Chapter 10 chapter Ten
The working environment at 20th Century Fox was very different from that at Universal.Universal is relaxed and casual, while Fox is serious and efficient.The main reason for this is the director of production, Darryl F. Zanuck.Unlike the heads of those other film companies, Zanuck was the actual operator of the company.He is a gifted filmmaker who works on every stage of each of the company's films.He knew exactly what he wanted and his position.During a company-wide production meeting, he turned to his assistant and said, "Don't say 'yes' until I'm done."
Darryl Zanuck has a lot of respect for screenwriters.He once said: "The success of a movie comes down to three points: plot, plot, and plot. Don't let screenwriters know how important they are."
Fox has twelve reviewers, ranging in age from thirty-five to sixty. Most of them are relatives of the company's senior executives.
Julian Johnson, a senior executive at the company, called me one morning from his office.Tall and imposing, Johnson was once the husband of the famous nightclub queen Texas Guinea.
"Sidney, from now on, you will only write outlines for Mr. Zanuck himself. I hope you will handle the books or plays he is interested in."
"Great."
"Every time will be rushed..."
"no problem."
I was actually very happy in my heart.From then on, I had a sneak peek at the best of the new novels and screenplays that the company received.
Zanuck was so desperate to come up with something new that he would beat other companies, and I often had to work until midnight.I love what I do now, but I can't wait to be a screenwriter.The company started a young writers department, and I told Julian Johnson that I wanted to go too.He agreed, but didn't want me to actually go. "You're working for Zanuck," he said, "and that's more important."
My little office is in an old wooden house behind the set.The set is empty at night, I am the only one working, and it is dark around me, and sometimes I feel very uneasy.One night I was rushing to write a synopsis for a book that excited Zanuck, a rather horrific ghost story.
I was typing a line on my typewriter: "He opened the closet door, and the grinning corpse fell on him..." The closet door in the office slammed open, and the books in it flew all over the room, and the house was shattered. Started shaking.I rushed out of the house at a speed that broke all records.
This is the earthquake that impressed me the most.
In early September, a stranger entered my office and introduced himself: "My name is Alan Jackson and I am a reviewer for Columbia." "Hello," I shook his hand, "what can I do for you?" "We plan to set up an association of reviewers and hope to get your help." "What can I do?" "Convince your reviewers here to form an association and join us. If we can get all the reviewers from the companies together, we can form a committee and negotiate with the companies and come to an agreement. We don't have any influence at the moment We are underpaid and overworked. Would you like to help us?" I don't think I'm underpaid or overworked, but I know that's the reality for the vast majority of reviewers. "Ready to serve." "Great." "Maybe there's a problem," I reminded him. "what is the problem?" "Almost every reviewer at Fox is a relative of a supervisor. I don't think they would want to get involved, but let's try." Unexpectedly, all the reviewers in the company agreed to join the association after its establishment. I broke the news to Alan Jackson and he said, "That's great. The reviewers from all the other companies have signed off. We're going to have a negotiating committee. By the way, you're on it." The negotiations took place in a conference room at MGM.Our committee consists of six reviewers from different companies.Sitting across the large conference table from us were four film executives.Six sheep versus four lions. Eddie Mannix, a senior executive at MGM, kicked off the meeting with a growl, "What's your problem?" A committee member said: "Mr. Mannix, our income cannot sustain us. My weekly salary is sixteen dollars. I can't even afford it..." Eddie Mannix jumped to his feet, snapped, "I don't want to listen to that crap!" and stormed out of the conference room. All six of us were petrified.This is the end of the meeting. Another senior official shook his head: "I'll see if I can bring him back." A few minutes later, he returned with a scowling Mannix.We all looked at him in horror. "What do you want?" he asked. Then we started negotiating. Two hours later, an official society of reviewers recognized by all film companies was established.The studio's negotiating committee agreed to pay each reviewer a base salary of twenty dollars and fifty cents a week, with a 20 percent increase for part-time reviewers.I was elected vice president of the association. Years later, when I met Eddie Mannix again, I realized what a show he had put on.I called Otto and Nathalie and told them what had happened.They were all overjoyed.I later learned that after my call, Otto went around telling friends how his son had single-handedly saved Hollywood from a devastating strike.
