•A Miraculous Movie
A Miraculous Movie
by: Stephen Schochet
It was originally called The Big Heart. Daryl Zanuck the shrewd head of Twentieth Century Fox couldn't buy the image of Santa Claus in a court room. But like so many ventures Miracle On 34th Street (1947) came about because of passion, in this case that of Director George Seaton who had gone to New York on his own and made arrangements with the real Mr. Macy and Mr. Gimbel to film inside their department stores. Impressed by Seaton's commitment Zanuck...
•Bob Hope Stories
Bob Hope Stories
by: Stephen Schochet
Once when he was a little boy in England, Leslie Hope (He later renamed himself Bob after a race car driver he idolized) wanted to pick an apple off a tree. Symbolic of his career, he didn't want just any apple but the highest one possible. He lost his balance, fell and permanently changed the shape of his nose.
His big break in Hollywood was getting the part Jack Benny turned down in the Paramount film "The Big Broadcast Of 1938". The director...
•Bob Hope Wasn't The Only One Who Used Idiot Cards
Bob Hope Wasn't The Only One Who Used Idiot Cards
by: Stephen Schochet
When Bob Hope moved into television, he lost the opportunity to hold his script in his hand , something he had gotten used to working in radio. The presentation would look too stiff to his audience. He tried to memorize his monologues, but that proved to be too cumbersome of a task and it took away from his golf game. The solution was cue cards, or idiot cards as they are known in the industry. This worked well for the...
•Can I Have Your Autograph?
Can I Have Your Autograph?
by: Stephen Schochet
Being a celebrity means dealing with fan demands for autographs, ranging from polite and appropriate to rude and overbearing. One time Katherine Hepburn was performing on Broadway and tried to exit backstage through a crowd of jostling autograph hounds. Bodyguards helped her to her limo and once safely inside the very private star rolled down the window and shouted," Run em down! We'll clean up the blood later!" The crowd scattered and the...
•Do You Know Who I Am?
Do You Know Who I Am?
by: Stephen Schochet
One dilemma that the super famous face is balancing the needs of privacy and recognition. One time in New York an unnoticed Marilyn Monroe was walking down Madison Avenue accompanied by Eli Wallach. " My God, don't these people know who you are?" Wallach asked her. Marilyn, whose application of make-up took nearly as long Boris Karloff''s Frankenstein Monster, grinned at him. "I'm only recognized when I want to be. Watch this." She began to swing...
•Drunks On The Set
Drunks On The Set
by: Stephen Schochet
As long as actors stay sober on the set, movie studios will generally put up with their off screen behavior. Colin Farell often showed up at six in the morning to work on Swat (2003) so hung over from an all night bender that his bodyguards would carry the nearly unconscious Irishman into his trailer. His co-star Sam Jackson was constantly amazed that the young actor was on time, knew all his lines and was totally professional.
In earlier days...
•Hollywood Horse Stories
Hollywood Horse Stories by Stephen SchochetA recent Hollywood rumor was that Tobey Maguire injured his back during the making of Sea Biscuit doing horseback riding scenes, making him unable to star in the sequel to Spider-Man. Although it turned out to be false, he rode a mechanical horse in the film, many actors have had close calls working with horses. One example was Michael Caine, whose first movie Zulu (1964) required him to ride a horse after a hunting expedition, which after several...
•Hollywood Humor: Cary Grant's Muffins
Hollywood Humor: Cary Grant's Muffins by Stephen Schochet In 1853 in Saratoga Springs, New York, American Indian Chef George Crum was preparing his specialty French fried potatoes in the upscale resort he was working at, when he received word that one of the patrons complained they were cut too thick. An annoyed Crum decided to slice the delicacy razor thin to teach the customer a lesson. To his surprise the guest loved it, and that's how we got potato chips. Nearly one hundred years later...
•How We Got Movie Stars
How We Got Movie Stars by Stephen Schochet Early movies had no stories, no stars and no sound. A popular movie in the 1890's was two girls getting undressed by a lake. Right before their last garments came off, a train came by to block your view. In the next scene the two girls were swimming in the lake. The film was a hit throughout the country. One old farmer went and saw this same movie for weeks and weeks. One day the theater manager came down and said," Say old timer. Every day we show...
