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Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince
Mr. Schulberg was raised in the Hollywood of the 1920s as the privileged son of a pioneer studio mogul. As a book on the early days of the movies in Hollywood--their triumphs and fiascos, their scoundrels and heroes--his candid memoir is hard to beat. A fascinating and significant contribution to American social history. --Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
501 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
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308 people want to read
About the author
Budd Schulberg
75 books103 followersBudd Schulberg (1914–2009) was a screenwriter, novelist, and journalist who is best remembered for the classic novels What Makes Sammy Run?, The Harder They Fall, and the story On the Waterfront, which he adapted as a novel, play, and an Academy Award–winning film script. Born in New York City, Schulberg grew up in Hollywood, where his father, B. P. Schulberg, was head of production at Paramount, among other studios. Throughout his career, Schulberg worked as a journalist and essayist, often writing about boxing, a lifelong passion. Many of his writings on the sport are collected in Sparring with Hemingway (1995). Other highlights from Schulberg’s nonfiction career include Moving Pictures (1981), an account of his upbringing in Hollywood, and Writers in America (1973), a glimpse of some of the famous novelists he met early in his career. He died in 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 30, 2010
Budd Schulberg tells us what it was like to grow up along with the movie business. Born in 1914, just as his father's career was beginning to blossom, Budd experiences the ups and downs of life among the "elite;" the fluid marriage contracts, the trysts and the toll these take on the families is described from his perspective as a teenager watching his parents' marriage through the filter of youth.
There are sequences in Moving Pictures that detract from the story at hand - one full chapter is devoted to Budd's love for racing pigeons and for boxing and, frankly, it's dull reading. I spent that time wanting him to get back to Paramount, Gary Cooper, and "that Sidney woman." Only if you do other reading about Schulberg do you know that he was a boxing correspondent later in life, so the passages devoted to this sport seem incongruous and unnecessary to those of us who know little about him.
Speaking of "that Sidney woman," it's amazing to me that this book was released while she was still around. Schulberg pulls no punches in his animosity toward the woman he blamed for his parents' problems, and though the book comes out about 50 years after the events it depicts, you can still feel the anger seeping through the pages.
There are sequences in Moving Pictures that detract from the story at hand - one full chapter is devoted to Budd's love for racing pigeons and for boxing and, frankly, it's dull reading. I spent that time wanting him to get back to Paramount, Gary Cooper, and "that Sidney woman." Only if you do other reading about Schulberg do you know that he was a boxing correspondent later in life, so the passages devoted to this sport seem incongruous and unnecessary to those of us who know little about him.
Speaking of "that Sidney woman," it's amazing to me that this book was released while she was still around. Schulberg pulls no punches in his animosity toward the woman he blamed for his parents' problems, and though the book comes out about 50 years after the events it depicts, you can still feel the anger seeping through the pages.
October 27, 2022
Moving Pictures is an absorbing inside look at the early days of the Hollywood movie industry from the perspective of one who literally grew up there in the 1920s and early 1930s. Budd Schulberg was born in New York in 1914, but his father, Ben “B. P.” Schulberg, a movie publicist and scenarist, moved the family to “the Coast” when Budd was a young child. B.P. worked his way up to become a powerful producer at Paramount, and Budd’s mother, Adeline (“Ad”) was a leader of Hollywood society who later became a very successful talent agent.
As a result, Budd was a young “Hollywood prince,” who had virtually unlimited entrée to the studios and developed friendships with many of the early stars, directors, screenwriters, and studio executives. Writing decades later, Budd says, “If I had been allowed the privilege of foresight, I’m not sure I would have chosen the life of a Hollywood prince. But then I accepted it as my inheritance, my destiny, and finally as my responsibility.”
