Posted on 04/27/2008 3:14:50 AM PDT by Stoat
In "The Good Life According to Hemingway," out next month, A.E. Hotchner, who traveled the globe with him, bares a series of never-before-published slaps Hemingway took at the film business.
When producer David O. Selznick crowed that his wife, Jennifer Jones, was starring in "A Farewell to Arms" and he'd pay Hemingway a $50,000 bonus from any profits, the novelist wrote back: "If by some miracle, your movie, which stars 41-year-old Mrs. Selznick portraying 24-year-old Catherine Barkley, does earn $50,000, you should have all $50,000 changed into nickels at your local bank and shove them up your [bleep] until they came out of your ears."
Darryl F. Zanuck, the boss of 20th Century Fox, was trashed when he asked Hemingway to shorten the title of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," which starred Gregory Peck. Hotchner quotes Hemingway, "I said, you want something short and exciting that will catch the eye of both sexes, right?" He then reeled off the first letters of Hollywood studio names that together spelled out the F-word. "That should fit all the marquees and you can't beat it as a sex symbol." Zanuck titled the film "The Macomber Affair."
(Excerpted to comply with Free Republic posting requirements)
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Now we know why it is called “Hollyweird”. Same ol’ stuff, different day!
Gay Hollywood never understood real men
Hemingway would always speak his mind. Spencer Tracy was a very good friend of his, one of the only people in Hollywood he could stand.
Gay Hollywood never understood real men
LOL. Hemingway was pro-communist. So on this level at least, Hollyweird certainly understood him.
PAPA'S POLITICS: UA PROFESSOR'S RESEARCH EXAMINES HEMINGWAY'S COMMUNIST TIES
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - As the 100th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway's birthday approaches on July 21, literary fans across the world will be paying homage to a writer acclaimed as the leading voice of the Lost Generation. But a University of Arkansas professor claims these fans have mis-characterized the famous author.
A new study of Hemingway, conducted by Dr. Keneth Kinnamon, indicates that the author's social activism and leftist politics leave him far from "lost" and even dissociate him from the generation of post-war writers he supposedly founded.
In fact as Hemingway aged, said Kinnamon, his political involvement grew more radical, culminating in donations to finance the rise of the Communist Party in Cuba.
Over the past 5 years, Kinnamon has conducted an extensive study of Hemingway's personal letters and correspondence - examining the author's own arguments and self-descriptions to gain a complete understanding of Hemingway's social views and personal politics.
As part of his research, Kinnamon had portions of Hemingway's FBI file declassified. The file documents nearly a decade of continuous surveillance that began in the 1950s as a result of the author's political activities.
Kinnamon will present his findings later this month at a conference in Oak Park, Ill., where Hemingway was born. In addition, he has published an essay entitled, "The Early Development of Hemingway's Political Consciousness," in a publication of the Center for Culture in Valencia, Spain, called Hemingway in Our Time.
"Hemingway was very protective of his political views. More than many of the writers of his time, he shied away from didacticism in his work and made his political points subtly," said Kinnamon.
"By examining his letters, I'm finding a more candid statement about his personal beliefs - one that is more frank and open and gives us a better understanding of the man than if we viewed him exclusively through his fiction."
What Kinnamon has uncovered are the written records of a man who not only held strong convictions about political and social issues, but who actively took part in them - often playing a dual role of journalist and soldier.
As a young man, Hemingway sympathized with the Socialist Part in America. His first and only vote was cast for Eugene V. Debs - a socialist leader who ran for presidency five times in the early part of the century. According to Kinnamon, the writer's political opinions only leaned further left as he grew older.
In 1935, Hemingway went abroad as a news correspondent to cover the Spanish Civil War. But his sympathy for the people's rebellion soon compromised his objectivity. By the close of the revolution, Hemingway had become involved with many of the socialist and communist volunteers in the resistance.
During World War II, the author took an even more active political role. He had his 38-foot fishing vessel, The Pilar, designated as an official Q-boat and equipped it with a crew to patrol the Caribbean for Nazi submarines. Later, he would accompany U.S. troops during the Battle of the Bulge and even lead his own guerilla force in the liberation of Paris.
But the political stand that would have the greatest impact in Hemingway's life came after the war, when he had settled in Cuba.
Though his American citizenship made outright political activity impossible, the author continued to support his political interests covertly. Kinnamon's research reveals that Hemingway channeled money through a Cuban friend to support the Communist Party in its rise to power.
Despite the threat of McCarthyism and the controversy of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Hemingway remained a staunch supporter of Fidel Castro. When the author's political loyalties came to light in the late 1950s, the FBI opened a file and began a program of surveillance that documented Hemingway's activities up to his death in 1961.
"At times, Hemingway would be sitting in a restaurant and would say to his companion, 'The man at the next table is an FBI agent.' His friends considered it paranoia, but more often than not, Hemingway was right," said Kinnamon.
As such details come to light, Kinnamon sees a need to re-examine Hemingway's novels and a need to reevaluate the author's classification as a Lost Generation writer.
" 'The Sun Also Rises' is the only Hemingway novel that could be classified as Lost Generation writing," said Kinnamon. "But Hemingway, himself, did not fit into that category nor did the larger body of his work."
The Lost Generation earned its name from Gertrude Stein in the 1920s, who used the term to describe the group of expatriated American writers - including Ezra Pound and F. Scott Fitzgerald - who gathered in Paris after World War I.
In the aftermath of the world's first great war, this group of artists reflected the disillusionment that followed mass destruction. They found emptiness in previously revered institutions such as honor, patriotism and duty, and they explored this loss through their writings.
With its cast of listless American expatriates, Hemingway's book, "The Sun Also Rises" embodies the Lost Generation sensibility. But according to Kinnamon, the book is as much a reproach to this generation as it is a reflection of their lives.
"The book criticized war by showing its toll on a generation of people, but at the same time, it criticized the lifestyle of these people," Kinnamon said. "I think Hemingway took issue with their sense of purposelessness. It was certainly something that he never experienced himself."
As Kinnamon moves into the final stage of his study, he intends to re-examine Hemingway's novels - hoping that greater knowledge of the author's views will lead to a greater understanding of the themes and topics of his literature.
"I'm very interested in the nexus between literature as an art form and literature as a function of social issues," he said. "They can be intertwined. They often reflect each other. The subtlety with which Hemingway addresses political issues within his novels makes this a particularly interesting study."
He lived his life the way he wanted to for as long as he could
When electro-shock therapy for depression damaged his mind to the point where he could no longer function as he wanted to, he packed it in. He was a communist sympathizer, but I have a lot of respect for him
While I like a lot of Hemingway's work (especially the Nick Adams stories), he really didn't have a clue. A product of a wealthy family, given to a great deal of leisure, a suicide in the family - it all adds up. So, he goes on a quest for meaning. Being part of the generation between wars had something to do with it, too. Kerouac was another ‘lost and angry’ soul looking for something. Too bad really - maybe they never got the memo about normalcy and liberty.
Great writing and great analyis on your part. I’m impressed. :)
'...in a love scene in "For Whom the Bell Tolls," Gary Cooper "didn't take off his coat. That's one hell of a way for a guy to make love, with his coat on - in a sleeping bag."...'
LOL
From actors to directors to producers, most denizens of Hollywood doggedly display their inability to discern fact from fiction off-screen. They work in fantasy-land, but derive their real-life character and morals from the dreams and desires of the characters they play and the movies they direct or produce, completely divorced from reality. They believe they can create Utopia by manipulating reality through public opinion and morals as easily as they set the stage on the silver-screen and boob-tube. They are so immersed in fantasy that they can no longer perceive reality.
" ...Hemingway and Hollywood had a tempestuous relationship..."
That's probably putting it mildly. I imagine that most authors probably hate the way Hollywood butchers their works. Many of the greatest novelists base their works on observations of the real world which resonate with so many people. It is easy to understand why Hemingway, being one such author, would hold Hollywood in complete disdain and contempt.
Neither did Ernest Hemingway.
Hemmingway was capable of world class hatreds, not that that’s always a bad thing.
The only thing Hemingway seems to have understood at all well is his own silly shtick, and his understanding of that was superficial.
The only thing he wrote that's at all worthwhile is A Moveable Feast, which is not fictional. If you want a travelogue of Europe of that period it's an okay one.
Hemingway's autobiographical characters, such as the one in Farewell are understandable though phoney and not likeable.
His other characters are cardboard props--which is the way he seems to have thought of everyone other than himself--and the way he behaved toward them.
The women he writes about are one- or two-dimensional whose only attractive qualities are (1) sexual desirability, (2) willingness to please him sexually, (3) willingness to focus attention on him, and (4) ...well...that's about it.
And one of his women is about as good as another. They're pretty much interchangeable. If any of them had any unique features, personality, or memorable qualities he doesn't seem to have noticed.
As I endured Farewell I had no idea what he saw in Barkley other than (1)-(3) vide supra. When she kicked the bucket I wondered why he cared. He didn't even bother to wonder about the baby. Or her--other than a lost sex partner--but--so what?--the world's full of 'em. He was utterly consumed with his own self-pity etc. et al.
His conversations are corny and shallow. "Should I grow a beard?" "Maybe you should." "Would you like me better if I did? Or worse?" "I don't know." This is also the depth of his characters.
I lived in Europe at the same age as Hemingway. I was fascinated with it--with many of the things that interested Hemingway.
But in my opinion, he was a shallow, self-absorbed jackass, who cared very little about anyone other than himself and had little interest in anyone else.
Hemingway is not some archetype of "A Real Man". I think he was very much not-real--someone who had only some silly, macho, self-absorbed shtick to present to the world. He wanted to be adored and managed to induce a sizeable group of fans to adore him.
I think his appeal was to provincials who wondered about life in exotic places at a time when they were little known
In today's world--the Information Age--when we know plenty about the exotic places of the world and everywhere else--when many of us have traveled and lived in the places Hemingway wrote about--when many of us are far more sophisticated than Hemingway and those who found him interesting--his writing is shallow and corny.
I wish I could have gone hunting with Ernie.
He never lived to see that Castro also became a fascist. His whole life was a celebration of rugged individualism, the very antithesis of communism. He fought and was severely wounded fighting fascists, and he wrote against fascists. He was a great American and a real man. Live hard, love hard, drink hard, and fight for justice. I bet your authorn is gay.
Why?
Great analysis!
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