20,000 Leagues Under the Sea-A Childhood Memory

This evening, by chance, I caught the movie "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", a movie from 1954 starring James Mason, Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre. It was shown on the Turner Movie Channel, which I often watch. I missed the first part of it, but watched with fascination because it brought back memories of my childhood.

I won't go into detail about the plot because I did miss the first part, but it concerned a 19th century submarine captained by a Captain Nemo, portrayed by James Mason.

Why did it bring back memories? When I was an elementary school student in Los Angeles-more specifically in Mar Vista Elementary School in West LA- we had a substitute teacher by the name of David Rochlen. I don't recall how long he taught us, and I don't recall which grade I was in, possibly 4th grade. For some crazy reason, I do remember that he told us the first day that he was a part-time stunt man in the movies and had recently done the underwater scenes in a diving suit for James Mason in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". (Don't ask me how I remember this; some things you forget, and some things you remember.)

Sometime later, my parents took me to a local theatre to see this movie. I was excited to see the movie in which my substitute teacher had been a stunt man. For some crazy reason I don't recall, we missed this movie and only ended up watching the Shirley Booth movie, "Come Back Little Sheba". I never did see "20,0000 Leagues Under the Sea" until tonight.

Unfortunately, I missed the credits, but in checking the Internet, I did find the name of D. Rochlen, who, sure enough, was listed as a diving stunt man.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046672/fullcredits


So, Mr Rochlen, if you are still out there, you must be in your eighties at least. Maybe you will read this and know that somebody remembers you.