The Backstory: Steven Spielberg: The Kid Who Literally Snuck Into Hollywood

Believing in yourself is key to success. One of the best examples of that is Steven Spielberg. At the age of 18 he sneaked onto the Universal Studios lot and literally created a job for himself while nobody was looking. Eventually they noticed him, paid him, and he never left.

Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . On Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, imagine dreaming what seems like an impossible dream.
You're a middle class kid born in the Midwest, and
while your parents have no connection to the film industry,
it's all you want for your future. That was Steven Spielberg,
who's given us some of our all time favorite flicks
Jaws et Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park and

(00:20):
for us history lovers, Lincoln Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan.
I'm Patty Steele, But did you know Spielberg's first up
close look at the world of movie making was at
the age of eighteen when he snuck onto a studio
lot and then refused to leave. That's next on the backstory.

(00:43):
The backstory is back long before he became one of
the richest and most influential filmmakers in history. Stephen Spielberg
was just another movie obsessed kid growing up in Ohio,
New Jersey, then Arizona and later California. He wasn't a
straight a student for a s sure, he wasn't the
captain of any team, didn't go out for sports much.

(01:04):
He had one passion movies. Then one family purchase made
all the difference. Stephen's dad bought the family an eight
millimeter camera. It was for the family, but Stephen claimed
it and it changed his life. Instead of just watching movies,
he started making them. He recruited his pals as actors.
His sisters became occasionally unwilling cast members. He created scenarios

(01:29):
with whatever was around. Toy trains became the center of
disaster scenes. He was obsessed and every weekend there was
another production. It was the early nineteen sixties and other
teenagers spent their summers at the beach, but Steven Spielberg
was learning everything he could about camera angles, editing, lighting,
and storytelling. He went to the movies every weekend. This

(01:53):
was his destiny, and without realizing it, he was giving
himself a film school education. After high school, his dream
was to head to the prestigious University of Southern California
Film School. He applied and he was rejected. Not willing
to accept the rejection, he applied again and again USC
turned him down, so it could have ended there, but

(02:16):
his determination meant he was going to find a way,
so instead he enrolled at California State University, Long Beach.
He wanted Hollywood and movie making, and that's all he
wanted in the early days of school. One summer nineteen
sixty five, eighteen year old Steven Spielberg visited Universal Studios
on a public tram tour and he noticed something. The

(02:40):
tour guides didn't really pay close attention, so when the
tram stopped, he quietly wandered away. Instead of returning to
the tour, he walked deeper into the studio. Nobody stopped him.
He spent the day watching movie crews at work. He
observed directors giving instructions, He watched camera's role, He saw

(03:00):
the magic happen. He met a movie exec and after
a little chat, got a three day pass to the studio.
He spent those three days soaking it all in, and
at the end of the last day, security politely escorted
him out. It was a great adventure, but Stephen saw
it his more than that. It was an opportunity. The
next morning it returned, but this time he wasn't dressed

(03:23):
like a kid tourist. He wore a suit, carried a briefcase.
He looked like he belonged, and the guard at the
gate said, hi, waved him right in. Hollywood is big
on confidence, and Steven Spielberg had a ton of them.
Each morning he arrived at Universal, each evening he left.
In between, he wandered from set to set, introducing himself,

(03:45):
asking questions, and quietly learning everything he could. And it
went further. He even found an unused office which he
made into his headquarters. Some say he even put his
own name on the door. But he had no salary,
no employer badge, and clearly no permission. Amazingly, though nobody
questioned him again, this was his destiny. For weeks, going

(04:09):
on months, Steven Spielberg was pretty much running his own
unofficial internship inside one of Hollywood's biggest studios, and nobody noticed.
But eventually somebody important noticed, not because Stephen was trespassing,
but because he had talent. Stephen had been making really
sophisticated short films on his own. One of them, a

(04:31):
twenty six minute film called Amblen later the name of
his production company, was a story about two young hitchhikers
traveling across the California desert. It cost him about fifteen
thousand bucks to produce, which was a lot of money
for a young filmmaker, but it was terrific. Big time
Universal executive Sid Sheinberg watched it and was Stunned, he

(04:54):
realized Stephen wasn't just an enthusiastic movie buff, he could
actually direct. Sheinberg signed him to a television directing contract,
and at just twenty two years old, Stephen became one
of the youngest directors ever signed to a major Hollywood studio.
The kid who had sneaked onto the lot now had
his own office there Legally, TV became his proving ground.

(05:18):
He directed episodes of popular shows like Colombo, Marcus Welby MD,
and Night Gallery. Industry types loved his unusual camera work,
which created suspense with movement instead of expensive special effects.
He made TV look like the movies. Then came a
small made for TV movie called Duel. It was about

(05:39):
a businessman driving through the desert who's relentlessly chased by
an unseen truck driver. That's it, just one truck, one car,
and unbearable suspense. Critics loved it, and Hollywood noticed. In fact,
it still considered perhaps the best made for TV movie ever.
That was the launching pad, and soon after Stephen was

(06:01):
handed another movie. I think you've heard of this one.
It start a giant mechanical shark, Yeah, Jaws. Now, problem
is the production turned into a nightmare. The shark constantly
broke down. The filming schedule fell apart as the budget
spiraled out of control. Would it destroy his career? Well, actually,

(06:22):
the broken shark forced him to show less of the
fish and create more suspense, music, audience imagination. That's what
made Jaws iconic. It was the first true summer blockbuster,
and Hollywood would never be the same. But Steven Spielberg
never stopped. He had too many stories to tell. One

(06:43):
amazing movie after another, Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
Raiders of the Lost Dark e t The Extraterrestrial, Jurassic Park,
Saving Private Ryan Shindler's List, Lincoln. His films have earned
billions of dollars and one endless awards, but more importantly,
they're a part of our pop culture. He didn't just

(07:05):
direct movies, he created shared memories for generations. Steven Spielberg
found his destiny despite being rejected by film school. He
had no powerful relatives. He wasn't handed an opportunity. He
created one, not just by sneaking into Universal studios, but
by refusing to let closed doors decide his future. He

(07:28):
realized the biggest break isn't something you're given It's something
you build yourself, using the challenges you face as an
opportunity to grow. The teenager who once pretended he belonged
on a movie lot eventually became the filmmaker every studio wanted.
So when you tour Universal Studios, you're walking through the

(07:49):
same gates where a teenager with huge dreams stepped off
a tour bus and decided he wasn't going to leave
because he knew he belonged. I hope you like The
Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review and I
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(08:10):
dm me if you have a story you'd like me
to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram
Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a
production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durant Group, and
Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Mike Paeseglia. Our writer

(08:31):
is Jake Kushner. New episodes are out every Tuesday and Friday,
and feel free to reach out to me with comments
and story suggestions on Instagram at reel Patty Steele and
on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the
backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't
know you needed to know.