Ben Hecht called him ‘White Fang, ‘ and director Charles Vidor took him to court for verbal abuse. The image of Harry Cohn as vulgarian is such a part of Hollywood lore that it is hard to believe there were other Harry Cohns: the only studio president who was also head of production; the ex-song plugger who scrutinized scripts and grilled writers at story conferences; a man who could see actresses as either ‘broads’ or goddesses. Drawing on personal interviews as well as previously unstudied source material (conference notes, memos, and especially the teletypes between Harry and his brother, Jack), Bernard Dick offers a radically different portrait of the man who ran Columbia Pictures—and who ‘had to be boss’—from 1932 to 1958.
Table of Content
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Two Persons in One God
2. From Yorkville to Broadway
3. From Broadway to Hollywood
4. The Patriarch
5. The Boss
6. Capra Cohn
7. Harry’s Three P’s
8. Harry and the Production Code
9. Harry’s Hierarchy
10. Death and Transfiguration
Appendix A: Eulogy for Harry Cohn, by Clifford Odets
Appendix B: The Columbia Empire on the Eve of Harry Cohn’s Death
About the author
Bernard F. Dick is professor emeritus of communications and English at Fairleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck campus). He holds a doctorate in classics from Fordham University and is the author of numerous film books including Anatomy of Film, Hal Wallis, and That Was Entertainment.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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