The Mark Hellinger Story: A Biography of Broadway and Hollywood

by Jim Bishop

Mark Hellinger, beloved newspaperman, whose Broadway column was read daily by 22,000,000 people, and whose years as a Hollywood producer were marked by such outstanding successes as "High Sierra," "The Killers," and "Naked City," died in 1947 in his forty-fifth year. In this book, Jim Bishop, who was his secretary, takes us behind the scenes to live again the life of a man who "went everywhere, saw everything, and did everything — without exultation or remorse."

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Film

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

James Alonzo "Jim" Bishop (November 21, 1907 – July 26, 1987) was an American journalist and author.
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, he dropped out of school after eighth grade. In 1923, he studied typing, shorthand and bookkeeping, and in 1929 began work as a copy boy at the New York Daily News. In 1930, he got a job as a cub reporter at New York Daily Mirror, where he worked until 1943, when he joined Collier's Magazine. He remained until 1945.
His plans to write for his friend and mentor, Hollywood producer Mark Hellinger, ended with Hellinger's death in 1947. Bishop wrote a biography of Hellinger in 1952. From 1946 to 1948, he was executive editor of Liberty magazine, then became director of the literary department at the Music Corporation of America until 1951. He was then founding editor of Gold Medal Books (the juvenile division of Fawcett Publications) until 1953. In the 1950s, Bishop would do his writing at the Jersey Shore in Sea Bright, New Jersey, going back to his home in Teaneck, New Jersey on weekends to see his wife and children.[1] In 1957, he started his column, "Jim Bishop: Reporter" with King Features Syndicate, which continued until 1983. It also landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents.
The remainder of his career was spent writing biographical books about notable figures, and Christian-themed books. His book The Day Lincoln Was Shot was published in 1955, and became an instant best-seller. Bishop also wrote The Day Christ Died, The Day Christ Was Born, and The Day Kennedy Was Shot. Perhaps his most critically acclaimed book was FDR's Last Year: April 1944-April 1945, which brought to public awareness the secrecy that surrounded President Franklin D. Roosevelt's declining health during World War II.
The Day Lincoln Was Shot was dramatized on TV twice, first as a 1956 live special starring Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln and shown on the Ford Star Jubilee anthology series, and again as a 1998 made-for-television film starring Lance Henriksen as Lincoln. The Day Christ Died was made into a television film in 1980, starring Chris Sarandon as Jesus Christ, and Keith Michell as Pontius Pilate.

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good biography makes you feel as if you personally know its subject when you're finished, and that's exactly what this book did. It was written by Jim Bishop, who was Mark Hellinger's copy boy and later his secretary.

Hellinger was born in New York in 1903. Much to his father's dismay, who wanted him to follow in his footsteps by practicing law and marrying a nice Jewish girl, Mark's sole ambition in life was to become a writer. He eventually became one of the most widely read newspaper columnists in America, along with his close friend Walter Winchell. Prohibition was Hellinger's time and Broadway was his milieu. He knew everybody, and loved everybody. He wanted everybody to love him, too, but hid it under layers of gruffness and humor. He spent money as fast as he earned it. He was a drinker and a gambler who counted many gangsters among his friends. He dressed like an underworld character and married Gladys Glad, a Ziegfeld Girl and one of the most beautiful blondes in a country full of beautiful blondes.

After Prohibition, Hellinger slowly gravitated to Hollywood. When he moved to Los Angeles permanently, he dropped his daily column but kept his full-page Sunday column, and enjoyed a wide readership until his death of coronary thrombosis in 1947 at the age of 44.

His work in Hollywood is what he's best remembered for today. At Warner Bros. he worked frequently with director Raoul Walsh, on pictures like The Roaring Twenties (1939), They Drive by Night (1940), and High Sierra (1941). Hellinger really made his mark when he was sole producer. He bought the rights to Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers," and turned it into a film. The Killers (1946) was Burt Lancaster's first film. Hellinger "discovered" Lancaster, and made another film with him, the prison drama Brute Force (1947), before producing one of the first and most important police procedural films, The Naked City, which was released in 1948. He consider The Naked City his best film, and it's certainly his most personal. In addition to being a mystery, it's a love letter to New York that Hellinger narrated himself. It was the first film to be shot entirely on location (with hidden cameras for the street scenes).

This book is mostly episodic anecdotes, and it's a great read.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe you've never heard of him, but in the 1930s and 40s, Mark Hellinger was known from coast to coast as a famous newspaper columnist. After climbing his way to the top of his game in the newspaper business, Hellinger made the audacious move to become a movie producer in Hollywood, delivering such film noir masterpieces as The Killers, Criss Cross and more. In his all-too-brief 44 years, Hellinger did more than most people do with twice as many years. Thanks to Eddie Muller for the recommendation.