•I'm Just The Writer
I'm Just The Writer
by: Stephen Schochet
Writers are often are greatly surprised or disappointed by how their work is changed when it is adapted for the big screen. When Irwin Shaw's World War II novel The Young Lions was shot in Paris in 1958, the Nazi character was played by Marlon Brando. Ever the method actor, Brando provoked an uproar by strutting around town in his SS uniform, even going into restaurants to dine. The thirty three year old star was unsure if the Parisians ripping his...
•In Hollywood As In Life You Never Reach The Top
In Hollywood As In Life You Never Reach The Top by Stephen SchochetWhen Jim Carey was paid $20,000,000 for The Cable Guy, a record breaking salary for a movie star, John Travolta topped him by asking for $20,000,001 for the movie Michael and got it. But there is always someone who makes more than you. John Travolta was invited to Robin William's birthday party in Northern California. He arrived there in his Lear Jet and was greeted by a cigar smoking Steven Spielberg, who had suggested he...
•Is Johnny Depp Like Nelson Mandela?
Is Johnny Depp Like Nelson Mandela? by Stephen SchochetTo the average person the life of a television star seems like a glamorous occupation. But many actors signed to long term contracts feel more imprisoned than privileged. Johnny Depp was so miserable on 21 Jump Street (1987-1992) he actually tried to get fired, pulling stunts like lighting his underwear on fire on the set. Speaking years later about finally getting off the detective show, he said," I was like Mandela, man." A similar...
•It's A Wonderful Movie
It's A Wonderful Movie
by: Stephen Schochet
It's A Wonderful Life (1946) began as a short story called "The Greatest Gift". Writer Philip Van Doren Stern was unable to sell it to a publisher, so he sent the tale out as a long Christmas card to friends. His agent subsequently sold the fable to RKO pictures, where it went through several transformations. In one version a losing political candidate contemplated suicide, only to have an angel convince him to stick around and do good works....
•John Wayne Took The Good With The Bad
John Wayne Took The Good With The Bad by Stephen SchochetFor the last twenty years of his life, John Wayne often had a profound effect on people that crossed his path. Meeting him in person for some was like meeting Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. Yet the Duke usually stayed humble and almost always kept his sense of humor. One time he was out with a group of friends who all were all eating and drinking heavily. The Duke excused himself to go to the men's room and when he came back his...
•Kate Hepburn Stories
Kate Hepburn Stories by Stephen SchochetKatherine Hepburn came to Los Angeles in 1932 and like Calista Flockart, had a theater person's snobbish view towards Hollywood. In person, she impressed no one with her looks and style, and executive David O. Selznick worried about her "horse face". She finished her first film, Bill Of Divorcement with John Barrymore and told him," Thank God we're finished. I never want to act with you again". The Great Man replied," My dear girl. I wasn't aware that...
•Low Budget Horror Stories
Low Budget Horror Stories by Stephen SchochetFilmmakers have found the horror genre to be a potentially low budget, high profit way of breaking into the business. Standing in a long line at a hardware store, Tobe Hooper imagined taking a chainsaw off the wall and cutting his way to the front, inspiring his creation of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). George Romero found a local butcher in Pittsburgh to finance and provide blood and guts for his zombie thriller Night Of The Living Dead...
•Marriage, Hollywood Style
Marriage, Hollywood Style by Stephen SchochetBritney Spears' rapid walk down the aisle and subsequent annulment continued a long line of wild marriages in Tinseltown. The legendary union that began it all was between Silent Film Icons Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Beneath the glamorous veneer was a troubled relationship. The agile and athletic Fairbank's idea of a good time was walking fifty yards on his hands on the beach. Or having pool party contests to see who could hold their...
•Masters Of Disguise
Masters Of Disguise
by: Stephen Schochet
Gene Hackman once lamented that the worst thing about becoming a famous actor is that you lose the ability to observe people without being noticed yourself. But some performers are so good at disguises that notoriety is no obstacle. A case in point was John Barrymore trying to buy his first house in Beverly Hills in 1926. Frustrated by rising real estate prices due to stars like Tom Mix and Charlie Chaplin moving into the neighborhood, Barrymore...
