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WHO WORKS FOR NOTHING?
MARTIN FIELD
Can you imagine what would happen if a patron walked up to the box office of, say, Loew’s 72nd Street Theatre and said, “I’m going in to see this picture. If I like it, then I’ll pay you’’? The manager would call him crazy and summon Mayor O’Dwyer’s nearest bluecoat.
But that is exactly what many a producer and story editor does when he says, in effect, to a writer: “You go home, spend your time, energy, thought, paper, carbons, and wear and tear on your typewriter, as well as yourself, and turn out a screen original tailored to the talents of Tom Tuff. If we like it, then we’ll pay you.’’ But do we writers label the guy nuts and call Mayor Bowron’s nearest minion of the law?
Alas, too many of us scurry right home and start to turn out our masterpieces purely on speculation, and the more tailor-made the script, the greater our waste of time should it be rejected. How many of us realize that we’re the only one of 276 occupations in the industry that frequently turns out work on order for nothing? The actor doesn’t act on speculation, the director doesn’t direct on spec, the set designer doesn’t design on spec, the costumer doesn’t sew a single stitch on spec, and if you suggested working on spec to any studio worker, he’d have Herb Sorrell or the I.A.T.S.E. on your tail.
Get this scene: Louis B. Mayer says to Mervyn LeRoy: “You
MARTIN FIELD, playwright and novelist, has been working in Hollywood for the last year. He is currently completing a novel.
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