Saroyan on Screen Podcast Por Forever Saroyan LLC arte de portada

Saroyan on Screen

Saroyan on Screen

De: Forever Saroyan LLC
Escúchala gratis

We look at the works of William Saroyan brought to screen between the early 1940s into the 2020s. From his interactions with Louis B. Mayer and MGM, to James Cagney, t0 his film work in the Army, and the many television adaptations, we look at the many works of Saroyan that were brought to life...and a few that never saw the light of day.Copyright 2026 Arte Entretenimiento y Artes Escénicas Mundial
Episodios
  • S1E4 - Saroyan & MGM after The Human Comedy
    Mar 5 2026
    Transcript Saroyan & MGM After The Human Comedy While there was at least some accrimony still following Saroyan’s leaving MGM after not being chosen to direct The Human Comedy, it was not actually the end of Saroyan’s association with the studio, nor those who worked there. There was, however, some issue between Saroyan and Mayer that Saroyan absolutely played up for the Hollywood gossip mongers. It’s true that Saroyan did often refer to Mayer as “The Con” for what he saw as a bait-and-switch when he bought Saroyan’s treatment for The Human Comedy but did not let him direct the picture. All this played out publically while Saroyan and Mayer spoke on the phone, exchanged at least a few letters and telegrams, and encountered each other at least once in person. A complicating factor here was that Saroyan had enlisted in the Army and was newly-married. Saroyan had been in contact with MGM throughout the production of The Human Comedy and one letter, in particular, showed that Saroyan wasn’t happy with MGM and was talking about it. “I am now at work on a new play, tentitively entitled “Get Away Old Man” which I shall produce in New York very early in the coming season. The play is now half-finished and will be finished this Sunday, May 10. If purchased now by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, sight-unseen, I will let it go for $250,000.” He added that after May 10, he’d be auctioning off the work with the starting bid being $300,000 dollars. Get Away Old Man is a play about a Hollywood executive and a writer. The Executive, Mr. Patrick Hammer, hires a writer, Mr. Bird, to write Ave Maria, the greatest story ever written for the screen. The two go back and forth, with Hammer calling in his bulldog fixer, Manheim, to get Bird to finish Ave Maria. In the meantime, Bird has fallen in love with Martha, a player at the studio, and goes off to marry her, leading Hammer to have to figure out exactly how much it’s going to cost him to get the Ave Maria script out of Bird. Storywise, it doesn’t bear much resemblance to the situation between Mayer and Saroyan during the lead-up to The Human Comedy, but there are some things that make it clear what’s going on and who is who. He makes sure to feature a player piano. Saroyan had requisitioned a player piano and a number of piano rolls for it when he got an office of his own on the MGM lot. That fact had been widely reported on in the trades, including by Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper, which would make it instantly recogniseable that Saroyan was Bird, though many audiences would have figured that anyhow. Much of his audience figured that all of Saroyan’s works were autobiographical. Manheim was clearly meant to be Eddie Mannix, and he was presented as a heavy. Mannix was considered to be exactly that by most in the MGM orbit. He was the legendary cleaner, erasing scandals for Mayer constantly. The real key to this is the way that Hammer is presented which clearly commented on Mayer. The first is that Ave Maria was specifically being written as a way for Hammer to atone for his sinful life and leave behind something of true loving value. Mayer had wanted Saroyan to write a piece that was a celebration of America and full of Saroyan’s well-known optimism. That may actually be Saroyan mythologizing himself in his writing. It was clear that Mayer liked Saroyan, enjoyed talking with him despite seemingly having little time to spend with him. The ‘sinful life’ that Saroyan wrote about would have been shocking at the time, but today is absolutely old hat. Hammer calls a young starlet with the intention of bedding her. In the 80 years since, this theme may feel a bit played out, but it was still fresh at that point. Later biographers of those around MGM noted that Mayer likely abused several of his young starlets, including Judy Garland. That sort of thing was never made public before, and if Get Awat Old Man had been a newspaper report or newreel, it would have been quashed by Mannix. That it was being said in a play made it a much more difficult matter. While Saroyan had written the play, it was not performed until November, 1943, and not published until May, 1944. The existing letters between Saroyan and