Customer Reviews

Thalberg: Life and Legend

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"Why is it that the great ones always go first, while the schmiels live to be 100?" - Groucho Marx said when hearing of Thalberg's early death.

Irving Thalberg was born with a weak heart. Doctors said he wouldn't live past the age of 30. He lived 7 years beyond that, and his extreme sense of urgency made him accomplish quality work with more regularity than any producer in film history.

Able to read letters, and hold meetings in his office simultaneously, with no loss of comprehension - and often mistaken as an office assistant by newcomers, Thalberg earned the nickname "The Boy Wonder."

Bob Thomas' biography (originally published in the 1960's) remains the 'definitive' biography on Thalberg. This dubious honor comes from the fact that there aren't many publications available about Thalberg to begin with. Thomas has the market cornered.

Thalberg's motto: "Credit you give yourself is not worth having" illustrates his modesty. He rarely wrote letters, made sure to stay away from the press, and never placed his name in the credits of his own pictures. This lack of material makes biography-writing difficult.

The most insightful passages of this book are from Thalberg himself: a section of a speech he gave to a group of UCLA college students on "The Art of the Photoplay", and an article titled "Why Films Cost So Much" printed in a trade magazine.

Four-fifths of the book is good. Filled with many anecdotes about the making of Ben-Hur (silent version), Grand Hotel, Freaks, Mutiny On The Bounty, etc. And also the 'making' of certain stars: Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, and Clark Gable to name a few. Studios held all the power in those days, concerning publicity. And they (i.e. Thalberg, and Mayer) decided how to market their actors and actresses. More than once, stories are told about Thalberg deftly handling newspapermen when they smelled a possible scandal in the air.

One complaint: The book's editor should've pulled a Thalberg, and cut Part 1 of this book, dumping it on the floor faster than footage from an unwieldy von Stroheim project. Three chapters are spent on F. Scott Fitzgerald writing his final (and incomplete) novel, "The Last Tycoon." Granted, "The Last Tycoon" is an excellent book, and the character Monroe Stahr is largely based on Irving Thalberg...but spending 3 chapters on this? Cut it! It rambles on pointlessly like some college thesis on the demise of Fitzgerald and the loss of the American Dream.

Good book overall. But, then again, with so little material 'out there' on Thalberg, ANY information on The Boy Wonder is welcome.

Also recommend:
*The film MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES (1957) - biopic on Lon Chaney (James Cagney). Features a few scenes between Chaney and Thalberg (played by Robert J. Evans - selected personally by Thalberg's widow to play the part.)

*The book MEMO FROM DAVID O. SELZNICK, a first-person account of producing films during Hollywood's 'Golden Age.'

I enjoyed reading this biography about one of my favorite movie people, Irving Thalberg, the boy genius of MGM. I was able to learn about his relationship with Lois B. Mayer, how he worked his way up in the business and how he shaped the careers of many Hollywood stars.
Bob Thomas gives us an insight into the Hollywood of the 20s and 30s. The pictures of Irving Thalberg with, among others, Norma Shearer, are really good. I liked being able to take a look at Thalberg's office, since I had often wondered what that looked like.
Most people thought very well of Irving Thalberg and were sad when he died young, at the age of 37. This, I think, is a rarity in Hollywood. The man deserved a longer life.

I recently read all three books in Bob Thomas' biographical trilogy of Hollywood producers,these being; "King Cohn", "Selznick" and "Thalberg, Life and Legend". All three are well written and Thomas displays his knowledge and understanding of the movie business. One cannot say one book is better than the other, only that one finds the subject and the movie projects they were associated with more interesting than the other two. For my part,David O. Selznick is the personification of a producer who had a vision and was relentless in seeing his vision realized.
Irving Thalberg's name is forever associated with MGM and his quest for quality is easily seen in the movies produced during his tenure and long after his passing.
Harry Cohn's contribution is less easy to state, he Was Columbia Pictures. He was not so much a producer as a studio head who supervised all production but was especially involved in their release of the high quality, award winning films like "From Here to Eternity".
These books were written in the 60's and early 70's and the new editions are updated, all are well written and illustrated.