•Mrs. Disney
Mrs. Disney
by: Stephen Schochet
Warren Beatty once observed," That if you get married in Hollywood, you should always do it before noon. That way if it doesn't work out, you don't kill your evening." But in 1925 Walt Disney, still getting his feet wet in Tinseltown was not interested in pampered starlets. His eye was on a employee of his named Lillian Bounds, originally from Lewiston, Idaho who worked for him as ink paint girl making fifteen dollars a week. She reminded him of the hard...
•Perseverance Lead To Walt Disney's Greatest Success!
Perseverance Lead To Walt Disney's Greatest Success!
by: Stephen Schochet
When you are in business every person you hire gets paid before you do and it may take years, even decades before you see a payoff. That was certainly the case with Walt Disney who spent his whole working career dealing with tough-minded bankers, demanding stockholders and difficult employees, not that Walt himself was always a ball of sunshine. But through his travails when Disney had a dream he understood the...
•Pretty Women Have Stayed At The Beverly Wilshire
Pretty Women Have Stayed At The Beverly Wilshire
by: Stephen Schochet
Since it was built in 1929, The Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel has attracted rich and famous guests from around the world. To the general public the hotel is most famous for being used in the 1990 movie Pretty Woman. They have disappointed thousands of people by turning down requests from around the world who would like to stay in the same suite that Julia Roberts and Richard Gere had in the movie because it does not...
•Sammy Davis Junior Found Religion
Sammy Davis Junior Found Religion by Stephen SchochetIn 1954, Sammy Davis Jr. converted to Judaism, which led to him being the subject of several anecdotes. One time he boarded a bus in the deep, segregated south. "Git to the back of the bus", said the rude driver."But I'm Jewish", protested the entertainer. "Then get off." Another time Sammy was filming Porgy And Bess(1959) when he announced he would not work on Yom Kippur. Word got back from the set to Porgy's frugal producer Sam Goldwyn,...
•Shirley Temple Stories
Shirley Temple Stories
by: Stephen Schochet
When the Twentieth Century Pictures company had their expensive merger with the Fox Film Corporation in 1935, studio head Daryl Zanuck was depending on two contract stars to pull the new company through its money troubles. Tragedy struck the same year when Will Rogers died in a plane crash in Alaska. Zanuck turned his financial burden on the shoulders of six year old Shirley Temple (she was actually seven but wouldn't find that out till she was...
•Star Maps
Star Maps by Stephen SchochetSince movie stars have moved into the big mansions of Beverly Hills and Bel-Air, vendors have sold maps of their homes with varying accuracy. Although most stars resent unwanted intrusions of fans, many take it with good humor. Sitting in his swimming pool, Oliver Hardy would welcome fans who climbed over his fence. "Hey, How about a dip?" In the earliest days, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks would drive up next to people with star maps and ask them for...
•Strange Encounters With Hollywood Legends
Strange Encounters With Hollywood Legends
by: Stephen Schochet
Meeting famous people is often a surreal experience for both parties. In 1956 when Elvis Presley arrived in Hollywood he and his entourage stayed at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. One day he got into the elevator. "What floor?" asked the operator. "Tenth please." The operator looked at him with disdain. "You can't go up to the tenth floor. Elvis is staying there. No one is allowed there." A bemused Presley said," I...
•Tales Of A Hollywood Tour Guide
Tales Of A Hollywood Tour Guide
by: Stephen Schochet
Author/Narrator Stephen Schochet researched Hollywood and Disney stories and lore for 10 years while giving tours of Hollywood. He had the unique idea the stories could be told anywhere and that's what led him to create the critically acclaimed audiobooks "Fascinating Walt Disney" and "Tales Of Hollywood". Here he shares some stories that happened while he was actually giving tours:
On one tour I pointed out the Fox Plaza, the building...
