Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince

Budd Schulberg escribe sus memorias, que a la vez son parte de la historia del cine, desde sus inicios hasta la edad de oro. Un libro emotivo, interesante, lleno de sabrosas anécdotas y de contrastes entre la frenética actividad creativa y los fracasos de la industria del cine. En suma, un libro memorable.

"Follow your Dad!" Adolphe Menjou, well-known movie star of the 1930s and 40s instructed young Budd Schulberg, as he gave the boy his autograph. And it wasn't a bad idea: Dad was B.P. Schulberg, $11,000 a week -- way back then -- head of Paramount, Hollywood's second biggest dream factory. The kid's Dad was Menjou's boss. Dad was, in fact, the boss of Clara Bow, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, and a cast of thousands. But young Budd already knew his destiny lay elsewhere: he was going to write. And write he did: "What Makes Sammy Run?" and "The Harder They Fall" are only two of the titles on his crowded shelves. "Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince," Schulberg's account of his earliest years, joined them years ago. Successful, powerful, sensitive, intelligent father: determined-to-succeed, sensitive, intelligent son. Father began his career as a writer; son was bound to write. It's got to be a tale of some conflict and drama, even if you ignore eminent psychiatrist Sigmund Freud's famous Oedipal theory: son must, at least psychologically, kill father if he's to succeed. And who would dare ignore Freud, when Mom, Ad Schulberg, third point of the Oedipal triangle, was one of that psychiatrist's earliest, most powerful, and most insistent popularizers? So Schulberg has a good story to tell. And he has some of the world's most glamorous stars, a cast of thousands, the notoriously nasty doings of Hollywood's early tycoons with which to flesh out the oldest story of father/son/love/hate. He sometimes goes on a little too long, but how could he go wrong?

The author was raised in the 1920s as the privileged son of a pioneer studio mogul in Hollywood but earned fame in his own right as a distinguished novelist and playwright. His autobiography is not only about his life and achievements: it traces changes he's observed in the Hollywood industry over the decades, comments on characters and ironies beyond the Hollywood stage, and includes plenty of rare photos to top off his presentation. A 'must' for any film buff.

In addition to being an accomplished novelist (What Makes Sammy Run), Schulberg is the son of the Late B.P. Schulberg who was head of production of Paramount Pictures in its early days. This book is his reminiscence about the silent and early sound days of Hollywood, by someone who was there, hobnobbing with people at the top. It's a fascinating insider account, made all the better by the excellence of Schulberg's writing. If you like books about the early days of Hollywood, don't miss this one.

To gain a true feeling of what it was like to be in on the ground floor of the motion picture industry, you must read this book. Mr. Schulberg, a gifted writer, is the son of B.P., who was with such notables as Adolph Zukor and L.B. Mayer as they created the dream factories. As the reader, you are given access to the back lots and inner sanctums of Paramount and MGM as Budd and his friend Maurice Rapf (Harry's son) play on the sets on the backlot, and you are also priviliged to join Budd's family at the dinner table for a more personal view. This book is excellent reading for the serious film student/buff as well as an entertaining read for anyone, since Mr. Schulberg uses a light narrative style and has a well developed sense of humor. The only complaint I can offer is that the book ends when Mr. Schulberg is around 20, and his own best work is yet to come! The reader is so involved that it is jolting to come back to this time. A 'must have'.