City of Nets

by Otto Friedrich

  52 Stravinsky seemed to: Saturday Review, Jan. 30, 1960.

  52 The week after: Vera Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Stravinsky, p. 354. Alexandre Tansman, Igor Stravinsky, pp. 237–8.

  53 Unlike Schoenberg: Igor Stravinsky, Themes and Conclusions, p. 49.

  53 “I wonder if”: Bernard Taper, Balanchine, p. 191 (1974).

  53 Thus was born: Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Memories and Commentaries, p. 93.

  54 But it was the movies: Time, July 26, 1948.

  55 Stravinsky thereupon stood: Vera Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky, p. 357. Also Eric Walter White, Stravinsky, p. 376.

  55 Perhaps the most astonishing: Vera Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky, p. 364. Also Stravinsky, Memories, p. 162.

  56 It was natural: Mark Evans, Soundtrack, p. 69 (1979). Also Ezra Goodman, The Fifty-Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood, p. 398. Max Wilk, The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood, p. 197. The story of Tiomkin and Selznick is in Bob Thomas, Selznick, pp. 232–5 (1972).

  57 “I like it.”: Roland Flamini, Scarlett, Rhett, and a Cast of Thousands, p. 300. Flamini tells this same story, credited to Thomas, but states the obscenity, whereas Thomas leaves blanks.

  57 On this one occasion: Hanns Eisler, A Rebel in Music, p. 103.

  57 André Previn, who: Martin Bookspan and Ross Yockey, André Previn, p. 48. See also Miklós Rózsa, Double Life, who corroborates this absurd story and adds another of his own: “Another [studio head] told the composer that the heroine’s music was to be in the major key, the hero’s in the minor, and that when the two were together, the music should be in both major and minor!” (p. 98).

  58 Music, major and minor: Evans, Soundtrack, pp. 38ff. Also Taylor, Strangers in Paradise, p. 237.

  58 The Hollywood authorities: Evans, Soundtrack, p. 23.

  59 These were the stars: Bookspan and Yockey, Previn, pp. 51, 43.

  59 For the true professionals: Evans, Soundtrack, pp. 30–1.

  59 When these musicians: New York Times, Feb. 28, 1983; Aug. 20, 1976.

  60 These Hollywood musical: Vera Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky, p. 359.

  60 The superb RCA: Arthur Rubinstein, My Many Years, p. 494. Also Levant, Memoirs, p. 135.

  61 Ben Hecht played: George Antheil, Bad Boy of Music, pp. 308–9.

  62 The rise of Hitler: Maurice Zolotow, Billy Wilder in Hollywood, pp. 19–21, 52, 60, 71, 90. Hardly an inspired work but the best of several books on Wilder. See also Charles Higham, Bette, p. 166, and Sisters, pp. 122–3.

  63 Fritz Lang, by contrast: Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler, p. 248 (1966).

  64 David Selznick, who: Taylor, Strangers, p. 59.

  64 When David Selznick: Kenneth L. Geist, Pictures Will Talk, pp. 76–8.

  65 Lang did not return: Peter Bogdanovich, Fritz Lang in America, pp. 34–9.

  66 It is remarkable: Schoenberg, Letters, p. 205.

  66 More important, though: Leo C. Rosten, Hollywood, p. 140. Nancy Lynn Schwartz, The Hollywood Writers’ Wars, p. 83. Bob Thomas, King Cohn, p. 102. The basic text on Harry Cohn.

  67 Hollywood’s political timidity: Raymond Chandler, Selected Letters, pp. 207–8.

  68 Most Jews of that time: Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, vol. 1, p. 22.

  68 That defense provided: Author’s conversation with someone who asked not to be identified.

  69 Scott Fitzgerald apparently: Aaron Latham, Crazy Sundays, p. 178.

  69 This was the same Mayer: Ibid., p. 145.

  69 Mayer apparently was: Geist, Pictures Will Talk, p. 91. Latham, Crazy Sundays, p. 147. Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund, The Inquisition in Hollywood, p. 304.

  70 “We’re not at war”: Axel Madsen, William Wyler, pp. 215–17.

  70 Warners had a: Geist, Pictures Will Talk, p. 91.

  70 It also began working: Hal Wallis and Charles Higham, Starmaker, p. 70. Jack Warner, My First Hundred Years in Hollywood, p. 262.

