Steven Spielberg (109 page)

Sources on
Amblin’
include the author’s interviews with Silvers, Denis C. Hoffman, Julie Raymond, Burris, Daviau, Donald E. Heitzer, Hal Mann, James Mann, Devorah Mann Hardberger, Belding, Pingitore, Martinelli, and Jerry Pam. Other sources include (I968): “Universal Pacts Pamela McMyler, Steve Spielberg”; “Univ. Pacts Pair”; Loynd, “Shorts Makers Get Short Cut to Success Via Short”; “Pact-Winning Short Will Open Next Week,”
DV,
December 17; advertisement for opening engagement at Crest Theater in Westwood,
LAT,
December 18; “Short Subject
Amblin’ on
Crest Screen,”
LAT,
December 19; and Warga, “The Short Subjects—Much in Little”; also, Atlanta International Film Festival program book, 1969; Morton Moss, “She’s a Sad, Glad Girl” (on McMyler),
LAHE,
December 28, 1971; and Peter Rainer, “Student Films of Welles, Scorsese and Spielberg Offer Lessons in Ambition,”
LAHE,
February 24, 1984. Business documents on
Amblin’
are contained in Hoffman’s 1995 lawsuit against Spielberg (see notes for chapter 2). Spielberg’s claim about Hoffman wanting the possessory credit is from Crawley.

Sources on Sidney J. Sheinberg as a TV executive include Cecil Smith, “There’s No Biz Like TV Film Biz,”
LAT,
January 9, 1969, and “He Makes Universal’s TV Moves,”
LAT,
April 1, 1971; and “Sidney J. Sheinberg,”
D
V
Universal issue, February 6, 1990. Sheinberg’s initial meeting with Spielberg was recalled by Silvers and Medavoy in their interviews with the author and by Sheinberg to Hirschberg and Shah; Spielberg’s recollection is quoted in Crawley. Spielberg’s gift to the Cedars–Sinai Medical Center was reported in “Cedars–Sinai Gets Spielberg Donation,”
DV,
March 29, 1989.

See notes for previous chapter on the release of
Amblin’
and Spielberg’s signing by Universal. Information on film festival screenings of
Amblin’
(1969) is from the author’s interview with Denis C. Hoffman; the Atlanta Film Festival program book; “Universal Enters Short,
Amblin’,
Atlanta Fest,”
HR,
June 2; “
Amblin
[
sic
]
to Venice,”
DV,
June 17; “Hoffman’s
Amblin
[
sic
]
Wins,”
HR,
June 30; and Hoffman, letter to the editor,
HR,
July 24, 1969. Information on the Oscar campaign is from the author’s interviews with Jioffman and the film’s publicist, Jerry Pam; the trade advertisement featuring marijuana ran in
DV,
December 23, 1968. The terms of Spielberg’s initial contract with Universal are from the author’s interview with his agent, Mike Medavoy, and from Cameron. Spielberg’s description of that contract as “the biggest mistake of my life” and information on his amended 1970 agreement with Universal are from Reed; the new contract was reported in “Spielberg Pacted to Produce for U,”
DV,
December 28, 1970.

Information about Spielberg’s departure from Long Beach State is from the CSULB records office. The date he began rehearsing his
Night
Gallery
segment “Eyes” is from the author’s interview with Barry Sullivan and from Army Archerd’s column,
DV,
February 6, 1969, which also includes Crawford’s comment about Spielberg’s age and information about her illness. Universal’s firing of Bette Davis was reported by Julie Raymond. The story of Spielberg’s first meeting with Crawford is
from the author’s interview with Chuck Silvers and from Bob Thomas,
Joan
Crawford:
A
Biography,
Simon & Schuster, 1978 (which also contains an account of the filming, based on Thomas’s interview with Spielberg). Other sources on
Night
Gallery
include the author’s interviews with William
Sackheim and Edward M. Abroms; Joel Engel,
Rod
Serling:
The
Dreams
and
Nightmares
of
Life
in
the
Twilight
Zone,
Contemporary Books, 1989; Gordon F. Sander,
Serling:
The
Rise
and
Twilight
of
Television’s
Last
Angry
Man,
Dutton, 1992; Marc Scott Zicree,
The
Twilight
Zone
Companion
(second edition), Silman-James Press, 1992; “U’s
Night
Gal
lery
First Joan Crawford 2-Hr Vidpic,”
DV,
January 23, 1969; Hull’s
HR
interview with Spielberg on the final day of shooting; and “Lady in the Dark,”
TV
Guide,
August 16, 1969.

