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What Makes Sammy Run? (Paperback)

by Budd Schulberg (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
What Makes Sammy Run?

Everyone of us knows someone who runs. He is one of the symp-toms of our times—from the little man who shoves you out of the way on the street to the go-getter who shoves you out of a job in the office to the Fuehrer who shoves you out of the world. And all of us have stopped to wonder, at some time or another, what it is that makes these people tick. What makes them run?

This is the question Schulberg has asked himself, and the answer is the first novel written with the indignation that only a young writer with talent and ideals could concentrate into a manuscript. It is the story of Sammy Glick, the man with a positive genius for being a heel, who runs through New York’s East Side, through newspaper ranks and finally through Hollywood, leaving in his wake the wrecked careers of his associates; for this is his tragedy and his chief characteristic—his congenital incapacity for friendship.

An older and more experienced novelist might have tempered his story and, in so doing, destroyed one of its outstanding qualities. Compromise would mar the portrait of Sammy Glick. Schulberg has etched it in pure vitriol, and dissected his victim with a precision that is almost frightening.

When a fragment of this book appeared as a short story in a national magazine, Schulberg was surprised at the number of letters he received from people convinced they knew Sammy Glick’s real name. But speculation as to his real identity would be utterly fruitless, for Sammy is a composite picture of a loud and spectacular minority bitterly resented by the many decent and sincere artists who are trying honestly to realize the measureless potentialities of motion pictures. To this group belongs Schulberg himself, who has not only worked as a screen writer since his graduation from Dartmouth College in 1936, but has spent his life, literally, in the heart of the motion-picture colony. In the course of finding out what makes Sammy run (an operation in which the reader is spared none of the grue-some details) Schulberg has poured out everything he has felt about that place. The result is a book which the publishers not only believe to be the most honest ever written about Hollywood, but a penetrating study of one kind of twentieth-century success that is peculiar to no single race of people or walk of life.


From the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap
What Makes Sammy Run?

Everyone of us knows someone who runs. He is one of the symp-toms of our times—from the little man who shoves you out of the way on the street to the go-getter who shoves you out of a job in the office to the Fuehrer who shoves you out of the world. And all of us have stopped to wonder, at some time or another, what it is that makes these people tick. What makes them run?

This is the question Schulberg has asked himself, and the answer is the first novel written with the indignation that only a young writer with talent and ideals could concentrate into a manuscript. It is the story of Sammy Glick, the man with a positive genius for being a heel, who runs through New York's East Side, through newspaper ranks and finally through Hollywood, leaving in his wake the wrecked careers of his associates; for this is his tragedy and his chief characteristic—his congenital incapacity for friendship.

An older and more experienced novelist might have tempered his story and, in so doing, destroyed one of its outstanding qualities. Compromise would mar the portrait of Sammy Glick. Schulberg has etched it in pure vitriol, and dissected his victim with a precision that is almost frightening.

When a fragment of this book appeared as a short story in a national magazine, Schulberg was surprised at the number of letters he received from people convinced they knew Sammy Glick's real name. But speculation as to his real identity would be utterly fruitless, for Sammy is a composite picture of a loud and spectacular minority bitterly resented by the many decent and sincere artists who are trying honestly to realize the measureless potentialities of motion pictures. To this group belongs Schulberg himself, who has not only worked as a screen writer since his graduation from Dartmouth College in 1936, but has spent his life, literally, in the heart of the motion-picture colony. In the course of finding out what makes Sammy run (an operation in which the reader is spared none of the grue-some details) Schulberg has poured out everything he has felt about that place. The result is a book which the publishers not only believe to be the most honest ever written about Hollywood, but a penetrating study of one kind of twentieth-century success that is peculiar to no single race of people or walk of life.

From the Hardcover edition.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage (December 6, 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679734228
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679734222
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #45,701 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews
5 star:
 (13)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A great story, more than just a tale of Hollywood., February 3, 1999
By A Customer
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.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Hollywood Novel, October 21, 2004
By Donna G. Grayson "Donna G. Grayson" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Now this is a classic, March 22, 2007
By Readers Reader (Sayreville, New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars a classic - please buy it
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. Read more
Published 12 months ago by M. H. Levenson

3.0 out of 5 stars Kind of a one note book.
This book is primarily about Sammy Glick as seen through the eyes of his associate/rival/friend Al Manheim. Read more
Published 20 months ago by bongo

5.0 out of 5 stars What Makes Sammy Run
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. Read more
Published on January 18, 2007 by R.P.

4.0 out of 5 stars Reading about this louse is not such great fun
The book's title is a ' concept'. It is the concept of the heartless louse who steps on any and everyone to get what they want. Read more
Published on June 22, 2005 by Shalom Freedman

2.0 out of 5 stars Highly dissapointed
I was extremely dissapointed in this book. Perhaps its age shows, but by the last thirty years' standards, Sammy Glick would be a choir boy today in Hollywood. Read more
Published on March 22, 2002

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing!
I'd read so much about this book, I figured it had to be half-way decent. But it's just awful. The language is dated, (Hemingway said, "All slang grows stale," and he's... Read more
Published on March 17, 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrifying and Wonderful
The terrifying and wonderful story of Sammy Glick and his rise from copy boy to Hollywood mogul. The narrator is Glick's colleague and world-weary foil Al Manheim, a newspaperman... Read more
Published on December 2, 2000 by Paul Epps

5.0 out of 5 stars five stars plus
a very well written book. chuckle-out-loud funny, fascinating setting, great story and intelligent message. Read more
Published on September 8, 2000 by peter baldwin

5.0 out of 5 stars five stars plus
very well written book. chuckle-out-loud funny, fascinating setting, well conceived story and intelligent message. Read more
Published on September 8, 2000 by peter baldwin

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book despite an annoying narrator
I liked this book. But I disliked Al Manheim, the narrator of "What Makes Sammy Run?", much more than Sammy Glick, a person Al considers a total sleaze. Read more
Published on July 22, 2000 by Ethan Cooper

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