Steven Spielberg doesn’t attend his high-school reunions. After seeing his autobiographical coming-of-age film “The Fabelmans,” it’s easy to know why.
Drawn from the director’s real-life teen years, the brand new movie depicts Sam Fabelman — Spielberg’s alter ego, played by Gabriell LaBelle — getting beaten up, enduring anti-Semitic slurs from jeering jocks and feeling brutally alienated.
In keeping with Phil Pennypacker, a classmate of the director’s from Saratoga High School in Saratoga, Calif., plenty of that was true —only it wasn’t the jocks who went after Spielberg.
“There was a gaggle who were car-club type people; they wore distinctive jackets and drove power cars,” Pennypacker, 75 and living in San Jose, Calif., told The Post. “As I’ve heard it, one or two of those people flipped pennies at Steve and called him ‘Jew boy’ … The anti-Semitic motion was despicable.”
Classmate Michael Augustine, a former antiques dealer now living in Portland, Oregon, said he was a friend of Spielberg’s. “People covered their mouths and coughed ‘Jew boy’ as Steve walked by,” he told The Post. “I commented that he should ignore it. But humor was the one technique to survive.
“Steve had the best humorousness and was one among the neatest people I knew. He had a complete sense of irreverence. Mad magazine was it for him.”
As seen in the brand new movie — which is already tipped as an Oscar contender — Spielberg’s family moved from Phoenix, Ariz., to Saratoga in 1963, during his junior 12 months.
“I got smacked and kicked,” he told the Latest York Times in 1993, sharing highschool memories that led to spilled blood on two occasions. “It was horrible.”
The smack-down depicted within the movie, which leads to a bloody nose, is run by jocks who accuse Sam Fabelman of killing Christ. One other classmate, Pete Fallico, who went on to develop into a jazz DJ in San Mateo, Calif., remembers the bloody nose.
“The one who I heard had bloodied his nose was a troublemaker,” said Fallico, 75, adding that the likely perpetrator is now deceased. “He took five years to get through highschool. So he was older than the remaining of us.”
Fallico isn’t sure it was related to Spielberg being Jewish, though: “For those who showed weakness, people picked on you.”
Within the movie and in interviews, Spielberg makes himself out to have been the one Jew in the varsity. He told the web site Berhman House that, at Christmas time, while the remaining of his family’s block was ablaze in holiday illumination, their home had “nothing a but a porch light on.”
Augustine recalls an air of “bitterness” tinged with dry humor about all of it. “I asked him what Hanukkah was like, and he responded, ‘You light candles and drink wine. Then you definately light more candles and drink more wine.’ I told him that there needed to be more to it than that. And he said, ‘I hope so.’”
Saratoga classmate Midge Firenzi, 75, who describes herself as a “pompom girl” in highschool, told The Post: “There have been only a few Jewish kids in the varsity. Possibly there have been three or 4 [out of 276 students] in our class. The college was very WASPy. Almost everyone was blond-haired and blue-eyed.
“Steve was suspect,” Firenzi, now a pilates instructor in Cambria, Calif., said. “‘Who is that this guy? He’s not a jock and he’s not a nerd.’”
But the longer term Oscar winner stood out as a member of the coed newspaper, the Saratoga Falcon. Fallico remembers him writing snappily about sports, and Pennypacker, who was the front page editor, admired Spielberg’s top-notch photography: “He took pictures on the football games and got great motion shots.”
A key plot point within the second half of the movie is Sam getting hot and heavy with a girlfriend, Monica (Chloe East), who hopes to convert him to Christianity. That could be pure Hollywood fiction, though: Nobody interviewed by The Post remembers Spielberg having a girlfriend.
Then again, the the movie’s climax rings true to Saratoga classmates.
In “The Fabelmans,” Sam gets sweet teenage redemption when he volunteers to film Ditch Day, where the seniors skip school and head to the beach for fun and sun. When he unveils the movie at a faculty dance, everyone loves it — aside from two of the bullying jocks. One, Logan, is confused as to why Sam would make him look good; the opposite, Chad, is furious that the film portrays him as bumbling, tipsy and striking out with girls. When the latter attacks Sam, Logan involves the young filmmaker’s defense and punches out Chad.