It’s fortunate, especially for movie fans, that he did. He is a perceptive chronicler of those early days in Hollywood and gives readers an inside look (albeit an adolescent’s inside look) at the studios and the industry. He shares numerous entertaining first-hand stories about Hollywood personalities of the era. His stories about two of the stars especially appealed to me: “It Girl” Clara Bow, the sexy star of the silent screen whose career did not survive the transition to sound, and George Bancroft, the dim but handsome leading man whose over-confidence in his own box-office appeal led him to make unwise financial decisions.
Many, many other Hollywood personalities make appearances too—some flattering, some much less so. Schulberg does not mince words about his hatred for actress Sylvia Sidney (who was still living when he wrote the book), whom he blames for the breakup of his parents’ marriage. The strains in his parents’ marriage were a primary focus for him in his adolescent years, and he clearly did not mellow with age when it came to Miss Sidney.
In some respects, the difficulties that his parents faced in holding their marriage together colored Budd’s view of life in Hollywood:
“It came to me at a tender age that the world of the motion picture, depending as it does on personalities and those quicksilver moments of fame and power, is particularly vulnerable to opportunism. Love knots quickly become hate knots, and oaths of personal loyalty, with rare exceptions, are made to be broken and rationalized.”
But although his youth in Hollywood made Budd skeptical about the industry, it didn’t sour him entirely. As he makes clear in Moving Pictures, he enjoyed much of his very privileged life (and privileged it was: his parents built the first house on the beach in Malibu), and he admired quite a few of the people he knew. He ultimately spent much of his career writing for Hollywood, as most of the adults around him as he was growing up assumed he would. His screenplays included 1954’s On the Waterfront, for which he won an Oscar.
I wish Schulberg had written a sequel to this book, picking up his life story after his college years. He was an excellent writer, and from the little I know about his adult life and career, I’d guess that a sequel would be as just as fascinating to read as Moving Pictures is. I have only managed to scratch the surface of the book in this review. It contains a wealth of detail and many insights into growing up with privilege as well as living in the small (“feudal,” he calls it) society of Hollywood. I highly recommend the book.
As a result, Budd was a young “Hollywood prince,” who had virtually unlimited entrée to the studios and developed friendships with many of the early stars, directors, screenwriters, and studio executives. Writing decades later, Budd says, “If I had been allowed the privilege of foresight, I’m not sure I would have chosen the life of a Hollywood prince. But then I accepted it as my inheritance, my destiny, and finally as my responsibility.”
It’s fortunate, especially for movie fans, that he did. He is a perceptive chronicler of those early days in Hollywood and gives readers an inside look (albeit an adolescent’s inside look) at the studios and the industry. He shares numerous entertaining first-hand stories about Hollywood personalities of the era. His stories about two of the stars especially appealed to me: “It Girl” Clara Bow, the sexy star of the silent screen whose career did not survive the transition to sound, and George Bancroft, the dim but handsome leading man whose over-confidence in his own box-office appeal led him to make unwise financial decisions.
Many, many other Hollywood personalities make appearances too—some flattering, some much less so. Schulberg does not mince words about his hatred for actress Sylvia Sidney (who was still living when he wrote the book), whom he blames for the breakup of his parents’ marriage. The strains in his parents’ marriage were a primary focus for him in his adolescent years, and he clearly did not mellow with age when it came to Miss Sidney.
In some respects, the difficulties that his parents faced in holding their marriage together colored Budd’s view of life in Hollywood:
“It came to me at a tender age that the world of the motion picture, depending as it does on personalities and those quicksilver moments of fame and power, is particularly vulnerable to opportunism. Love knots quickly become hate knots, and oaths of personal loyalty, with rare exceptions, are made to be broken and rationalized.”
But although his youth in Hollywood made Budd skeptical about the industry, it didn’t sour him entirely. As he makes clear in Moving Pictures, he enjoyed much of his very privileged life (and privileged it was: his parents built the first house on the beach in Malibu), and he admired quite a few of the people he knew. He ultimately spent much of his career writing for Hollywood, as most of the adults around him as he was growing up assumed he would. His screenplays included 1954’s On the Waterfront, for which he won an Oscar.
