the gamblers

 I have a book about Hugh Hefner's favorite movie:  Casablanca:  Behind The Scenes, by Harlan Lebo.

(I bought it at Barnes & Noble about 30 years ago.  Now I'm finally reading it.)

------------------ [excerpt from a conversation with Julius Epstein, scriptwriter (The Man Who Came To Dinner; Arsenic And Old Lace...)] -------------- 

        What did the moguls have that made them successful?  What did Jack Warner, Darryl Zanuck, Harry Cohn, Louis B. Mayer, and David O. Selznick have?  No one could pin it down.  Most of these men were practically illiterate and uneducated.  They weren't creative.  But they had something.

        I think what they had was tremendous desire, and showmen's instincts.  They were gamblers.  Today, heads of studios are lawyers, accountants, former agents - they're a different breed.

        In those days, the studios could make a picture a week....

    

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