Characters: 4 male, 2 female 2 Interiors Maestro Vito De Angelis, an egomaniacal but charming conductor, is under contract to a major publisher to deliver his autobiography. The publisher has paid a huge advance and Vito has just fired his fifth ghost writer. The publisher sends pretty Iris Peabody, knowing that Vito is a sucker for the ladies, to gain his cooperation as she ghost writes the book. The stratagem works, a fact that distresses Mrs. Vito, former opera star Rachel Garla
THE STORY: The vulgar, egotistic junkman Harry Brock has come to a swanky hotel in Washington to make crooked deals with government big-wigs. He has brought with him the charming but dumb ex-chorus girl Billie, whose lack of social graces embarrass
Memoir Characters: 2 male Remembering Mr. Maugham is an intimate glimpse into the life of W. Somerset Maugham - one of the most brilliant, prolific and secretive writers of the 20th century. This graceful two-character, one-act play adapted by Garson Kanin from his memoir is a treasure trove of private conversations, amusing anecdotes and candid recollections of his beloved friend and confidant. Through decades of friendship, Kanin and Maugham poignantly reminisce about life, art and the unconquerable human spirit.
How many of us who sit in high anticipation waiting for the curtain to rise on a Broadway musical have any idea what really goes on behind the scenes?"--jacket flap.
Hilarious, audacious, poignant, scandalous, breathtaking, this book 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 this magical place. Kanin arrived in Hollywood at the age of 24, brought from New York at the bidding of the great producer Samuel Goldwyn "to learn the business." As the man who would become one of our most celebrated writer-directors now describes it, "I checked into the Goldwyn Studios on Monday morning and Alice in Wonderland was a piker." It was 1937, one of Hollywood's golden years, when it seemed that just about anything could happen. Looking back now over a career as full of drama, excitement, and glamour as any fabled movie extravaganza, Kanin tells us what actually did take place. With him we explore the inside workings of the industry--the tempestuous and often comical story conferences, the contract negotiations, the front-office conflicts. But artistry is not forgotten, as revealed by tantalizing glimpses of such stars as Carole Lombard, John Barrymore, Greta Garbo, and Marilyn Monroe. There are off-screen appearances by Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx; backlot tales of success and failure for Charles Laughton, Ingrid Bergman, Judy Holliday, and Ginger Rogers; fond remembrances of movie pioneer Carl Laemmle; thoughtful appreciations of fellow filmmakers Billy Wilder and René Clair; surprise introductions to Hollywood's secret people, especially the enticing Mae and her Pleasure Palace; and fascinating, seldom-captured views of powerful men who shaped the industry--Harry Cohn, Darryl F. Zanuck, and the extraordinary Sam Goldwyn, whose career encompassed the full span of American filmmaking from its virtual beginnings to the 1960s. This is an incomparable display of talent, ambition, and skill, sketched in all its absorbing detail with Kanin's inimitable style and charm.--Adapted from dust jacket.
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