Work in Progress
Chapter One
Emergency--July 1994
FRANK WELLS WAS FIFTY YEARS OLD WHEN OUR PATHS CROSSED ON
the ski slopes of Vail, Colorado, in the spring of 1982. We agreed to have
dinner together that evening, with our wives. Until then, I had never
really known Frank, except by reputation. On one level, he was just another
Hollywood entertainment executive like me. But Frank had also
been a Rhodes scholar, an editor of the law review at Stanford, and a top
entertainment lawyer handsome enough to be mistaken for his good
friend Clint Eastwood. His outside interests especially intrigued me. He
was an environmentalist, a liberal political activist, and a true adventurer.
Weeks before we met, he had quit his job as vice chairman of Warner
Bros. in order to spend a year trying to climb the highest mountains on
each of the seven continents. What sort of man, I wondered, would give
up a secure and prestigious position to pursue a lifelong fantasy?
Over dinner, I grilled Frank about his upcoming expedition.
I've always been an insatiable interrogator, and t ... read full excerpt from Work in Progress ebook