The Brief

WASHINGTON — Tears cascaded down Caleb Williams' face. The then-9 year old couldn't believe the mistake he made.

Williams was starting his first game at quarterback for the Bowie Bulldogs in Maryland. He'd previously played running back and linebacker in the three years leading up to this moment.

But after Mark McCain saw Williams throw a 40-yard pass on the dot ... as his team's third-string quarterback the season before, McCain, Russell Thomas and Carl Williams, Caleb's father, agreed to try the fourth grader at signal caller.

So here was Williams, in his first contest — a 7-v-7 game — and his first throw was an interception.

He attempted a 15-yard pass but made the wrong read. He disregarded what he saw the defense had set-up, and paid for it immediately.

"Since I was 4, when I lost, I cried," Williams told The Pivot Podcast. "One thing about me is my guys know I care ... and winning is the most important thing to me. ... There is a time and a place for it and understanding, even if it's raw emotion, and it comes out then and there, but being able to control it and hold it in until you get home."

His tears, the frustration with himself and that initial failure weren't for naught, though. In fact, those mistakes proved to be invaluable. This was the first pivotal moment in Williams' development at quarterback.

Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams throws a pass during the second half of the team's college football game against UCLA on Nov. 18, 2023, in Los Angeles.

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The legend begins

The second happened three years later. He was then playing for Bowie Elite, a youth football program. McCain, his new coach, benched Williams during the team's playoff game after he went the wrong direction on a handoff, fumbled a snap and didn't throw to the right places.

It was after that game when Williams, the presumptive No. 1-overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, flipped the switch and altered the trajectory of his career. It's also where Williams' legend actually begins.

"That really kind of started that; when he realized that it was deeper than just going out running routes and seeing who was open," McCain, who co-owns the Athletic Republic with Thomas and Carl Williams, told NPR. "It changed his vision of the game."

"There was a switch [between seventh and eighth grade] where that energy that he was taking – when he was upset with losing – the switch kind of made him, somehow [take] away the uncontrollable emotion. All of a sudden he didn't feel pressure anymore. He just kind of seized the moment."

Williams' path to the NFL Draft

The start of Williams' ascent doesn't begin with winning the starting job as a freshman at Gonzaga College High School in 2017.

Nor when he helped the Eagles erase a 20-point deficit and tossed a 53-yard Hail Mary to cap Gonzaga's improbable win in the 2018 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference final.

Caleb Williams of the USC Trojans speaks to the media during the 2024 NFL Draft Combine on March 01, 2024 in Indianapolis.

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Or when he led the Oklahoma Sooners to an unfathomable 55-48 comeback victory over Texas Longhorns in 2021 as a true freshman and playing only half of the contest.

These moments occurred because those first two experiences taught him exactly what it would take to master the position, and Williams hasn't looked back since those initial growing pains.

"I worked with the Baltimore Ravens, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed," McCain said. "None of them have that competitive drive that [William's] has. ... It's unmatched. He simply does not compute losing. He doesn't accept failure at all.

"Going into high school, he would want to watch film of the game right after. He didn't wanna wait until Monday or Tuesday or talk. He wanted to immediately...see the things that he could have done better and figure out how to do them better. ... That's really how he developed his game. Doing something, seeing himself doing it and working on that thing until [he] couldn't do it wrong. ... And then he'd keep building on it."

These are a few of the reasons NFL experts anticipate that when the Chicago Bears put in the selection for the opening pick on Thursday, William's name is the one that'll be read off the card.

Gonzaga quarterback Caleb Williams (18) rolls out against Good Counsel linebacker Jalen Green (10) during a high school game.

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Williams, 22, has shown an uncanny ability to not only elevate his game, no matter the circumstances, but also the players around him, too.

The latter part frequently contributed to Elijah Brook's decision to award Williams the most valuable player honor all four years he participated in his camp. The former coach at powerhouse DeMatha Catholic High School met Williams in fifth grade as one of his campers.

Williams' desire to lead, always go first – even as one of the youngest players – and penchant to absorb criticism stood out to Brooks, who now coaches running backs for Virginia Tech.

In due time, Brooks expected Williams to be a problem.

One coach's loss, another's gain

"He was a leader," Brooks said. "He was physically dominant. He was popular amongst the campers. From a very early age, he just separated himself from the pack as special. I'm a firm believer that some kids just have the 'it' factor, and it was easy to see that he had that at a very early age.

