Lillian Ross (1918–2017)

The author was a staff writer for the New Yorker and was invited in 1950 to shadow John Huston and his colleagues while they made the movie version of the Red Badge of Courage. Either she had a photographic memory or she made constant notes, since she seems to have heard everything everybody said to each other in person, on the phone, by mail or telegram. We learn how a picture is made and more about the conflict between the movies as a business and as an art. Reading John Huston's comments was especially fun, since I could hear him saying them.… (more)

Regarding:
Kim Stanley --
Cedric Hardwicke --
Melvyn Douglas --
Ingrid Bergman --
Brandon De Wilde --
Sophia Loren --
Hume Cronyn --
Zero Mostel --
Joan Crawford --
Alexander Davion --
Henry Fonda --
Jane Fonda --
Sidney Poitier --
Juliet Mills --
William Holden --
Burgess Meredith --
Eileen Heckart --
Robert Shaw --
Patty Duke --
Eli Wallach --
Anne Jackson --
Paul Scofield --
Warren Beatty --
Katharine Cornell --
Eddie Albert --
Francoise Rosay --
Andy Griffith --
Maria Schell. Maximilian Schell --
Paul Newman --
Lee Remick --
Donald Plasence --
Carol Lynley --
Rod Steiger --
Claire Bloom --
Dana Andrews --
Maureen Stapleton --
Richard Widmark --
Vladimir Sokoloff --
Kim Hunter --
Harold Scott --
Michael Redgrave --
Ben Gazzara --
Janice Rule --
Fredric March --
Angela Lansbury --
Anthony Quinn --
Jason Robards, Sr. --
Margaret Leighton --
Anthony Perkins --
Simone Signoret --
Robert Preston --
Walter Matthau --
Geraldine Page --
John Gielgud.… (more)

Lillian Ross delivers detailed coverage of many personalities, with an emphasis on both settings and clothing.
Unlike reporter Mary McGrory, she offers almost no personal commentary, leaving conclusions up to the reader.

Unfortunately, this approach can become repetitive and dry, to the point of superfluidity.
Yes, we feel like we're right there with the people and their conversations, but what if most are awful?

My least favorites were:
"Dames," tediously repeating that word, the insufferable "Papa" Hemingway,
John McEnroe, the drudgery of the class trip to NYC in "The Yellow School Bus,"
more awful rich women in "Money Honey," more awful rich men in "The Big Stone,"
and the horrific animal abuse one I skipped = El Unico Matador."

My favorites were:
"Come In, Lassie," detailing Hollywood's refusal to stand up to HUAC
and to back the actors that HUAC blacklisted,
Robin Williams' "Workouts,"
The Miss America Pageant saga, "Symbol of All We Possess,"
and Edward Albee - "Artistic flashes take place in your head, sometimes."

From David Remick -
"She is just that - a hell of a reporter."

And, this from Lillian Ross -
"What makes the writing emerge from a writer is mostly a mystery."… (more)