Customer Reviews

What Makes Sammy Run?

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A lot of the buzz on this book seems to be because of the backstage Hollywood setting, but Sammy Glick would have been a predator in any environment he was loosened upon. Schulbergs portrayal of the New York newspaper trade as well as the early tinsletown where Sammy prowls is insightful and witty, but the great force of the book is always What Makes Sammy Run? After reading this you will begin to recognize the Sammy Glicks in the world around you, and the question may haunt you sixty years after it was first asked.

I highly recommend "What Makes Sammy Run" for anyone who is an aspiring actor or filmmaker. This novel is an interesting look at the early entertainment business. Reading about Sammy Glick as he pursues success in show business is a real eye-opener. And things have not changed all that much these days. The movers and the shakers in the biz still behave in a similar manner. This is an interesting book to learn about what really makes the Entertainment Industry tick. Even though this novel takes place in the 1930s, it is still a great learning tool for today. And it is also a great look into history. This book is a great Hollywood classic.

This book is a real experience. Even though it was written decades ago, it is timeless because its characters are timeless. Everybody has known a "Sammy" in his lifetime. A real beautifully written classic.

Most "classics" have a bad reputation. They are praised to high heaven in textbooks and literary publications...and force-fed to students in literature classes. But this book is as fresh, hilarious and biting as if it were written this season. It moves at a brisk pace and holds you to the end. What a REAL classic should be.

And sixty years later, Hollywood functions exactly the same! Awful, suspiciously familiar movies unleashed from the offices of the Mediocre! Set in the 1930's, Schulberg's book helps us imagine the original Shangri-la of Material Dreams -- wonderful, cosmopolitan L.A. and Southern California before the cataclysm.

This book was loaned to me by an old friend who said it was the only book he would recommend. After reading it, I've never forgotten it. It haunts me still, and has become the only book that comes to mind when people ask "Have you read any good books lately?"

Although this book was written in the 1950s, it's just as a propos now. Sammy Glick, the main character, is an agent in Hollywood. He's such a cutthroat, greedy kind of guy. He'll do anything to make money. Timeless. Universal. The story is compelling and very well written; it thrusts you into the time and place. You are there. One of the things that really struck me was not only is this a fantastic book, but the editing is spectacular. Huh, you say? Yes, this is the first time I ever noticed a book's editing. The book sped along so quickly. There wasn't a wasteful sentence, phrase or word in the book, yet it didn't seem sparse. Another interesting thing, after the book came out, people used to go up to Schulberg and say with a proud grin, as they shook his hand, "I want to thank you for writing that book. I pattern my life around Sammy Glick, and I'm very successful now." Schulberg was mortified! He wrote the character to lament how low human beings would go to make a buck; he wasn't glorifying Sammy Glick, he was decrying his type, the greed at any cost mentality. This is one of the best books of fiction I have ever read. This is as much a classic as "Death of a Salesman", and is as timeless and universal as anything you'll ever read.

The book, What Makes Sammy Run? has such wit - about screenwriters in 1930s Hollywood, which created a controversy back in 1941 when it was published. Every producer, actor, writer was looking over their shoulder wondering if he or she was in the book, albeit fictionalized with another name and so forth. Budd Schulberg, the author, is still alive, at 94.

Budd Schulberg, screenwriter of "On The Waterfront", wrote this timeless classic on the wheelings and dealings of Hollywood back in the early 1950s. The tale is told by the cynical, wannabe screenwriter Al Manhiem, as he indulges us on the successes of young Sammy Glick. Despite the book's age, many facts about the studio system still remain true: the ousting of grand studio executives by young blood, the street smart back stabbing means to sell screenplays, plagarism, and the philosophy of the Hollywood marriage (there's no love in it, it's just to keep an upstanding image). Sammy Glick, a poor but ambitious newspaper copy boy climbs the ladder from Hollywood screenwriter to Hollywood mogul without any concern for his fellow man. Manhiem's biting personality on the Hollywood system of redtape is quite typical of many screenwriters' views today. This book is truly the Great Gatsby of Hollywood, though instead of a dying life, we find that it is the soul that truly has the great possiblity of dying in Tinsel Town.

THE BEST BOOK OF ALL TIME ! Powerful, Gripping, a tale of the Psychotic Workaholic against the backdrop of Hollywood in the 40's can easily relate to The Street of the 80's and Silicon Valley of the 90's. If you read only one book for the rest of your life....This Is It !