"To this day, that was probably my biggest recruiting loss."

And it worked out to be Randy Trivers' massive gain.

When his high school coach was asked how Williams got on his radar, Trivers responded with a better question.

"It's not so much as how did he get on your radar, as how could he not be on anybody's radar really?" Trivers said.

By the time Trivers met Williams, he was an advanced quarterback prospect. Williams expressed a desire to attend a high school with a strong football program and academics, but also where he would develop as an overall person.

Trivers never promised Williams the starting gig if he came to Gonzaga, but the 10-year coach of the Eagles did promise Williams would receive a fair opportunity to compete for it.

Caleb Williams (C), then a sophomore at Gonzaga College High School, stands with sports performance coach Mark McCain (L) and quarterback trainer Russell Thomas (R) at Athletic Republic in District Heights, Maryland in 2018.

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And that was all Williams ever needed – a shot.

Once Williams was finally on the team, Trivers observed how the freshman quickly bought into Gonzaga's motto of "Men for Others," and won over his new teammates with his work ethic, charisma and selflessness.

"'Men for Others,' it's like living a Christ-like life [and] doing things that are not necessarily for you and yourself, but for others," Trivers said. "So, living your best life for you, your family, your friends, your teammates, your classmates, your community."

Williams endeared himself to his new teammates, Trivers and former teammate Trey Jamison said. He was the first on the field, and the last to leave. Williams studied furiously. When a teammate made a mistake, Williams didn't shy away from him on the next play. Oftentimes, he showed his faith in them by going back to the player.

His teammates then rewarded him by lobbying for him to start.

Jamison, a linebacker for the U.S. Naval Academy, still incorporates a lesson Williams taught him when they were 14 years old. When one makes a mistake, use positive self-talk. Williams eliminated negative outbursts and emotional responses following the benching.

Instead, Jamison said, Williams was frequently heard saying, "C'mon, Caleb," after a bad play or refocusing by dribbling the football like a basketball off the turf.

"He got good at that, and it made me want to do that, too," Jamison said. "It definitely helps out. It's something I use to this day, if it's something with school, mentally, or to get through [something.]"

Even when Gonzaga faced a third-and-33, and Williams had to play the final minute of the game with an injured foot, he didn't waver.

Gonzaga College Eagles quarterback Caleb Williams looks to pass during the WCAC football game between Gonzaga and St. John's College at Paint Branch High School on November 4, 2017.

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Instead, he responded with a 50-yard completion and then an 11-yard touchdown. With just 29 seconds left, Gonzaga had its first lead. But it didn't last. Their opponent, DeMatha, scored on the ensuing kickoff.

What happened next spoke volumes to McCain about Williams' response.

"Russell was sitting right beside me, I said, 'He's about to be legendary.' I could see how cool he was," McCain said after seeing William's composure.

Remember that pass Williams threw at age 9, that was intercepted? Fool Williams once, shame on him. This time, Williams completed a 13-yard throw to set up the ensuing Hail Mary with four ticks left.

"The only thing I said to my offensive coordinator was get me in range," Williams told The Pivot Podcast. "Once I was in range, I felt like the game was over. ... It was the craziest game ever."

The rest was history. Williams heaved the ball to the back of the end zone. In between four defenders, his receiver caught the toss. On his 16th birthday, Williams threw three touchdowns, rushed for two more and even caught a touchdown – to help the Eagles win their first WCAC title since 2002.

Jamison couldn't watch. Trivers was nearly brought to tears.

"Those [referee's] hands go up, and I collapsed on the field right there," Trivers recalled.

Brooks said his heart dropped.

"That was my last high school game, so thank you, Caleb," Brooks said with a laugh. "I appreciate you for that."

That experience in the WCAC championship was a building block for Williams three years later. When former Sooners coach Lincoln Riley inserted him into the game facing a 35-17 deficit, Williams didn't wilt, because he'd been through the fire before.

Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams visited his high school alma mater Gonzaga to attend a pep rally to honor the USC quarterback for his award. Williams, center strikes a Heisman pose along with members of the student body in the school's gym on May 19, 2023 in Washington, DC.

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'The Caleb era has just begun'

"When they put him in, I said, 'The Caleb era has just begun. He's never coming back out, ever,'" McCain said. "And he went on to win that game."

Going to a program like the Sooners, with not only an incumbent, but one that has preseason-Heisman hype, too, and saying, "I can do this," takes a certain confidence. And that's what makes Williams unique.