•Tales Of Hollywood And Politics
Tales Of Hollywood And Politics
by: Stephen Schochet
Arnold Schwarzenegger's surprise announcement that he was seeking the California Governorship brought to mind the many times Hollywood figures have been involved in politics. Here are some related anecdotes:
When actors first came to Hollywood there were signs put up in front of hotels and apartments that said no dogs or actors allowed, with the performers ruefully complaining about not getting top billing. The insecurity of the...
•Tales Of The Broke And Famous
Tales Of The Broke And Famous by Stephen Schochet"Beverly Hills is a place where you spend a lot of money you don't have to impress a lot of people you don't like!"- - Anonymous Hollywood Producer If the rumors are true that Michael Jackson's lavish life style has left him broke, he would not be the first famous celebrity in financial straights. John Wayne found himself in hock after 150 movies. Three wives, seven children, investing his own money in the box office troubled The Alamo (1960)...
•Tales Of The Warner Brothers
Tales Of The Warner Brothers
by: Stephen Schochet
The four Warner Brothers, which included the womanizing Jack, the conservative Harry, the quiet Albert and the visionary Sam, had risen from obscurity with The Jazz Singer (1927) the first famous and financially successful talking movie ever made. Tragically, Sam Warner, the real brains behind the whole project, died of a brain tumor two days before The Jazz Singer's debut. Jack was thrilled by the film's success, but crushed by his...
•Ten Percent Of Jimmy Stewart
Ten Percent Of Jimmy Stewart
by: Stephen Schochet
Jimmy Stewart was seen one night in 1933 in New York performing on stage as a female impersonator by an MGM talent scout. He was signed to a contract to come to California to work for the prestigious studio. Studio Head Louis B. Mayer expressed doubt when he first saw him,"He's so skinny! A beanpole." Efforts were made to put weight on him, the 133 pound actor was constantly sharing butterfingers candy bars with Ann Miller which seemed to...
•The Ironies Of MASH
The Ironies Of MASH
by: Stephen Schochet
The TV show MASH ran for 11 years taking nearly every opportunity to bash the US involvement with the Korean War, which was actually an allegory for Vietnam. Many episodes showed a moral relativism between the US side and the communists, the doctors(with the exception of Frank Burns) made no distinction between the wounded and often talked about declaring the war a tie so they could go home.
The MASH set sometimes was a tense place to work,...
•The Lessons Walt Disney Learned Still Apply Today
The Lessons Walt Disney Learned Still Apply Today
by: Stephen Schochet
Contrary to popular belief, Walt Disney spent more time as a struggler than a success. Described at a various times as a visionary and a genius there were actually many occasions he could not foresee the results of his ideas, and they nearly brought him to financial ruin. Yet the lessons he learned through the years are useful and timeless.
1) Ownership is key: Early in his career, Walt created a character on behalf of...
•The Warner Brothers Make Noise
The Warner Brothers Make Noise
by: Stephen Schochet
Hollywood was an attractive place for the early filmmakers to settle, full of good weather, orange and lemon trees. For producers who owed money on borrowed camera equipment if a creditor came after them, they could hide among the trees. It was a hard business full of causalities and took a pirate's mentality to survive. Most of the studio heads were from poor backgrounds, with limited English skills and never forgot their childhood or a...
•Titanic Anecdotes
Titanic Anecdotes
by: Stephen Schochet
Studio executives in High Concept Hollywood have very short attention spans. When pitching a film idea, many believe if you can't do it in one sentence it is an unmarketable product. For example Planet Of the Apes (1968) starring Charlton Heston was pitched by producer Arthur Jacobs as "Moses Talks To Monkeys". Passenger 57( 1992) with Wesley Snipes was known as "Diehard On a Plane." Director James Cameron, despite a strong track record with films like...
•Vincent Price's Ultimate Horror!
Vincent Price's Ultimate Horror! by Stephen Schochet Vincent Price was always of two minds about his horror movie career. On the one hand it was a way for an actor to age and keep working. But the gourmet cook and art collector often felt that these films were beneath him. Always looking for extra publicity the Saint Louis born thespian pulled many stunts to get attention for his films. One time he went to the Hollywood Wax museum and disguised himself as his wax dummy likeness. Standing...
