Continued (page 2 of 3)
“That was my exposure to that whole world [of TV production],” Jude continues. “I learned lighting, I learned cameras, I got to be on the set and perform too. This friend of mine really gave me this great experience with the whole package. Eventually, I got offered this really good job with this neoclassical architect, Juan Pablo Molyneaux, and I left the whole business, I left modeling, and I went into architecture completely after that.”
Glenn made his Broadway debut at age 8, appearing with Anne Bancroft in the play Golda. He returned to the Great White Way later with a role in the production of Richard III starring Al Pacino. Next came Hollywood, where he landed a regular role in the hit sitcom One Day at a Time, joining the series in 1980 and staying with it until 1983. With TV stardom came the perks of fame – Love Boat appearances, a recording contract, and even a “special guest appearance” on the cover of Archie comics (Glenn’s dad, Henry, has been a top cartoonist at Archie Comics for more than 30 years now). But Glenn wasn’t sure it was the life for him.
“I left acting for privacy,” he explains. “The drawback to being a child actor – and there weren’t many for me because I had a great time: I felt like I had won the lottery, I way preferred it to school and I loved acting – was the inability to freely make my own personal discovery of myself, of who I am. I was told how to wear my hair, what to wear, what to say during interviews. I was very much dictated to in regard to a marketing persona that was ‘me.’ I had publishers, managers and agents. I became a commodity so to speak. So that is what I needed to break away from. I have always loved the performing part; it’s the stuff that comes with it that made me want to step away from it and really get into the other aspects of the business that we do at Sedona Now.”
Give one big assist for Glenn’s decision to break away from the grind to master film director Martin Scorsese. “After One Day at a Time I did a short-lived series called Jennifer Slept Here with Ann Jillian for NBC. It wasn’t a hit show, so the whole experience just wasn’t what I got from One Day at a Time. When that ended, I did one very short guest appearance on a show called Amazing Stories. Steven Spielberg produced that show, and Martin Scorsese directed this episode. I had been in this off-Broadway show and he came to see me and I became friends with his daughter. So I got this call from the Spielberg people saying Scorsese wants to cast me on the show. I was thrilled to do it, but this came up right when I was asking myself some serious questions about who I am and what I really wanted. I was 18, and going through a heavy transition internally. So I did this episode and got the chance to talk with Marty, and I started telling him what I was feeling: ‘I’m a little disillusioned with acting…I don’t know if this is where I want to be…I love acting but I don’t know who I am…I grew up in this business but I would like to learn more about the industry…I would love to direct and write.’ He said, ‘You have to go to NYU [New York University]. No question, you have to go to NYU.’ That was his Alma Mater. He said, “You have to get out of L.A. Why don’t you go to N.Y.?’ And I realized I’d have loved to be in N.Y. right then. So I moved. And I’ve focused on the [production] side of things since. And I am really glad I did.” He ended up going back to L.A., as president of GKS Entertainment, a digital mastering and editing facility.
Meanwhile, Jude was working in architecture and landscape design in California (including, interestingly enough, landscaping and rose garden design for One Day at a Time executive producer Norman Lear). He and Glenn, who have been partners for seven years, both had history in Sedona, and would come here on vacation. When Jude had an architectural opportunity here, they decided to make the move. The possibility of producing local TV shows had crossed their minds, they say, but owning a TV station was not something they ever expected to do.
