Adventures in the Screen Trade

Review
This is the real Hollywood. - Daily Telegraph William Goldmans book is the best I have read on Hollywood. - Daily Mail Fast and witty…a brave and very funny book. - Time Out –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Why Buy A Adventures in the Screen Trade?
As befits more than twenty years in Hollywood, Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldmans sparkling memoir is as entertaining as many of the films he has helped to create. From the writer of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the Presidents Men and Marathon Man, Adventures in the Screen Trade is an intimate view of movie-making, of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman and Hoffman, and of the trials and rewards of working inside the most exciting business in the world.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

Tells It Like It Is
This is perhaps the best book about screenwriting and the film business ever written.

Oscar winner William Goldman, who wrote such classic films as HARPER, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, MARATHON MAN and ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN shares his unique, often difficult, experiences working with top directors, producers and stars like Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier.

If survival in the Hollywood film industry is possible, then there is no better “survival guide” than this book, because Goldman tells it like it is. He pulls no punches.

According to Goldman, the single most important fact in the movie industry is that “Nobody Knows Anything”.

Most of the book’s second-half is a primer on how to write a successful screenplay.

What does Goldman feel is the most important lesson to be learned about writing for films?

1. “Screenplays Are Structure”

2. You protect the “spine” of that structure “to the death”.

If you want to work (and succeed) in Hollywood, then this is a book that you must carry around with you…like a Bible.

© Michael B. Druxman

great book
this is a must for everyone interested in screenwriting…a little slow in the beginning but riveting after that

A great read on a fascinating subject by a fine writer
Reading this book makes you feel the writer is talking to you personally - it is written in a conversational style .

The author sometimes can’t believe the sort of conditions he himself works in or the type of surroundings , he is as confused by them as we are . He is also as captivated by them as we are , coming from a pure love of movies and their magic .

If you are a film fan , do not delay in buying this book .

It will bring a new perspective to viewing a film .

Once you’ve read it , go and watch BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID , for which the author wrote the screenplay .

A fantastic book !!

Removing Some of Hollywood’s Glitter
Mr. Goldman has written a classic. A great panacea for anyone that gets too starry-eyed over celebrities and aspires to “make it big” in show business. I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Goldman’s no-holds-barred approach to explaining just how Hollywood works. His book is instructive and illuminating. His sarcastic approach is extremely funny and a great stress reliever. His quasi-sequel, Which Lie Did I Tell?, was also very enjoyable. I would highly recommend both books.

Thoroughly Enjoyable
What kind of book can the writer of such great screenplays as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, A Bridge Too Far, Dreamcatcher, and my sentimental favorite, The Princess Bride write? A romping, great ride through the movie making business, complete with behind-the-scenes stories. It opens with an astutely worded history of Hollywood, covers splendid tales about movie stars–both good and very, very bad, and the screenwriting process. `Adventures In The Screen Trade’ is a true classic.

Goldman understands movies and more than that, he truly understands how to tell a story and be funny at the same time. In the book, he writes that comedy is not his forte. Nonsense! I was laughing half the time I was reading; I had to put the book down occasionally, I was laughing so hard.

More than simply comedy, the book is filled with insights not only on human nature, but also on writing about human nature. Near the end of the book, after a most enjoyable read about what parts he played in the many good movies he’s written or had a part in writing (including only the last line from the Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman movie, Papillon), he shows his true genius. He actually demonstrates his thinking process in adapting a short story of his into a screenplay.

After reading that story, but before I read his working plan of adaptation, I decided to experiment and see what angle I could come up with on the story in a rough outline. After doing that, I read his plan of attack in comparison and I was simply blown away. Here is a master storyteller at work–I’m not worthy.

I enjoyed reading this book and if you’re a fan of film, you’ll like this one too.

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Blue Movie (Southern, Terry)

