[FRIENDS OF KOREA] Two Peace Corps Volunteers’ brush with cinematic fame in 1960s Myeong-dong

One evening in Seoul, having nothing better to do, I decided to go out on the town in Myeong-dong with my friend Ron Rezac, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer. Back in the 1960s, Myeong-dong was a trendy spot for Korean youth, filled with bars, cafes and music venues.

After a few hours and a few beers (maybe more than a few), I let it be known that I, strangely, wanted to cap off the evening with some tea. The two of us hightailed it to a nearby “dabang” cafe, walked up some stairs to get in and were met at the door by a man who told us the place was closed and we couldn’t come in. “What do you mean we can’t come in!” we protested. “We have our rights!” we demanded in our excellent Korean, no doubt causing him to nearly keel over from the fumes of our beer breath.

Seemingly at a loss, he let us in, pointing to a table where he wanted us to sit.

Once inside, we learned that the reason they didn’t want to let us in was that a movie company had taken possession of the dabang for the night to shoot a feature film. They decided on the spot that the scene in the dabang would now include two drunken Americans.

Sitting at a table just a little way across the room was one of Korea’s most glamorous movie stars, Nam Jeong-im. She was shooting a scene with an older actress, in which she was pouring her heart out about something that was obviously causing her a great deal of distress. As the director called for more takes, Miss Nam administered glycerine to her eyes in order to make the tears flow more copiously, which they did.

We sat there watching for about 45 minutes, if I remember correctly, at which point we were invited to leave. We unceremoniously parted company for the night, only to return to the Peace Corps office the following day to work on our lessons on English intonation and stress.

The movie, in which we expected to be playing a major role, was a tear-jerker named “Forget Me Not” (1969).

I went to see it with a friend when it came out a few months later. The movie started with the credits rolling to the tune of a syrupy soundtrack. The melodrama began, moving weepingly along until the scene shifted to our dabang. There was Miss Nam with her companion, but where were Rezac and Goldberg? What horrible trick had been played on us, upending our promising movie careers? We were nowhere to be seen!

Oh, well, such are the twists of fate! It was a lousy movie anyway.

Charles Goldberg came to Korea in 1966 to volunteer for Peace Corps Korea’s first mission, K-1. He taught English at a high school in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, and later worked in Daejeon and Seoul.