Spielberg’s tour of Universal for Michael Crichton was reported by Rick Du Brow, “Beyond Blood and Yucks,”
LAT,
November 6, 1994. The director’s comment on Serling was quoted by Marc Wielage in “Spielberg’s Unknown Video Movies,”
Video
Review,
December 1982. Spielberg’s memorial tribute to Crawford is from Kevin Thomas, “Academy Pays Radiant Tribute to Joan Crawford,”
LAT,
June 27, 1977. He commented on the editing of “Eyes” in Tay Garnett, ed. by Anthony Slide,
Directing:
Learn
from
the
Masters,
Scarecrow Press, 1996. Sources on the
Snow
White
project (based on the Donald Barthelme novella published in
The
New
Yorker,
February 18, 1967) include the author’s interviews with Medavoy and David Giler; Hull; and A. H. Weiler,
“Snow
White
Swings,”
NYT,
February 23, 1969.

The genesis of
The
Sugarland
Express
was related by co-screenwriter Hal Barwood in Reed’s booklet on the film. The article that first attracted Spielberg’s attention, “New Bonnie’n [
sic
]
Clyde,”
Hollywood
Citizen-News,
May 2, 1969, was identified by Spielberg in his interview with Helpern. Other articles on the actual Texas incident include: “Hostage Patrolman Rescued,”
San
Antonio
Evening
News,
May 2, 1969; “Policeman’s Captor Slain by Officers,”
San
Antonio
Express
and
News,
May 3, 1969; “Policeman Abductor Dies of Gun Wounds,”
LAT,
May 3, 1969; “Dent First Shot by Sheriff,”
San
Antonio
Express
and
News,
May 4, 1969; and “Texas Lawmen Dispute
Sugarland,
”
LAT,
November 14, 1975.

Spielberg’s comment about being in a “despondent” state at Universal in 1969 and his subsequent praise of Sid Sheinberg and other executives are from Cameron. Sheinberg recalled Spielberg’s “avant-garde” reputation to Hirschberg. The executive commented on his role in Spielberg’s TV career in Aaron Latham, “MCA’s Bad Cop Shoots from the Hip,”
Manhattan, I
nc.,
July 1988, and praised “Par for the Course” to Kramer.

Spielberg’s representation by Mike Medavoy and Creative Management Associates was discussed with the author by Medavoy; other sources include Spielberg’s comments in Reed, and Claudia Eller, “A Former Agent’s Field(s) of Dreams” (on CMA partner Freddie Fields),
LAT,
June 16, 1995. Carl Gottlieb recalled his and Spielberg’s film projects in an interview with the author and in his book
The
“Jaws”
Log;
Spielberg’s interest in directing
The
Christian
Licorice
Store
was reported by Allen Daviau. Sources on
Ace
Eli
and
Rodger
of
the
Skies
include the author’s interviews with Medavoy, Richard D. Zanuck, and Daviau; “Trio Form Co. for Filming of
Ace
Eli
Pic,”
HR,
and
“Ace
Filming Planned,”
DV,
January 6, 1970; “Pseudonyms Take Credit (or Blame) for
Ace
Eli
&
Rodger
of
the
Skies?”
DV,
February 26, 1973; and reviews by
Murf
(A. D. Murphy),
Variety,
May 2, 1973, and Vincent Canby,
NYT,
March 2, 1974. Spielberg’s opinion of
Ace
Eli
is from Reed.

The order in which Spielberg directed his episodic TV shows is from Tuchman, in which Spielberg identifies “Par for the Course” and “Murder by the Book” as his two best TV episodes. The airdates are from sources including Gianakos,
Television
Drama
Series
Programming,
and reviews in
DV and
HR.
Wielage reported the partial reshooting of “Make Me Laugh” by Jeannot Szwarc. Information on
Whispering
Death
is from the author’s interview with Jeff Corey and from Donna Witzleben, ed.,
Television
Program
ming
Source
Books,
Vol.
2:
Films
M–Z,
1994–95,
North American Publishing Co., 1994.
DV
reviews of Spielberg’s TV shows include:
Daku.
(Dave Kaufman),
Night
Gallery
(“Eyes”), November 10, 1969;
Helm.
(Jack Hellman),
The
Name
of
the
Game
(“LA 2017”),
January 18, 1971; and
Tone.
(Tony Scott),
Columbo
(“Murder by the Book”) and
The
Psychiatrist
(“Par for the Course”), September 16, 1971. John Mahoney reviewed
Night
Gallery
in
HR
on November 11, 1969. NBC promoted “LA 2017” with a full-page advertisement in
DV,
January 15, 1971. The trade ad for “Par for the Course” was printed in
DV
and
HR
on March 10, 1971; Cecil Smith wrote about that program in “A Career Switch for Joan Darling,”
LAT,
January 3, 1973. Joseph E. Boston recalled working with Spielberg on
Marcus
Welby
in an interview with the author and in a September 15, 1994, letter to the author.