I wish Schulberg had written a sequel to this book, picking up his life story after his college years. He was an excellent writer, and from the little I know about his adult life and career, I’d guess that a sequel would be as just as fascinating to read as Moving Pictures is. I have only managed to scratch the surface of the book in this review. It contains a wealth of detail and many insights into growing up with privilege as well as living in the small (“feudal,” he calls it) society of Hollywood. I highly recommend the book.
March 20, 2021
I read this book because Schulberg wrote two of my all time favorite movies (on the Waterfront and A Face in the Crowd) and because I wanted to hear the story of his testimony to the HUAC from his own perspective, but Moving Pictures turned out to be much more than two great movies and a slice of American anti-communism. Schulberg begins his book with the story of his father, who was an important executive in the earliest days of moviemaking. Schulberg tells the dramatic tale of how a group of second generation Jewish immigrants rose from hard scrabble beginnings to invent the movie business. When he was still a child Schulberg met Hollywood legends like Clara Bow Louis B. Mayer and he has interesting stories to tell about them. He was a child of privilege who suffered from a brutal stutter and bullying at school while also enjoying wealth and the opportunity to hobnob with the likes of Frank Capra and Gary Cooper.
It’s a good thing, by the way, that I liked all this early Hollywood stuff, because the book ends long before Elia Kazan comes into the picture, and HUAC remains a nightmare reserved for the future.
As I write this the top review for this book is a tepid three star job where the reviewer complains about the sections of the book dealing with Schulberg raising pigeons and being a fan of boxing, but I was interested in those sections too. As I read them I thought, “Ah, this is why Brando raises pigeons in On the Waterfront” and “Oh, this is where he got the plot for The Harder they Fall.” Plus, I didn’t know anything about raising pigeons and found it to be surprisingly interesting. And boxing was one of the important connections between Schulberg and his father and I don’t know how he could leave boxing out of a book that is largely about that relationship. The father and son’s support for Jewish fighters gives insight into the way ethnic pride could still be manifested even by second and third generation immigrants who had lost their faith. Plus the image of the smoking hot Lupe Velez cheering on her blood-spattered countryman from his corner is good one.
It’s a good thing, by the way, that I liked all this early Hollywood stuff, because the book ends long before Elia Kazan comes into the picture, and HUAC remains a nightmare reserved for the future.
As I write this the top review for this book is a tepid three star job where the reviewer complains about the sections of the book dealing with Schulberg raising pigeons and being a fan of boxing, but I was interested in those sections too. As I read them I thought, “Ah, this is why Brando raises pigeons in On the Waterfront” and “Oh, this is where he got the plot for The Harder they Fall.” Plus, I didn’t know anything about raising pigeons and found it to be surprisingly interesting. And boxing was one of the important connections between Schulberg and his father and I don’t know how he could leave boxing out of a book that is largely about that relationship. The father and son’s support for Jewish fighters gives insight into the way ethnic pride could still be manifested even by second and third generation immigrants who had lost their faith. Plus the image of the smoking hot Lupe Velez cheering on her blood-spattered countryman from his corner is good one.
November 2, 2024
A better title would have been Down And Out In Beverly Hills, but you know...Schulberg's tell-all about growing up right at the beginning of the brave new world of cinema as well as virgin Los Angeles is genuinely stirring in places. I was surprised to read of all the incestuous dealings and power grabs of relatives in the industry, many who grew up together in the Yiddish ghettos of New York.
The book falters when Schulberg rambles on and on about his schooling and school chums, I mean once you've been teased by Clara Bow, do we really want to read about his schoolyard struggles?
The book falters when Schulberg rambles on and on about his schooling and school chums, I mean once you've been teased by Clara Bow, do we really want to read about his schoolyard struggles?