  71 Self-dramatization: Wallis and Higham, Starmaker, p. 72.

  71 The Hollywood Production: Donald Spoto, The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock, pp. 222–36.

  71n By comparison, Warners’: Colin Shindler, Hollywood Goes to War, p. 5.

  72 Such flights of rhetoric: Michael Korda, Charmed Lives, pp. 154–5.Taylor, Strangers, pp. 134–5.

  73 Senator Burton Wheeler: Ceplair and Englund, The Inquisition, p. 160. Richard R. Lingeman, Don’t You Know There’s a War On?, p. 172. An excellent account of this whole period.

  74 More ambiguous: Ceplair and Englund, The Inquisition, pp. 156ff. Rosten, Hollywood, pp. 141–4. Dies’s statements come from Martin Dies, “The Reds in Hollywood,” Liberty, Feb. 17, 1940, and “Is Communism Invading the Movies?” Liberty, Feb. 24, 1940.

  74n Though Dies was: Walter Goodman, The Committee, pp. 10–23.

  75 Dies kept announcing: Rosten, Hollywood, pp. 145–9.

  75 Hollywood’s progressives: Stefan Kanfer, A Journal of the Plague Years, p. 27.

  76 None of these political: Rosten, Hollywood, p. 154.

  76 When President Ronald Reagan: New York Times, April 21, 1983. Ronald Reagan and Richard C. Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, pp. 105–15 (1981). This was written during Reagan’s years of obscurity, but the future President is all here. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up, p. 66 (1956).

  78 It is easy: New York Times, Oct. 19, 1940.

  78 The message of: James K. Lyon, Bertolt Brecht in America, p. 137.

  79 The refugees kept coming: Taylor, Strangers, pp. 219ff.

  80 Thomas Mann’s white-bearded: Nigel Hamilton, The Brothers Mann, p. 313. Taylor, Strangers, pp. 143–4.

  80 Franz Werfel: Alma Mahler Werfel, And the Bridge Is Love, pp. 253ff. Karen Monson, Alma Mahler, p. 276. Mary Jayne Gold, Crossroads Marseilles/1940, p. 184.

  81 Roosevelt’s request: Werfel, And the Bridge, p. 265. Varian Fry, Surrender on Demand, pp. 57–69. Anthony Heilbut, Exiled in Paradise, pp. 40–3. Gold, Crossroads Marseilles, pp. 188–91. Monson, Alma Mahler, pp. 269ff.

  81 Money and cigarettes: Werfel, And the Bridge, p. 268.

  82 Heinrich Mann contemplated: Hamilton, The Brothers Mann, pp. 314, 320. Taylor, Strangers, pp. 145–6.

  82 Werfel was more fortunate: Werfel, And the Bridge, pp. 281, 271.

  83 The Song of Bernadette: Ibid., p. 272. White, Stravinsky, p. 96.

  83 Perhaps, though, the: Taylor, Strangers, p. 163.

  84 And life with Alma: Vera Stravinsky and Craft, Stravinsky, p. 411. S. N. Behrman, People in a Diary, p. 171. Werfel, And the Bridge, p. 276.

  84 Werfel suffered: Werfel, And the Bridge, pp. 283–4, 292.

  84 The funeral was: Thomas Mann, The Story of a Novel: The Genesis of Doctor Faustus, p. 136. Stravinsky and Craft, Expositions and Developments, p. 66.

  3 Treachery (1941).

  87 Money attracts deals: Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister, p. 181.

  87 Hardly anyone could fit: Time, Nov. 17, 1941. Also Gertrude Jobes, Motion Picture Empire, pp. 341–54.

  88 Schenck went to: New York Times, Oct. 10, 1941.

  88 That was the way: Florabel Muir, Headline Happy, p. 91.

  88 His real name: New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 4, 1941; Oct. 28, 1941. New York Times, Oct. 28, 1941.

  88 Brought from Russia: Muir, Headline Happy, p. 83. Time, Dec. 4, 1939.

  89 As an obscure: New York World-Telegram, Feb. 1, 1949. New York Times, Oct. 28, 1941.

  90 John and Barney Balaban: New York Times, Oct. 12, 1943. New York Mirror, Oct. 3, 1963.

  90 Bioff began grandly: World-Telegram, Feb. 1, 1949.

  91 So it was: Bob Thomas, King Cohn, p. 199.

  91 “My God!”: Time, Oct. 18, 1943.

