Quentin Tarantino - The Man, The Myths and the Movies. Wensley Clarkson
were still circling the trailer park with alarming regularity; and her previous involvement in the manufacture of illicit home brew had exposed her to just about every lowlife character in Knox County.
Quentin’s stay at the flea-pit trailer that Connie’s mother called home soon degenerated into something that would haunt him for the rest of his life. He was a sharp observer, even at that young age, and it struck him that his grandmother was living the sort of life he had assumed only existed in cops-and-robbers shows. One of his favourites, Dukes of Hazzard, was based on life in a hick town just like the one he was living in with his grandma.
More than 20 years later, Quentin made a guest appearance on the Tonight TV show, hosted by Jay Leno, in Los Angeles, and referred to how his granny regularly beat him up. The issue only came up because Quentin found himself sitting next to another Tennessee resident, country music star Naomi Judd. She was trying to be nostalgic about her old home state, but Quentin did not exactly share her sentiments.
In fact, Quentin’s grandmother started drinking with a vengeance shortly after he showed up, and he spent much of his time sitting in her rusty truck while she hopped around liquor stores in eastern Tennessee. To start with, he would get a swift right-hander whenever he complained about the endless hours he spent in her clapped-out automobile.
But, as the weeks turned into months and Quentin’s grandmother’s consumption of alcohol escalated, so did her violence towards her grandson. Soon she began using a switch on him. Quentin was confused, lonely and very scared. He could not understand why his mother had left him with his awful grandmother for so long. What had he done to deserve this?
Back in California, Connie was too preoccupied with her apparent death sentence to realise what was happening in Tennessee. Whenever she managed to speak to Quentin on the phone he sounded okay. Quentin never actually picked up on the fact that there was something wrong with his mother, but for some reason he did not tell Connie about his grandmother’s abusive behaviour.
One of the few happy times that Quentin had during that nightmare stay was when his great-grandmother – deeply concerned by her daughter’s drinking – took him off her hands for a few days. Quentin’s great-grandmother was a full-blooded, golden-hearted Irish lady. His few days with her were filled with good memories, including his first experience of falling in love – with beautiful movie star Claudia Cardinale.
‘We went to see this John Wayne movie called Circus World. There’s a scene where she’s smooching with some guy in the hay. I actually remember thinking, I wish that was me,’ he recalls. The movies often provided his only escape from that strange environment.
Five months after the original diagnosis, Connie demanded that her doctor have her blood samples re-examined by a specialist in another part of the country. When the results came back, doctors told her it had been a false alarm. She did not have Hodgkin’s disease.
Quentin was understandably relieved when he heard he was going back to California. If he had stayed much longer with his grandmother he would probably have suffered further harm. When Connie later found out what had happened in Tennessee she swore never to speak to her mother again, and has not uttered a word to her since.
‘A boy’s best friend is his mother’
Anthony Perkins, Psycho, 1960
TORRANCE, SOUTH BAY, CALIFORNIA, SUMMER 1973
To a certain extent, the story of Torrance’s post World War II boom is the story of America during that period. Soldiers returned from Europe and Asia and settled down in suburban houses with lawns to tend and cars, appliances and furniture to buy. Then came exciting new devices called televisions; and three children – and a dog – to raise.
But away from the suburbs, in the built-up districts of the South Bay, blacks, Mexicans and white trash thrived in low rent, mixed-race areas. The area had more than its fair share of the infamous Southern California bike gangs, and out by the ocean was a nether world of massive oil refineries belching flames and smoke into a sooty sky. Yet just along the coastline were some of the world’s finest beaches. It was full of contradictions.
When Connie arrived in one of Torrance’s better neighbourhoods she had the dog, but only one child and little besides a television. Neighbours were initially inquisitive, but soon dismissive. Some were even horrified when they realised that Connie was not living with her son’s father. Quentin had just arrived back in the Los Angeles area from Tennessee, only vaguely hinting at the horrors he had suffered at the hands of his grandmother. Probably out of concern for his mother, with her health and divorce problems, he did not make a fuss. But then disaster struck when his beloved dog Baron died after being hit by a car.
Quentin was more than just heartbroken, he was devastated. Baron had become his friend, brother and pet all rolled into one. He cried for days afterwards. Connie tried to console him and hoped that he would eventually get over it, but little Quentin just couldn’t understand why Baron had abandoned him for ever.
Apart from Baron, the only other consistent character in his life was GI Joe. Quentin began inventing more and more sophisticated scenarios for his small army. Having seen new movies that caught his imagination, his ambition was still firm – he wanted to be an actor and he was honing his skills through those dolls.
Not long afterwards, Connie bought Quentin an Old English Sheepdog which was immediately christened Conde Azul (Spanish for ‘Count Blue’, according to Connie).
The name was dreamed up by Connie’s latest boyfriend, ‘a dishy Guatemalan’. While Quentin was delighted with the dog, he made it absolutely clear that Conde Azul could never be considered a replacement for Baron.
Conde’s appearance on the scene and Connie’s return to good health coincided with a marked improvement in the family’s living standards. Connie was rising fast through the managerial ranks of the healthcare company and her salary was going up in leaps and bounds.
Meanwhile, Quentin’s growing obsession with movies led him to try his hand at writing scripts as early as the sixth grade. One particularly moving piece was constructed specifically as a tribute to the only girl of his age that he was remotely interested in – child actress Tatum O’Neal.
Quentin got quite emotional when watching Tatum’s Oscar-winning performance in Paper Moon, co-starring her father, Ryan.
In his locker at school, he had press photos of the young actress covering every inch of the inside of the door. Connie noticed that each time he caught a glimpse of her on television, he would go weak at the knees. It took months, and a lot of ribbing from his classmates, before he accepted that he would never actually get to meet Tatum, let alone go on a date with her. After this, he rapidly retreated into his role as school geek.
Quentin never once formed an equivalent attachment to any of the girls at school. He had hidden his true emotions by doting on Tatum because he knew he could not possibly get near her in real life. Like Connie, he had already discovered that it was much easier to form attachments to celluloid fantasy figures.
Connie’s decision to splash out on a sumptuous split-level rented house in the Palo del Amo Woods area of Torrance certainly improved the standard of life for both mother and son. It was a palace compared to what they had been used to. Besides a huge den, where Quentin could indulge his superhero fantasies, there was a vast living room, with an incredibly kitsch rock fireplace and a large kitchen and dining area. Best of all, there was a ten-foot-deep swimming pool complete with diving board. The only problem was that Quentin couldn’t swim. A few weeks of private tuition followed and he finally got the hang of it – just.
But