The Fuse

In the late 1930’s mathematical genius Beau Kitselman and the surrealist artist, Salvador de Regil were running Persons Inc., a unique consultancy in Hollywood where they worked to develop the creativity of many of the actors and actresses of the time and solve their emotional problems. This period was known as the Golden Age of Hollywood and spawned many of the screen goddesses and femme fatales whose names still survive today such as, Jean Harlow, Barbara Stanwyck, Mae West and Dorothy Lamour. Hollywood was notorious at that time for its debauched way of life, its use of sex to sell movies and the exploitation of women to that end, all of which put it under the microscope of the world and in particular the newly appointed film censors.It is in this era that The Fuse is set. Kitselman’s main character, Jedediah Strong, simultaneously seduces, and then convinces, three young women to accompany him to the Nevada desert where, in the company of seasoned actresses and charismatic men living outside of society, he teaches them about love and sex whilst opening their eyes to their essential selves. Woven into this tale are ideas of a Utopian society, of breaking away from the norms of society, unique scientific advances such as anti-gravity and the concept of ’living in fire’ experienced as excitement, adventure, passion which Strong seeks to ignite in these three young women. If they have dynamite in them, he certainly has the fuse!