Last week we discussed author David C. Tucker’s new
book: S. Sylvan Simon, Moviemaker – Adventures with Lucy,
Red Skelton and Harry Cohn in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Have a look at that review here. Today I’m pleased to continue the discussion
with an interview with Mr. Tucker….
JTL: In your preface you describe discovering
S. Sylvan Simon's credits years ago as a fan of Lucille Ball and The
Fuller Brush Girl. How did you come to explore the possibility that Simon
might be a person whose career you'd like to learn more about and write about
in a book?
DCT: In many of the books I’ve read about
Lucille Ball, it seemed as if her prowess with physical comedy went completely
unnoticed in Hollywood prior to I Love
Lucy. As I said in my book, Jess Oppenheimer deserves a huge portion of
credit for making My Favorite Husband
a hit radio show, and giving her the showcase of a lifetime on TV. But when you
look at films like Her Husband’s Affairs,
Miss Grant Takes Richmond, and
especially The Fuller Brush Girl, all
of which Simon either produced or directed, and all of which preceded I Love Lucy, it’s abundantly clear that
he recognized quite clearly what she did best. When you add to that the fact
that he directed some of Red Skelton’s best films, and also collaborated with
Abbott and Costello, this is someone whose mastery of comedy is undeniable. I
initially started the project unsure whether I could uncover enough material to
give Simon the tribute he deserved, since so much time had passed. But the
material just kept coming, and it reinforced my belief that this was a story
that should be told.
JTL: I
admire the thoroughness of your research regarding the many details of his
filmography and also the aspects of his career that are often given short
shrift by entertainment biographers: regional theatre, radio, etc. I was very
interested in reading about the collections of short plays he wrote for
youngsters. What were the particular challenges of research on Simon and how
did you meet them?
DCT: Thank you! I knew going
in that it would be difficult to find people who had known him personally,
nearly sixty years after his death. But I persisted, and was able to interview
not only several former child actors who’d appeared in his movies, but also
people like his 98-year-old nephew.
The single biggest break, of course,
was when his family provided me access to the leather-bound scripts of the
films he directed. They often had notes in the margins, pages showing dialogue
changes, on-set photographs, and sometimes memorabilia. There was a hilarious
series of notes from his friend Chuck Granucci, a prop master, making mock
complaints about life on the set. I was also fortunate to be in touch with the
daughters of character actor Arthur Space, and consult his extensive letters
and diaries that talked about working with Simon, whom he had known since they were
both affiliated with a theatrical troupe before their Hollywood days. Another
lucky break was locating a man who had copies of the newsletters from a summer
camp where Simon attended as a boy, and where he later worked as a faculty
member.
JTL: It
is fortunate that Simon's children are still connected in different ways to the
film industry and contributed to your project. How did you approach them?
DCT: When
I began seeking information on Mr. Simon, I quickly became aware that his
daughter, Susan Granger, was a published movie reviewer, and that her brother,
Stephen, had written a book about his own Hollywood experiences. That made it
fairly easy to contact them both, and they agreed without hesitation to
contribute to my project. With both of them so supportive, willing not only to
give me interviews but point me toward other people, the project became much
more feasible. I particularly admired the fact that Susan, with whom I worked
the most, never tried to control what I published, but as a writer herself
understood that I needed to go wherever my research led.
JTL: It
must have been a great thrill to interview by phone Jane Powell, Margaret
O'Brien, and Arlene Dahl. What was that experience like?
DCT: That
was very exciting, as was interviewing Terry Moore, still a newcomer when she appeared
in Simon’s film Son of Lassie.
Margaret O’Brien has an amazing memory for those films she made as a little
girl, and really made me feel as if I had been there when Bad Bascomb was filmed. She was later kind enough to tell me that
she enjoyed the book, learned a good bit about Simon’s career, and intended to
keep it in her personal library.