  92 There actually was: Muir, Headline Happy, pp. 88–9.

  93 The antithesis of: New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 28, 1941. Carey McWilliams, The Education of Carey McWilliams, p. 89.

  94 The charge that: New York Times, Sept. 8, 1938. Ronald Reagan and Richard C. Hubler, Where’s the
Rest of Me?, p. 185 (1981). New York Times, Dec. 2, 1943. John Cogley, Report on Blacklisting, vol. 1, pp. 52–3. McWilliams, Education, p. 89.

  94 Bioff did win: Muir, Headline Happy, p. 79. Time, Sept. 11, 1939.

  95 Many of the actors: Leo C. Rosten, Hollywood, pp. 341, 345.

  95 The Internal Revenue: New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 28, 1941. New York Times, Jan. 11, 1940; June 4, 1940; Feb. 20, 1940; Sept. 21, 1940.

  96 The federal prosecutors: New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 23, 1961.

  96 So then Bioff: Time, Oct. 20, 1941.

  96 Bioff described: New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 4, 1943. Time, Nov. 17, 1941; Nov. 14, 1955. New York World-Telegram, Feb. 1, 1949.

  97 Bioff was a star: New York Times, Oct. 12, 1943. New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 23, 1961.

  97 On emerging from prison: Time, Nov. 14, 1955. Westbrook Pegler columns in New York Journal-American, March 26–30, 1956. New York Times, Nov. 5, 1955. McWilliams, Education, p. 91.

  98 Joe Schenck spent: Anita Loos, A Girl Like I, p. 196.

  98 At a meeting: Budd Schulberg, What Makes Sammy Run?, p. 251 (1978). Nancy Lynn Schwartz, The Hollywood Writers’ Wars, p. 167.

  98 What Makes Sammy Run?: Schulberg, p. 203. Irene Mayer Selznick, A Private View, p. 50.

  98n Samuel Goldwyn, after: Arthur Marx, Goldwyn, p. 286.

  99 “Don’t pull that”: Schulberg, What Makes Sammy Run?, p. 108.

  99 Jewish anti-Semitism: Schulberg, What Makes Sammy Run?, pp. 215, 232.

  100 Hollywood was accustomed: Budd Schulberg, Moving Pictures, pp. 51, 307.

  100 The element that: Carey McWilliams, Southern California Country, pp. 224–9.

  100 The arrival of: David Halberstam, The Powers That Be, pp. 99–111.

  101 In the prosperous 1920’s: Schwartz, Hollywood Writers’ Wars, pp. 8–9.

  102 The studios were: Samuel Marx, Mayer and Thalberg, pp. 206–7.

  103 The technicians were: Schwartz, Hollywood Writers’ Wars, pp. 12, 14.

  103n Thau was sometimes: Roland Flamini, Ava, p. 18. S. N. Behrman, People in a Diary, pp. 157–8.

  104 Early in 1933: Schwartz, Hollywood Writers’ Wars, pp. 21, 59, 129, 60, 67.

  106 When the meeting: Schulberg, What Makes Sammy Run?, p. 158.

  106 But that was: Schwartz, Hollywood Writers’ Wars, pp. 31, 73–9.

  107 Schulberg published: Victor S. Navasky, Naming Names, pp. 239–40 (1981).

  108 What remains most: Schulberg, What Makes Sammy Run?, p. 250. Schwartz, Hollywood Writers’ Wars, pp. 99–130, 172–3.

  109 Sheridan Gibney: Dore Schary, Heyday, p. 113 (1981).

  110 Dashiell Hammett knew: William F. Nolan, Hammett, p. 14.

  110 Hammett had become: Diane Johnson, Dashiell Hammett, A Life, pp. 16–27. Richard Layman, Shadow Man, pp. 6–10. Hugh Eames, Sleuths, Inc., p. 107. Also Dashiell Hammett, The Continental Op, “Introduction” by Steven Marcus.

  110 Hammett apparently enjoyed: Eames, Sleuths, Inc., p. 104. Also interview by David Fechheimer, quoted in Eames, p. 108.

