The American Masters film "Goldwyn" features the life and career of Sam Goldwyn. It aired on PBS on Wednesday, July 27, at 9 p.m. ET (check local listings).
The film reveals Goldwyn's life story from 1895, when he crossed Europe on foot toward his dream of America, to his explosive partnerships with the Hollywood studios, to his emergence as the industry's "great independent." It explores how he developed the "Goldwyn touch" by hiring the most accomplished writers of his time (Ben Hecht, Lillian Hellman) and how he launched such actors as Gary Cooper, David Niven, Barbara Stanwyck, Laurence Olivier and Danny Kaye. The documentary is narrated by Dustin Hoffman and is recipient of a Gold Cindy Award.
Samuel Goldwyn Jr. was online Thursday, July 28, at 1 p.m. ET to discuss the life and career of Samuel Goldwyn and the PBS film "Goldwyn."
Goldwyn currently presides over the Samuel Goldwyn Company -- whose activities encompass feature film development, production and distribution. A long time member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he also is an officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters. In 1997 at ShowEast, he was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of American Exhibitors. Most recently, he was honored by the University of Connecticut with a doctorate of the arts.
Four Goldwyn films have won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, including David Lynch's "Wild at Heart," Bille August's "The Best Intentions," and Steven Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies and Videotape." Foreign films are another passion of his, having released "The Best Intentions," "3 Men and a Cradle," Luc Besson's "La Femme Nikita," the recent "Faithless" and Ang Lee's Oscar-nominated classics "Wedding Banquet" and "Eat Drink Man Woman."
Goldwyn produced "Master and Commander," which received 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director and was the winner of two Academy Awards. Among the other films that Goldwyn has produced and/or distributed: "Raising Victor Vargas," "Tortilla Soup," "Japanese Story" and "King of Masks." Other notable company productions and releases include "Lolita" starring Jeremy Irons, "The Preacher's Wife" with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, "Big Night," "I Shot Andy Warhol," "Angels and Insects," "To Live," "A Prayer for the Dying," "Sid and Nancy," "Turtle Diary," "Prick Up Your Ears," "Black Robe," "Mississippi Masala," "The Playboys" and "Dance with a Stranger."
The transcript follows.
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Southbury Connecticut: In the excellent documentary on your father it states that at 61, he had to essentially start over. I am always interested in what qualities make people so persistent and constantly able to face challenges like a champion. What in your fathers make-up helped him bounce back so many times to achieve extraordinary things in life? -- Brian
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: The key to, in my opinion, and the lesson he left me about life -- this was a 13 or 14-year-old boy who walked across half of Europe to find a home, because his own had fallen apart -- The drive to make something of that life chased him through his life. Many times he had to start over. Pick yourself up or dust yourself off was the key to his whole philosophy. He was wonderful. The interesting thing was that he was far better coming back from defeat than he was coping with success. That is very much what the documentary is about. It was on our minds not to have it only about the movie business but about three basic ideas: 1 - The instinct for survival, which made that whole era of Eastern European Jewish and non-jewish immigrants. Survival was the key to making a life in the new land. 2 - As I said, the story of a man's life and through a man's life to tell the story of the immigrant story; and 3 - The history of the movies, which my father was part of from the beginning. Scott Berg did a wonderful job in the book and I hope that was what the documentary conveyed.
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Santa Monica, Calif.: What was your favorite film by your Dad?
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: Gosh, there are many of them. His favorite was Wuthering Heights -- he would run it over and over again, and he would sit and cry. I remember when he made it, I was just a kid and not terribly interested in it; it was a dress-up love story and all, and he said, I don't know if this film will be successful, but it's the one I want to be remembered by. I think The Best Years of Our Lives, it related to me, I was just coming out of the military myself, and I'm fascinated by the way that movie still stands up today. It was a lucky one. He was stuck for something to do. My mother saw a piece in Time Magazine of some soldiers hanging out of a train, with the heading "What's Next For Them?" She said to him, I think this is a movie, and it was. It started right from that. It was a success all over the world because it related to problems people were having all over the world after WWII. It's interesting to me how the movie has stood up. But -- all those movies are favorites -- that was part of my life. My father was an independent producer. Every film that he made he was out scrounging for money for the next one. This was all tied to his enormous need to survive and continuing his career. We spent an enormous amount of time at home talking about the films. This was part of my life. I still get moved watching the documentary even though I had a big hand making it!
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Bristol, Conn.: What do you think of the emphasis on weekend box office figures and the lack of emphasis on quality of films on TV and radio? Can a film make it on word of mouth these days.
