Essay Questions

What is the primary “evidence” that Allman focuses on in his theory fingering novelist Donald Barhelme as having some sort of involvement in Dan Rather’s bizarre “what’s the frequency” incident?

While it certainly makes for an entertaining read and offers just enough potential to get a conspiracy theory going—if not necessarily to sustain it—ultimately Allman’s case would never even make it into any court in which the presiding Judge was not known by their first name. Judge Judy perhaps could be enticed to hear the case, but Justice Ginsberg? Indubitably not. Allman’s theory rests predominantly upon a series of coincidences which are only further weakened by the tenuous connective tissue holding them together.

Both Rather and Barthelme were born in the same year and relatively close geographically speaking as well. They both shared a similar military background and were competitive reporters for a short time in the Houston, Texas market. Most damning—relatively—is that the name “Kenneth” and the exact same wording of the same bizarre phrase which the men who accosted Rather wanted to know—“what is the frequency” both appear—in two different short stories and not relative to another—not that many pages apart in a collection of stories written by Barthelme. Of course, one suspects strongly that Allman is not actually taking his theory as seriously as the tone in which he sets it forth. Good thing, from an investigative perspective.

How does Allman transform getting a job housesitting and feeding the dog of a successful film director into a Hollywood success story?

In his textbook, Careers in Video and Digital Video, the author relates the story of two different choices made by he and a friend immediately after graduating from college with their film-related degrees. The author chose to head for New York while his best friend charted a course to the left coast. It just so happened that Nicholas Meyer, director of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, was a fellow alumni from a few years earlier and on a return visit to the campus had graciously offered to accept a phone call from any graduate who made it to Hollywood and needed some friendly advice. Much to their surprise, Meyer turned out to be as good as his word rather than just making an empty offer like so many Hollywood types. While the phone call didn’t wind up resulting in the dreams his friend entertained—having his name mentioned during an Oscar acceptance speech, for instance, or being introduced to Steven Spielberg who immediately took a shine to the scrappy young with moxie—he did wind being paid to live in Meyer’s home and tend to his dog.

What makes the experience a Hollywood success story is not that his friend was able to immediately wrangle a real job in the industry out of it, but rather that wrangling a real job in the industry is just as dependent upon—if not more so—being in the right place at the right time and making the right phone call to the right person as it is about being talented or educated. Meyer knew he had gotten lucky somewhere along the line and that luck led to his directing a Star Trek movie. He was simply paying that luck forward and it just so happened that Allman’s college chum was the beneficiary.