Review
Pressing on through these packed pornographic stills can be dispiriting - rather like stuffing down a carton of last weeks Hostess Twinkles at one sitting - and this is unfortunate, since Mr. Southern has shown in the past more than a modicum of invention (Dr. Strangelove) and satiric sense (Candy), but all of this is sicklied oer in these cuttings of gyrating blue belles. The initial blocking is promising, involving a director, now expanded to the stature of film-maker, who dreams of the perfect stag movie, genuinely and erotically beautiful. The solution comes as the country of Leichtenstein agrees to put up the ante to have the movie made there and distributed for the beautiful people to be flown in for viewing. Except for some funny, itchy, cine-biz in-talk, thats about it - the rest is broad-ballistics. Southerns brighter moments all take place well above the erogenous zone. (Kirkus Reviews) –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Why Buy A Blue Movie (Southern, Terry)?
A hilarious, wildly erotic, and biting satire of Hollywood, Blue Movie tells the story of King B., an Oscar-winning director whos determined to shoot the dirtiest and most expensive X-rated movie ever made; Sid Krassman, a producer whos made a fortune catering to the tastes of the American public, and Angela Sterling, a misunderstood sex symbol whod give anything (and everything) for a chance to do something serious. The set is fraught with monstrous egos and enormous libidos — the kind of situation that could only come from the imagination of the irrepressible Terry Southern.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

A dark and raunchy satire!
Terry Southern floored me with Candy, and I couldn’t wait to read another one of his comic — albeit raunchy — satires. Blue Movie did not disappoint me. The story of an accomplished filmmaker’s attempt at creating an adult movie with famous actors in it is dark, stark, smut, fun and entertaining. There are a lot of political aspects that might offend some people, but the point of the story is that it’s satirical - i.e., truth without apology. I couldn’t put this book down. This novel is as outrageous and sinister as Candy. Are you in the bargain for a satirical read? I suggest Blue Movie. Terry Southern is brilliant. I, for one, shall give his other novels a whirl.

Empty bladder before reading
If you have a high threshhold for raunch, you may find this the funniest novel you have ever read. I know I did. I laughed so hard I had to put the book down and regain control.

What if the world’s most respected film director was handed millions to make the poshest hardcore movie ever? Teaming up with sleazeball producer Sid Krassman, he brings aboard the cream of international film stardom. Think stars like Marilyn Monroe, Jeanne Moreau, Nicole Kidman, Steve McQueen, Arnold Schwarzenegger — all in their prime.

The progress on the set starts to spin out of control when egos clash, stars begin to lose their nerve, drug use goes rampant, extracurricular sex spreads, etc. The gimmick is that the film will only be shown in Lichtenstein, a real but rinky dink principality on the Austria/Switzerland border.

Terry Southern — the most literate hipster in the American canon — was a genius of the outrageous and this is his masterpiece. His deadpan approach and his keen understanding of the male fantasy life (gotta admit, very un-PC) put it across.

It also has, IMHO, the most erotic “BJ” scene ever written.

And the ending is the sharpest satirical stab of all. Priceless.

Dig it.

The story behind King B’s best movie
What if a stag film, one of those cheaply made, low-grade film quality adult boff movies, were made with a big budget, with big name stars, at feature film length? That’s what Boris Adrian, a.k.a. King B or simply B, a well-respected star director who’s won Oscars with his revolutionary and visionary styles who has entered a creative drought for the past two years, wonders aloud to Sidney Krassman, his gross, hefty, and profane producer after an evening spent watching stag films at the home of eccentric, vivacious, multi-handicapped Teeny Marie.

Sid gets three million dollars for production costs. Yes, Boris’s movie will be made, but the proviso that it will be filmed and exclusively exhibited in Liechtenstein, that postage stamp sized principality sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria, with the government providing the funding. That would be a boon to a country with the lowest per capita income in Western Europe.

The movie, titled The Faces Of Love, is to be an anthology of erotic love, of twenty-five minute segment stories. Getting the budget money, and production crew is no problem. What about the performers? To that end, Boris procures Angela Sterling, an actress clearly based on Marilyn Monroe or Jayne Mansfield, and America’s top draw, someone who wants to be seen as more than just a T&A actress, the French lesbian actress Arabella, and prim but pretty British actress Pamela Dickensen. The only big trouble may come from Angela Sterling, who is also the mistress of Les Harrison, vice president of Metropolitan studios, and whose presence on Boris’s movie was the result of a breach of contract from a movie funded by Metropolitan. The movie would take advantage of some recently lifted restrictions and challenge some movie taboos, with each story representing a theme such as miscegenation/multiple partners, the first experience, which is a lesbian one, a priest and a hooker, and brother with sister.

As this was written in 1970, four years after the demise of the notorious and increasingly irrelevant Hays Code and two years after the imposition of the MPAA ratings, Blue Movie is well-placed, coming out at the dawn of a brief newfound cinematic freedom.