Many new tenants came to Grace's apartment, including an introverted young man named Ben Roberts.He was my age, short, dark-skinned, with thinning hair, and always had a big smile on his face.He spoke crisply and succinctly, with a great sense of humour.We quickly became friends. Ben was a screenwriter, but he had only written one short play for Leon Errol before.I started working with him.Every night, Ben and I would go to the corner drugstore to get a sandwich for dinner, or a cheap Chinese restaurant for dinner.It was very easy to work with Ben.He was so talented that we had a novel written in just a few weeks.We sent our novels to every studio, eagerly awaiting the flood of offers. Didn't wait for any offers. Ben and I wrote another novel, with the same result.We feel that these film companies are obviously not the Bole with discerning eyes. The third novel was equally unpopular, and we were starting to get a little discouraged. One day I said, "I've got an idea for a wild novel, let's call it Dangerous Vacation." I told Ben the idea, and he loved it.We wrote the script and sent it to various film companies, but there was still no news. When I returned to the boarding house a week later, Ben was waiting for me, looking very excited. "I showed the novel to an acquaintance, Ted Richmond, a producer at PRC." PRC is the abbreviation of Production and Distribution Company, which ranks among the smallest film companies in Hollywood. "He loved Dangerous Vacation," Ben said, "and he'd give us five hundred dollars, including the script, and I told him I'd have to talk it over with you before I'd let him know." I am ecstatic.Of course we're going to take the job.In Hollywood, your screen debut is your most important asset.I thought about what happened to me in New York. Have you ever published your work? No. Come back after you have a masterpiece published. Now it becomes: "Have any of your works been made into films?" "No." "Come back after you have a masterpiece made into a movie." Well, now we finally have a work - "Dangerous Vacation". A few months ago, I met Ray Crosette, head of the literary department at the Leland Hayward Agency, one of Hollywood's top talent agencies.I don't know why, Crosette is very optimistic about me, and promised to be my agent in the future. I called Ray and told him that Ted Richmond was interested in our work. "Me and Ben's first novel has been read," I said, "Dangerous Vacation." "Which company is it?" "PRC." "What kind of company is PRC?" His answer discouraged us.This PRC has never even been heard of by Ray Crossett, the top agent in the industry. "The company's full name is Production Distribution. One of their producers, Ted Richmond, agreed to pay five hundred dollars, including the script." "Have you signed a contract yet?" "Well, we said we'd notify him, but..." "Wait for my call." Ray hung up the phone after finishing speaking. Two hours later, Ray called: "I just sold your story to Paramount. They agreed to pay a thousand dollars without writing a script." My first reaction was shock, but I understand the rules.Each company also receives a synopsis along with the script.Ray called Paramount to say that Dangerous Vacation had already been bought by another company, so they raised the price. "Ray," I said, "that's really—very nice—but we can't take it." "What are you talking about? This price is double the original price, and it's a big-name company." "I can't do that. I feel like we have a responsibility to Ted Richmond..." "Listen, call him and tell the truth. I'm sure he'll understand you." "Let me try." I said. But I'm sure Ted Richmond won't understand us. I called his office and the secretary said, "Mr. Richmond is in the editing room and cannot be disturbed." "Can you tell him to call me? It's very important." "I'll pass it on." An hour later, I called again. "I must speak to Mr. Richmond. It is urgent." "Sorry, he can't be disturbed, I have already told him about your matter." I called three times that afternoon and finally gave up. I called Ray Crosset: "Richmond didn't return my calls. Let's sign with Paramount." "I signed it four hours ago." When Ben got back, I updated him on how things were going. He is very excited. "That's great," he said. "Paramount is a big company. But what do we do with Ted Richmond?" Good question.What do we do with Ted Richmond? That evening, I called Ted's house, and he answered the phone himself. Because I felt ashamed in my heart, I simply preemptively said: "I called you halfway today, why didn't you call me back?" "Sorry, I'm in the editing room..." "Uh, you should have called back sooner. Ben and I almost lost a contract because of you." "What's the meaning?" "Paramount just bought Dangerous Vacation. They offered to buy it, and we couldn't find you, so we ended up selling it to them." "But I have already scheduled this film, we..." "Don't worry," I reassured him, "you're lucky, Ben and I have another novel for you, it's much more exciting than "Dangerous Vacation", it's called "South of Panama", it's very dramatic, it's a love story, There's also suspense and lots of fight scenes. It's our best work so far." A moment of silence. "Well then," he said, "see you at the Pig and Whistle at eight tomorrow morning, where Alex and I are." Alex is the Chief Executive Officer of PRC. I said, "It's a deal." I put the phone down and said to Ben, "Let's not have dinner. We have to get a screenplay out right now, a romance suspense movie, and lots of fight scenes. We have to do it by seven tomorrow morning." Driven out." Ben and I worked all night, tossing ideas out, coming up with a thread, adding this character, subtracting that.Throughout the process, I felt more and more that I was exhausted.Finally, at five o'clock in the morning, we finished "South of Panama". "It worked!" said Ben. "Show them this morning?" I agree.I set the alarm to seven so I could get two hours of sleep before I went to see them. The alarm clock goes off, and I jump