A BIOGRAPHY THAT PARTS THE CURTAIN ON THE TRUE STORY BEHIND HOLLYWOOD'S
ORIGINAL MOVIE MOGUL Sam Goldwyn's career spanned almost the entire
history of Hollywood. He made his first film, The Squaw Man, in 1913,
and he died in 1974 at the age of ninety-one. In the many years between,
he produced an enormous number of films--including such classics as
Wuthering Heights, Street Scene, Arrowsmith, Dodsworth, The Little
Foxes, and The Best Years of Our Lives--and worked with many
luminaries--Gary Cooper, Ronald Colman, Laurence Olivier, George
Balanchine, Lillian Hellman, Howard Hawks, John Ford, Eddie Cantor,
Busby Berkeley, Danny Kaye, Merle Oberon, and Bob Hope among them. When
Samuel Goldfisch was born in the Warsaw ghetto, he was penniless; when
Sam Goldwyn died in Los Angeles, he was worth an estimated $19 million.
The Search for Sam Goldwyn locates the real Sam Goldwyn and shatters the
"hostile conspiracy of silence" that protected his legend. In writing
Goldwyn's story, Carol Easton has given us a fine examination of "the
civilization known as Hollywood" and how Goldwyn himself shaped that
culture. CAROL EASTON, Venice, California, has published the biographies
Straight Ahead: The Story of Stan Kenton; Jacqueline du Pre: A Life; and
No Intermissions: The Life of Agnes de Mille, a New York Times Notable
Book of 1996.