Sprinkled with lots of four-letter words, mostly by Sid, with plenty of explicit passages and even a few chapters, funny characters such as Feral, a Senegalese extra whose equipment gets many reactions, Tony Sanders, the writer who’s a veritable goofy but creative genius, and of course Sid, who’s crass, vulgar, but funny. He tells a topless and quite chesty waitress, “Do you have a cold?” When she asks him what makes him think that, he says, “Oh I don’t know why. Your chest looks all swollen.” Boris’s laid back, thoughtful personality makes him a pretty appealing character. The bash at big studios is apparent. Some chapters depict the actual shooting and discussion of scenes in the film, special apparati used in adult scenes, which film buffs may appreciate.

The book ripples with the usual irreverence Southern gives, outdoing The Magic Christian and Candy, two novels that were done as movies.

Which brings me to this: if Blue Movie had been made into a film back in 1970, I’d put Peter Fonda as King B, Vic Tayback (Mel from the Alice series) as Sid, Mamie Van Doren as Alice, Jeanne Moreau as Arabella, and Robert Wagner as Les Harrison. And as Pamela was described as someone resembling Susannah York, why not? And of course change the bummer ending. That’d be something.

Old Fashioned Raunchy Fun
Terry Southern was one of the 60’s bad boys, politically to the Left, not quite avant garde, a “dirty” writer. He has penned a hilarious story about the making of a porn movie. There is nothing to say but that the characters are as outrageous as the action and this is NOT a book that goes from one ribald act to another. It is (truly) about making a “blue movie”. I still smile when I think of the dialogue (quote unquote) as the evil, Yankee soldier prepares to deflower the helpless, Southern beauty. The book has a very satisfying ending.

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Miss Lonelyhearts & the Day of the Locust

Review
A primer for Big Bad City disillusionment, unsparing in its portrayal of New Yorks debilitating entropy. — Darren Reidy, The Village Voice, 31 December 2003

As bleak and as darkly coming as any novel of Wests era or of ours. — Max Apple, Jewish Literary Supplement, Fall 2004

Why Buy A Miss Lonelyhearts & the Day of the Locust?
Somehow or other I seem to have slipped in between all the schools, observed Nathanael West the year before his untimely death in 1940. My books meet no needs except my own, their circulation is practically private and Im lucky to be published. Yet today, West is widely recognized as a prophetic writer whose dark and comic vision of
a society obsessed with mass-
produced fantasies foretold much
of what was to come in American life.
Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), which West envisioned as a novel in the form of a comic strip, tells of an advice-to-the-lovelorn columnist who becomes tragically embroiled in the desperate lives of his readers. The Day of the Locust (1939) is Wests great dystopian Hollywood novel based on his experiences at the seedy fringes of the movie industry.
The work of Nathanael West, savagely, comically, tragically original, has come into its own, said novelist and screenwriter Budd Schulberg. A new public [has] discovered in the writings of West a brilliant reflection of its own sense of chaos and helplessness in a world running more to madness than to reason.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

Reader beware
Wow. Much like Paul Bowles, this author takes no prisoners. May I suggest that you be in a stable frame of mind before reading this novel, lest it prove to be one unsettling factor too many for you. I found myself to be none too comfortable to be counted as a member of the human race at the end of this book. Written at about the same time as Raymond Chandler’s early novels and set in the same real estate, The Day of the Locust is about five times as sordid. It is totally original and totally unpredictable, except for the scent of doom that pervades it from the opening page. You know that the author was writing about what he saw. Los Angeles and Hollywood were rotten seventy years ago. What must they be like now? West covers so much ground, with such economy, and it’s all so readable. This devastating work is a remarkable achievement. What a staggering loss that Nathanael West died so young. And what a surprise to find Homer Simpson hiding out in such a fine novel. Highly recommended.

No need to look for “deeper meanings”
…that is, unless someone (say, an English Lit professor, one of that nefarious cabal whose mission is to take young minds, and suck out of them all enthusiasm for, and pleasure in, reading) is making you do it.

These two stories can stand on their own, without anyone’s help. They’re that good.

I sincerely wish everyone knew West’s name. That man could write. It’s been almost 35 years since I read these stories in college, but I still remember them and how they affected me.

Great service
The item I ordered arrived right away and in the condition that the description said it was in. It was well packaged. I would definitely order from this seller again without hesitation.