to my feet, flipping through our creations from last night.This stuff sucks, I don't like the plot, the characters, the dialogue.But I still have to see Alex and Ted. At eight o'clock, I quietly arrived at the Pig and Whistle Bar, where Ted and Alex sat waiting for me in a small booth.I brought two copies. "I can't wait to see it," Alex said. Ted nodded, "Me too." I sat down and gave each of them a copy.They started to look up.I'm on pins and needles.They are flipping pages, no comments.I continued to turn the pages, but there was still silence. We really deserve it.I thought, how can a person write good things under such pressure! They finished watching at the same time.Alex looked up at me, "That's great." "It's wonderful." Ted also echoed. "You're right, this one is better than Dangerous Vacation." I can't believe my ears. "We'll pay five hundred dollars," Alex said. "You and Ben wrote the script too." I took a deep, deep breath, "Deal." Ben and I worked a miracle.We sold two novels in twenty-four hours. That evening, Ben and I went to Hollywood's famous Musso Frank's to celebrate our victory.Our first time visiting this restaurant.It happened to be the day after my twenty-fourth birthday. "South of Panama" is produced by PRC, starring Roger Pryor and Virginia Vale.Paramount filmed Dangerous Vacation, retitled Flying in the Night Sky, starring Richard Carlson and Nancy Kelly.
Good luck began to patronize me and myself frequently.One of the first things I did was quit my job as a reviewer at Fox.Mr. Zanuck won't be able to rely on me anymore.Not long after I left Fox, Ben and I sold another novel, "Fake Heroes," to a small Hollywood secondary entertainment company, Alphabet, and "Ms. Dangerous" and "Ms. Chances" to PRC.For every novel and screenplay we write, we get five hundred dollars, which Ben and I split equally.To say these are movies that go down in history would be a bit of an exaggeration, but at least we got credit for our creations. Leonard Fields, a producer at Partners Films, a premier secondary entertainment production company, bought our "Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case."Ben and I received a handsome six hundred dollars for the novel and screenplay adaptation. It was so successful that Leonard Fields called me: "We're going to sign you and Ben." "OK!" "Five hundred dollars a week." "Give us five hundred each?" "Here's your creative team." Ben and I worked as screenwriters at Partners for a year before our contract came up.Leonard Fields sent for us at Christmas. "You two lads have done a good job. We intend to re-employ you." "That's great news, Leonardo. We have only one request, and that is to raise the weekly salary to six hundred dollars." Leonardo nodded, "Wait for my call." We couldn't wait for this call. I went to Ray Crossett and asked him why he didn't find us a job with a big company. "I'm afraid your qualifications are not convincing enough. If you hadn't written those earlier films, you might have had a better chance." So Ben and I had to get on with our second-gen entertainment.this is life. I went back to Chicago for Thanksgiving and it was great to see Richard and Mom and Dad.Otto insisted that the neighbors come along for the holiday so they could get a glimpse of his son, who is a big deal in Hollywood.
In early September, a stranger entered my office and introduced himself: "My name is Alan Jackson and I am a reviewer for Columbia." "Hello," I shook his hand, "what can I do for you?" "We plan to set up an association of reviewers and hope to get your help." "What can I do?" "Convince your reviewers here to form an association and join us. If we can get all the reviewers from the companies together, we can form a committee and negotiate with the companies and come to an agreement. We don't have any influence at the moment We are underpaid and overworked. Would you like to help us?" I don't think I'm underpaid or overworked, but I know that's the reality for the vast majority of reviewers. "Ready to serve." "Great." "Maybe there's a problem," I reminded him. "what is the problem?" "Almost every reviewer at Fox is a relative of a supervisor. I don't think they would want to get involved, but let's try." Unexpectedly, all the reviewers in the company agreed to join the association after its establishment. I broke the news to Alan Jackson and he said, "That's great. The reviewers from all the other companies have signed off. We're going to have a negotiating committee. By the way, you're on it." The negotiations took place in a conference room at MGM.Our committee consists of six reviewers from different companies.Sitting across the large conference table from us were four film executives.Six sheep versus four lions. Eddie Mannix, a senior executive at MGM, kicked off the meeting with a growl, "What's your problem?" A committee member said: "Mr. Mannix, our income cannot sustain us. My weekly salary is sixteen dollars. I can't even afford it..." Eddie Mannix jumped to his feet, snapped, "I don't want to listen to that crap!" and stormed out of the conference room. All six of us were petrified.This is the end of the meeting. Another senior official shook his head: "I'll see if I can bring him back." A few minutes later, he returned with a scowling Mannix.We all looked at him in horror. "What do you want?" he asked. Then we started negotiating. Two hours later, an official society of reviewers recognized by all film companies was established.The studio's negotiating committee agreed to pay each reviewer a base salary of twenty dollars and fifty cents a week, with a 20 percent increase for part-time reviewers.I was elected vice president of the association. Years later, when I met Eddie Mannix again, I realized what a show he had put on.I called Otto and Nathalie and told them what had happened.They were all overjoyed.I later learned that after my call, Otto went around telling friends how his son had single-handedly saved Hollywood from a devastating strike.