While others kept tabs of where players at their position were committing, Williams didn't, McCain said. It wasn't a factor in his decision making at all. Williams wanted to be coached by Riley. When Riley became coach at the University of Southern California, Williams knew he had to go with him. So he transferred and never looked back.

Now, Williams gets to look forward to hearing his name called Thursday at the NFL Draft in Detroit.

"I am never shocked at anything he does," Brooks said. "I'm on record, he goes and wins MVP of the league or leads Chicago to a Super Bowl or what have you, it is not going to surprise me at all.

"Some people just have it, and they were born with it. And listen, he works tirelessly on his craft, so when you can combine all of those factors, that's what you get. So whether it is him leading a comeback at Oklahoma or him winning the Heisman or him getting drafted No. 1 or winning his high school championship on the Hail Mary, I ain't surprised at all."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.

In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.

The Academy added that its rules and eligibility standards have always evolved alongside technologies such as sound, color, and CGI, and that AI is no different. Awards rules and guidelines are reviewed and refined each year.

A blow for Tilly Norwood 

Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.

Particle6, the production company behind Norwood, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Saturday about its creations' ban from consideration. In March, Norwood commented, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars!" in an Instagram post announcing its newly released music video.

The Academy also requires screenplays to be "human-authored" and said it reserved the right to investigate the use of generative AI in any submission.

Meanwhile, qualifying flesh-and-blood human actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances get enough votes to land in the top five. So, someone like Anne Hathaway, who has five major movies scheduled for release in 2026, could now theoretically sweep the nominations – though that outcome seems extremely unlikely.

"If an actor has an extremely prolific year, might we even see someone swallow up three of the five nominations?," wrote Deadline's awards columnist and chief film critic Pete Hammond about the changes. "Probably won't happen, but it's now possible."

Under previous rules, an actor could only receive one nomination per category. If they had two high-ranking performances in Best Actor, for example, only the one with the most votes would move forward.

International films prioritizes filmmakers over countries

While international films can still be the official selection of their countries, now they can qualify by winning the top prize at a major international festival such as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, or the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Historically, countries "owned" the nomination, and only one film per country was allowed. The new rules allow multiple films from the same country to compete if they are critically acclaimed, and it shifts the honor from a geopolitical entity to the filmmakers themselves.

Largely positive response

The changes have prompted a largely positive reaction from the film community on social media, such as on the popular The Shade Room entertainment and celebrity-focused Instagram feed, where commenters widely praised the "human-only" move to protect creative jobs.

The Academy's Awards Committee oversees the rules in tandem with branch executive committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee.

The rules are scheduled to go into effect next year, covering films released in 2026.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles changes fast, and oftentimes that means some of the architectural relics of our shared past get swept up and paved over in all the "progress." (RIP Garden of Allah.)

But there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale, like a long-forgotten speakeasy reputedly for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.

The ruins are still there 

On a recent afternoon, author and local historian Mike Lawler led me just beyond the boundary of Crescenta Valley Park. Joggers like me might have seen an old, towering stone arch shrouded by bushes there — and wondered what lies beyond.

Turns out there was once a place called the Verdugo Lodge back there and Lawler has spent years excavating its history.

A car speeds away from the lodge onto New York Avenue. The stone archway that still stands can be seen in the background.

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“It was a very high-end speakeasy for a time,” Lawler, who also helps run the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, said. “An amazing thing. And all the ruins are still here, just like this arch.”

Lawler said we don’t know exactly when the lodge was built, but we do have some of the picture starting in the late 1920s. The place was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot ‘tent lots’ that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool — and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.

“The Crescenta Valley in the teens and '20s was a hotbed of moonshine, prostitution, all that stuff," Lawler said. "It was a quiet little community. But in all these canyons up here, stuff was going on. Illegal stuff!”

We don’t have a full guest list, but Lawler said it’s likely at least a few Hollywood types had gone up to the lodge to circumvent Prohibition era laws.

In some ways, it was kind of like the original glamping. Lawler said patrons probably weren’t doing much sleeping, though.

“They might have been unconscious!” he said with a chuckle.

Lawler led me to a road that swooped around a meadow. We passed by a massive swimming pool nestled into the hillside.

Once known as the “Crystal Pool,” it’s now empty and fenced off, with pitch black locker rooms below.

The exterior of the locker rooms for the old Crystal Pool.

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We continued our journey up the hill and eventually arrived at a cascading stone stairway.

