Amazon.com: The Real Nick and Nora: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Writers of Stage and Screen Classics: David L Goodrich: Books

Review

“This is a wonderful biography of the Hacketts. . . . [L]iterate, informative, well researched, charming, and personal all at the same time. I've told everyone I know to rush out and buy it.”—Leonard Maltin

“The Real Nick and Nora is a thoroughly engaging evocation of the old Hollywood through deft portraits of the wonderfully skilled married couple—Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett—to whom we owe memorable films and plays from The Thin Man to The Diary of Anne Frank.”—Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

“Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett were probably the most prolific writing team in Hollywood and on Broadway during the glamour decades, when they were literary stars. David Goodrich has written a fascinating account of their bi-coastal careers and a social history of the creative world in which they moved.” —Dominick Dunne

“Apart from the surreal lives of Frances and Albert Hackett this book captures, accurately and emotionally, the life of theater and movies from the thirties to digital. A must read for theater lovers.”—Al Hirschfeld

“For everyone who yearns to know the real Hollywood in its glory days, this book about the best screenwriting couple in the business is the book to read and cherish.”—David Brown

“[A]n affectionate, respectful bio. . . . Whoever said writers don't get no respect hasn't yet read this book.”—Hollywood Reporter

“For those who wonder how screenwriting teams, as well as married folks, stay happily together, The Real Nick and Nora, a 'dual biography' of screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, is an entertaining read.”—Daily Variety

“In writing The Real Nick and Nora about the Hacketts and their golden era on stage and screen, Mr. Goodrich has done a genuine service to American theatre and film history.”—Vineyard Gazette

“The Real Nick and Nora is a story about two people who embodied the American work ethic and the satisfactions of a close and enduring marriage. Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett may not be as famous as many of their friends, but who needs instant name recognition when life has been a banquet of love, friendship, and accomplishment?”—Curtain Up

Product Description

Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett wrote the screenplays for some of America’s most treasured movies, including It’s a Wonderful Life, The Thin Man, Easter Parade, Father of the Bride, Naughty Marietta, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Legendary films, indeed, but writing both the play and screenplay for The Diary of Anne Frank was their crowning achievement.

Controlled chaos best describes their writing method. They discussed a scene at length, sometimes acting it out. Afterwards, they each wrote a draft, which they exchanged. “Then,” Frances said, “began ‘free criticism’—which sometimes erupted into screaming matches.” Noisy and contentious, the method worked splendidly.

Enormously successful and remarkably prolific, Goodrich and Hackett began their thirty-four-year collaboration in 1928. Married after the first of their five plays became a hit, they were in many ways an unlikely pair. Frances, the privileged daughter of well-to-do parents, graduated from Vassar, then played minor parts on Broadway. Albert’s mother put him on stage at age five, when his father died, to help pay the bills, and he became a highly paid comedian.

The Hacketts were known for their wit and high spirits and the pleasure of their Bel Air dinner parties. They waged memorable battles with their powerful bosses and were key activists in the stressful creation of the Screen Writers Guild. Once they had created Nick and Nora Charles, The Thin Man’s bright, charming, sophisticated lead couple, played memorably by William Powell and Myrna Loy, many people saw a strong resemblance, and the Hacketts acknowledged that they “put themselves into” Nick and Nora.

The Real Nick and Nora is a dazzling assemblage of anecdotes featuring some of the most talented writers and the brightest lights of American stage and screen. The work was arduous, the parties luminous. On any given night the guests singing and acting out scripts at a party might include F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sheilah Graham, S. J. Perelman, Oscar Levant, Ogden Nash, Judy Garland, Abe Burrows, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Pat O’Brien, Dick Powell and June Allyson, Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, James Cagney, and Dorothy Parker.

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Product Details

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press; 1st edition (October 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0809326027
ISBN-13: 978-0809326020
Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,730,547 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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First Sentence:
She was born on December 21, 1890, in Belleville, New Jersey, then a pretty village on the Passaic River, where, her mother wrote, "sturgeon leapt and lawns ran down to shining waters." Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
lawn child

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Otto Frank, Little Compton, Leah Salisbury, Los Angeles, Lillian Hellman, Hunt Stromberg, Van Dyke, Albert Hackett, Bel Air, Sid Perelman, Screen Writers Guild, Father of the Bride, Naughty Marietta, Van Daan, Dorothy Parker, Garden of Allah, United States, Easter Parade, Judy Garland, Kermit Bloomgarden, Rose Marie, Seven Brides, Frances Goodrich, Scott Fitzgerald

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 100 books:

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett on 9 pages
The Garden of Allah by Sheilah Graham on 5 pages
Easter Parade by Irving Berlin on 4 pages
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank on page 205, page 220, and Back Matter
Anne Frank (First Books - Biographies) by Rachel Epstein in Front Matter, page 179, and page 180

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nutley NJ's most famous writer, March 27, 2005

By	A. Buccino (Nutley, NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In ''The Real Nick and Nora - Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Writers of Stage and Screen Classics,'' author and Frances' nephew David L. Goodrich puts together a comprehensive and delightful portrait of his aunt and her husband and writing partner Albert Hackett.