Many new tenants came to Grace's apartment, including an introverted young man named Ben Roberts.He was my age, short, dark-skinned, with thinning hair, and always had a big smile on his face.He spoke crisply and succinctly, with a great sense of humour.We quickly became friends. Ben was a screenwriter, but he had only written one short play for Leon Errol before.I started working with him.Every night, Ben and I would go to the corner drugstore to get a sandwich for dinner, or a cheap Chinese restaurant for dinner.It was very easy to work with Ben.He was so talented that we had a novel written in just a few weeks.We sent our novels to every studio, eagerly awaiting the flood of offers. Didn't wait for any offers. Ben and I wrote another novel, with the same result.We feel that these film companies are obviously not the Bole with discerning eyes. The third novel was equally unpopular, and we were starting to get a little discouraged. One day I said, "I've got an idea for a wild novel, let's call it Dangerous Vacation." I told Ben the idea, and he loved it.We wrote the script and sent it to various film companies, but there was still no news. When I returned to the boarding house a week later, Ben was waiting for me, looking very excited. "I showed the novel to an acquaintance, Ted Richmond, a producer at PRC." PRC is the abbreviation of Production and Distribution Company, which ranks among the smallest film companies in Hollywood. "He loved Dangerous Vacation," Ben said, "and he'd give us five hundred dollars, including the script, and I told him I'd have to talk it over with you before I'd let him know." I am ecstatic.Of course we're going to take the job.In Hollywood, your screen debut is your most important asset.I thought about what happened to me in New York. Have you ever published your work? No. Come back after you have a masterpiece published. Now it becomes: "Have any of your works been made into films?" "No." "Come back after you have a masterpiece made into a movie." Well, now we finally have a work - "Dangerous Vacation". A few months ago, I met Ray Crosette, head of the literary department at the Leland Hayward Agency, one of Hollywood's top talent agencies.I don't know why, Crosette is very optimistic about me, and promised to be my agent in the future. I called Ray and told him that Ted Richmond was interested in our work. "Me and Ben's first novel has been read," I said, "Dangerous Vacation." "Which company is it?" "PRC." "What kind of company is PRC?" His answer discouraged us.This PRC has never even been heard of by Ray Crossett, the top agent in the industry. "The company's full name is Production Distribution. One of their producers, Ted Richmond, agreed to pay five hundred dollars, including the script." "Have you signed a contract yet?" "Well, we said we'd notify him, but..." "Wait for my call." Ray hung up the phone after finishing speaking. Two hours later, Ray called: "I just sold your story to Paramount. They agreed to pay a thousand dollars without writing a script." My first reaction was shock, but I understand the rules.Each company also receives a synopsis along with the script.Ray called Paramount to say that Dangerous Vacation had already been bought by another company, so they raised the price. "Ray," I said, "that's really—very nice—but we can't take it." "What are you talking about? This price is double the original price, and it's a big-name company." "I can't do that. I feel like we have a responsibility to Ted Richmond..." "Listen, call him and tell the truth. I'm sure he'll understand you." "Let me try." I said. But I'm sure Ted Richmond won't understand us. I called his office and the secretary said, "Mr. Richmond is in the editing room and cannot be disturbed." "Can you tell him to call me? It's very important." "I'll pass it on." An hour later, I called again. "I must speak to Mr. Richmond. It is urgent." "Sorry, he can't be disturbed, I have already told him about your matter." I called three times that afternoon and finally gave up. I called Ray Crosset: "Richmond didn't return my calls. Let's sign with Paramount." "I signed it four hours ago." When Ben got back, I updated him on how things were going. He is very excited. "That's great," he said. "Paramount is a big company. But what do we do with Ted Richmond?" Good question.What do we do with Ted Richmond? That evening, I called Ted's house, and he answered the phone himself. Because I felt ashamed in my heart, I simply preemptively said: "I called you halfway today, why didn't you call me back?" "Sorry, I'm in the editing room..." "Uh, you should have called back sooner. Ben and I almost