Rev. 5/3/96Rev. 5/3/96 L.A. CONFIDENTIAL FADE IN: Over the opening strains of "I Love You, California,” a 1 montage: a mixture of headlines, newsreels footage and live action. Economy Booming! Postwar Optimism! L.A.: City of The Future! But most prominent among them: GANGLAND! Police photographers document crime scenes. The meat wagon hauls ex-button men to the morgue. Where will it end? EXT. L.A. SKYLINE - SUNSET 2 Palm trees in silhouette against a cherry sky. City lights twinkle. Los Angeles. A place where anything is Possible. A place where dreams come true. As the sky darkens, triple-klieg lights begin to sweep back end orth. EXT. MANSION (HANCOCK PARK) - NIGHT 3 The KLIEG LIGHTS are out front. Valets hurry to park a line of elegant cars MAYOR'S VOICE Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the future of Los Angeles! INT. HANCOCK PARK MANSION - BALLROOM - NIGHT 4 The MAYOR yanks a cloth to reveal a MODEL of L.A. criss- crossed by an elaborate FREEWAY SYSTEM. The CROWD cohs. A COUNCILMAN claps. A SOCIETY MATRON nods her approval. PIERCE PATCHETT, 50, tuxedoed, watches off to one side. A behind-the-scenes power broker, Patchett exudes authority much more so than the mayor does. MAYOR The Arroyo Seco freeway is just the beginning. We're planning freeways from Downtown to Santa Monica, from the South Bay to the San Fernando Valley. Instead of being packed like sardines on buses and subways, the citizens of Los Angeles will be in their own cars enjoying trouble free travel in every direction. A ee More applause. One REPORTER asks a little too loudly... (CONTINUED)L.A. CONFIDENTIAL - Rev. 5/3/96 2. 4 CONTINUED: ) CoD REPORTER How many bodies you think Mickey Cohen'1l be able to hide in all that cement? The Mayor wears a plastic smile, ignores it. 5 INT. THE MOCAMBO - NIGHT A CLUB PHOTOGRAPHER pops snap-shots, but the real action is on the floor where MICKEY COHEN dances with THREE different GIRLS at once. A fireplug of a man, he hardly seems a public menace. Nearby is his bodyguard JOHNNY STOMPANATO. Over it all: SID HUDGEONS' VOICE Meyer Harris Cohen, Mickey C to his fans. He's the big moocher, local L.A. color to the nth degree. You know Mickey. He runs dope, rackets and prostitution. He kills a dozen people a year. But who you may not know is bodyguard Johnny Stompanato. His hair in a slick pompadour, Stompanato keeps an eye on Cohen and comes onto a CIGARETTE GIRL at the same time. SID HUDGEONS' VOICE Johnny's handsome, ladies, but the real attraction is below the belt. Second only to Steve Cochran, he's sometimes known as ‘Oscar’ because of his Academy Award-sized appendage. Mickey works a sweat on the dance floor. A bottle of champagne pops; Stompanato reacts, nearly draws a pistol from his shoulder holster. As he laughs at himself... 6 INT. HUSH-HUSH MAGAZINE OFFICE - NIGHT 6 Lurid page one headlines cover the wall where SID HUDGEONS types. The essence of sleaze, Sid is the publisher-photographer-writer of Hush-Hush magazine and keeper of inside dirt supreme. As he continues... HUDGEONS' VOICE Remember, dear readers, you heard it here first, off the record, on the QT and very Hush-Hush.