America 1982-Chapter 446 - 70: Leap to Success

Tommy acted decisively, nominally to introduce his friend Stephen to little Turner to potentially collaborate with Stephen’s Paradise Manufacturing Film Company, which apart from the owner’s self-entertainment, hadn’t seen business in years. He personally called Stephen over to deal with little Turner for himself.

Stephen had certainly heard of little Turner’s reputation and was thrilled to learn that this entertainment magnate, who owned three television networks and held multiple film company shares, actually wanted to talk with him about producing a show. Stephen’s face almost burst into a chrysanthemum smile.

He didn’t like it when people treated him as a young financial genius, if someone kept praising his investment vision, they probably wouldn’t receive an invitation to Stephen’s next party.

But if someone praised his achievements in the film and television industry, believing he had unique insights and viewpoints on television and film arts, thinking since young that Stephen Binns was destined for an Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award, then that person was his best friend.

This guy had planned three major life goals to achieve: one, to win an Oscar; two, to get an Emmy trophy; and three, to win a Jack Kirby Award, the comic industry’s equivalent of the Oscars in the United States.

Considering Stephen’s current influence in these three industries, Tommy couldn’t see any way he would be associated with these three awards without using the superhero move of "cash ability" to bribe the villainous judges.

The moment little Turner showed up, Stephen felt Tommy was his true friend—out of so many people around him, no one really wanted to understand what he wanted, only Tommy did.

If Paradise Manufacturing won little Turner’s favor, it would bring Stephen more recognition in Hollywood than when he overpaid those filmmakers from around the world to make movies. At least then, people wouldn’t refer to him as nothing but a rich kid who didn’t understand anything other than money, but as a film and television practitioner who could truly cooperate with a mogul.

"Mr. Turner, if you want to understand the lives of young aristocrats, or say you want to produce a program similar to ’Born Aristocrat’ to compete with, no one understands better than Stephen," Tommy introduced the two and then immediately made his escape after dropping this line:

"He is a true born aristocrat, possessing all the fine qualities of nobility, and I have witnessed him, even when abroad dealing with a country’s financial affairs, never forgetting to take time out of his day to call New York to inquire about his grandfather’s illness."

In fact, little Turner had argued with Tommy when he called Stephen over. He believed that if they were to follow Fox’s narrative of ’Born Aristocrat’, his own son could be considered a born aristocrat, as the Turner family had risen to prominence since his father’s generation, and now, with industries such as advertising, livestock, agriculture, film, and television combined, the family’s valuation was several billion. If they were to make a reality show about tycoon young heirs, they didn’t need to call Stephen Binns, an outsider, but little Turner’s children could do.

But Tommy had retorted, "Audiences can’t accept one hundred percent reality. They won’t believe that the future heirs of the Turner family, just like most American farmers, stay in the Ohio countryside herding cows, even milking them more skillfully than the locals. What they want to see is a false reality where multimillion families have to be scheming, living in drunken stupors; they don’t need to pay to watch your heirs looking no different than a farmer’s son in the country milking cows, they could just go to a barn and try it themselves."

The Turner family had a special fascination with land, and over the last few decades, the area of land they had continuously bought was larger than the territory of many small countries in the world. Tommy thought the hit show of his previous life, ’Yellowstone’, might have taken cues from the Turner family’s story.

The Turner family’s ranch business was managed by the son from his first marriage, and strictly speaking, Tommy wasn’t wrong. Most of the time, his son didn’t look any different from the sons of ordinary American ranch owners, except that he had more land, cattle, and cattle herders at his disposal, after all, the Turner family was the largest private ranch and private landholder in Ohio.

Aside from refining the script for the movie dedicated to the CS gang, Stephen had not much that was worth being busy with recently, and there was no pressure to release that film either. After all, he was the investor, producer, director, and writer of the entire movie, so as long as he didn’t rush it, no one else would.

After leaving Stephen and Turner to talk about the blissful life of American aristocracy, Tommy rolled off to continue discussing with Siegel whether learning to climb or ski would be more effective in killing time.

It wasn’t that Tommy casually searched for topics to pass the time with Siegel; according to his plan, he didn’t have much to do in the coming three or four months. Everything that could be arranged had been taken care of; all that was left was to wait patiently for the starting gun to fire.

To Tommy’s surprise, little Turner actually talked with Stephen for a very long time, from the afternoon until the early evening lights were on. Many of BT Entertainment’s staff had left work, yet these two were still excitedly discussing something in the conference room, even having dinner ordered by BT Entertainment’s administration rather than eating out with Tommy and Siegel.

"I want to go back to the hotel," said Herbert Siegel, seeing that many of BT Entertainment’s staff had left and only a few were still working overtime. He spoke with tiredness on his face: "I’m going to call Turner to go back to the hotel together. If there’s any other issue, we can discuss it tomorrow. Thank god, I promised to accompany him only for one day. I’ll return to New York at dawn; if I stayed one more day, I feel I’d die of boredom."