“Probably the most vivid memory I even have of Steve is him filming us on the beach,” Fallico recalled of what Saratoga students called Cut Day. “He showed us organising umbrellas and running around within the sand. Steve sped it up just like the Keystone Cops. At times, he focused on waves coming in. We later wondered if that what was when he got the concept for ‘Jaws.’”
Added Pennypacker: “For individuals who didn’t know Steve, watching that film was a lightning bolt moment.”
The movie became a staple of sophistication reunions but mysteriously disappeared after the 2005 get-together. Pennypacker, who went on to develop into a lawyer and California Superior Court judge, suspects the footage was snatched by someone who recognized its value as a collectible.
But Fallico wonders if there may be more of a Spielbergian plot twist at play. “It’s my assumption that he sent someone right down to the high-school office and confiscated the film. He wouldn’t want it within the unsuitable hands. How much do you’re thinking that it will sell for on eBay?”
As “The Fabelmans” winds down, audiences see college-age Sam living in Hollywood, applying for jobs within the film business and being rejected. Many years after high-school graduation, during a visit to Universal Studios, Pennypacker got here across something that shows the scene being pretty true to life.
On display is a rejection letter addressed to Spielberg’s father’s home on the time. Written days after his highschool graduation, the note reads: “It’s unlikely that there can be opportunities for summer employment on the lot.”
But Pennypacker remembered Spielberg proving to be a star even before “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“He went to Cal State Long Beach for faculty, got here back that summer and, in the varsity cafeteria, showed a movie he made,” Pennypacker said, although he doesn’t recall the material. “Everyone who saw it went nuts. All of us thought he was on his way.”
Nonetheless, Pennypacker added, “He hates our guts. I wrote him a letter once we had our fifth- and tenth-year reunions. He didn’t respond. I feel [high school] was a difficult time in his life. I suppose he desires to turn the page and leave it behind.”
Steven Spielberg doesn’t attend his high-school reunions. After seeing his autobiographical coming-of-age film “The Fabelmans,” it’s easy to know why.
Drawn from the director’s real-life teen years, the brand new movie depicts Sam Fabelman — Spielberg’s alter ego, played by Gabriell LaBelle — getting beaten up, enduring anti-Semitic slurs from jeering jocks and feeling brutally alienated.
In keeping with Phil Pennypacker, a classmate of the director’s from Saratoga High School in Saratoga, Calif., plenty of that was true —only it wasn’t the jocks who went after Spielberg.
“There was a gaggle who were car-club type people; they wore distinctive jackets and drove power cars,” Pennypacker, 75 and living in San Jose, Calif., told The Post. “As I’ve heard it, one or two of those people flipped pennies at Steve and called him ‘Jew boy’ … The anti-Semitic motion was despicable.”
Classmate Michael Augustine, a former antiques dealer now living in Portland, Oregon, said he was a friend of Spielberg’s. “People covered their mouths and coughed ‘Jew boy’ as Steve walked by,” he told The Post. “I commented that he should ignore it. But humor was the one technique to survive.
“Steve had the best humorousness and was one among the neatest people I knew. He had a complete sense of irreverence. Mad magazine was it for him.”
As seen in the brand new movie — which is already tipped as an Oscar contender — Spielberg’s family moved from Phoenix, Ariz., to Saratoga in 1963, during his junior 12 months.
“I got smacked and kicked,” he told the Latest York Times in 1993, sharing highschool memories that led to spilled blood on two occasions. “It was horrible.”
The smack-down depicted within the movie, which leads to a bloody nose, is run by jocks who accuse Sam Fabelman of killing Christ. One other classmate, Pete Fallico, who went on to develop into a jazz DJ in San Mateo, Calif., remembers the bloody nose.
“The one who I heard had bloodied his nose was a troublemaker,” said Fallico, 75, adding that the likely perpetrator is now deceased. “He took five years to get through highschool. So he was older than the remaining of us.”