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: Good question. I think it's horrible, but I understand the economics involved in it. First of all most of the pictures dependent on it are the studio pictures, what they call "Tent Poles." These films represent a production expenditure from $80 to $160 million. That's production. Then they represent a marketing cost of perhaps another $80 million. There is a movie that came out last week called "The Island." 160 to make, 80 to market. The film did $12 million the first weekend. That tells you what about the future of that film. Now you are faced with a strategic loss -- what do you do? Do you spend more, another $30 million to try and sell it. All these come up the first weekend. Certainly by the second weekend, by the drop that happens. There is big bucks involved in this. On the other hand, like the ones I distribute for the most part, films dependent on word of mouth, reviews and far less advertising. Like the movie Sideways. We had a film last year called Super Size Me. Almost completely dependent on word of mouth which did extremely well. The big, big pictures, they tend to dumb down the pictures, to appeal to an audience between 14 and 52. Like a vast TV audience. And it just doesn't work. Now, the hope was, was that a big weekend would also stimulate DVD sales, and sometimes it does. Sometimes the big pictures derived from games, it sometimes catches on. This is the crisis the industry is facing now, this is the dilemma. The public doesn't care what is spent on advertising. They care more about what the word is on the picture.
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Newtown, Pa.: Hello Mr. Goldwyn,
Hollywood brought so many ups and downs for your father. When you went into "the business," what was his reaction?
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: Well, I didn't want to go into it in the beginning. I wanted to be in the news business. I thought the real future was television. My heart though has always been in the movies. He was always very supportive of me and full of good advise. Taught me early on that it's not important what you do yesterday, but what you do tomorrow. Which is the filmmaker's major dilemma. But if you accept that as a way of life, it's very exciting. It can keep you young, and make you old too! It's like a great game, and it's a great deal of fun to play, it really is, even the frustrations.
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Kansas City, Mo.: "Master and Commander" is one of my all time favorite films. Why did you decide to be a filmmaker like your father?
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: Because I've always made films, I always wanted to. I like the medium, to tell a story. M&C was a series of books I read about 16 years ago. I bought these books, and was challenged by the opportunity to turn them into a film -- particularly because the author himself told me they'd never make a film!
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Bradford, Pa.: As you reflect upon your father and mother's life, besides money and ambition, what could have made them happier or more fulfilled personally and in their life with you as you grew up? (By the way, the show was great last night!)
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: Well, I think it's very difficult for, take my mother's life, her life was hooked to a man who was obsessed with survival. My father was a very strong ego. And that ego was one of the things that drove him. At times it was very difficult for my mother, but interestingly, also served as a support for her. It was hard to explain in the documentary but comes through in Scott Berg's book. This ego of his shielded her too. It was very sad when he was gone, because she missed him so much.
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Tiverton, R.I.: Was the grandson interviewed at the end of the production your son? He looked very familiar. Is he an actor today? What is his name. Another son was mentioned. Who was he? Do you see your half-sister?
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: One son is Tony, an actor and director. As an actor, he is best known for being the villain in the movie Ghost. As a director, he did Walk on Water. And he just completed a film with Zack Braff called The Last Kiss. My other son, John Goldwyn, is a producer himself.
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Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: We are in the process of producing a film together, which I am really enjoying.
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Arlington, Va.: Are you related to Liz Goldwyn, who just had the burlesque documentary on HBO?
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: Yes I am (laughing)! That's another daughter! That's an interesting story of survival. She had this idea seven years ago. Everybody in the family said you don't know anything about making a movie, are you crazy? She went out, started making it, ran out of money. She had about 6 or 7 executive producers who raised money. Then she sold it to HBO. And it just premiered on HBO. And I'm getting more calls on that than I am for most of my movies!
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Nashville, Tenn.: Your father had great success in his career, but his personal life was more combustible, mostly because of his own conflicted upbringing. What lessons do you feel that you've learned from his life that have helped you and your family's personal life? What do you think he'd be most proud of that has happened in your family since his death?
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: First of all, he had two children, from two marriages. I've had six from two marriages. But I think I've ended up with one close family. I think I learned to invest more time in family than he did because career and the next picture for him always came first. At the same time I don't really criticize him in hindsight because it's given me enormous advantages too. I think when I've had hits he'd be pleased. And he always talked a great deal of family, that he would be the patriarch of a family. He was always great with my kids, as a grandfather. And I think he'd be very pleased by that.
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Stony Brook, N.Y.: It is stated in the documentary that your father's emotional energy was consumed by his career and that you mother's role as his wife consumed her life so that she did not have energy or emotion left to devote to her role as mother.
How did you reconcile your relation with two such distant parents as you matured, and what led you to choose a career as a movie producer, a profession where your father had become almost a mythical figure?
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: That's what I wanted to do. It was really the only thing I wanted to do. I enjoyed it, and enjoyed being around it. And always enjoyed that part of my father's life, it was something we had to share. I was terribly interested in it, and he was obsessed in imparting knowledge to me. He would often have a problem and would sit and explain it to me, sometimes it was way over my head, and that proved very valuable. The legacy I had was a guidebook, and there was a security in that guidebook. They weren't distant, because you must remember I was an only son. I spent a lot of my early life not in Hollywood, which was in both their minds -- they didn't want me to grow up there. I went to high school in Colorado and college in Virginia, then I was in the military, then I was overseas, then I was in England working for two years. I had a long period of 15 to 23 when I wasn't around Hollywood. This was a big advantage. Both my parents felt strongly about it. I got letters from both parents once a week. We were close and remained close as the years went by.