JTL: It
was evidently a great loss to the film industry for Mr. Simon to have died suddenly
so young at 41 years old. You movingly describe Frank Sinatra's and
Lucille Ball's gratitude toward him for his contribution to their careers.
Could you recount that here?
DCT: In
the last few weeks of his life, Simon had James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity, as a houseguest, working
on adapting the book to the movie screen. Though he didn’t live to see it to
fruition, Simon envisioned Sinatra as Maggio, and threatened to quit his job at
Columbia when Harry Cohn overruled him. As most people know, Ava Gardner later
took up the challenge of getting Sinatra the job, but he never forgot that it
had been Simon’s idea, and expressed his gratitude to Stephen Simon years
later. Similarly, Lucille Ball knew she owed a debt to Simon, who was not only
a personal friend but truly a mentor in terms of encouraging and developing her
flair for comedy. Even years after his death, she told people so, often getting
teary when the subject came up.
JTL: Is there a particular
pleasure for you in pursuing a topic not covered by other entertainment
biographers, plowing new ground, so to speak, rather than covering more
well-known subjects?
DCT: Absolutely.
I’ve always liked Joan Crawford, for example, but there have already been so
many books about her. As a fan, I’d buy a book expecting to get fresh
information, not a rehash of what’s already out there. My publisher, McFarland
and Company, has been very generous about supporting my wish to write about the
topics that interest me most. And I enjoy doing original research, and bringing
readers information they haven’t seen before.
JTL: Aline
MacMahon is a favorite of mine and I was interested to learn in your book of
her family connection to S. Sylvan Simon. Any plans to follow the thread and
write a book on her?
DCT: It’s
definitely something I’ve considered. She’s another one who becomes more
difficult to research as time passes, but I was able to draw on letters she
wrote to her husband, Clarence Stein, a well-known architect. Naturally I
concentrated on the material pertaining to Sylvan Simon and the movie they made
together, Tish. But she and Mr. Stein
were often apart during their marriage, pursuing their individual careers, and
they wrote to each other faithfully.
JTL: You write that Simon's family felt that
the great stress of his work contributed to his early death. Can you speculate
what his goals, and his legacy might have been had he had taken over Harry
Cohn's position at Columbia?
DCT: When
Simon became Cohn’s second-in-command at Columbia, the movie industry was
running scared, feeling the looming threat of television becoming the dominant
entertainment medium. Columbia’s long-profitable B-movie series and comedy
shorts were falling by the wayside, and no one was entirely sure how to get
viewers to leave the house and buy a movie ticket. I think Simon had a keen
sense for how to do that, and would have kept the studio in the black while
making some of the movies he wanted to make. Though Simon was quite capable of handling
war movies, murder mysteries, and pretty much anything else, he did have an
enduring love for comedy, and I think you would have seen that reflected in
Columbia’s output.
Final thoughts from author David C. Tucker:
I love doing a project that combines library and archival
research, genealogy, newspaper files, and personal interviews, but I also make
it a point to view as much of the subject’s work as I can. So if you’ll excuse
me, I’m off to watch another movie. Thanks to you, Jacqueline, and your readers
for plowing through this!
*******
S. Sylvan Simon, Moviemaker – Adventures with Lucy, Red Skelton
and Harry Cohn in the Golden Age of Hollywood is available at the publisher’s website, McFarland,
here. It is also available here at Amazon,
as well as a variety of other online shops.
Have
a look here for links to some of David C. Tucker’s previous books on movie and
television notables:
Gale Storm: A Biography and Career
Record
Martha Raye: Film and Television
Clown
Eve Arden: A Chronicle of All Film,
Television, Radio and Stage, Performances
Shirley Booth: A Biography and
Career Record
Joan Davis: America’s Queen of
Film, Radio and Television Comedy
Lost Laughs of ‘50s and ‘60s
Television
Pine-Thomas Productions: A History
and Filmography
Have
a look here at David C. Tucker’s blog.
