Customer Reviews

From Cowboy to Mogul to Monster: The Neverending Story of Film Pioneer Mark Damon

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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Mark Damon's excellent biography is a testament to determination and talent. Damon's amazing resilience to overcoming defeat and achieving success shines through again and again. The book resonates with the truth of a man who has looked at himself, warts and all, and has put it all out there for the reader. Having broken new ground in developing a new way of marketing motion pictures thoughout the world he has assured himself an important place in the history of the movie business. His book is a must read, not only for show business people, but as an inspirational statement about "picking yourself up, dusting yourself off and starting all over again." Mark Damon's multi faceted career, from a star of "spaghetti westerns" to a producer of major motion picures, with many acomplishments along the way, makes for a facinating read. I recommend the book without reservation.

I couldn't put it down. A real Hollywood page-turner. Very well written bio that flips back and forth between the childhood genius puzzle inventor and early age money maker to the high flying Hollywood film distributor/producer. Fast paced and inspiring, the book took me to Hollywood, via Chicago, Italy, and Cannes. I loved reading about this man who not only brought us some very important movies, like Das Boot, and Monster, but was also at the top of his game in at least three career areas, most wouldn't even attempt. I strongly suggest you try it--a great summer, or anytime read.

From Cowboy to Mogul to Monster is a well written, outstanding autobiography. It's a true "American Success" story which mostly covers the last half of the twentieth century. Mark Damon has led a remarkable life which most people would envy. He truly invented the international film sales business. The story of his life is entertaining reading and the book will grab your attention and not let go. I would highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in the entertainment business (particularly film). A must read!.

Mark Damon's story gives hope and strength to a young generation that finds itself having to contemplate new directions in these economic ties. His story teaches us that through hardwork, out of the box thinking and dedication that we can reach success. A great story with wonderful insight to Mark's youth. Highly recommended.

Mark Damon's life story gives the reader a peek into a world that most of us outside the film industry could never imagine. His many careers within a career intricately describe a man who was never satisfied with being good at what he does - he had a compelling need to be the best, as an actor, independent film salesman and producer. Mark continuously plays a high stakes game with his professional lives and has won way more than he lost along the way. In his continuing quest for success, Mark almost single handedly brought the independent film industry to be a force to reckon with in the entertainment business. And the format of the book, moving forward and backward in time, keeps the reader riveted to it, anxiously awaiting the next episode. You won't find another story about a man and his industry as unique as this one.

Fascinating and very entertaining autobiography on film star and movie mogul Mark Damon detailing his travails in the film industry from America to Italy and back again. The chronology of the book is all over the place but generous stories (stories that are both captivating and sometimes shockingly humorous) on his work in the Italian film industry where he made a number of westerns and horror pictures sit alongside equally interesting details of working on both in front of, and behind the scenes on some of the biggest hits of American cinema.

This is a multi-layered book that gives the reader a great feel for the many facets of movie-making. Its structure, with is juxtaposition of Mr. Damon's dreams, goals, feelings, and fears as a young actor with the more cured and wizened insights of a Hollywood producer and innovator allows the reader a real and intriguing (and somewhat titillating) experience of a world for which we joes-public seem to have so much, at once, fascination and ignorance. Mr. Damon blends his first (and first-hand) experience with method acting (for which Marlon Brando was so well-known) and his palpable sensibility and angst regarding the friction between west coast "movie actors" and east coast "stage actors" with first-person accounts of the wars he fought while inventing the international film sales business model (and, by the way, this latter point regarding international sales really seems to be a major contribution that Mr. Damon seems to have made in the "movie industry"). He gives accounts of the politics and subterfuge that accompany an up-and-coming actor as backdrop for the politics and subterfuge that accompany Hollywood business. I would think that this would be important history for anyone interested in entering the Hollywood realm. For me, as a casual observer, Mr. Damon provides this history with humor, candor, and an openness that proved very accessible and certainly eye-opening. (Besides all this, you'll get the fascinating story of how Das Boot was translated into English, widely considered to be the best movie translation of all time.)

Boy- I am shocked at the above reviews. I saw the book completely differently! Mark Damon may be a well known name in Europe, but beyond his appearance in "The Fall of the House of Usher"- starring Vincent Price, does anyone not in the "industry" know of him in the United States? Bless him for handing Clint Eastwood his career. I found it ironic that he said his father would put him off by discussing his achievements in their occasional phone calls, but isn't he doing that exact thing in this autobiography? And did Clint Eastwood ever use Mark in a picture that Clint produced/directed? I was given this book as a gift because I like autobiographies. I'm glad I didn't buy it. If you are tempted to read this book, I'd recommend requesting it from your local library or waiting (not too long) until it appears on a remainder table at your favorite bookstore.

