Writing in the quick cuts of his trade, which makes for disconcerting reading, Marx recreates his 1st decade in Hollywood as story editor at MGM & later at Goldwyn Studio & Columbia. His memory is unfortunately unselective, & he proves to be such a considerable loyalist that even Columbia's legendary monster Harry Cohn is recalled as "oddly likeable." Despite the subtitle, only fleeting frames are zoomed at literary screenwriters, the likes of "Plummy" Wodehouse, Faulkner, Upton Sinclair et alia. Yet whenever Marx lingers over a close-up, invariably of movie folk, he develops wonderful cameos: MGM's Irving Thalberg; Beatrice Kaufman, Columbia's East Coast story editor (& wife of playwright George Kaufman); Marion Davies, seen during a weekend Marx spent at San Simeon among "only 27 guests." Some of this latter material is so lively the reader senses the book that might have been written, & regrets that it wasn't. 

Book details

• Format Hardcover
• Pages217 pages
• LanguageEnglish
• ISBN100531150089
• ISBN139780531150085