October 14, 2009
Quite a fascinating book, i kept going back to it even when i was supposed to be doing something else. Such a pleasure to read film history/memoirs written by a really fine writer. It is a very long and quite detailed account of Schulberg's childhood, mostly in Hollywood. He seems to have kept detailed diaries. He has lots of anecdotes about Hollywood personalities, some funny, some sad. He knew lots of people and was perfectly aware that most were brownnosing him. His parents were quite fascinating people as well. But the book ends when he goes to college, so if you're waiting to hear why he named names to HUAC, it's not here. It seems mostly accurate, at least from his point of view. I caught a few small errors, though, including the howler that Adela Rogers St. Johns was the ex wife of Al St. John!
July 31, 2012
Totally loved this. It's Schulberg's autobiography but only goes up to the age of about 17. His father, B.P. Schulberg, was a movie mogul (head of production at Paramount during the late 20s/early 30s) and the author would see legendary figures such as Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Josef von Sternberg and many others at work and at play as a matter of routine. A fascinating, insightful, funny and entertaining look at the early days of Hollywood - I didn't want it to end.
December 6, 2014
It was an okay book, but I was not all that impressed by it. I felt that it was 501 pages of a story that could have been written in about 250 pages. It was interesting to read about how movies were made in the 1920's, and to read an insider's point of view, even if the author was a kid at the time, about how talkies changed the movies, and how Hollywood was not living up to the ideals that it espoused on film.
December 20, 2013
Occasionally you come across a memoir that is so engrossing that you never want it to end. This is one of those.
April 15, 2024
This is a highly entertaining account of Budd Schulberg's childhood, ending when he gets on the train to go back East to college. Schulberg's family was one of the founders of the Hollywood dream factory, and he had a front-row seat (albeit from a child's point of view) to the backstage antics and backroom deals of the people who created movies that are still beloved by many today.
Schulberg became a prolific author and screenwriter, notably "On the Waterfront" and "A Face in the Crowd", for which he won the Academy Award for best screenplay. No mention is made of these later accomplishments, however. The entire book is set in the years 1914 to 1932.
For this reason, no mention is made, either, of Schulberg's appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee, in which he named names of supposed Communists working in Hollywood. He doesn't seem to have suffered the blowback that Elia Kazan experienced, apparently because Schulberg's testimony was a response to his being named a Communist by another screenwriter. (Schulberg had been a member of the Communist Party in the late 1930's and early 1940's.)
Overall, this is a very engaging work from a man who went on to live a fascinating life. This shows the reader how that life started, giving us a realistic look into a bygone era of American pop culture.
Schulberg became a prolific author and screenwriter, notably "On the Waterfront" and "A Face in the Crowd", for which he won the Academy Award for best screenplay. No mention is made of these later accomplishments, however. The entire book is set in the years 1914 to 1932.
For this reason, no mention is made, either, of Schulberg's appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee, in which he named names of supposed Communists working in Hollywood. He doesn't seem to have suffered the blowback that Elia Kazan experienced, apparently because Schulberg's testimony was a response to his being named a Communist by another screenwriter. (Schulberg had been a member of the Communist Party in the late 1930's and early 1940's.)
Overall, this is a very engaging work from a man who went on to live a fascinating life. This shows the reader how that life started, giving us a realistic look into a bygone era of American pop culture.
August 18, 2020
Interesting memoir from a man who was there from the beginning, taking us through the silent films and into the talkies, the book ending in 1932 when the author was 18 or so and off to Dartmouth. What's fascinating is not only the portrait of the movies and its initial stars like Clara Bow (who didn't like others survive the transition to talkies) but of Los Angeles itself, still a little big town a hundred years ago. Also interesting is the Wild West nature of the business before corporate America (AT&T, for example) moved into as the Depression change the nature of the game. This is a far superior portrait of Hollywood (at least early Hollywood) than the Barry Sonnenfeld book I read a few months ago.
July 15, 2021
Book deserves an Oscar! What a story! And what a relief this is not another in a long line of boring biographies. There’s not a dull paragraph on any of its 500 pages and many a laugh.
