San Francisco Film Society Oral History Project Interview with ...

MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Oh, there was a dustup about the Bay Guardian that year. The Bay
Guardian had published a critical article or something, and then got all incensed because they were
banned from the Festival. Do you remember any of that?
CLAUDE JARMAN: I do. In ’74, I had taken a position as the managing director of the War Memorial,
which operates the Opera House and the Veterans Building, mainly because the Festival was not year-
round. And they wrote a big story about how I was taking money from the Film Festival and at the same
time, having another job. And so they wrote that piece. The thrust of the story was not accurate. I mean,
the Festival was not part of the city; it was a totally different thing. And everyone knew what I was
doing, so it wasn’t like I was trying to get away with something. Anyway, it created a real problem. And
I think I said, “Take away their badge.” “No, you can’t do that, you can’t do that.” Anyway, after the
Festival, Judy Stone wrote a big story in the Chronicle about it. And then John Wasserman wrote a
rebuttal to that. It was kind of a cause célèbre. In actuality, the War Memorial job was taking too much
time, so I decided to make a choice and stay with the Festival. So then it went away at that point. But
that was the story. I was at the War Memorial for two years, ’74 to ’76.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: OK, ’76. I didn’t write down any of the great films that year.
CLAUDE JARMAN: This was the year we had Carol Shorenstein working for us.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Was she a publicist?
CLAUDE JARMAN: She organized special events. Her father called me and was trying to get
something for her to do. And she was only there one year. I said to her later, “Carol, what you want is
my job, and I’m not about to quit, so you’ve got to find something else to do.” So it was a one-year deal.
She went and became a successful theater producer. (LAUGHS) So that was very strange. And then we
had a new crowd. We had Frances Moffatt, who used to be at the Chronicle, and she was great, and a
new mayor, George Moscone. The word was that when the mayor came in, that they were going to bring
Albert back and fire me, and there was all sorts of things going on. Moscone was friends with Coppola,
and Coppola said, “I don’t have any plans to do anything.” It turned out, I had a great rapport with
George Moscone. He called me every other week. He loved movies. He called me every other week and
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