Mayer seem to end shortly after the release of The Human Comedy, the latest being from April, 1943. Saroyan, for his part, claimed the Hammer was not Mayer, but was an amalgamation of many Hollywood types. Either way, the play was a flop, and George Stevens, famed filmmaker and later Army buddy of Saroyan’s, said he couldn’t understand how a talent like Saroyan, having written a masterpiece like The Human Comedy, could turn around and write something as bad as Get Away Old Man. And that was from his friend! The critics savaged the piece, and it ran for only 13 performances. As noted in our last episode, Saroyan had said he had let go of his anger over their professional differences in a letter written after Saroyan had paid a visit to the set of...
    Más Menos
    22 m
  • S1E3 - Saroyan & MGM - The Human Comedy
    Mar 3 2026
    ## The Human Comedy (1943) – Show Notes \& Research Links **Directed by:** Clarence Brown**Screenplay:** Howard Estabrook**Story by:** William Saroyan**Starring:** Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, James Craig, Marsha Hunt, Fay Bainter**Studio:** Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)**Release Year:** 1943 *** ## 🔗 Primary Film References IMDb[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036000/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036000/) TCM (Turner Classic Movies)https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/78965/the-human-comedy AFI Catalog Entryhttps://catalog.afi.com/Film/613-THE-HUMAN-COMEDY Rotten Tomatoeshttps://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/human\_comedy\_1943 AllMoviehttps://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-human-comedy-v23823 *** ## 📚 Literary Source – William Saroyan **Original Novel:** _The Human Comedy_ (1943)Author: William Saroyan Library of Congress Recordhttps://lccn.loc.gov/43011845 Open Libraryhttps://openlibrary.org/works/OL45809W/The\_Human\_Comedy Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/143284.The\_Human\_Comedy William Saroyan Biography – Poetry Foundationhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-saroyan William Saroyan – Encyclopaedia Britannica[https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Saroyan](https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Saroyan) Forever Saroyan - http://www.foreversaroyan.com *** ## 🎭 Cast \& Key Figures **Mickey Rooney**IMDb: [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001683/](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001683/) **Frank Morgan**IMDb: [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0604607/](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0604607/) **Spencer Tracy** (Uncredited cameo)IMDb: [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001805/](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001805/) **Clarence Brown (Director)**IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0113673/ *** ## 📰 Contemporary \& Historical Context World War II Homefront Overview – National WWII Museumhttps://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/home-front-during-world-war-ii MGM Studio History – Encyclopaedia Britannicahttps://www.britannica.com/topic/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer-Inc Academy Awards (1943–44 Ceremony)[https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1944](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1944) *** ## 🏆 Awards \& Recognition Academy Award for Best Story (William Saroyan)Oscar Database Entry[https://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/](https://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/) National Board of Review – 1943 Winners[https://nationalboardofreview.org/award-years/1943/](https://nationalboardofreview.org/award-years/1943/) *** ## 📖 Themes for Discussion - Small-town America during WWII - The emotional toll of wartime telegrams - The American postal system as narrative device - Idealism vs. realism in Saroyan’s writing - MGM wartime sentimentality - Spencer Tracy’s surprise appearance - Saroyan’s complicated relationship with Hollywood *** ## 🎧 Suggested Companion Viewing / Reading _The Time of Your Life_ (Saroyan play)https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Time-of-Your-Life The Saroyan Prize – Stanford Universityhttps://english.stanford.edu/creative-writing/william-saroyan-international-prize-writing Fresno County Historical Societyhttps://valleyhistory.org/
    Más Menos
    18 m
  • S1E2 - Saroyan at MGM - The Good Job
    Mar 2 2026
    Episode Notes

    Sources for this episode include Saroyan's letters and journals at Stanford's Green Library, letters at the Fresno Public Library, The Daring Young Man by John Leggett, Saroyan's books Not Dying, Here Comes There Goes You KNow Who, and Places Where I've Done Time.

    Más Menos
    21 m
Todavía no hay opiniones