•Walt Disney Is Coming To Town
Walt Disney Is Coming To Town
by: Stephen Schochet
In 1923, twenty-one-year-old Walt Disney arrived in Los Angeles fresh from the disappointment of his first cartoon studio going bankrupt in Kansas City. He went to see his twenty-nine-year-old brother Roy in the Veteran's Hospital were he was recovering from tuberculosis. Roy, a former bank teller and navy man was concerned about his brother's skinniness. "Hey kid, haven't you been eating? I'm supposed to be the sick one. So now that you're...
•Walt Disney Knew How To Get The Word Out
Walt Disney Knew How To Get The Word Out by Stephen SchochetYou have permission to publish this article electronicallywith a link or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.Walt Disney Knew How To Get The Word OutBy Stephen Schochetorgofhlly@aol.comCOPYRIGHT: ©2004 by Hollywood Stories. All rights reservedYou need to get the word out about your products but your economic resources are limited. That was often the...
•Walt Disney's Failures Could Inspire Entrepreneurs
Walt Disney's Failures Could Inspire Entrepreneurs
by: Stephen Schochet
You are a struggling entrepreneur and sometimes it feels like you are pushing a 3 ton boulder up a steep hill. Costs keep mounting and you are considering giving up. Well before you do, check out these 10 setbacks that Walt Disney had, some were financial nightmares that put him millions of dollars in the red:
1) Walt formed his first animation company in Kansas City in 1921. He made a deal with a distribution company...
•Walt Disney's Horror Movie
Walt Disney's Horror Movie
by: Stephen Schochet
In 1934, when Walt Disney called for a meeting among his artists, a rumor had spread that he was going to shut the studio down and they would all be left unemployed during the great depression. Instead he personally told them in his own spellbinding way the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which he intended to make into his first feature length film. It was a risk unlike any other he had taken before. The film would cost a million...
•Walt Disney's Psychedelic Movie
Walt Disney's Psychedelic Movie by Stephen SchochetChasen's restaurant in old Hollywood was a legendary hangout were movie stars expected to dine in peaceful private booths on barbecued chili without putting up with celebrity gawkers. There were occasional breaks in the quiet. Jimmy Stewart's bachelor party was thrown there complete with midgets clad only in diapers jumping out of cakes. Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre got drunk one night and stole the restaurant's safe, carrying it out onto...
•When Stars Collide
When Stars Collide
by: Stephen Schochet
During the silent era it was thought a waste of money to make a movie with more than one star. Personalities like Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton were considered potent enough box office on their own. But with dwindling attendance during the great depression MGM decided to feature Hollywood's first all star ensemble cast in Grand Hotel (1932) starring the mammoth egos of Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore and Greta Garbo. The...
•Who Lives In The Star Wars Galaxy?
Who Lives In The Star Wars Galaxy?
by: Stephen Schochet
It's hard to say where old Hollywood ended and new Hollywood began. People in the industry don't think of themselves as making history, they are just going to work. But the day in 1967 that Jack Warner cleaned out his desk at Warner Bros. studio, George Lucas and Frances Ford Coppola arrived on the lot.
The two young filmmakers were very different in demeanor. Coppola a legend at UCLA film school was 27, a loud boisterous mixture of...
•Wild Casting
Wild Casting by Stephen SchochetCan you imagine Doris Day as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967)? That's who producer Joseph E. Levine wanted before Miss Day turned it down thinking the part in bad taste, and it went to Anne Bancroft. How about James Cagney as Robin Hood in 1938? A contract dispute caused Warner Bros. to drop him and hire Errol Flynn instead. Do you know that Margaret Mitchell wanted Groucho Marx to play Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind (1939)? But perhaps the wildest...
•Wild, Wild Westerns
Wild, Wild Westerns by Stephen SchochetIn the early days of Hollywood, for studios like Universal Westerns were the easiest films to make. They required very few props and made use of the wide-open spaces available in the area. Even the smallest studio, sometimes an empty space between two buildings known as a lot, could easily film outside. It was a cheap and effective way to involve audiences in wild chase scenes involving pure heroes like the white clad Tom Mix going after dastardly...
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