SOURCE: French, Sean. “Refuge for Writers.” New Statesman and Society 3, no. 105 (15 June 1990): 33-4.

In the following review, French asserts that Hamilton's Writers in Hollywood is fascinating and enjoyable to read, and provides a valuable survey of the history of Hollywood screenwriting.

In 1926 Herman Mankiewicz, ex-journalist and then a highly successful screen writer, despatched a famous telegram to his friend, Ben Hecht, who was still working on a Chicago newspaper: “Will you accept three hundred per week to work for Paramount Pictures? All expenses paid. The three hundred is peanuts. Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around.”

The lure of Hollywood for journalists and, even more, for hard-up novelists, was irresistible. And in their own way the brutish movie moguls respected artists and were—intermittently, at least—eager to attract them, as a way perhaps of giving legitimacy...