THE STUDIO by John Gregory Dunne

Finished Sa 8/10/19

This is a trade paperback that I have apparently not read, and there is no note as to when I bought it. When I watched the latest version of,  'A STAR IS BORN',  I was surprised to learn that John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion wrote the 1976 version with Barbra Streisand and Kris, and just by accident I noticed the book on the shelf.

In 1967 Dunne was given permission to study all of the workings of the 20th Century Fox film and television studios. Three 'big' films were being produced during this time period; THE BOSTON STRANGLER, PLANET OF THE APES, and DR. DOLITTLE.

Richard Zanuck, the son of Daryl Zanuck, is running the studio. Fox had been around since the late nineteenth century and largely in the hands of the Zanucks.

This period was at the end of the idea that studios would hire many young actors, keep them under contract, teach them the craft of acting, and then use them exclusively in the studio's productions.

They would be paid $250 a week or about $2000 in today's money.

If a 'student' was in a hit show he or she would be asked to make paid appearances. They could be paid many thousands of dollars, but the studio had the right keep this money. However, if the show was a really big hit, the 'student's' lawyers would have more leverage to renegotiate.

Because 'THE SOUND OF MUSIC' did so well at opening in Minneapolis, so the three 1967 pictures opened there.

'DR. DOLITTLE' opening and several scenes and songs were cut before the grand opening in Los Angeles. However, at the Minneapolis opening the film's title was not released to the audience. The people just went in 'cold' to see a new release. This hurt 'DOLITTLE' because this kept out the younger audience.

There are a lot of behind the scenes anecdotes about the film making process and how much input the bosses and owners really had.

That was my biggest takeaway. Old, rich, white men really decided what was going to be made.

From the book's page at amazon:

" For one year Dunne went everywhere there was to go and talked to everyone worth talking to within the studio. He tracked every step of the creation of pictures like "Dr. Dolittle," "Planet of the Apes," and "The Boston Strangler." The result is a work of reportage that, thirty years later, may still be our most minutely observed and therefore most uproariously funny portrait of the motion picture business."

 The book is obviously dated, and I wonder what the inner workings are like today.  It's a slim book and I read it in a couple of days.