http://tags.library.upenn.edu/tag/samuel_goldwyn PennTags Feed http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/voyager/4270 http://tags.library.upenn.edu/makerecord/voyager/4270 <div class="mlacite">Marx, Arthur, 1921-. <span style="text-decoration: underline">Goldwyn : a biography of the man behind the myth / by Arthur Marx.</span> [0393074978] New York : Norton, c1976. <br />Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1998.A3 G67 1976</div><div class="mlacite"><br />In this book Marx examines the life of Samuel Goldwyn, the Polish immigrant who became one of the most influential producers in film.&nbsp; Chapter 23 focues <em>The Best Years of Our Lives</em>, which won Goldwyn an Oscar.&nbsp; Through its entertaining anecdotal narrative, Marx follows the story of film, which began as an idea that came to Goldwyn as he read an article in <em>Time</em> in 1944 documenting the difficult transition many returning soldiers went through upon their return home.&nbsp; Goldwyn then called upon MacKinlay Kantor, a novelist, to turn the idea into a novel, which he would then adapt into a screenplay.&nbsp; Kantor delivered a short novel called <em>Glory for Me </em>about three men coming back to face civilian life in blank verse, which Goldwyn hated and wrote off as a loss.</div><p>It wasn't until Willy Wyler, who in the war, returned that the idea of making a film based on <em>Glory for Me </em>was revisited.&nbsp; Wyler wanted to make a film about the war, and he and writer Bob Sherwood adapted the novel to a screenplay.&nbsp; Goldwyn was never an ardent supporter of the film, and was ready to halt its production at many points.&nbsp; It was not until he consulted the Audience Research Institute (ARI), which gauged the American theatergoer's interest in a film, and received very positive results that he threw his support behind the film.&nbsp; The result was a wildly successful film which enjoyed great success.</p><p>This story gives insight to the studio-based methods of production of 1946, before the Paramount Decision, and to the postwar movie-making atmosphere.&nbsp; Goldwyn's doubts initally plagued the production of this film, as he was unsure if a serious, socially critical film was what American audiences really wanted to see after the war.&nbsp; The response he received from the ARI raises the ever-present issue of the divide between what audiences want to see and what Hollywood thinks they want to see.&nbsp; This response represents the readiness of American society to address the problems that postwar life created in 1946.&nbsp; The ability of Goldwyn, Wyler and Sherwood to capture the clearly struck a chord with the American public that wanted to confront the social issues of the day rather than sweep them under a rug.</p>