lost a contract because of you." "What's the meaning?" "Paramount just bought Dangerous Vacation. They offered to buy it, and we couldn't find you, so we ended up selling it to them." "But I have already scheduled this film, we..." "Don't worry," I reassured him, "you're lucky, Ben and I have another novel for you, it's much more exciting than "Dangerous Vacation", it's called "South of Panama", it's very dramatic, it's a love story, There's also suspense and lots of fight scenes. It's our best work so far." A moment of silence. "Well then," he said, "see you at the Pig and Whistle at eight tomorrow morning, where Alex and I are." Alex is the Chief Executive Officer of PRC. I said, "It's a deal." I put the phone down and said to Ben, "Let's not have dinner. We have to get a screenplay out right now, a romance suspense movie, and lots of fight scenes. We have to do it by seven tomorrow morning." Driven out." Ben and I worked all night, tossing ideas out, coming up with a thread, adding this character, subtracting that.Throughout the process, I felt more and more that I was exhausted.Finally, at five o'clock in the morning, we finished "South of Panama". "It worked!" said Ben. "Show them this morning?" I agree.I set the alarm to seven so I could get two hours of sleep before I went to see them. The alarm clock goes off, and I jump to my feet, flipping through our creations from last night.This stuff sucks, I don't like the plot, the characters, the dialogue.But I still have to see Alex and Ted. At eight o'clock, I quietly arrived at the Pig and Whistle Bar, where Ted and Alex sat waiting for me in a small booth.I brought two copies. "I can't wait to see it," Alex said. Ted nodded, "Me too." I sat down and gave each of them a copy.They started to look up.I'm on pins and needles.They are flipping pages, no comments.I continued to turn the pages, but there was still silence. We really deserve it.I thought, how can a person write good things under such pressure! They finished watching at the same time.Alex looked up at me, "That's great." "It's wonderful." Ted also echoed. "You're right, this one is better than Dangerous Vacation." I can't believe my ears. "We'll pay five hundred dollars," Alex said. "You and Ben wrote the script too." I took a deep, deep breath, "Deal." Ben and I worked a miracle.We sold two novels in twenty-four hours. That evening, Ben and I went to Hollywood's famous Musso Frank's to celebrate our victory.Our first time visiting this restaurant.It happened to be the day after my twenty-fourth birthday. "South of Panama" is produced by PRC, starring Roger Pryor and Virginia Vale.Paramount filmed Dangerous Vacation, retitled Flying in the Night Sky, starring Richard Carlson and Nancy Kelly.
Good luck began to patronize me and myself frequently.One of the first things I did was quit my job as a reviewer at Fox.Mr. Zanuck won't be able to rely on me anymore.Not long after I left Fox, Ben and I sold another novel, "Fake Heroes," to a small Hollywood secondary entertainment company, Alphabet, and "Ms. Dangerous" and "Ms. Chances" to PRC.For every novel and screenplay we write, we get five hundred dollars, which Ben and I split equally.To say these are movies that go down in history would be a bit of an exaggeration, but at least we got credit for our creations. Leonard Fields, a producer at Partners Films, a premier secondary entertainment production company, bought our "Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case."Ben and I received a handsome six hundred dollars for the novel and screenplay adaptation. It was so successful that Leonard Fields called me: "We're going to sign you and Ben." "OK!" "Five hundred dollars a week." "Give us five hundred each?" "Here's your creative team." Ben and I worked as screenwriters at Partners for a year before our contract came up.Leonard Fields sent for us at Christmas. "You two lads have done a good job. We intend to re-employ you." "That's great news, Leonardo. We have only one request, and that is to raise the weekly salary to six hundred dollars." Leonardo nodded, "Wait for my call." We couldn't wait for this call. I went to Ray Crossett and asked him why he didn't find us a job with a big company. "I'm afraid your qualifications are not convincing enough. If you hadn't written those earlier films, you might have had a better chance." So Ben and I had to get on with our second-gen entertainment.this is life. I went back to Chicago for Thanksgiving and it was great to see Richard and Mom and Dad.Otto insisted that the neighbors come along for the holiday so they could get a glimpse of his son, who is a big deal in Hollywood.