WEBVTT - Saving the Studio 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:13.960 From Airmail and iHeartMedia. This is Leave the Gun, Take 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:18.360 the Canoli, the epic story of the making of The Godfather. 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:20.919 Based on the book by the same name. This show 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:22.759 will attempt to tell the story of the men and 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:26.200 women responsible for the greatest film of all time and 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:28.040 those who tried to stand in its way. 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:31.840 The Five Families did not want us to shoot that 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:33.000 picture in New York. 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.040 He said, as long as I'm president of Paramount, there 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.200 is no way that Ryan Rendo will play this role. 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:41.559 So this is going on and on and on, and 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:43.720 Francis just got. 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:44.440 So sick of everything. 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:49.040 He goes, I'm going to sicily just cast my fucking movie. 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:50.040 Excuse my language. 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:55.800 My kids came in all hysterical. They'd heard gunshots, and 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.000 they went outside and all the windows had been shot 0:00:59.040 --> 0:00:59.840 out of the fuss over. 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.360 He was consumed. He was taking us down. Put crash 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:07.440 us out of there, and say the piction. 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:15.000 I'm Mark Seal, author of Leave the Gun, Take the Canoli, 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.120 published by Simon and Schuster in twenty twenty. 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:23.280 One, and I'm Nathan King, deputy editor at dearmoul I. 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.120 Came to this story in two thousand and eight. I 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:30.040 was a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. What started out 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.160 as a magazine assignment about the making of The Godfather 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.839 turned into an all consuming hunt for the truth behind 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:41.400 this film that took over my life for almost twenty years. 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.160 And resulted in Mark's hit book that would become known 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.160 as the definitive Truth behind a story filled with so 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:47.960 many lies. 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.640 But the truth is fickle, and to this day, the 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.200 principles of this story have different versions of how it 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:56.320 all unfolded. 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:59.360 Over the next ten episodes, we'll hear from all of them, 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.280 with never before heard interview tapes of the men and 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:04.920 women Mark spoke with when writing his book. 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:07.960 As well as some brand new interviews and rarely heard 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:09.320 archival tape. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.440 The stories they tell are sometimes hard to believe and 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.360 will let you be the judge of what's fact and 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.040 what's not. But what we can promise is that this 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.560 show will take you through everything we know about the film, 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:22.920 from the origins of organized crime in America and the 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:27.000 writing of Mario Puzo's novel to casting, filming, and The 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:28.760 Godfather's rapturous premiere. 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:32.960 In this episode, we're starting at what might seem like 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:37.960 an unusual place, a Hollywood producer's bedroom. This is really 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:39.480 the first interview I've done in bed. 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:42.480 That's very funny. 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.880 Robert Evans was one of the most legendary producers in 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:50.880 Hollywood history. He helped rescue Paramount from a shameful demise 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.800 with pictures like Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, and of course 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:55.760 The Godfather. 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:58.240 It's cool be the Godfather's Godfather. 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.720 As the head of production, and Evans was involved in 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:03.560 every aspect of the movie. 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.800 Take the Food antire four years, there's a lot of 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:09.320 fights and everything. 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.280 He financed the struggling author of the novel on which 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:14.840 the movie is based. 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.680 A very good writer named Mary Apruzzo, Short and green. 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.160 He green lit the film's development. 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:22.920 Nobody wanted to make it. 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.440 As a matter of fact, Peramount refused to make it 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:26.040 for a while. 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:28.720 He hired its producer and its director. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.920 He is opreading Francis Upretting, and. 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.680 He fostered the film's legend before and after its release. 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:39.040 It's my most supporting legacy in life. 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.520 Like so many others involved in the movie, Robert Evans 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.240 died while we were making this podcast, and we're honored 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:47.080 to tell his story. 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:52.040 Here picture this. I'm in a rent car coming from 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:56.560 Los Angeles International Airport and I drive to Robert Evans's 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.840 home called Woodland. And as I pulled up to Woodland, 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:05.000 I have no idea what I'm getting into. I'm reminded 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.160 of how Robert Evans described this place in his memoir 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:10.480 The kid stays in the picture. 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.040 The grounds, the trees, the acreage, the towering eucalyptus, thousands 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:15.640 of roses. 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.400 Everything is quiet and secret behind walls. 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.719 I get out of the car, I knock on the door. 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.719 It swings open, and there's this butler, Alan Selka, to 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.440 welcome me. Come in, mister Seal, Mister Evans is awaiting you. 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.720 Memorabilia from the movie is laid across the dining room table. 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:38.200 There's pictures, there's clippings, there's plaques, maybe an award or two. 