Hollywood

In 1937, Garson Kanin was called to Hollywood by Samuel Goldwyn to "learn the business." Twenty-four, fresh from New York, Kanin longed to become a movie director, but found himself frustrated at every turn by the mogul who had already forgotten why he had signed Kanin to a contract. When Kanin finally did direct a film (for another studio, starring John Barrymore) Goldwyn groused; "You dirty so and so, why didn't you ever tell me you wanted to direct?"

Sam Goldwyn, with his famous Goldwynisms, his arrogance, his outrageous behavior, is the centerpiece of this book, symbolizing the mystique of Hollywood's glamorous, heady years, but Kanin, playwright, director, novelist and screenwriter, seemed to know nearly everyone and includes reminiscences and anecdotes about hundreds of the movie capital's famous people: the directors - Carl Larmmle, Billy Wilder, Rene Clair; the studio czars - Harry Cohn, Goldwyn and Darryl Zanuck; the glittering stars - Tracy and Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner; the writers; and even Hollywood's colorful, if unknown but players.

Hilarious, audacious, poignant scandalous, HOLLYWOOD is everything - and more than - its name implies, From his own adventures there Garson Kanin has drawn the material for a witty, wise, and dazzling panorama of the magical place it once was.