Adventures in Filmmaking
and Storytelling
What! And Give Up Show Business?--A View from the Hollywood Trenches is a highly entertaining memoir that tells us, and shows us, what part is played in the movies and television by the Production Designer. The author, Peter Wooley, has been a working Production Designer for over thirty years, heading up the art departments for such movies as "Going Home," "Sounder," "Cleopatra Jones," "Blazing Saddles," "High Anxiety," the television movie "The Day After," and many more. Along the way, he has worked with some of the best known and most talented people in the movie business, and he has traveled all over the globe, from Nigeria to the Sonoran Desert, from the Ohio River Valley to the Kansas Prairies to the bayous of Louisiana.
Wherever he goes, it is Peter Wooley's job to make that place look like the place in the movie. His skills include imagining, designing, constructing, decorating, and most of all managing--and managing to get along with--dozens of people. And that's what this book is about: people. It does indeed tell us all about the art department and the job of the Production Designer; but more than that, this book is about the scores of creative, clever, zany, egotistical, humble, and in every case individual characters he has worked with. They include a number of famous names, but just as many talented folks whom most people don't know by name but without whom the movies wouldn't be what they are.
What! And Give Up Show Business? is full of gossip and full of tales too true to be called tall, but too wild not to be. The reader gets to witness Katherine Hepburn tearing around behind the wheel of an old jalopy, Robert Mitchum falling off a barstool, Robert Redford pouring wine before a romantic fireplace, Mel Brooks taking meetings, Brian Keith using enough profanity to qualify him for the Guiness Book of World Records, and the author eating fake bird droppings.
Now seems like the time to say that this book has a generous share of "language," as it's often called nowadays. The tone is sassy and in your face, peppered with delightful profanity. The style is also friendly, with a good balance between braggadocio and humility. There's also an on-going warm and appealing appreciation of the author's wife, Linda, and a number of tributes to directors--some with names too big not to be dropped, and many others who've had more quiet successes.
What! And Give Up Show Business? is a hoot. Full of fun and gossip and yarns, it will be enjoyed by anyone who likes movies, and that includes most of us. |