This is Budd Schulberg's story about growing up with his parents, movie mogul B.P, and Ad, who was not a typical housewife and mother of that time. From 1912 to 1932 B.P was one of a small group of powerful industry leaders until he was booted from the top position at Paramount studio. Why he was booted is not explained, but apparently was due to political intrigues, the depression eroding studio profits, and the fact that no one – C.B. DeMille excepted – can remain at the top indefinitely.
Budd is a skillful writer – a talent inherited from B.P. – and he makes what would be yawningly dull in the hands of any other author, absorbingly interesting. If you want the inside scoop on scandals, it’s not here. If you want to know what Budd thought of the stars and other celebrities he met growing up, that’s not here either, with the exception of his memories of B.P.s discoveries Clara Bow and Sylvia Sydney. Budd's trials and tribulations from birth through his teen years are surprisingly riveting. I wanted to be in Budd's company for the rest of his life, reading the story of his Hollywood career after college as a screenwriter and novelist, but he didn’t write a sequel.
This memoir (published in 1981) has one damning shortcoming – it comes to an abrupt and unexpected end when Budd goes east to college. This reader wants to know what happened to B.P. and Ad and, of course, Budd, after 1932. Wanting more, I then read his 'What Makes Sammy Run?' the story of the rise from rags to riches of a Hollywood mogul. Sammy is good, very good, but ‘Moving Pictures’ is great. And, No, B.P. is not Sammy.
This is Budd Schulberg's story about growing up with his parents, movie mogul B.P, and Ad, who was not a typical housewife and mother of that time. From 1912 to 1932 B.P was one of a small group of powerful industry leaders until he was booted from the top position at Paramount studio. Why he was booted is not explained, but apparently was due to political intrigues, the depression eroding studio profits, and the fact that no one – C.B. DeMille excepted – can remain at the top indefinitely.
Budd is a skillful writer – a talent inherited from B.P. – and he makes what would be yawningly dull in the hands of any other author, absorbingly interesting. If you want the inside scoop on scandals, it’s not here. If you want to know what Budd thought of the stars and other celebrities he met growing up, that’s not here either, with the exception of his memories of B.P.s discoveries Clara Bow and Sylvia Sydney. Budd's trials and tribulations from birth through his teen years are surprisingly riveting. I wanted to be in Budd's company for the rest of his life, reading the story of his Hollywood career after college as a screenwriter and novelist, but he didn’t write a sequel.
This memoir (published in 1981) has one damning shortcoming – it comes to an abrupt and unexpected end when Budd goes east to college. This reader wants to know what happened to B.P. and Ad and, of course, Budd, after 1932. Wanting more, I then read his 'What Makes Sammy Run?' the story of the rise from rags to riches of a Hollywood mogul. Sammy is good, very good, but ‘Moving Pictures’ is great. And, No, B.P. is not Sammy.
June 8, 2017
Fabulous read and so well written
What a delightful book. An in depth history of early film making, the Hollywood moguls and spicey tidbits about various movie personalities from Gary Cooper, Clara Bow to Adolph Zukor and L B Mayer. Also very funny stories from the author's life as a boy growing up within the studio system and knowing all the players. My favorite was the ripe fig throwing episodes at such stars as John Gilbert and Greta Garbo with his friend, Maurice Rapf. Both his parents were amazing characters and brilliant people. Very entertaining book.
What a delightful book. An in depth history of early film making, the Hollywood moguls and spicey tidbits about various movie personalities from Gary Cooper, Clara Bow to Adolph Zukor and L B Mayer. Also very funny stories from the author's life as a boy growing up within the studio system and knowing all the players. My favorite was the ripe fig throwing episodes at such stars as John Gilbert and Greta Garbo with his friend, Maurice Rapf. Both his parents were amazing characters and brilliant people. Very entertaining book.