The first play Frances and Albert worked on was something she had struggled on for a while and brought him in to finish off. A few years later, that play, ''Up Pops The Devil,'' was the first play produced by the Nutley Little Theatre on Nov. 23, 1934.

"The Real Nick and Nora" is filled with references to Nutley, N.J., and Frances' Nutley Avenue home. One photo in the front of the book shows ''Frances, in her teens, in the Nutley house - as usual, with a book.''

Born in Belleville, the Goodrich family moved to Nutley when she was two years old. She attended private school while she lived in town, then went Passaic Collegiate School, and then on to Vasser.

After graduating in 1912, Frances went into the theatre. While working in the theater in Northampton, Mass., Frances met actor William Powell - who later turned up in the Thin Man films.

Well, a lot happens to Frances between college graduation and writing screenplays in Hollywood for the Thin Man films, and many others.

Author David Goodrich takes his time developing the cross-relations and early kindnesses that led to life-long friendships with, among others, James Cagney. (Albert Hackett gave the young actor a ride in Hollywood - rather than leave him to wait for a bus.)

Frances met Bob Ames and married him in the Nutley Avenue house in 1917. That lasted six years. She married again, and though the wedding made the social pages, it didn't last.

It was with Albert Hackett, an actor and writer, that Frances life clicked for the best. The pair wrote plays, got married, and went to the new world of Hollywood to write the words for actors to say in the 'Talkies'.

The Hacketts wrote screenplays and plays for the next 30 years. They are best known for their work on the three Thin Man films staring Myrna Loy and William Powell.

The Hacketts, as Goodrich calls them, were the epitome of Nick and Nora. Frances had the refined taste for the good life and had grown up in Nutley with attending servants. Albert was the wise-cracking uncle every one would hang around at parties.

While writing the screenplays in their Hollywood studio office, passersby would hear the pair screaming and yelling at each other. Then the Hacketts would break for lunch and be as civil and chatty to each other as possible while away from their keyboard.

At the 'writers' table' at MGM and in Hollywood's Golden Age, they forged friendships with Ogden Nash, Dashiell Hammett, Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald and many others.

Later, when the Hacketts were well known, they were instrumental in establishing the Screen Writers Guild - to ensure fair treatment of writers in Hollywood. They stood up to the bigwigs, including Louis B. Mayer.

And the pair worked on Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" but it wasn't a pleasant experience for even the seasoned Hollywood screenwriters.

The Hacketts' crowning achievement, and most-draining writing effort, was their work as playwrights on "The Diary of Anne Frank." For that work they won the Pulitzer Prize.

Frances, who never had any children, thought of Anne as hers. Albert predicted rightly, that whenever Frances was called upon to speak about the play, it would cause her to cry.

The exhaustive 300-plus pages of ''The Real Nick and Nora'' covers a pair of long, full lives, Frances died at 94, and Albert, ten years her junior, lived to be 95.

The Hacketts were such nice people, they often seemed out of place in the wilds of Hollywood in the 30s and 40s. Their kindness was often taken advantage of, but they were such nice people, who wouldn't want to be their friend?

The Hacketts certainly deserve the fine treatment in this comprehensive biography. They would be proud of the fine job their nephew did.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Love Movies? Must Read, January 31, 2002

By	Chris Havens (NY, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Real Nick and Nora: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Writers of Stage and Screen Classics (Hardcover)

One of the finest books on Hollywood in recent years. Through the biographical prism of one of the most engaging, accomplished and loved couples in American screen and stage writing history, Goodrich captures the excitement and tears of movie production. A must read for movie lovers, the stage struck, aspiring writers, lovers of the Thin Man series, It's a Wonderful Life, Anne Frankf and mid-century cultural studies.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Better than the "movies", April 22, 2009

By	mlouise "ex-chef" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

The "Real Nick and Nora" are every bit as entertaining as their creation. A fascinating time in American films and theatre...all the players are here...a great and informative read. A book written with fondness not fawning.

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