What a book and what a story. OMG, the enormous amount of work Linda Schreyer put into this is most apparent, but the beauty of the book is that her writing style, her story telling ability, and her analysis of character lifts the life story of Mark Damon above that of a mundane "tell it all." He was as wise in having her tell his story as he was in so many other decisions in his life. Schreyer is an Award-winning TV and screenwriter.

Though I'm not fully qualified to critique biography, I do have book

reviewing experiences, having written a business book review column for several years, and what I look for when reviewing is how well the various dances work together in any piece: the dances of content and language, topic and author, and abstractness and concreteness. This book effectively captured my attention in each of these dances. I loved being at the dance.

I very much liked how Linda Schreyer didn't force the story into tight chronology but rather she told of the passage, the evolving, of Alan Harris, to Al Harris, to Mark Damon through anecdotally rich experiences in various cities, roles, businesses, successes, failures, risk takings, and foresights. It's a great read for anyone interested in the movie industry and should be required reading in film, acting, and film marketing classes.

It would be fun to teach this book both as a genre piece, and even as a business and marketing piece. I'm going to pass it along to my grandson, a sophomore in college majoring in business with a

focus on economics and marketing. He and I often enjoy having discussions, so this could be fun for both of us.

As I moved through reading Mark's passage, I found that I had to take many breaks just to catch my breath, and was amazed that HE, Mark, seldom ever had to do that in his life. The book is a powerful testament of Mark's incredible skills, especially knowing that this profound man (born a year before I was, in the same city and following the same Chicago Cubs) once stood in an unemployment line in 1956. Then he went on to become, along with other accomplishments, one of the earliest successful practitioners of globalization. And not to cheapen his profound intuitive business skills, I have to say he is one-hell-of-a salesman! Imagine just starting a business making a living off puzzles. That's something only an intuitive business person could see as being possible, and that's what Mark did as a high school student.

Would that we all could remember Mark's long career of ups and downs, and then remember what he said when it looked like things weren't going to work out: "I think any time that something hits you that is overwhelming, you have to say 'This is an opportunity' And you have to find out how to turn it around to make it work to your advantage." That's wisdom.

I like how Linda Schreyer often summed up the scope and breadth of Mark's work in such statements as "After fifty years in the business he was intimately acquainted with its vicissitudes." (after the Neverland deal fell apart) "He took the changes in stride...He also took the constants in stride." And I was further moved by Schreyer's final paragraph telling how Mark renewed his devotion to his wife and his family. I loved how she included even simple things such as how, in the shooting of a war film, Mark, the actor, turned around and looked directly into the camera. He quickly explained to the not too happy director that he was "just looking to see if any enemies were following."

Having been denied movies as a kid (verboten in my family's conservative Calvinism), I never knew about Spaghetti Westerns, let alone any westerns. (The first movie that I snuck in to see when I was around 15 was Easter Williams in "On an Island with You." Oh my, did I have a hard time sleeping that night, not because of guilt, but because I was madly in love with Ester...) So I learned about Spaghetti Westerns (westerns made in Italy) from Schreyer's book. And how much fun it was to find that Mark's life included so many actors who were just getting started, such as Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood and others. In one movie, the voice of a then unknown William Shatner was dubbed in as Mark's voice. And to learn of his love affairs with so many women (whew) (including Diane Cannon), and then to discover that he turned that around and became devoted to his wife Maggie.

There's so much more I'd love to say about this very professional book, but I'll sum it best by saying I enjoyed it all the way.

Just finished Linda Schreyer's tome about Mark Damon and I enjoyed it very

it. It was an easy read and I found myself laughing aloud at times

as well as learning a great deal about the business both of them are in. Have

often wondered about what a producer does. Now I know.

There was an interesting piece in yesterday's Times re "Slumdog

Millionaire" and how it got to be made. That piece could have come

out of this book. I certainly read the Times piece with a greater

understanding than if I had not read the Damon book. Seems that the

book should be required reading for students in film study programs.

Where does Damon get his energy? Quite an interesting individual.

by Fred Quici