Time flies and it’s February.
The temperature in Los Angeles stays between 18 and 12 degrees, which is suitable for wearing windbreakers and suits. Hardy likes this temperature very much, which is much more comfortable than sweating in the summer.
He came to the airport to pick me up today.
After the filming of "Along the Way" was completed, the crew returned to Los Angeles, and Hardy came to greet them. Of course, the most important thing was to pick up Ava Gardner.
The crew got off the plane, the director and actors shook hands with Hardy respectfully, Hardy encouraged them a few words, and finally took Ava into the car and left.
When they got in the car, Ava hugged Hardy excitedly: "Finally, we are back. This time we can have a good rest for a while."
Hardy smiled and said, "It's up to you."
On the way back, the two chatted and Ava mentioned "Ghost".
"I watched Ghost in New York. It was a great movie. Although there weren't any big scenes, I still felt the emotions lingering in my heart."
"The theme song is really nice. Hardy, you have created another classic. In fact, the popularity of Ghost has a lot to do with this song."
"By the way, has Ghost finished its screening? How much is the box office?" Ava asked.
Because of its good release momentum, Ghost was shown continuously for nearly two months before being taken off the shelves. This kind of situation is rare in later generations, but it is very common in this era. There are cases where a movie is shown continuously for half a year. As long as there is box office revenue, theaters are willing to play it.
"It has officially ended. The data has not been announced to the public yet, but MGM has told me that the total box office is 11.2 million US dollars," Hardy said.
"Wow, so many!"
Ava exclaimed in surprise.
"Originally, I was wondering whether 'Across the World' could be compared with 'Ghost', but now it seems difficult," said Ava.
“Haha, not necessarily. As long as the promotion and marketing is good, ‘Across the World’ can still be a big hit.” Hardy said with a smile.
"Boss, how are you going to promote it?"
"I have arranged a job for you that will definitely be helpful for promoting the film," said Hardy.
"Ah, I just got back. You are such a capitalist."
Ava said unhappily.
"Listen to my arrangements before making a decision." Hardy then introduced Ava to the 'Super Show' program, from national auditions to preliminaries, promotions, finals, etc., an ordinary person worked his way up.
Just by listening to Hardy's introduction, Ava could feel that this show would definitely be very attractive.
"I want you to be a judge, and with Hedy Lamarr, Johnny Fonteyn and Gary Grant, I think the scene is good enough," said Hardy.
More than just being able to hold up, this lineup of judges can be described as strong.
Ava Gardner is now the most famous female singer in the United States. Her song "Scarborough Fair" has become a classic among classics. Later, she released another album which sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
Hedy Lamarr was the earliest sexy actress, and now thanks to the popularity of Ghost, she has become the hottest actress this year.
Johnny Fontaine is a well-known American singer who has been famous for more than ten years. He is absolutely qualified to be a judge.
As for Gary Grant, the Oscar-winning actor, no one doubts his qualifications.
"Okay, I'll do it." Ava agreed immediately.
The judges for the show have been decided, and the rest will be left to ABC TV. The production team has already been formed and will start soon.
......
Beer sent people to secretly find a bottle cap factory, which was not in Los Angeles but in the suburbs of Atlanta. He bought it directly for more than $10,000 and found several skilled bottle cap makers to make a batch of Coca-Cola bottle caps.
After the bottle caps were made, the team was disbanded and they were warned not to tell anyone else about this, as none of them would be able to escape if they did.
These people did not know the identity of the employer at all, and they disbanded and left. The bottle cap factory was sold, and they only lost more than 2,000 US dollars.
The bottle caps were shipped to major cities in the United States and temporarily stored in warehouses. After waiting for about half a month, Bill felt that the time was almost up, so he called Hardy and said, "Boss, everything is ready. When do you think we can start?"
"It starts in three days," said Hardy.
A few days ago, Hardy met Andy and told Andy specifically that he was going to cheat Coca-Cola. Andy immediately realized that there was a lot of potential here.
A number of secret accounts were opened to short Coca-Cola stock.
Because of the redemption campaign, Coca-Cola's sales have been very good during this period, even higher than ever before, with 70 to 80 million bottles sold in just over a month.
Many people have accumulated a large number of bottle caps, but very few people redeem their prizes.
Coca-Cola has a verbal agreement with grocery stores and small supermarkets. These people sell Coca-Cola and are also responsible for redeeming prizes. After they have accumulated a batch of bottle caps, they will find large distributors to redeem them. The large distributors will then settle accounts with Coca-Cola Company, and the redemption money can be deducted from the payment for the goods.
But in the past two days, many people took the bottle caps they collected to grocery stores and supermarkets to redeem their prizes. Sometimes a grocery store could redeem more than $100 in a day.
Most of the people who originally accumulated bottle caps were short of Virgo and Gemini bottle caps. But in recent days, many gangsters suddenly came up with bottle caps that they didn't know where to sell to outsiders. Each bottle cap was 30 cents, and they would have as many Virgo and Gemini bottle caps as they wanted.