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Joseph P. Kennedy Presents

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Posts Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle Cari Beauchamp mentions in these pages that she considered writing a life of Gloria Swanson but thought better of it because she didnt want to spend all that time with such a colossal egotist. Instead, Beauchamp devoted years to researching and writing about Swansons paramour Joseph P. Kennedy — who, as portrayed in her new book, was a near-complete bastard. Aside from his brilliance as a financier, the patriarch of the political dynasty gets only one plus mark: for having been a loving, if frequently absent, father. Joseph P. Kennedy Presents zooms in on the late-1920s period when Kennedy almost became a big-time film mogul. Though married and already a dad several times over, he left his family in Boston to wheel, deal and fornicate out West for months on end. There he saw and conquered Swanson, a glamourpuss film star on a par with such other 1920s celebrities as Valentino, Chaplin, Houdini and Babe Ruth. Swansons spendthrift ways had driven her into debt, and she entrusted her finances and career to Kennedy, who was otherwise busy buying, consolidating and selling minor studios. Soon, however, he made a monumental blunder: hiring a grandiose perfectionist, Erich von Stroheim, to direct Queen Kelly, the movie that was meant to be Kennedys and Swansons apotheosis. Their affair didnt survive the resulting debacle: Stroheim was fired after pouring at least $600,000 into a film that defied reigning standards of good taste and ultimately was left unfinished. In Glorias version, laid out in her shrewd autobiography, Swanson on Swanson (1980), Kennedy fled Hollywood having failed to demonstrate any artistic judgment and leaving her even deeper in debt. Although Beauchamps take doesnt differ markedly from Swansons, Beauchamp has dug through archives, interviewed some of those who knew Kennedy, and shown how his ability to read a balance sheet and size up market trends dazzled New York financiers and Hollywood producers alike. She has also demolished some myths, including Kennedys boast of being self-made. By the time he graduated from Harvard in 1912, his father was vice-president of a Boston bank; a couple of years later, at age 25, the son was president of that same bank — at once a tribute to his acumen and a classic case of nepotism. Similarly, Beauchamp calls into question the rumor that the bulk of Kennedys wealth came from bootlegging liquor during Prohibition. There isnt much evidence that he was involved in bootlegging at all, she contends, although before Prohibition went into effect, he did stockpile a large supply of whiskey. No, it was the movie business that made Kennedy a plutocrat: not so much turning out films as sensing with remarkable accuracy when to acquire companies and when to divest. As Swanson knew well, Kennedys Hollywood dealing made him a fortune — about $10 million, which in those days was a lot of clams — and he escaped with it intact, becoming, as one observer put it, the first and only outsider to fleece Hollywood. His impeccable timing extended even to exiting the stock market ahead of the 1929 crash. If shoeshine boys were giving him tips, Beauchamp explains his reasoning, clearly everyone was an expert and he should give up. In Beauchamps telling, Kennedy was indifferent and sometimes cruel to his wife, Rose, and almost inhumanly callous to some of the film people with whom he crossed paths. One of his properties, the cowboy movie actor Fred Thomson, was a big star in the silent era but thanks to Kennedy is virtually unknown today. Kennedy owned Thomsons contract but wanted to push another of his stars, Tom Mix, instead, so he not only refused to let Thomson perform but also ended up selling all his films for their scrap value, a move that, in Beauchamps words, destroyed . . . Fred Thomsons life work. She meant to say lifes work, and that brings up one of the books chief defects. The writing is sloppy throughout, marred by wrong word-choices (among many others: accoutrements where she means something like duties ); the overuse of literally and proverbial; and clichés, sometimes used to unintentionally comic effect (the box office [receipts for a movie] went through the roof). The other problem is that Beauchamp recounts her subjects financial maneuvers in such detail that at times Joseph P. Kennedy Presents reads like a biz-school text. Overall, its a fitfully interesting book that cries out to have been edited more carefully. P.S. The garish remains of Queen Kelly are out on DVD; if youre up for an evening of Roaring Twenties decadence, check it out.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Review

“An exceptional work of film scholarship, packed with information no one had uncovered before that reads like a juicy novel.”

–Leonard Maltin in Vanity Fair

“Unveiling a trove of newly revealed documents, Cari Beauchamp makes fiduciary details fascinating and Hollywood gossip substantive. Joseph P. Kennedy Presents is an essential guide to understanding the role of this family in American life. . . The intellect, the intuition, the gumption, the gall, the vision, and the restless ambition of the founding father are meticulously documented. . . the narrative moves as fast as any shoot-‘em-up.”

