Well, perhaps he wasn’t but a look at some of the films that he had produced would definitely suggest that he could have if he had so chosen. In 1973, producer Ross Hunter was sleeping on a mountain of cash. And indeed, it would be several decades before any major studio attempted to bring Hilton’s novel back to the screen, despite the fact that the idea behind Shangri-La was probably looking more attractive with each crisis-filled day. Considering all of the bad luck that befell the first production, one might wonder why Hollywood would even risk making a second version of the film. Because Colombia edited the film to shorten its lengthy running time, Capra sued the studio and the end result was that everyone involved lost a good deal of money. Even though the film itself was nominated for Best Picture of the year, it still took five years for the film to earn back its cost. (It cost $1.6 million dollars!) It also underperformed at the box office, nearly bankrupting Colombia Pictures. At the time, Capra’s adaptation was the most expensive film to have ever come out of Hollywood.
Frank Capra took the first crack at it, release his film version in 1937. Not surprisingly, the book’s success led to it being adapted for the movies. Years later, Dwight Eisenhower would rename Shangri-La after his son and it’s remained Camp David ever since.) Roosevelt, who named his presidential retreat Shangri-La. To the readers who were having to deal with all of that on a daily basis, the idea of Shangri-La was an inviting one. Even the UK was so mired in political turmoil that it was no longer a reliable bulwark against chaos. In Germany, a fanatical anti-Semite named Adolf Hitler had managed to move from being a fringe politician to being named chancellor. Even as a group of idealistic activists, industrialists, and politicians tried to make war illegal, Mussolini seized power in Italy. The combination of the First World War and the Spanish Flu pandemic had shaken everyone’s faith in the future. Much of Europe was still in ruins, both economically and physically. In 1933, the world was still recovering from the Great War. That the novel’s portrayal of a peaceful utopia hidden away from the “modern world” proved to be popular should not come as a surprise. Written by James Hilton, Lost Horizon told the story of a group of westerners who, fleeing from a political uprising in India, find themselves in Shangri-La. The lamasery of Shangri-La was first introduced in a 1933 novel called Lost Horizon. And while the place does have one very big drawback - i.e., once you decide to stay there, you can’t return to the outside world for even so much as a brief visit - it’s still easy to see why this idealized existence would appeal to many people. It’s a place where people literally can be friends forever. It was a place where it was common for people to live to be well over a hundred years old. It was a place where there was no war, no greed, and everyone was in nearly perfect health. Shangri-La was a utopia that was hidden away in the Himalayas. Take the idea behind Shangri-La, for instance. No one wants to hear, “Be friends until you get bored.” Instead, they want to hear “Friends forever!” It’s a simple idea and the simple ideas are the ones that usually bring us the most comfort. But, to be honest, entertainment is not about that type of reality. Instead of demanding that people remain friends forever, it would perhaps be more realistic to encourage people to enjoy and treasure the time that they have in the present. Sometimes, people just decided that they need to take a little break from the same old thing. It’s also a totally unrealistic and implausible idea. It’s easy to make fun of the band and the show but that doesn’t make Casey Kasem’s words any less true. Because, seriously, when you’re coming up with banger lyrics like “We’ll be friends forever/yes we will,” you want to make sure that they can clearly be heard. He was more concerned that the music and the lights at his concert were so excessive that the audience couldn’t even hear his lyrics.
Later, of course, Zack was led astray by a publicist who tried to sell him as being a “male Madonna.” Zack didn’t care about the fame. While he was asleep, he dreamt about becoming a superstar as the result of Zack Attack’s hit song, Friends Forever. In this episode, Zack Morris fell asleep in his garage while waiting for his high school friends to arrive for band rehearsal. With those words, the late Casey Kasem closed out the infamous “Rockumentary” episode of Saved By The Bell.