And this situation is not just happening in one place; it is happening in cities and towns across the United States, large and small, and even in some small towns.
Countless claimants appeared at once.
A few days later, grocery stores and small supermarkets took the bottle caps to the distributors to exchange them. After all, they were the ones who paid the initial money. At first, the distributors accepted all the caps, thinking that Coca-Cola was increasing the rewards for publicity. But later they found that more and more merchants were exchanging the caps, which seemed a bit unusual, so they reported it to the Coca-Cola headquarters.
When Coca-Cola heard the news, it immediately realized the seriousness of the matter and contacted distributors in various places.
"Washington, how much bonus did you redeem?"
"Over four thousand dollars have been cashed out."
"How much bonus did you guys cash out in Oklahoma City?"
"Over 8,000 US dollars were exchanged."
"Philadelphia, how much bonus did you cash out?"
"Over 6,000 dollars were exchanged."
"Phoenix, ..."
Coca-Cola has more than 50 distributors in the United States. After asking around, it turned out that more than one million were redeemed.
The president of Coca-Cola felt his head buzzing. They didn't give out that many awards. They were planning to give out hundreds of thousands of them throughout the year. But now, in just over a month, they had only given out 20,000 to 30,000 of them. Where did all those award-winning bottle caps come from?
Fake~!
The president of Coca-Cola immediately realized this serious problem.
"Stop, immediately stop the award redemption activities in all places. Stop the award redemption activities from now on. Notify the distributors in all places, and let the distributors notify the distributors in all places." The president of Coca-Cola quickly gave the order.
It is easy for Coca-Cola to notify distributors, but it is very troublesome for distributors to notify small distributors. These small grocery stores and supermarkets are scattered all over the United States, and many people come to pick up goods. It is extremely difficult to notify all of them.
This is not the future, where everyone is in a group and the whole country will know about it if you send a notification. Now we can only make phone calls to notify, but many distributors do not have the contact information of grocery stores and small supermarkets.
How to notify them? Go door to door. No joke, they don’t have that much power.
Even though the notice of suspension of redemption has been issued, those small dealers are still redeeming the coupons, with each household redeeming tens or hundreds of dollars.
The president of Coca-Cola immediately informed the chairman, who also realized the seriousness of the problem and said, "Investigate thoroughly. If someone is really cheating, call the police immediately."
The investigation was not difficult. A large number of bottle caps were quickly obtained. Among them, the Gemini and Virgo constellation patterns were well-made, but after identification, it was still found that they were slightly different from the constellation icons produced by Coca-Cola Company.
But ordinary people can't tell the difference at all, they think it is real.
Call the police.
This matter is very serious, and the FBI has intervened to investigate.
Through FBI investigation, it was found that these bottle caps were sold by local gangsters. The FBI arrested many gangsters for interrogation, but these gangsters knew very little. They just had someone find them and ask them if they were willing to do this business, and then they would buy the bottle caps at a price of 20 cents per piece.
Finally, the FBI discovered that there were thousands of gangsters involved, but they had no idea who their bosses were.
The clues end here.
This is not the 21st century, there are so many high-tech methods. Under Hardy's instructions, Bill built at least 5 stepped fractures.
Truth will eventually come to light. The news of the flaws in Coca-Cola's prize redemption event was soon known to the media, and within a day all major newspapers reported the incident.
New York Times:
"The Coca-Cola prize redemption activity has been stopped. A large number of counterfeit bottle caps have appeared. The redemption amount far exceeds the amount Coca-Cola gives out. Coca-Cola has lost more than one million. The police have been notified and are doing their best to investigate the counterfeiters."
Global Times:
"Regarding the Coca-Cola prize redemption incident, the Global Times interviewed many Coca-Cola distributors. Many grocery store owners and small supermarket owners said that Coca-Cola had promised to let them redeem prizes on their behalf, but now suddenly stopped the process. Each of them had already redeemed tens or hundreds of dollars. They asked Coca-Cola for an explanation, but now Coca-Cola has not responded at all."
"This reporter made a simple estimate. With tens of thousands of dealers across the U.S., this amount of money may reach several million U.S. dollars. Is Coca-Cola going to let the dealers bear this loss? Wait for Coca-Cola to give a reasonable explanation."
New York Times:
"Coca-Cola Company urgently convened a shareholders meeting and decided to terminate the current president's duties. The first thing the new president did after taking office was to resolve the bottle cap redemption incident. I don't know whether he will handle it properly."
"The bottle cap incident had a huge impact on Coca-Cola's sales, causing a sharp decline in sales. It also had a very negative impact on Coca-Cola's reputation. As a result, Coca-Cola's stock price fell sharply, with a drop of 26% yesterday."
Because of this incident, Pepsi, the first company to start the prize redemption activity, was also interviewed by reporters.
Walter Mack, chairman and president of PepsiCo, said, "PepsiCo will strictly prevent this from happening. We have changed the PepsiCo redemption mechanism. In order to avoid causing possible problems for merchants, except for the second bottle, all redemption methods will use the redemption code redemption method."
