Sure, I regret working with Harlan Ray.
His studio had posters of naked women on the walls, empty beer cans littering the floor, and the company line was “Harlan Ray is God”. Should have quit when the guys dubbed me a faggot for choosing to go to the ballet rather than a football game. Well, it was winter, and I’d rather be in doors.
Ray himself would throw fits if you had the nerve to enjoy something he hated. He walked past me one day as I was reading Stephen King during my lunch break and he, tearing the book from my hands, threw it across the room muttering how King was a fucking hack.
The message? I could only bring in real literature, so next time I read Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, and he grinned in approval, saying how Dolores Haze was a manipulative little minx, and she totally seduced the innocent Humbert Humbert.
That was the first warning sign. The biggie was him dragging me down to Hooters to discuss ideas for his next project, and I thought how ironic it was that Harlan Ray was such a snob when it came to art and music and yet such a philistine when it came to food.
Anyway, a waitress walked past in tight shorts and Ray, gentleman that he was, leaned over and pinched her ass. I looked at my shoes as she yelled, and Ray laughed. “Sorry lady, these hands have a mind of their own!”
When I told the guys back at the studio how we got kicked out of Hooters, their response was to roll their heads back and roar with laughter.
I left the studio in the end. I wouldn’t say Harlan Ray’s overbearing personality was the sole reason, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a factor.
I soon heard how Ray was soon hiring cute girls fresh out of college and flirting with them outrageously.
If I knew Ray, his flirting would be akin to being cornered by an aggressive and hungry bear. I thought about emailing the women who were now working for him, just to let them know what I knew, but I was tired and wanted to put those days behind me. The way I figured, Ray was no longer my problem.
I bet you know where this is going right? Ray was busted for possession of child porn, then a few women came out talking of sexual assault involving Ray, one of them was thirteen at the time of her encounter. I wasn’t shocked by the news; this was completely in character for Harlan Ray.
Regrets! Yeah, I knew something was up, I could have emailed people, could have let the young women know then maybe some of them would have heeded my warning and not have had their innocence ruined.
Yeah, I’ve fallen short and I’m gonna have to live with this now.
