The Studio by John Gregory Dunne
This Classic Should Never Be Out Of Print...
In 1967, John Gregory Dunne asked for unlimited access to the inner
workings of Twentieth Century Fox. Miraculously, he got it. For one year
Dunne went everywhere there was to go and talked to everyone worth
talking to within the studio. He tracked every step of the creation of
pictures like Dr. Dolittle, Planet of the Apes, and The Boston Strangler. The
result is a work of reportage that, thirty years later, may still be our most
minutely observed and therefore most uproariously funny portrait of the
motion picture business.
Whether he is recounting a showdown between Foxs studio head and two
suave shark-like agents, watching a producers girlfriend steal a silver plate
from a restaurant, or shielding his eyes against the glare of a Hollywood
premiere where the guests include a chimp in a white tie and tails, Dunne
captures his subject in all its showmanship, savvy, vulgarity, and hype. Not
since F. Scott Fitzgerald and Nathanael West has anyone done Hollywood
better.

Reads as racily as a novel...(Dunne) has a novelists ear for speech and
eye for revealing detail...Anyone who has tiptoed along those corridors of
power is bound to say that Dunnes impressionism rings true.--Los Angeles
Times
Personal Review: The Studio by John Gregory Dunne
This is a terribly funny and telling documentary. Mr. Dunne, who had a
considerable reputation and experience as a screenwriter, somehow
convinced the powers at Twentieth Century Fox to give him carte blanche
and complete access to every peculiar nook and sneaky cranny at the
studio. Sitting in on major meetings with the Zanucks,writers, producers,
agents, stars, attending gala openings and hanging about sets, Dunne was
the ultimate fly-on-the-wall. The movies in production during the year
(1967)he spent soaking up this rarified atmosphere included "Dr. Doolittle,"
"Star," and "Hello Dolly," which means we get great dish on Rex Harrison,
Barbra Streisand, Anthony Newley, Gene Kelly and Walter Matthau, to
name only a few.
The stories are told in a droll, straight-ahead manner, which makes the
gags even funnier. One can scarcely believe the kinds of things that
Hollywood Heavies utter, apparently unashamed and on a fairly regular
basis.
For the record, Mr. Dunne, also the author of a number of first-rate novels,
was the late husband of writer Joan Didion, whose current memoir about
dealing with his death - "The Year of Magical Thinking" - is deservedly at
the top of the charts these days.
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