  110 As part of: Ibid., p. 107. Lillian Hellman, Scoundrel Time, p. 45 (1977).

  111 Miss Hellman’s admiring: Johnson, Dashiell Hammett, pp. 96, 100, 106–7, 130, 162–3. Nolan, Hammett, pp. 127, 237. Layman, Shadow Man, p. 237.

  112 The screenwriter Nunnally Johnson: The Letters of Nunnally Johnson, p. 188.

  112 When Hammett’s third: Nolan, Hammett, pp. 110, 113, 90.

  112 The Maltese Falcon: Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, p. 187 (1972).

  113 In a Hollywood: Nolan, Hammett, pp. 117, 156. Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, p. 227.

  114 And in 1941: John Huston, An Open Book, p. 88 (1981). Nolan, Hammett, p. 179.

  115 Jack Warner grudgingly: Allen Rivkin and Laura Kerr, Hello, Hollywood, pp. 155–6.

  115 The next accident: Jon Tuska, The Detective in Hollywood, pp. 169–72. Also Lewis Yablonsky, George Raft, p. 139. Joe Hyams, Bogie, p. 68 (1967). Michael Freedland, The Warner Brothers, p. 128. Larry Swindell, Body and Soul, p. 184.

  116 Now Raft didn’t: Rudy Behlmer, Inside Warner Bros., p. 151. Tuska, The Detective in Hollywood, p. 176. Nolan, Hammett, p. 180. Huston, An Open Book, p. 89.

  117 Much of that success: Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg, Hollywood in the Forties, pp. 20, 36. Charles Higham, Hollywood at Sunset, p. 16.

  117 Huston also had: Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, p. 1.

  117 Bogart had not: Hyams, Bogie, pp. 20ff. Louise Brooks, Lulu in Hollywood, p. 59.

  119 On late-night television: Hyams, Bogie, pp. 57–63. Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, p. 72 (1971).

  121 Humor combined: Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, p. 227.

  121 And what financial: Nolan, Hammett, p. 197. Layman, Shadow Man, p. 212.

  122 Despite Hollywood’s three: Tony Thomas, The Films of Ronald Reagan, pp. 99–132. Reagan and Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, p. 153. Rosten, Hollywood, p. 342.

  122 The year 1941: Laurence Leamer, Make-Believe: The Story of Nancy and Ronald Reagan, pp. 115, 112. Thomas, The Films of Ronald Reagan, p. 122. Reagan and Hubler, Where’s the Rest, p. 8.

  123 Warners had spent: Hal Wallis and Charles Higham, Starmaker, p. 98. Henry Bellamann, Kings Row, p. 3.

  123 Of such burgeoning: Wallis and Higham, Starmaker, pp. 99–100.

  123n In an interview: Rex Reed, Conversations in the Raw, p. 31.

  125 There was one scene: Bellamann, Kings Row, p. 464.

  126 Ronald Reagan, having: Reagan and Hubler, Where’s the Rest, pp. 8–9. Leamer, Make-Believe, p. 119.

  128 “As in some grotesque”: Pauline Kael, The Citizen Kane Book, p. 60. This book (which happily includes the script of the film) was the first major investigation of Mankiewicz’s claims to having written Citizen Kane; it was strongly attacked by Welles’s admirers, notably Peter Bogdanovich (in Esquire, October 1972). Richard Meryman, Mank, p. 244.

  128 The saga of Citizen Kane: Charles Higham, The Films of Orson Welles, pp. 3, 15–16. Charles Higham, Orson Welles, pp. 139–42. Higham’s second book on Welles is probably the most reliable account of his career. Meryman, Mank, pp. 244–5, 133.

  129 Mankiewicz was also: Kael, Citizen Kane Book, pp. 43, 46–47. Meryman, Mank, pp. 130, 242. Higham, Films of Orson Welles, p. 10.

  129n As though to test: Dore Schary, Heyday, pp. 54a–75.

  130 Hearst was one: Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, p. xvi. Kael, Citizen Kane Book, pp. 50, 101–3.

  130 Welles was pleased: Ibid., pp. 5–9, 58–67. Higham, Orson Welles, pp. 146–59. Barbara Leaming, Orson Welles. The Leaming work contains much entertaining detail from her interviews with Welles.

  132 Welles relied: George Eels, Malice in Wonderland, pp. 28, 43–5, 50, 85–6 (1985). Time, July 28, 1947.

  132n She achieved happiness: Eels, Malice in Wonderland, pp. 147–81.