"How do I redeem the prize code?" the reporter asked.
"Pepsi-Cola will cancel the small prizes and replace them with big prizes ranging from 5 yuan, 10 yuan, 20 yuan, and 100 yuan. Each bottle cap has an independent redemption code and an anti-counterfeiting mark code. Every once in a while, the company will conduct a random lottery. The winning numbers will be announced in the newspaper. The winners can mail the bottle caps to Pepsi-Cola. After Pepsi-Cola confirms that it is correct, it will mail a check to the winner."
The problem on Pepsi's side was solved, but Coca-Cola's side was still a bad stall. Many customers who received bottle caps were unable to redeem their prizes. These bottle caps cost money, and not only did they not make any money, they lost money instead. Naturally, these people had opinions about Coca-Cola.
And those dealers have even bigger opinions.
They invested tens or even hundreds of dollars, and now Coca-Cola has no explanation. This made many distributors very angry. During this period, many stores and supermarkets temporarily stopped purchasing Coca-Cola.
Those distributors are also suffering. Originally, Coca-Cola had agreed with them to pay the redemption bonuses on their behalf and then use the payment as a deduction. But now each distributor has thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars worth of redemption bottle caps piled up in a whole warehouse, but Coca-Cola doesn't want them anymore.
Who will bear this loss? !
Coca-Cola is now in a predicament. If it does not pay, its distribution channels may collapse in the future, and it will cost a lot to establish new sales channels.
Redemption,
Distributors received bonuses of up to two to three million dollars, a sum that was difficult for Coca-Cola to bear.
In order to save his reputation, the previous president expressed his hope at the board meeting that the board would agree to pay and deal with the matter. However, the board refused and he was dismissed. A new president took over.
The new president naturally defended the board's decision and prepared to default on the debt.
But they couldn't just say they weren't responsible, so they resorted to excuses and never told anyone how they were handling the situation.
Because of Coca-Cola's irresponsible attitude, its reputation has been severely damaged and its stock price has once again plummeted.
Coca-Cola was still stuck in the quagmire, and Hardy no longer paid attention to it. He turned his attention to the "Super Idol" talent show.
February 14th.
Valentine's Day.
The Global Times published a blockbuster news today, "ABC TV will hold a super idol talent show. No matter which country you are from, whether you are male or female, and between the ages of 12 and 28, as long as you come to the City of Angels Los Angeles, you can participate in this talent show held by ABC TV."
"If you have a beautiful voice and stunning looks, don't suppress your talent. As long as you make it to the finals, you will have a chance to get a management contract from HD Records and release your own album. If you win the championship, the company will even create a classic album for you."
"Come and participate in the audition. This is the starting point for your brilliant star journey!"
The location and method of registration for the auditions, as well as the preliminary competition rules, etc. will be posted later.
Shortly afterwards, ABC TV also reported the news that four major mentors would appear on TV at the same time: Ava Gardner, Hedy Lamarr, Johnny Fontane and Gary Grant. These four superstars would assist the contestants.
The news spread quickly, and many people began to yearn for the stars after seeing it.
In a simple apartment in Los Angeles, the only furniture is a table and a bed. On the table are a few bottles of simple cosmetics. One of the lipsticks has been used up for the most part, with only a little bit left at the end.
The girl was only wearing underwear, revealing her perfect body curves, but at this moment she was holding a few newspapers and reading them seriously.
"The Super Idol talent show is open to anyone between the ages of 12 and 28. My age is not a problem. Can I sing?"
The girl is not very confident about her singing voice, but looking at her figure in the mirror, her stunning appearance should count as a possibility.
She came to Hollywood more than a year ago and got a six-month contract with 20th Century Fox, with a salary of only $50 a week, but she was very happy because she felt she had the potential to become a big star. However, in the days that followed, she only got a very small supporting role.
Six months later, she failed to renew her contract with the film company. In the following days, she has been wandering around Hollywood, hoping to find an opportunity. A few days ago, a photographer approached her and said that if she was willing to take a set of nude photos, he would give her $50.
She was moved.
Because she had no money and couldn't pay the rent for next month, but she was unwilling to leave and didn't want to live her previous life again.
After seeing the talent show report in the newspaper today, the girl felt that her chance had come again. She was going to give it a try no matter what, just in case she was successful.
She combed her dark golden hair, changed into the best clothes in the closet, and walked out to the registration place.
She was running low on money and taking a taxi was too expensive, but luckily the registration location was only a few miles away from where she lived, so she could walk there.
The girl was full of anticipation and walked with a bit of a breeze. She didn't feel tired at all after walking a few miles. When she arrived at the registration point, there was already a long queue in front of her, so she hurried over to queue.
I received a form that required me to fill in my name, age, mailing address, phone number, and other information. I also had to write down what I was good at and what my strengths were.
The girl picked up the pen and was about to write her name, but suddenly stopped. She wanted to change it. At this moment she decided to give up her previous name.
Then he signed his new name.
marilyn monroe.