And at the top, the big show: overgrown with orange monkey flowers and goliath agaves lies the foundation of the old Verdugo Lodge, with lofty stone fireplaces the only guardians keeping the surrounding oak trees at bay.

Lawler takes out a floorplan that one of the former owners drew up for him.

“This is what it was laid out like on the inside. So a dancehall, and band stand on that side... And then upstairs was the gambling,” Lawler said.

Lawler had in hand a copy of a Los Angeles Times article from 1933 he found. The headline reads: “Revelers Flee in Lodge Raid.”

“The police that raided it were here at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there were still 500 people here. And they said it was the classiest joint they had ever raided... Anyway, people were diving out of windows and everything,” Lawler explained.

In a ruin like this, covered with moss and overgrowth, the imagination can run wild, too.

The archway that still stands outside of what's now known as Mountain Oaks.

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Lawler pointed out a questionable door jam below the old dancefloor that’s been cemented over.

“That is a door. So what is behind there? So there’s a room in there that got walled in for some reason,” he said.

What we do know is that, sometime after the raid, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.

The future of Mountain Oaks 

After they sold it in the ‘60s, Lawler said Mountain Oaks faced a “nightmare” of development threats. Over the years, some of the subdivided "tent lots" had been combined and sold off, Lawler said. A dozen private homes now stand on these pieces of land, next to the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge.

A map showing the Mountain Oaks public property acquired by The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).

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Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant among other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.

Paul Edelman, MRCA's director of natural resources and planning, said his group will continue to manage the land, doing things like brush clearance, trash pickup and sign maintenance. And he said there are no current plans to remove the ruins or make any major changes to the property.

“If somebody comes up with a grand idea where they can find some funding for us to do something to enhance it, we’re always open to it,” Edelman said.

The purchase was good news for local preservationist Joanna Linkchorst.

“I grew up directly up the hill. But I always saw the sign that said ‘private property’ and didn’t really think about it until several years ago when I finally asked Mike. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, we got a resort speakeasy down the street,’” Linkchorst said standing among the oaks and overgrowth.

Linkchorst, who founded the group Friends of Rockhaven to preserve another nearby historic site, said it’s been amazing to see all of the decaying structures that were still hiding out at Mountain Oaks.

“There’s almost like these little ghosts in your head as you imagine what it was like when there was a beautiful wood floor and there was a second floor that people came jumping out of,” Linkchorst said.

Now, let’s check in to the Overlook Hotel.

That’s the fictional place Stanley Kubrick brought to life in his 1980 film The Shining, loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.

A local architect who hails from South Pasadena meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic space so Shining fans everywhere never have to check out.

‘I just couldn’t stop’ 

At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights meticulously recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel from the film that first scared him when he was 12.

Of course he started with the deeply haunted Room 237. That’s where Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, has a terrifying encounter with a ghostly woman.

Chieh's 3D rendering of Room 237

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“But once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” Chieh told LAist.

“I ended up modeling the Colorado Lounge, and then after that I was thinking maybe I should make the lobby and then arriving to the Gold Room, and then Grady’s bathroom.”

“It’s like a rabbit hole,” he said.

Users who download Chieh’s free 3D model can fly through all of those spaces, immersed in atmospheric sounds and music from the film.

“It’s interesting to dive into these kind of fictional environments and try to make sense of it,” Chieh said. “And the hope is people will get a different perspective once they’re in there.”

Kubrick’s take on the Overlook was famously inspired by real hotels like the Timberline Lodge in Oregon and the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. But the interiors you see in the film were created on sound stages in England.

“Real architecture, physical buildings, are built for people to live. And for movies, these are more meant to express the emotional aspect of things. It’s a psychological construct,” Chieh said.

In a recently published video essay on YouTube, Chieh dives deep into those psychological constructs and how, as he puts it, “Kubrick designed the Overlook Hotel not as a backdrop, but as the film's true villain.”

How spaces scare 

Chieh said during the monthslong process he was reminded of the power of architecture and design in the real world too – whether it’s an uncomfortably repetitive carpet design or a claustrophobic hallway.

“A physical construct can affect your emotion,” Chieh said.

“You can use it in a way to make people feel comfortable and you can also use it in a way to create fear.”

Chieh's 3D rendering of the Torrance's apartment in 'The Shining'

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What’s next for this architect moonlighting as a 3D modeler?

Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.

That is, of course, if he can ever escape the Overlook.