Fallico isn’t sure it was related to Spielberg being Jewish, though: “For those who showed weakness, people picked on you.”
Within the movie and in interviews, Spielberg makes himself out to have been the one Jew in the varsity. He told the web site Berhman House that, at Christmas time, while the remaining of his family’s block was ablaze in holiday illumination, their home had “nothing a but a porch light on.”
Augustine recalls an air of “bitterness” tinged with dry humor about all of it. “I asked him what Hanukkah was like, and he responded, ‘You light candles and drink wine. Then you definately light more candles and drink more wine.’ I told him that there needed to be more to it than that. And he said, ‘I hope so.’”
Saratoga classmate Midge Firenzi, 75, who describes herself as a “pompom girl” in highschool, told The Post: “There have been only a few Jewish kids in the varsity. Possibly there have been three or 4 [out of 276 students] in our class. The college was very WASPy. Almost everyone was blond-haired and blue-eyed.
“Steve was suspect,” Firenzi, now a pilates instructor in Cambria, Calif., said. “‘Who is that this guy? He’s not a jock and he’s not a nerd.’”
But the longer term Oscar winner stood out as a member of the coed newspaper, the Saratoga Falcon. Fallico remembers him writing snappily about sports, and Pennypacker, who was the front page editor, admired Spielberg’s top-notch photography: “He took pictures on the football games and got great motion shots.”
A key plot point within the second half of the movie is Sam getting hot and heavy with a girlfriend, Monica (Chloe East), who hopes to convert him to Christianity. That could be pure Hollywood fiction, though: Nobody interviewed by The Post remembers Spielberg having a girlfriend.
Then again, the the movie’s climax rings true to Saratoga classmates.
In “The Fabelmans,” Sam gets sweet teenage redemption when he volunteers to film Ditch Day, where the seniors skip school and head to the beach for fun and sun. When he unveils the movie at a faculty dance, everyone loves it — aside from two of the bullying jocks. One, Logan, is confused as to why Sam would make him look good; the opposite, Chad, is furious that the film portrays him as bumbling, tipsy and striking out with girls. When the latter attacks Sam, Logan involves the young filmmaker’s defense and punches out Chad.
“Probably the most vivid memory I even have of Steve is him filming us on the beach,” Fallico recalled of what Saratoga students called Cut Day. “He showed us organising umbrellas and running around within the sand. Steve sped it up just like the Keystone Cops. At times, he focused on waves coming in. We later wondered if that what was when he got the concept for ‘Jaws.’”
Added Pennypacker: “For individuals who didn’t know Steve, watching that film was a lightning bolt moment.”
The movie became a staple of sophistication reunions but mysteriously disappeared after the 2005 get-together. Pennypacker, who went on to develop into a lawyer and California Superior Court judge, suspects the footage was snatched by someone who recognized its value as a collectible.
But Fallico wonders if there may be more of a Spielbergian plot twist at play. “It’s my assumption that he sent someone right down to the high-school office and confiscated the film. He wouldn’t want it within the unsuitable hands. How much do you’re thinking that it will sell for on eBay?”
As “The Fabelmans” winds down, audiences see college-age Sam living in Hollywood, applying for jobs within the film business and being rejected. Many years after high-school graduation, during a visit to Universal Studios, Pennypacker got here across something that shows the scene being pretty true to life.
On display is a rejection letter addressed to Spielberg’s father’s home on the time. Written days after his highschool graduation, the note reads: “It’s unlikely that there can be opportunities for summer employment on the lot.”
But Pennypacker remembered Spielberg proving to be a star even before “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“He went to Cal State Long Beach for faculty, got here back that summer and, in the varsity cafeteria, showed a movie he made,” Pennypacker said, although he doesn’t recall the material. “Everyone who saw it went nuts. All of us thought he was on his way.”
Nonetheless, Pennypacker added, “He hates our guts. I wrote him a letter once we had our fifth- and tenth-year reunions. He didn’t respond. I feel [high school] was a difficult time in his life. I suppose he desires to turn the page and leave it behind.”