  132 What Mrs. Parsons: Higham, Orson Welles, pp. 168–72. Leaming, Orson Welles, pp. 204–11.

  134 It is difficult: William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, pp. 851–4. Bertolt Brecht, Seven Plays, p. 261.

  135 Brecht himself: Frederic Ewen, Bertolt Brecht, pp. 330, 301. Also Martin Esslin, Brecht. Brecht, Seven Plays, p. 392.

  135 Brecht never wanted: James K. Lyon, Bertolt Brecht in America, pp. 23, 27–30. This is the best account of Brecht’s Hollywood years, though Bruce Cook’s Brecht in Exile is also good. Bertolt Brecht, Mahagonny, libretto for CBS recording, pp. 16, 20, 22.

  137 But to the Brecht: Lyon, Brecht in America, p. 33. Brecht, Poems, 1913–1956, p. 367. Anthony Heilbut, Exiled in Paradise, p. 182.

  137 “On thinking about Hell”: Brecht, Poems, p. 367.

  137 Despite all these: Bruce Cook, Brecht in Exile, pp. 43–54.

  138 in Hollywood, now: Lyon, Brecht in America, pp. 48–51. Cook, Brecht in Exile, p. 41.

  140 “Again and again”: Brecht, Poems, pp. 378–9, 392. Cook, Brecht in Exile, p. 104.

  140 By arriving on: Salka Viertel, The Kindness of Stran
gers, pp. 250–1.

  142 One of the pleasant: William Robert Faith, Bob Hope, pp. 125, 154.

  143 Rubinstein himself recalled: Arthur Rubinstein, My Many Years, p. 486.

  143 Not everyone was: Lana Turner, Lana, p. 75.

  143 The news on the radio: Ingrid Bergman and Alan Burgess, My Story, p. 148 (1981). Beverly Linet, Ladd, pp. 63–4 (1980).

  144 John Houseman and: John Houseman, Front and Center, pp. 19–20 (1980).

  144 Maxine Andrews was: Studs Terkel, The Good War, pp. 294–7.

  144 Mary Astor was: Mary Astor, My Story, p. 218.

  144 Gene Tierney and: Gene Tierney, Self-Portrait, p. 21 (1980).

  145 This mixture of: New York Times, Dec. 8, 9, 1941.

  145 None too soon: Richard R. Lingeman, Don’t You Know There’s a War On?, pp. 24–5.

  146 Los Angeles dreaded: New York Times, Dec. 8, 1941. Time, Dec. 22, 1941.

  146 The authorities kept: Lingeman, Don’t You Know, p. 28. New York Times, Dec. 9, 1941. Peter Irons, Justice at War, p. 19.

  147 So Hollywood began: Time, Dec. 22, 1941. Jack Warner, My First Hundred Years in Hollywood, p. 282.

  4 Americanism (1942).

  149 Jimmy Stewart quietly: Richard R. Lingeman, Don’t You Know There’s a War On?, pp. 170, 179. Hector Arce, The Secret Life of Tyrone Power, pp. 155–9 (1980). Henry Fonda, My Life, p. 138.

  149 Zanuck, who was: Mel Gussow, Darryl F. Zanuck, pp. 97, 114, 99–100 (1980). Otto Preminger, Preminger: An Autobiography, p. 81 (1978).

  150 Each celebrity’s call: Ronald Reagan and Richard C. Hubler, Where’s the Rest of Me?, p. 122 (1981). Doug McClelland, ed., Hollywood on Reagan, p. 32.

  150 By October of 1942: Lingeman, Don’t You Know, p. 170.

  151 Women were especially: Ibid., p. 175. Hedy Lamarr, Ecstasy and Me, p. 115. Lana Turner, Lana, p. 76. Dorothy Lamour, My Side of the Road, p. 115.

  151 It was all: Lynn Tornabene, Long Live the King: A Biography of Clark Gable, pp. 265–6. Garson Kanin, Hollywood, p. 55.

  151 Miss Lombard sold: Tornabene, Long Live the King, pp. 267–81.

  153 Los Angeles was: Whitney Stine, Mother Goddam, pp. 175–7 (1975).

  153 Miss Davis also: Bette Davis, The Lonely Life, p. 212.

  154 Bette Davis worked: Lamarr, Ecstasy and Me, pp. 113–14.