It occurred to me today, in one of those stupidly obvious epiphanies, that the actual term "fan" translates into "fanatic." I hadn't thought of it that way before, but yeah, I guess that pretty accurately sums up the devotion of a Red Sox die hard, or more pertinently in this case, a classic movie fan(atic). So it stands to general good reason that as a Bette Davis fan(atic), I would be inclined to take her advice on what is or is not a good book. In her Dick Cavett interview, when shy and semi-flirtatious Dick asks her what's the best book on Hollywood in her opinion, she replies with Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run. "That is the best book," she muses, in Edith Head shaped glasses and hilarious black go-go boots, "to describe what those incredible men that we worked for, that seemed to us so inartistic, and so lacking in knowledge to the art part of making of movie, they had something, you don't know what it was, it was sort of a magic, gambling intuitive thing. That has gone."
That would be my cue to scurry onto Amazon and hit quick ship.
Amazing book, y'all. It's captures so articulately the true "business" of the studio-era Hollywood. These men weren't just making movies, they were buying and trading property, (aka people), gambling on rights to stories, ruthlessly shoving people off the ladder on their way to the top, stealing, conniving, and creating the most priceless couple of decades in motion picture history that we will ever see.
Had to do a book plug here. A-ma-zing. Good call, Bette. You never disappoint me, dahling.
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