September 5, 2018
Excelente ejercicio de nostalgia sobre los primeros momentos de la industria del cine en Hollywood a través de los ojos de un niño privilegiado, que va tejiendo en paralelo la historia de su familia y la de los pioneros del cine. Autoindulgente en algún momento, no obstante te traslada la mirada inocente de aquellos que fueron construyendo la leyenda del Hollywood clásico sin más guía que su propia intuición en un momento en que todo en el cine aún estaba por inventar, manteniendo un poso de amargura al mostrar el ascenso y caída de todo tipo de personajes de aquella época
September 22, 2023
A very good book,intriguing account of about the birth of hollywood.the chapter about Clara bow stands as a warning against stardom.and any book that contains a chapter about homing pigeons,is certainly left field.do give it a try.his stand against the unfair treatment of minority groups was also ahead of it's time,he seemed to lean more to the left of politics surprising considering his upbringing.
June 7, 2024
This narrative is filled with a massive insight into the early Hollywood. You may get hooked on the silent movies and the babushka doll storytelling. One anecdote conceals one more that has two stories inside it. Towards the end, the book becomes more straightforward and tad sentimental. It is well written and engaging. After all, the author was the scriptwriter for On the Waterfront.
March 18, 2024
Loved all the gossip about the stars from the perspective of someone who grew up in Hollywood. Also his first jobs at Paramount and the Hollywood Reporter. He went off on some strange tangents sometimes (the family’s maid’s skin color?) but overall a delightful and informative read.
March 15, 2020
Great read for film buffs
Born into Hollywood royalty, Budd gives an inside view into the uncertain toddler steps of what would become a major industry. Engaging, and revealing.
Born into Hollywood royalty, Budd gives an inside view into the uncertain toddler steps of what would become a major industry. Engaging, and revealing.
May 8, 2025
The first part of the book, about the beginnings of the film industry, was fascinating. When Mr. Schulberg got to his own life story, I lost interest.
February 4, 2013
What a wonderful, engrossing read! Moving PIctures: Memories of A Hollywood Prince was written in 1984 by one who grew up in the early days of the motion picture industry, one whose childhood playgrounds were the sets of films such as Ben Hur (vintage 1925), who with his friends pretended to be cowboys as they roamed the studio’s Old West streets, who played in castles & with zoo animals on studio lots, whose next door neighbor was Frank Capra, whose father was head of Paramount Pictures, & whose “uncles” and “aunts” were the likes of Adolph Zukor, Louis B. Mayer, Sam Goldwyn, Gary Cooper & Clara Bow. Reality always trumped glamour though and Schulberg very early learned that the industry’s glitter was tarnished. The life of Hollywood royalty, although one of (often fleeting) luxury and fame, was/is far from idyllic and Budd Schulberg (1914-2009) has brought it to life, if not in vivid color, then in vivid prose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budd_Sch...
http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Pictures...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budd_Sch...
http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Pictures...
February 17, 2015
I liked this book, but think a more straightforward history of B.P. Schulberg and other early Hollywood magnates would have been both shorter and more consistently interesting. The first quarter is definitely preferable to the rest.
Otherwise, I don't think this book left much room for insight into any future developments (e.g. how Budd Schulberg became who he was).
Otherwise, I don't think this book left much room for insight into any future developments (e.g. how Budd Schulberg became who he was).
August 7, 2013
Interesting behind the scenes of the beginnings of the motion picture industry. Well written, as you might expect. A bit heavy on the teen angst if you don't mind that sort of thing; I got tired of it but overlooked it.
September 14, 2007
A veritable farmers' market of Hollywood history & lore. Who knew Jews boxed? Robert Towne will be telling me that LA's gardeners were once Japanese next.
July 9, 2012
indispensable insider account of the birth of the Hollywood industry and its early development, top-billed in the formative years of the sensitive, intelligent author.
June 18, 2015
Fascinating insight into the emerging world of classic Hollywood, as told through the eyes of a mogul's son.
December 4, 2015
Very interesting about early hollywood mogols and growing up in that environment
December 27, 2023
Así se creó Hollywood, «la fábrica de sueños».
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews