Robert Altman The Oral Biography

by Zuckoff, Mitchell

• ISBN13: 9780307387912
• ISBN10: 0307387917
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-12-07
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Robert Altman-visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend-comes roaring to life in this rollicking oral biography. After an all-American boyhood in Kansas City, a stint flying bombers in World War II, and jobs ranging from dog tattoo entrepreneur to television director, Robert Altman burst onto the scene in 1970 withM*A*S*H. He reinvented American filmmaking, and went on to produce such masterpieces asMcCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville,The Player, Short Cuts,andGosford Park. InRobert Altman, Mitchell Zuckoff has woven together Altmanrs"s final interviews; an incredible cast of voices including Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, among scores of others; and contemporary reviews and news accounts into a riveting tale of an extraordinary life.

Author Biography

Mitchell Zuckoff is a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is the author of three previous books, most recently Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend. As a reporter with The Boston Globe, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and the recipient of numerous national writing awards.


From the Hardcover edition.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
Prologue	p. 3
1925-1969
Kansas City	p. 11
Into the River	p. 21
307th Bomb Group	p. 39
Making Pictures	p. 54
The Calvin Company	p. 61
The Delinquents	p. 79
California	p. 89
Kathryn	p. 103
Cheese	p. 112
No Milk	p. 130
Countdown	p. 143
1970-1980
M*A*S*H	p. 161
After M*A*S*H	p. 194
McCabe	p. 206
Fatherhood I	p. 233
Mirrors	p. 241
Split, California	p. 260
Nashville	p. 273
Diamond Cutter	p. 291
Active Verbs	p. 310
Scotty	p. 337
Popeye	p. 347
1981-2006
The wilderness	p. 363
ôI Made Thisö	p. 388
The Player	p. 404
Short Cuts	p. 423
Heart in a Cooler	p. 440
Mr. A and the Women	p. 460
Home Stretch	p. 467
Fatherhood II	p. 483
Boots On	p. 487
Not a Tragedy	p. 498
A Note on Methods	p. 511
Cast of Characters	p. 512
Filmography	p. 525
Awards and Honors	p. 528
Acknowledgments	p. 531
List of Illustrations	p. 533
Index	p. 537
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

M*A*S*H

*

M*A*S*H (1970)

Pauline Kael, review inThe New Yorker, January 24, 1970: M*A*S*H is a marvelously unstable comedy, a tough, funny, and sophisticated burlesque of military attitudes that is at the same time a tale of chivalry. It's a sick joke, but it's also generous and romantic—an erratic episodic film, full of the pleasures of the unexpected. . . . It's a modern kid's dream of glory: Holden Caulfield would, I think, approve of [the heroes played by Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould]. They're great surgeons, athletes, dashing men of the world, sexy, full of noblesse oblige, but ruthless to those with pretensions and lethal to hypocrites. . . . I think M*A*S*H is the best American war comedy since sound came in, and the sanest American movie of recent years.

* * *

From the M*A*S*H theme song, "Suicide Is Painless," lyrics by Michael Altman:



A brave man once requested me,
to answer questions that are key.
Is it to be or not to be?
And I replied, "Oh, why ask me?"

[Refrain] Suicide is painless. It brings on many changes,
and I can take or leave it if I please.


Memo titled "Synopsis of M*A*S*H " from James Denton, director of publicity, Twentieth Century Fox, July 16, 1969:Soon after Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland), Duke Forrest (Tom Skerritt) and Trapper John McIntyre (Elliott Gould) join the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH), Col. Henry Blake (Roger Bowen) ruefully realizes how placid his Korean War command had been before. The three surgeons have two things in common: They are the best in the Far East and they are hell- raising lunatics who make a shambles of army bureaucracy.

Michael Murphy:George Litto was an unsung hero of this movie. As brilliant as Bob was, studios worried about him because he was really an artist and he was rebellious and he wouldn't do it the way they wanted it. That's where George came in.

George Litto:The way it started was my client, Ring Lardner, Jr., was asked to review the bookM*A*S*HforThe New York Times. You know Ring's story? He was one of the blacklisted guys from the Hollywood 10, a brave guy who went to jail not to name names. I'm not a Communist. If anything I'm a capitalist—if anything I'm a royalist [laughs]. But I was very sympathetic to the fact that the blacklist was unfair. People have the right to disagree, they didn't do anything in my mind illegal; you know, believing in something that's not popular is not a crime. They have their First Amendment right. And they were treated terribly.

Anyway, he called me and said, "George, I think it would make a terrific movie." Well, Ingo Preminger was Ring's agent before me, and we were very friendly, and he was moving into producing. So I called up Ingo, and I said, "Ingo, your ex- client just sent me a terrific book. I read the book and I think it would make a wonderful movie. But one condition: If you like it and you buy it, you've got to hire Ring to write it." He said, "No problem."

Richard Zanuck(studio executive and producer): Ingo Preminger came into my office one day—he had a big literary agency—and he came in and he said, "I've read a book I'd like you to read over the weekend. If you like it I'll sell the agency if you let me produce it." I said, "Jesus, Ingo." He had substantial clients. It was a thriving agency. Ingo was much more civil than his brother Otto, who was an arrogant prick. Well, I read it, and I called him up and I said, "I have your office ready."

George Litto:I had a house in Benedict Canyon. We had a poker game there on Sundays with a lot of people in the industry—writers, directors, producers—and Bob came to the poker game, and at the end of the poker game he said, "George, I readM*A*S*H. I think it's great. Do you think you can get me this movie?" I said, "I d