One person who not only understands the importance of popular culture in our society but who is also doing something about it is Kevin McKeever, Chairman and CEO of Bank of Kev Productions, an industry veteran who sponsored a CPAC 2011 event titled “Getting Started in Hollywood.” Kevin was gracious enough ask me to join him, our own Larry O’Connor and Lisa Mei Norton of Big Dawg Music Mafia for a CPAC panel today, a two-hour question and answer session in a room packed with conservatives of all stripes ready and willing to enter the business of show and looking for advice and guidance.

I’m not sure how much I was able to help but I was sure impressed by the questions and the people asking them. No bitterness, no complaining, no excuse-making. They weren’t there to hear how bad it is for conservatives in the entertainment business or to make excuses for why they haven’t sold a script yet. They were there as conservative actors, writers, filmmakers and musicians for advice on how to succeed and move forward in a very tough business. Between O’Connor’s good humor and experience in theatre and McKeever’s production background, the main message was pretty clear: be an artist first, learn your craft, make contacts and keep your politics to yourself. Be a sleeper agent of sorts. After you’ve made a career for yourself, then go ahead and create that personal projects that reflect your worldview.

Out of all of us, though, Lisa Mei Norton of Big Dawg Music Mafia is probably the most important example for conservatives eager to enter the arts. Rather than wait around for Hollywood to have some kind of moral awakening to their ideological totalitarianism, she went ahead and started her own company to give conservative musicians an outlet to publicize their work. That’s what I like to see, a self-starting workaround that defines who and what conservatism is all about. Please visit her site and if you’re a musician looking for support, you might want to reach out.

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Kevin McCarthy and Edie Sedgwick at a pool party in New York City(1965)

Associated Press:

Soon after, he became an early member of the Actors Studio and was chosen by Elia Kazan to play Biff, the son of Willy Loman, in the London production of “Death of a Salesman.” He repeated the role in the 1951 film starring Fredric March and earned an Oscar nomination as supporting actor.

But while he would consistently win praise for his acting during a long and busy career, his most lasting fame would come for “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” In the 1956 film, he vainly tried to warn residents in his small town of the evil pod people from outer space who were quietly taking over the personalities of everyone on Earth.

His frantic shouting of “You’re next!” to those in approaching cars became so well known among science-fiction fans that he was often asked to spoof the role. He more or less did that in the opening minutes of the 1978 remake, which starred Donald Sutherland as the hero menaced by the pod people. (more…)