From Publishers Weekly
Born a Nebraska farmboy in 1902, Darryl Zanuck muscled in on the movies as a young man, scoring a coup with the first talkie, The Jazz Singer. Founding 20th Century-Fox in 1933, he kept control until his son, Richard, and Richard's partner, David Brown, took over during the 1960s. The author, long-time entertainment correspondent for the New York Post , purports to describe the end of the Zanuck dynasty, but the book is crammed with minutiae on the film industry from the silents onwardinfighting, huge profits, disastrous losseswith exhaustive notes on the Zanucks' Sound of Music , Jaws , M*A*S*H et al. Hollywood insiders provide almost equally nonstop tales about sexual affairsthose of the elder Zanuck as well as othersmaking this a tasty feast for gossip fanciers.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Film mogul Darryl F. Zanuck has already been profiled in Mel Gussow's Don't Say Yes Until I Finish Talking (1971) and Leonard Mosley's Zanuck (Little, 1984). Silverman rehashes some of the information from the other books, but, as in Steven Bach's Final Cut ( LJ 8/85), the emphasis is on business maneuverings which lead to catastrophe. Here the main characters are Zanuck, his son and partner/rival, Richard, and Richard's partner, David Brown. As usual, we learn that money doesn't buy happiness; first the elder Zanuck, then the younger (along with Brown), loses control of the company. Most of the book concerns events circa 1970, so this lacks immediacy, but it is generally well done. John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
