Hollywood

1930 · 16010J — New York: Vanguard Press 1930. First Edition First Printing. A few small aging spots to cloth otherwise very good plus in a very good dust jacket with a few tiny chips and tears. Notoriously rare in dust jacket. The front cover colorful artwork depicts a scantily clad beautiful actress posed in recline on a film set with a director and film crew photographing her. Queer People is considered one of the true landmarks in the continuous evolution of the Hollywood novel. The novel’s take of the bizarre and seamy side of the life of Hollywood during its golden age is like no other work of fiction. In the 1976 reprint edition Budd Schulberg wrote “.in Queer People we have if not THE Hollywood novel - at least a truly seminal work on Hollywood in which may be found the seeds of at least three of the longer-lived Hollywood novels The Day of the Locust What Makes Sammy Run and The Last Tycoon.†The book was a scandalous sensation when published and went through numerous printings very quickly. At publication multi-millionaire film producer Howard Hughes bought the film rights to the novel. He hired Leo McCarey to direct and Ben Hecht to write the screenplay. Hughes biggest problem turned out to be that stars were extremely reluctant to appear in a film that attacked the Hollywood studio system. Hughes initially wanted to cast Jack Oakie and William Haines but Paramount and MGM refused to loan them out. Unable to secure a significant cast Hughes ended the production after spending over $100000 of 1930s dollars in its preparation. Vanguard Press hardcover books