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New City, N.Y.: I watched your father's biography tonight and because I won't be here at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, I just wanted to let you know that I worked for David Golding and Martin Davis from Hans Christian Anderson until after Guys and Dolls. When I gave birth to my son over 48 years ago, you sent flowers. I have written a memoir of Marlon being interviewed in the RKO office. It was a great time in my life and your father called me "girlie."
--Andie
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: Oh my goodness! What a nice thing. Thank you very much for remembering. My father was great fun to be with and was great with people. He had a great wit and stumbled on English and said funny things. He was sometimes difficult to work for, but he was always striving to do better and got on with people like that. This was obviously somebody he had respect for.
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Suitland, Md.: Could you give us a brief history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios? Was your father and Louis B. Mayer partners at one time? How did your dad get along with the other top producers of the era, such as David O. Selznick, Harry Cohn, Jack L. Warner, and Darryl Zanuck?
The first live-action movie I ever saw was The Wizard of Oz, and I've been a huge fan of the MGM logo and Leo the Lion ever since.
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: It started out as the Goldwyn Company. The company ran into financial difficulties. It was in the process of making a film which was running out of money called Ben Hur. A company called Loews, which was in the theater business -- actually they were called Metropolitan Films at that time -- acquired Goldwyn. And brought in Louis B. Mayer to head it and fired my father. They kept the name Goldwyn because it had had a relationship with exhibitors over the years and they were a relatively knew company. Mayer brought in a very brilliant young man of 26 or 2, Irving Thalberg, who is today still referred to as the genius of the studio system. He scrapped everything my father had done on Ben Hur and started over again. They had an enormous hit with the picture. It was a silent picture, and the company was rolling, and out of that they developed the star system, and the rest is history. My father and Mayer hated each other.
Thalberg and he were great friends, Selznick and Thalberg were two of his best friends. Zanuck and he were friends, and as a matter of fact Dick Zanuck is one of my friends today. But he was never part of the studio system, he was an independent, and that was a whole different world. It was a small world. The studio system is a whole other game than what my father did.
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Arlington, Va.: What are your plans for the near future? What are you currently working on? Any dreams left to fulfill? Thank you.
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: I've got two good pictures. My distribution, part of my life - I've got three movies coming up. A movie called Saint Ralph. After that I've got a movie called Pretty Persuasion. And then at the end of the year, a wonderful movie called The Squid and the Whale, it's a very touching movie. On the production side, I'm starting in October a remake of one of my father's pictures, which I'm doing with my son, John, starring Owen Wilson, called "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." Starting that in October or November. And then I'm working on scripts for another three or four. So the answer is, I'm still trying to survive! But it's a great deal of fun.
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Washington, D.C.: Is there anything that your father had wanted to accomplish that he wasn't able to get to?; Do you think he was happy and proud of you with the success of your own career?;
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: I think, what happened to him actually, his last picture, Porgy and Bess, was a disappointment to him. It was a film he wanted to make since 1932 when he saw the original on stage. The movie was dogged by problems, they had to change directors, the sets burned out and were destroyed, he had a chance to quit, the insurance company would have covered him, but no, no, he's not going to quit. It was a very disappointing picture for him. And he hated getting out of the game. But I'll tell you something interesting about him. When he was very ill and very infirm, he had a nurse, and every day he would come down to his lunch with that nurse and the nurse would sit at the table with him. one day the man tried to help him with his spoon. And he looked at the man straight in the eye and said, "What the hell are you trying to do?" And the man said, "Mr. Goldwyn, I'm just trying to help you to eat." And he slapped the spoon out of the man's hand and said, "Help Me? How do you think I got the hell out of Poland?" It comes back to the first question, which was what drove my father. And as far as I went with this, I was making pictures -- I just had a picture coming out, called "Cotton Comes to Harlem." He mumbled at me one day and said give me some figures. And I mentioned a couple of places, and he said "how'd you do in St. Louis?" And I said "I don't know" ... I made a call, and I gave him the numbers. And he said, "That's very good." Then he mentioned a picture of his own that had played at the same theater, and he remembered the number. And this was a man who was legally called incompetent at that time. That's how extraordinary this man was.
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Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: That's what made the movie worth doing. It wasn't an ego thing about my father -- it is the definition of the American dream.
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Samuel Goldwyn Jr.: Thanks everybody for the questions. They are extremely incisive. I hoped I answered as best I can. It's interesting that the movie provoked these kind of questions, because that was what it was all about.
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washingtonpost.com: Next week's American Masters, "Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records," airs on Wednesday, August 3, at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings). A Live Online discussion will follow on Thursday, August 4, at 1 p.m. ET with "Cowboy" Jack Clement, songwriter, producer, recording studio pioneer, publisher, artist and executive.
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Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
: A discussion about a public health insurance plan. Guest: Robert Goldberg, PhD