Tommy accompanied Siegel toward the conference room, but before they could get close, someone opened the door from inside. Little Turner came out with a contented look on his face, "Tommy, I insist, Rick is such a hypocrite, but Stephen, this fine young man, indeed has the trait of sincerity!"

While saying this, he even couldn’t help but pat Stephen’s shoulder, who walked out with him: "Have legal draft the contract as soon as possible. I believe investing in Paradise Production is absolutely worth it."

Tommy wondered if he heard wrong and purposely dug at his ear, asking, "Investing in who?"

"Stephen’s Paradise Production," little Turner smiled confidently. "I think this program has a lot of potentials."

Tommy opened his mouth, what the hell was this situation? Like the fabled dragon and the young phoenix feeling instant mutual attraction, a perfect match at first sight?

Herbert Siegel was also a bit dumbfounded, "You want me to persuade Tommy’s father-in-law to invest in BT in the name of Warner and take a stake in exchange for BT prioritizing your production of some programs. But now, all of a sudden, you decide to invest in another company? You do realize that whether or not Tommy helps, Julian still owes me a favor, right?"

Tommy didn’t care whether Little Turner was going to invest in BT Entertainment or not; he was merely curious about what exactly Stephen had discussed with the other party that made Little Turner see him as a talent and be willing to finance his production company.

Having known Stephen for so long, he had always been the one to take out his wallet and invest in others. The scripts he penned himself and sought investment for had never succeeded, not even once. Little Turner was the first person in Stephen’s life willing to invest in his artistic dreams.

At this moment, Stephen’s expression was even more proud than when he was on dates with women. He left Little Turner and Siegel in the corridor without even saying goodbye, cheerfully pulling Tommy back to the meeting room. He sat Tommy down on a chair and stood in front of a whiteboard, eyes gleaming as he said to Tommy:

"With Mr. Turner’s help, I’ve come up with an amazing idea. Mr. Turner told me Fox produced a reality show called ’Born Aristocrat’, which they plan to broadcast on their premium reality channel. I’ve designed another kind of reality show for Mr. Turner. If Fox wants to tell Americans that there are aristocrats in this country, taking audiences into the lives of those aristocrats, then our program will tell the audience, no, America doesn’t have any damn aristocrats, only the great American Dream."

"I’m utterly confused right now." Tommy stared at Stephen, his tone a mix of worry, "And you seem unusually excited, which worries me. I’m afraid Little Turner’s craziness might be contagious. He said nearly the same things to you during the MGM acquisition press conference, saying he wants to revive MGM and restore its golden age as the king of silent films. But under his leadership, not only did MGM fail to become the king, it almost lost its status among the big six."

Stephen ignored Tommy’s concern and earnestly said, "If ’Born Aristocrat’ shows off the so-called extravagant lives of rich heirs, then my program will focus on emphasizing not to envy those people. Which is more exciting, which is more grand – inheriting wealth or building it from scratch?"

"Speak human, Stephen." Tommy still wore his composed expression as he spoke.

"I’ve decided to gather several wealthy young people, have them set aside their identities, their fortunes, and go to a completely unfamiliar city to start from scratch. Within a certain time frame, they will transform from penniless vagabonds back into wealthy individuals. I want to show the audience in front of the TV that if we can pull off this miracle, then they can too. That’s the American Dream." Stephen spread his arms with a triumphant look at Tommy.

"What’s the name of the show going to be?"

Stephen took a couple of steps to the side, revealing the majority of the whiteboard that had been hidden from view. Tommy looked over as directed and saw written there: ’Soar to Success’.

"How did you come up with that?"

"Inspired by the setting of ’Counterfeit Heiress’ produced by Rick, where a high society girl is dumped in the streets to mingle with gangs. But ’Counterfeit Heiress’ can only fool those poor people at the bottom, and lacks any real authenticity. It’s just Rick’s elaborate plots that thrill the viewers to desire and despair. But the paying audience certainly has a higher threshold for excitement than the lower-class viewers, just like you, after sleeping with too many women, ordinary women can hardly make you happy."

"Speak for yourself, I’m still an American virgin."

"So, that’s it. The modern American Dream, a modern gold rush, isn’t this more interesting than watching a bunch of heirs throwing different kinds of parties in New York with their inherited piles of cash?"

"Want the truth?"

"What?"

"Personally, I prefer watching the parties." Tommy flashed a grin and then stood up, "Kidding. I’m happy for you that someone like Little Turner acknowledges your abilities, brother. Allow me to express pride on behalf of your absent father, your absent mother, and Odelia."

"F*ck you, Tommy!"

"See you, good luck, future media mogul. Oh, and if you’re too busy working later, could you recommend the doctors and instructors you had on your skiing holiday in Switzerland? I’m thinking of learning how to ski."

"But I just said—I just told you I’m going to gather some rich young people, and among those people, just happens to be a guy named Tommy Hawk." Stephen raised his eyebrows suggestively:

"Come on, poor devil, let the American viewers understand the meaning of ’Leap to Success’, and teach these poor Americans what the damn great American Dream is all about."