but I know I'm who I am today,
because I knew you.
Glinda: Like a comet pulled from orbit, as it passes a sun.
Like a stream that meets a boulder half way through the woods.
Who can say if I've been changed for the better,
but, because I knew you,
I have been changed for good.
Elphaba: It well may be,
that we will never meet again, in this lifetime.
So let me say before we part,
so much of me
is made from what I've learned from you.
You'll be with me like a hand print on my heart.
And now what ever way our stories end,
I know you have rewritten mine,
by being my friend.
Elphaba: Like a ship blown from its moorings, by a wind of the sea.
Like a seed dropped by a sky bird in a distant wood.
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But, because I knew you
Glinda: Because I knew you
Elphaba and Glinda: I have been changed for good.
Elphaba: And just to clear the air,
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for.
Glinda: But then, I guess
We know there's blame to share.
Elphaba and Glinda: And none of it seems to matter anymore...
Elphaba and Glinda: Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better
Glinda: And, because I knew you,
Elphaba: Because I knew you
Elphaba and Glinda: Because I knew you
I have been changed... for good.
Glinda: Fellow Ozians, friends. We have been through a frightening time and there will be other times and other things that frighten us. But if you let me I’d like to try to help. I’d like to to try to be – Glinda…the Good
- Elphaba Thropp
- Galinda Upland
- Fiyero Tiggular
- Madame Morrible
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
– Nessarose Thropp
- Doctor Dillamond
has an article about:
at The Internet Broadway Database}