The fellow who said that (not me) was a blocked writer utterly lacking in confidence and conviction. My friends at the South Florida Writers Association (SFWA) would be in apoplexy if one of their members said — or even thought — that. The work of the fellow who said it was described as “promising” – usually the death knell for aspiring writers.
If I tell you the name he wrote under (Paul Varjak), you wouldn’t know him. That was just his character’s name in a movie. He was an actor named George Peppard, and he co-starred with Audrey Hepburn in – for my money – the greatest romantic comedy ever made, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961).
Hollywood has done a good job producing movies having to do with authors or screenwriters involved in some form of the creative process. One of the very best – and my favorite – is the classic film Sunset Boulevard, which was made way back in 1950 and starred William Holden.
People who follow movies seriously will tell you Holden was one of the greatest actors Hollywood’s ever produced. More than 20 of his films were both creative and box office successes, but his star making turn was for Sunset Boulevard, where he played a down-on-his luck screenwriter who moves in with a has been movie star from the silent era. And, before long he is re-writing a screenplay which will mark her comeback. Only the material is terrible. “It’s fun sometimes to see just how bad bad writing can be,” says the Joe Gillis character Holden played.
A more recent example of how complicated things get for writers was the 2014 film The Rewrite starring Hugh Grant. The funny, affable Grant is a formerly successful movie writer who has fallen on hard times and takes a job at the State University of New York. He teaches a class in writing for film but a lot of his time is spent chasing coeds. What makes The Rewrite such a hoot for writers is that we get to see the Grant character actually reading and critiquing his student’s entries.
Peppard’s role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s was likely his best part. He made 58 films but no other hits. Most fans will remember him for the popular TV show The A Team which was on the air from 1983-1987.
‘Tiffany’s back story was almost as entertaining as the film itself. Truman Capote, the playwright who penned the show on Broadway, campaigned long and loud for Marilyn Monroe to play the lead, but the producers cast Hepburn for the part. Capote ridiculed the decision in public and predicted failure for the film version.
Capote overlooked one important aspect of this movie: the very fact that Audrey Hepburn was not only a great actress but a captivating screen presence. She won an Academy Award as Best Actress in her very first movie (Roman Holiday) and was nominated for an Oscar in her second film (Sabrina) in 1954.
Capote still wasn’t satisfied. He complained that Hepburn—a European—wasn’t believable as the country gal who moves to New York and becomes a call girl, and scoffed at her singing. But with a lot of help from Henry Mancini’s score, Hepburn pulled it off – the song (Moon River) and the movie became classics. Someone once explained Hepburn’s compelling presence on screen this way: “…there’s some people the camera just loves.”
The people at SFWA do a very good job for writers who are in various stages of their writing careers – from fledgling writers to published authors. The group offers assistance through scholarships, writing contests, author auditions and active critique groups. They have a lot of energy and have been providing help for writers for a long time.
SFWA would be more in accord with Billy Crystal than George Peppard when it comes to writers. One of Billy’s hits was the black comedy Throw Momma From The Train (1987). Billy plays a professor of creative writing. At the end of each class, Crystal would always remind his students … “Remember, a writer writes. Always.”
Bob Goldstein is a retired broadcaster who has lived in South Florida for more than forty years. He is a veteran political activist (dsdcfl.org) and a member of the South Florida Writers Association. If you’d like to comment on Bob’s columns, send your response by email to robertgrimm62@yahoo.com.
