CITY OF NETS, one of the classics on Hollywood I kept. The first time I read this book, I found a large section of the book was missing. So in time I bought another used copy and was able to finish it. World War II makes the forties an interesting era in Hollywood. Especially the influx of talented actors, writers and directors escaping from Europe. Friedrich skillfully weaves biographical sketches with historical information. He is especially interested in the immigrants who came to dominate the film business very quickly. Also fun to read about how our new enemies (esp. Japan and German) made for the new villains in various films.
This, along with ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE, by William Goldman are two of the best books about the movies although the later is a bit dated.
What I can't decide about is the many small literary and crime fiction outlets where my stories appeared over the years. Many of the stories are in my two collections but many are not. But realistically who is going to read them after I'm gone. I'm not Alice Munro or John Cheever. And they take up too much room.
9 comments:
This one sounds really interesting, Patti!
I agree with you on this one, Patti. I got it originally after you recommended it the first time. And even though I haven't read them in a while, I liked Goldman's books on Hollywood too.
With no slur on your judgment intended, Patti, I'd rather read Patricia Abbott than Alice Munro or John Cheever.
I think you should hold on to your short stories published in various outlets. I would want to read them.
Glen has held onto his copy of CITY OF NETS also.
I'd certainly buy at least some of them from you if you wanted to rid yourself of them, but if you self-diminish, some acolyte of the NYT obituarist who, I continue to suggest, seemed to have it out for Ellen Gilchrist, will take up your lead.
I think your grandson, among others, might want to be able to have the chance to read them, when the mood strikes. My father's one book, a US Gov/FAA report on airway facilities management and development, is no longer in my collection (one of those destroyed by this house), but I'm sorry I don't have it any longer, and it's considerably more dry.
Did you read Friedrich's book on THE SATURDAY EVENING POST in the years when you briefly worked there? I imagine you have done, and if you've said so, sorry to have forgotten it.
For that matter, I'd probably index them for the FictionMags Index, as not a few of them might've slipped under the radar previously.
No, I haven't read that one, Todd. I will look for it. I just downloaded THE NINETIES, (Chuck Klosterman) a Sara Gran Book and something else for CA. I worked for Curtis Publishing on 1966 when I should have been a sophomore in college, which published Ladies Home Journal. Perhaps they also did SEP. It was a brief tenure. There is probably 60 journals. After a certain point a lot of them published online. I kept them for now.
Yup...Friedrich's Curtis Publishing late-years history was DECLINE AND FALL, and your experiences there as you've recounted them helped set the scene rather well (your bosses asking you to essentially rubber-stamp any expense-account requests that came in, IIRC). OF was (probably indirectly, way up the hierarchy) one of your bosses at the time.
Internet Archive version: https://archive.org/details/declinefall0000otto_v1v4
LHJ, like the SEP, was a huge bedsheet magazine in those years, as I'm sure you recall, that must've cost a fortune to mail even in the couple-million discount rate.
Authors are often too modest about the potential longevity of their work, Patti, so don't be too quick to assume that people won't be interested in your writing for many, many years to come.
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