Gregory Peck and lost whales in west Wales

The man organising the giant lantern parade at Fishguard and Goodwick’s Moby Dick-themed festival in September can boast a unique connection with the great white whale itself.

Bill Hamblett, director of Cardigan’s Small World Theatre, was a near-neighbour of leading man Gregory Peck in California during the late 1950s. His father, Charles, was one of a team of Hollywood screenwriters who worked on John Huston’s classic 1956 movie.

“Basically, dad was one of the guys employed to turn Herman Melville’s prose into screen dialogue,” says Bill, who has run Small World Theatre with wife Ann since 2008.

“He’d decided to go from being a journalist and poet in the UK to trying to crack Hollywood.

“As a kid in Santa Monica I remember being dropped round at Gregory Peck’s house. And I’m pretty certain that John Huston’s daughter, Anjelica, came round to ours for my sister’s birthday party.

“But I’m afraid I don’t have strong memories of Gregory Peck – I wasn’t a particularly starstruck little boy!”

Hamblett senior’s memories of the 1954 Moby Dick shoot off Fishguard subsequently inspired his surreal fantasy novel The Crazy Kill in which leading man Peck is given the name ‘Gregory Pinch’ and Huston termed ‘John Simpson’.

Eight years later Charles Hamblett teamed up with journalist-poet Jane Deverson to publish the seminal 1964 work ‘Generation X’ on the upcoming mod and beat generation.

“The Crazy Kill is essentially a pastiche of Moby Dick written in the slang of the 1950s,” explains Bill.

“You could say dad had a varied and interesting career – he used to hang out with Dylan Thomas, Brendan Behan and all those guys.

“He also dropped acid as part of the CIA’s secret experiments and later wrote an article about the experience.

“The Crazy Kill’s insight into Huston and Peck is absolutely spot-on and a remarkable snapshot on how Hollywood came to west Wales to make a film about a whale in the middle of the ocean.

“Huston got that film completed through sheer grit, guts and tenacity and looking back it was a remarkable cinematic achievement – they lost three of those bloody model whales during the filming!

“And, as a three-year-old child, I was on the periphery of it all!

“Now that I’m 73, Moby Dick is once again coming back into my life. I mean, you couldn’t make it up, could you?”

Ar Ymyl y Tir/On Land’s Edge, the Moby Dick-themed festival, will be held in Fishguard (Lower Town) from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 of September. More information is available here.