Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
1. “America’s Youngest Bank President”
2. “This is Another Telephone”
3. “I Have Just Reorganized the Company”
4. “Fight Like Hell To Win”
5. “We Have Valued Your Advice and Assistance”
6. “I’m Beginning to Think I Need a ‘Picture Man’”
7. “I Never Needed a Vacation Less”
8. “The Inner Cabinet of the Film Industry”
9. “All Records Have Been Broken”
10. “The Reigning Queen of the Movies”
11. “Together We Could Make Millions”
12. “Like a Roped Horse”
13. “Industry Wide Influence and Respect”
14. “I Have Gone into the Vaudeville Game”
15. “Another Big Deal in Prospect”
16. “You Ain’t Heard Nothing Yet”
17. “Swinging the Axe”
18. “Now He’s Back and Almost Anything Can Happen”
19. “The Dollar Sign Implanted in His Heart”
20. “Gilding the Manure Pile”
21. “Give Our Love to Gloria”
22. “Having Tea with His Wife and My Husband and the Vicar”
23. “Things are Bad Enough Here”
24. “A Good Trick If You Can Do It”
25. “I Am Now Definitely Out of the Motion Picture Industry”
26. “The Richest Irish American in the World”
27. “Wall Street Awaits Kennedy’s Findings”
28. “The Embers of Terror, Isolationism, and Racism”
Epilogue: “The First and Only Outsider to Fleece Hollywood”
Author’s Note
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Cari Beauchamp is the author of Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood and other film histories. She has written for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Variety and lives in Los Angeles, California.
“An exceptional work of film scholarship, packed with information
no one had uncovered before that reads like a juicy novel.” —Vanity
Fair
“Beauchamp serves up with gusto many measures of gossipy history
and historical gossip. . . . One hell of a story.” —San Francisco
Chronicle
“Fascinating. . . . The intellect, the intuition, the gumption, the
gall, the vision, and the restless ambition of the founding father
are meticulously documented.” —The Boston Globe
“Cari Beauchamp deserves great credit for bringing Joseph P.
Kennedy into sharp focus with a wealth of detail. . . . Beauchamp
has succeeded not only in finding a new way of telling the story,
but one which adds to it much we didn’t know before. ” —Michael
Korda, The Daily Beast
“Smart. . . . Beauchamp suggests that nothing in Kennedy’s long
career of banking, stock manipulation, and New Dealing prepared him
for presidential politics the way his time in the picture business
did.” —New York Times Book Review
“[A] crackling page-turner. . . . Beauchamp demonstrates again and
again, that apart from [Kennedy’s] abiding love and concern for his
nine children (and perhaps a few others including Marion Davies),
the bottom line was everything.” —Los Angeles Times
“Rarely has [Kennedy’s Hollywood years] been documented in such
meticulous detail. . . . Well-written and researched, Beauchamp’s
book is a probing examination of the man in the industry during
perhaps its most fascinating period.” —Chicago Sun-Times
“Beauchamp’s research is phenomenal and would have daunted any
other author. . . . A masterpiece of backstage capitalism.”
—Cineaste
“Cari Beauchamp has dug deep into my mother’s files and records and
emerged to finally tell the true story of Gloria Swanson’s
relationship with Joe Kennedy. No one else has ever been as honest
or as thorough.” —Michelle Farmer Amon, daughter of Gloria Swanson
Joseph P. Kennedy, patriarch of the Kennedy political dynasty, spent only a few years in the film business (roughly 1926-30), but he brought the same drive to his film efforts as he displayed in all his enterprises, juggling several studios, perfecting the art of the deal, and laying the grounds for modern corporate Hollywood while adding considerably to the family's wealth. There are numerous biographies of Joe Kennedy, but this is the first in-depth look at his years in Hollywood, much of the material drawn from previously unavailable papers in the Kennedy Library. Beauchamp (Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood) captures Kennedy's charm, his business acumen, and a certain ruthlessness with friends and enemies, and he details Kennedy's prolonged personal and professional relationship with Gloria Swanson and his work with such varied figures as FDR, William Randolph Hearst, and Cecil B. DeMille. Beauchamp covers an important period of change in Hollywood, with the coming of sound technology and the decency code, but the average reader might be confused by the intricate details of Kennedy's movie deals. This carefully researched biography is recommended for academic and large public library collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/08.]-Stephen Rees, Levittown Lib., PA Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
"An exceptional work of film scholarship, packed with information
no one had uncovered before that reads like a juicy novel."
-Vanity Fair
"Beauchamp serves up with gusto many measures of gossipy history
and historical gossip. . . . One hell of a story." -San
Francisco Chronicle
"Fascinating. . . . The intellect, the intuition, the gumption, the
gall, the vision, and the restless ambition of the founding father
are meticulously documented." -The Boston Globe
"Cari Beauchamp deserves great credit for bringing Joseph P.
Kennedy into sharp focus with a wealth of detail. . . . Beauchamp
has succeeded not only in finding a new way of telling the story,
but one which adds to it much we didn't know before. " -Michael
Korda, The Daily Beast
"Smart. . . . Beauchamp suggests that nothing in Kennedy's long
career of banking, stock manipulation, and New Dealing prepared him
for presidential politics the way his time in the picture business
did." -New York Times Book Review
"[A] crackling page-turner. . . . Beauchamp demonstrates again and
again, that apart from [Kennedy's] abiding love and concern for his
nine children (and perhaps a few others including Marion Davies),
the bottom line was everything." -Los Angeles Times
"Rarely has [Kennedy's Hollywood years] been documented in such
meticulous detail. . . . Well-written and researched, Beauchamp's
book is a probing examination of the man in the industry during
perhaps its most fascinating period." -Chicago Sun-Times
"Beauchamp's research is phenomenal and would have daunted any
other author. . . . A masterpiece of backstage capitalism."
-Cineaste
"Cari Beauchamp has dug deep into my mother's files and records and
emerged to finally tell the true story of Gloria Swanson's
relationship with Joe Kennedy. No one else has ever been as honest
or as thorough." -Michelle Farmer Amon, daughter of Gloria Swanson
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