Sources on Richard Levinson, William Link, and
Columbo
include the author’s interview with Link; Levinson and Link,
Stay
Tuned:
An
Inside
Look
at
the
Making
of
Prime-Time
Television,
St. Martin’s Press, 1981; Levinson and Link,
Off
Camera:
Conver
sations
with
the
Makers
of
Prime-Time
Television,
New American Library, 1986; Mark Dawidziak,
The
Columbo
Phile:
A
Casebook,
The Mysterious Press, 1989; and David Marc and Robert J. Thompson,
Prime
Time,
Prime
Movers,
Little, Brown, 1992. Peter Falk’s comment on Spielberg is from Michael Leahy, “Raincoat Man,”
TV
Guide,
December 14, 1991.

Spielberg recalled “some bad experiences with TV stars” in Paul Rosenfield,
The
Club
Rules,
Warner Books, 1992. His 1995 summation of his period as a TV contract director is from “The Film School Generation” segment of
American
Cinema
(PBS). The February 9, 1971, southern California earthquake was reported in various
LAT
articles, February 10–11. Information on Spielberg’s house in Laurel Canyon is from Klemesrud and the author’s interviews with Ralph Burns and Joan Darling.

The comments on Spielberg by Billy Wilder and Barry Diller are from Haber.

Sources on
Duel
include the author’s interviews with Richard Matheson, George Eckstein, Frank Morriss, Carey Loftin, and Joan Darling; “Richard Burton Matheson,”
Contemporary
Authors,
Gale Research Co., 1981; Cecil Smith, “The Making of a 4–Wheel Monster,”
LAT,
November 8, 1971; “French Prize to
Duel,
”
DV,
February 22, 1973; “New Award to
Duel,
”
DV,
July 27, 1973; “Spielberg Ducks Politics,”
Variety,
September 12, 1973; “Universal Sets
Duel
Release, 1st Spielberg Pic,”
DV,
February 14, 1983; Jack Searles, “Can 12-Year-Old TV Film Make It in Theaters?”
LAHE,
February 15, 1983; Deborah Caulfield, “Spielberg’s TV
Duel
Revived for Theaters,”
LAT,
February 16, 1983; and “No Sale,”
LAHE,
July 21, 1983. Matheson’s short story was published in
Playboy,
April 1971; his teleplay is dated September 1, 1971. Shooting dates and information about the filming of the climactic scene are from notes in Morriss’s cutting script. Critical commentary includes Stephen King,
Danse
Macabre,
Everest House, 1981, and reviews by
Tone.
(Tony Scott),
DV,
November 15, 1971, and Dilys Powell,
Sunday
Times
of
London,
October 1972, reprinted in Christopher Cook, ed.,
The
Dilys
Powell
Film
Reader,
Oxford University Press, 1992. Full-page advertisements promoting
Duel
appeared in
DV and
HR
on November 12, 1971. David Lean’s comment is from Corliss, “‘I Dream for a Living.’”

Directorial assignments on
McKlusky
(released as
White
Lightning)
were reported in “Steve Spielberg Directs UA Film,”
HR,
March 1, 1972, and “Sargent to Direct Reynolds’
McKlusky,
”
DV,
April 28, 1972. Sources on
Something
Evil
include the author’s interviews with Jeff Corey, Margaret Avery, and Darling, and an interview with Bill Butler in Dennis Schaefer and Larry Salvato,
Masters
of
Light:
Conversations
with
Contemporary
Cinematographers,
University of California Press, 1984; the review by
Daku.
(Dave Kaufman) appeared in
DV,
January 25, 1972. Sources on
Savage
include the author’s interviews with William Link and Barry Sullivan; Martin Landau’s comments in Lee Goldberg,
Unsold
Television
Pilots:
1955
through
1988,
McFarland, 1990; and the
DV
review by
Tone.
(Tony Scott), April 2,1973.