Dr. John Haase (August 21, 1923 – August 3, 2006) was an American dentist and author whose most well-known novel was adapted into the 1968

Richard Lester Richard Lester Liebman (born January 19, 1932) is an American retired film director, who spent the majority of his professional life in the United Kingdom. He is known for the fast-paced, flamboyant directing he brought to his comedy films, mo ...

film ''

Petulia ''Petulia'' is a 1968 drama film directed by Richard Lester and starring Julie Christie, George C. Scott and Richard Chamberlain. The screenplay was by Lawrence B. Marcus from a story by Barbara Turner and is based on the 1966 novel ''Me and ...

'' starring

George C. Scott George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was an American actor. He had a celebrated career on both stage and screen. With a gruff demeanor and commanding presence, Scott became known for his portrayal of stern but complex ...

and

Julie Christie Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1940) is a British actress. Christie's accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has appeared in six films ranked in the British Film Institu ...

Life

Haase was born in Frankfurt, Germany, the only son of a Lutheran father and Jewish mother. The growing threat of Nazi power forced the family to migrate to San Francisco in 1936. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and then studied at the Dental School of the University of San Francisco. He enlisted during World War II, and served in the Army in Texas. Haase practiced in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, with many celebrities, including

Conrad Hilton Conrad Nicholson Hilton (December 25, 1887 – January 3, 1979) was an American hotel magnate and politician who founded the Hilton Hotels chain. From 1912 to 1916, Hilton was a Republican representative in the first New Mexico Legislature ...

, for clients, for nearly 40 years. He married Jean Rosenblatt in 1948. They had four children, but the marriage ended in divorce. In 1975, he wed Janis. He died in Montecito, California, of complications arising out of emphysema.

Haase as author

His first novel, ''The Young Who Sin'', appeared in 1958. ''Erasmus with Freckles'' (1963) features Erasmus Leaf, who nurses a crush for

Brigitte Bardot Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( ; ; born 28 September 1934), often referred to by her initials B.B., is a French former actress, singer, and model as well as an animal rights activist. Famous for portraying characters with Hedonism, hedonistic life ...

, and his father, an absent-minded poet with a distaste for science, who has to deal with the mathematical genius that his son demonstrates. ''Me and the Arch Kook Petulia'' (1966) takes a satirical look at the America of the 1960s. It is the story of an affair between a middle-aged doctor in the midst of a divorce and a self-described kook who wants to have an affair because she has been married for six months and has not had one yet. Haase was not happy with the adaptation for screen. However the release of Lester's film was greeted with acclaim. The ''New York Times'', commenting in July 2006 on a DVD collection of comedies from the 1960s and 1970s, called ''Petulia'' the most notable of a group of groundbreaking films from the 1960s. ''Big Red'' (1980), a historical novel, describes the construction of the

Hoover Dam The Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado, Black Canyon of the Colorado River (U.S.), Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, d ...

in the early 1930s. The title refers to the Colorado River, but the appellation is not well recognized among locales. Haase had in mind, from personal chats, to produce a book that could be compared to Steinbeck's ''Grapes of Wrath''; unfortunately, the novel was not well-received. Much of its local geography is based upon the research of a geographer, who engaged in fieldwork in Haase's behalf. Haase was a prolific travel writer too, with several articles appearing in magazines and newspapers. He also wrote an episode of the '' Richard Boone Show'' on in 1963, titled "The Wall to Wall War".

Bibliography

* ''The Young Who Sin'' (1958) * ''Road Show'' (1960) * ''The Fun Couple'' (1961, made into a play of the same name) * ''The Sherbert Colours'' (1963) * ''Erasmus with Freckles'' (1963; made into the film ''

Dear Brigitte ''Dear Brigitte'' is a 1965 American DeLuxe Color CinemaScope family comedy film adapted from the 1963 John Haase novel ''Erasmus with Freckles''. Starring James Stewart and directed by Henry Koster, it is the third of three family comedy vehi ...

'', 1965) * ''Me and the Arch Kook Petulia'' (1966; made into the film ''

'', 1968) * ''The Noon Balloon to Rangoon'' (1967) * ''The Nuptials'' (1969) * ''Seasons and Moments'' (1971) * ''Big Red'' (1980) * ''San Francisco'' (1983) * "A Boy's Rite of Passage Out of Nazi Germany" (article in the ''Los Angeles Times'', 1984)

Trivia

* He married Janis aboard a cruise ship in San Pedro, California, with the band (friends of Haase)

Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1973. Credited with restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene, Van Halen was known for their energetic live performances and the virtuosity of their guit ...

performing dockside. * "The first draft was better than the book...(the later screenwriter) wrote about a world I'd never known existed, and if it does, I'd strongly suggest he keep it to himself." - Haase writing about the screen adaptation of his novel ''Me and the Arch Kook Petulia'' in the ''Los Angeles Times'' in 1967 * "Adapting a brilliant dentist's charming novel to the screen was like pulling teeth." - ''Dear Brigitte'' screenwriter

Hal Kanter Hal Kanter (December 18, 1918 – November 6, 2011) was an American writer, producer and director, principally for comedy actors such as Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, and Elvis Presley (in '' Loving You'' and ''Blue Hawaii''), for both feature films ...

in the ''Los Angeles Times'' in 1964.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haase, John 1923 births 2006 deaths American Lutherans American people of Jewish descent Deaths from emphysema 20th-century American novelists University of San Francisco alumni American male novelists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American dentists Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States University of California, Los Angeles alumni United States Army personnel of World War II Writers from Frankfurt