Homage to Monica Sullivan, San Francisco film critic and radio host

By Moira Jean Sullivan

Radio broadcast #1, Annakarinaland, May 31, 2024 KXSF.fm

PROGRAM

Homage to Monica Sullivan, producer of Movie Magazine International and Shoestring Radio Theatre.

Monica leaves us a profundity of radio plays she produced and wrote, 'scathingly brilliant' film criticism, novels, short stories, and scrapbooks. Her legacy is fortunate for us as we continue to rediscover her genius, her creativity, and her passion. Monica Sullivan was a true champion of the printed and spoken word, a powerhouse for justice, for the rights of children and young people, and furry felines. She challenged me and enchanted me. As children, Monica and I put on plays and puppet shows, saw films at the local theatre, watched TV shows like The Man From UNCLE, The Avengers, and all the new season TV shows, and went backstage to meet actors such as Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith in theatre productions in LA. Diana remembered Monica, who was sitting in the front row, because she had worn a lime green dress. She apologized if she accidentally spat on her during her elocution. Mrs. Peel and Steed were Monica's favorites among an outstanding doll collection with Shirley Temple dolls, Shari Lewis puppets, Wonder Woman, and Queen Elizabeth dolls. There was no better place to be than in the enchanted forest in Monica’s apartment where there was always a fantastic movie or TV show that was on.

Monica welcomed me to Movie Magazine International and made it possible to cover film festivals for over 20 years at Cannes and Venice and the women’s international festival in Créteil, Paris. She was a brilliant scholar who would spend hours adding additional information to books about character actors, show business personalities, and rare films. I don't think there is anyone I know who has more knowledge of film. In high school she was a member of the National Honor Society, which stands for attributes that pretty much sum up Monica—“scholarship, leadership, service, and character”. Her favorite expression was 'don't let the 'basterds get you down'. She defied mediocrity, winning the admiration of drama teachers and fellow actors in high school. She has always loved San Francisco where she settled with her husband Steve Rubenstein in the 1970s, who is producer of her radio shows and her books and carries on the show for KXSF.fm Community Radio in San Francisco.

Monica's radio show was famous for it being a modern-day radio program They were 1000 listeners a month in the Bay Area. Monica was a maverick in community radio having two shows for over 30 years: Shoestring Radio Theater, plays that are read by actors that are sent to Monica for production from all over the world, and Movie Magazine International , a 30-minute entertainment program on new film reviews, book reports on cinema, and interviews with celebrities.

Shoestring Radio Theatre is still on the air on KXSF, and Movie Magazine International is broadcast with classic reviews from the show's history on shoestring.org. Monica is the author of two novels The Cat Journals (1976) and Slipping through the Jelly Line (1981). The printed dedication reads, "For Alvah Bessie, the best cheerer-upper west of the Pecos." Videohound Independent Film Guide (Videohound Guides), and was a Northern California Emmy nominee for her teleplay "The Subject Doesn't Really Interest Me." Sullivan also co-produced the documentary "Hollywood Blacklist." One of her closest friends was Alvah Bessie, novelist, screenwriter, literary and film critic, and member of the Hollywood Ten who was blacklisted for his refusal to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Her letters to him are archived in the Alvah Bessie Papers of the Wisconsin Historical Society, of Alvah Bessie.

Monica championed many causes involving social injustice. She was an avid reader of the story of Anne Frank who kept a diary from 1942-1944 during the time her family for hid in an apartment in Amsterdam during WWII. Anne, who wanted to be a writer died in a concentration camp. As a child, Monica was enchanted by the Beatles. While she was a young cub reporter who had her own byline in the Woodland Daily Democrat, was accredited to be at the press conferences for the Beatles at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Monica began writing movie reviews for her hometown paper at the age of 12. And here is where Monica's interest in radio was born. Johnny Hyde was a DJ on KXOA 1470 AM. Johnny started a new music show called "The Gear Hour" that featured emerging artists of the British Invasion. Johnny introduced The Beatles to the Sacramento radio audience prior to their first hit in America. It was this station that first played the Beatles where Monica first heard them. The Gear Hour signed me up. "VideoHound's Independent Film Guide" takes a look at indies made during both the silent and sound eras, covering films from 32 countries. One reviewer praised her personal engagement with some of the most extraordinary films ever made. "Monica Sullivan's prose is as irreverent and idiosyncratic as the films she reviews."

"A movie buff since the age of three, when I could easily have spent a whole day watching 'Gentlemen Prefer Blonds,'" Monica points out that "free spirits have been making their own movies since 1888." Monica and I were inseparable as children because she loved movies, plays, and theater. And we produced plays in our garage for the neighborhood. We read books to each other and saved Movie Magazines at Safeway until we got our allowances.

THE CLOSET is a radio play (rebroadcast during the show)about my sister and me as children, where one day we locked each other in the closet of my mother's family home. It was broadcast around Halloween, so there are Halloween side effects. This is a clever way in which Monica was able to recreate the scenario for what was as I recall a very scary afternoon in the 60s’s. The part about our uncle is true: he threatened to beat us up if we were not quiet. The threat was just as frightening. In this way Monica brought attention to the threat of physical abuse to listeners.

It was not only The Closet that Monica produced that drew attention to child physical abuse; she made frequent references to it in her writing including The Cat Journals, a self-published novel story of three Irish American women growing up in San Francisco with descriptions of the child abuse that was in our family. She also was nominated for a local MA for a play called The Subject Doesn't Concern Me Anymore, in which she played a mother who abuses her son. For me these programs were written for the public to draw attention to domestic abuse and child abuse of the many gifts that Monica left us. Monica’s quick mind was evident in her film criticism and interviews with celebrities from Jacqueline Bissett to David Carradine to Annette Funicello of the Mouseketeers.

© 2024 - Moira Jean Sullivan - Air Date: 05/31/24
Movie Magazine International on KXSF.fm 102.5