—Martin F. Nolan, The Boston Globe

“Cari Beauchamp deserves great credit for bringing Joseph P. Kennedy into sharp focus with a wealth of detail, especially about his business dealings, which other biographers have tended to skip over, and his long involvement with Hollywood and the movie business. . . Beauchamp has had access to documents nobody has ever used before. . . This is three books in one, a business story, a lively biography (especially on the subject of Joe Kennedy and Gloria Swanson), and a detailed examination of the movie business from 1926 to 1930. . . For anybody interested in the movie business, this is must reading. . . The end of Beauchamp’s book artfully recreates the last years of the old tycoon in a way that still has the power to move, showing just what a strong hold the Kennedy family still has on our imaginations. . . So much has been written about all this that is hard to imagine a new way of seeing it, but thanks to her diligence, Beauchamp has succeeded not only in finding a new way of telling the story, but one which adds to it much we didn’t know before. ”

—Michael Korda, The Daily Beast

“[Kennedy’s Hollywood years] rarely has been documented in such …

Why Buy A Joseph P. Kennedy Presents?
This is the extraordinary story, told for the first time, of Joseph P. Kennedy’s remarkable reign in Hollywood, in which he ran three movie studios simultaneously, led the revolution in sound pictures—and made the fortune that became the foundation of his empire.

Kennedy saw filmmaking as “a gold mine” when movies were an idea one week, in front of the camera the next, and in theaters within the month.

It was 1919; Kennedy was thirty-one years old.

Between 1926 and 1930, Kennedy used his talents to position himself as a Hollywood leader. He ran Film Booking Offices (FBO), was brought in to run Pathé and the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theaters, and became the chairman of their boards. Within months, he was asked to head First National film company. By 1928, Kennedy—merciless, electrifying, a visionary—was running three studios at once.

In Joseph P. Kennedy Presents, Cari Beauchamp writes about the genius behind Kennedy’s profiteering and his importance in changing the way Hollywood conducted business. As one of the first nonfamily members to be given access to Kennedy’s personal papers, Beauchamp, through years of meticulous research and countless interviews with those close to Kennedy, has dug through the maze of deals and the files of memos and notes, only recently made available, to tell in full how he made it all happen: how he charmed, cajoled, and bullied; how he juggles various backers—and managed to line his pockets with millions.

Beauchamp writes about the movies Kennedy produced and the stars he made, about the studios he razed and those he reorganized, about the jobs that were lost and the careers that were ruined (among them, that of silent film cowboy star Fred Thomson—one of America’s top box-office draws).

Beauchamp tells for the first time the full story of Kennedy’s affair with the feisty Gloria Swanson, the “reigning Queen of Hollywood”—an extravagant escapade that became legend and that triggered one of Hollywood’s biggest financial fiascos. It began with Kennedy taking over Swanson’s personal and professional life (“Together we could make millions,” he promised), and ended with his first failure (personal and public) and her career on the brink of ruin, a million dollars in debt.

Beauchamp writes as well about the Hollywood titans surrounding Kennedy: William Randolph Hearst (Kennedy was a welcome guest at “the ranch”) . . . Cecil B. De Mille . . . David Sarnoff, who, with Kennedy, masterminded the unprecedented deal that resulted in the founding of RKO, and that made Kennedy millions.

A fascinating tale of business genius and personal greed that brings to light not only the way Joseph P. Kennedy made his fortune, but how he forever changed the business of movie-making.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

Kennedy Changed Hollywood, But For Better Or Worse?
There have been previous books on Joseph P. Kennedy, and much attention given to his financial dealings, but nothing so far has focused on his Hollywood years. Until now. Beauchamp ran into repeated references to Kennedy as she researched her book /Without Lying Down/, but it wasn’t until she received access to the John F. Kennedy Library for a Vanity Fair article, that she realized that there was way more material on JPK’s time in Hollywood, than she could fit into a 5,000 word article. Years of research later, Beauchamp presents her findings; a tale of ruthlessness, greed and excess that could have served as its own movie.

JPK entered Hollywood by buying western film studio FBO, and after a couple of years of collecting other studios and theaters, combined them all into RKO. /Joseph P. Kennedy Presents His Hollywood Years/ is more than just book about his business dealings, but documents his affair with Gloria Swanson, his many personal rivalries (especially with William Randolf Hearst) and the rise and fall of his influence over the studio system. It is an intriguing story, and Beauchamp tells it well, with plenty of notes to document her conclusions. The book is dense, but not overly scholarly, and easy to read. The late 1920s and early 1930s were an exciting period of time in Hollywood. JPK is no longer an under-appreciated player in its history.

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