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.760 And as I'm looking at all of these things, suddenly 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:46.159 the room turns silent, and Robert Evans walks in and 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:50.840 it's a typically grand entrance. He's seventy eight, but I'm 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.400 reminded of the actor he once was. He's wearing his 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.839 trademark black sweater and bolo tie. His black hair is 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:04.120 slicked back, his face is deeply tanned. He flashes a wide, 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:08.240 dazzling grin and stares at me through rose colored glasses, 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.880 and then he speaks, in his gravelly. 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:13.560 Voice, it's stranger than fiction. 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.600 He shakes my hand and prepares to tell me the 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:22.520 saga of the movie that he considered both his legacy 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:26.920 and his loss, the movie that made him and destroyed him. 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:32.400 And then Evans, a legendary le thario, looks me in 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:36.760 the eye and says, let's go to bed. I'll admit 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.680 I was a little taken aback. I don't think I 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.640 got out much except to what Evans explains that a 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.000 fire had consumed his screening room and now he and 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.279 his friends watch movies from his bed. So he leads 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.680 me into the bedroom and I stare for a moment 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.920 at his bed, which was large and covered in fur, 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.560 and he says, would you rather watch the movie in bed? 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.000 Or I'd you rather use the chair? And I say, frankly, 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:06.719 I think I'd rather be in the chair, and he 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:11.400 goes take those shoes off, and pretty soon we're lying 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.919 side by side on top of this fur coverlet. He 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:19.880 calls in the butler, Alan, who arrives with food, drinks, 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.839 and a huge TV. Is queued up with scenes from 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:28.720 the Godfather. It's clear there's a big story to tell, 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:30.599 and it may take a while. 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:35.800 It just be it. Godfather is Nahor and the State. 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:38.920 Mark. 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.400 You've been researching and reporting on the myth behind this 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.240 film for almost twenty years, but your obsession with the 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:46.760 movie started much earlier than that. 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.960 That's true. It really started in March of nineteen seventy two. 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.599 When I first saw the movie. I was nineteen years old, 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.400 and one afternoon, some friends and I decided to go 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:01.360 see a movie. And I knew asolutely nothing about this 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:07.000 movie except on the marquee had said two words, the Godfather. 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.520 I walk into the theater, the lights go down, and 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:15.760 the music comes up. The Godfather logo comes on the screen, 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:20.080 and the moon face of the Undertaker Bonas Sara comes 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:21.280 out of the darkness and. 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:23.600 He says, I believe in America. 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.040 This is a movie I soon realize about family and 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:33.200 expectations and legacy, and I started thinking about my own 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.680 family and my own future, which was sort of unsettled. 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:36.840 Then. 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.520 I didn't know really what I wanted to do. But 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.680 by the time the movie was over, I felt suddenly 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.800 a sense of purpose, of wanting to do something in the. 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.600 Arts, which is how you ended up in Robert Evans's 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:53.080 bet thirty five years later. Exactly how did you land 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.080 the Vanity Fair story? It seems like it would be 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:56.240 a dream come true for you. 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:58.960 It was because at the time I was new to 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.160 the magazine and the stories that I did were crime 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:06.320 scandal stories that would get me into the pages because 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.200 they were kind of a must read story of the moment, 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:12.280 And you couldn't hold these kinds of stories because the 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:14.960 crime had just happened or the scandal had just occurred. 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.280 The film stories, on the other hand, were for film writers, 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.320 and I wasn't really a film writer at that point, 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.920 certainly not for Vanity Fair magazine. So when I had 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.160 the idea to do the story about the making of 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.800 the movie of the Godfather, I thought I would be 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:33.200 the most unlikely writer to get the job. I thought 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.400 that the editor of the magazine, Graydon Carter, who is 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.000 now the editor of Airmail, he could give it to 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.319 any of his season film writers, which Vanity Fair had 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.400 in abundance. But I dutifully wrote a pitch and gave 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:50.160 it to my editor, the great Wayne Lawson and Wade 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:52.520 said we'll see what Grayden says. So he took it 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:56.000 to Graydon and suddenly they said, you're on. 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:59.040 And when you started reporting the story, you started with 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:00.640 Robert Evans exactly. 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.959 I started with Robert Evans. But soon all roads led 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:08.840 to a man equally as mythic as Evans, Charlie Bluedorn. 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.200 He bought Paramount in nineteen sixty six, and he was 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:17.520 known as Hurricane Charlie, an Austrian born business titan with 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:22.640 an insatiable appetite for acquiring companies. His story begins at 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.240 age nineteen in nineteen forty two. Charlie was the son 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.000 of a Jewish mother and he was enrolled in the 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:33.120 Carlton School for Boys in Yorkshire, England, and his parents, 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.560 who had already left war torn Europe for America, gave 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:42.720 him a two word directive, leave immediately. So he boards 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:47.080 the HMS Hillary bound for America, and it was trailed 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:52.840 by Nazi submarines intent on seeking it. But thankfully Charlie 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:54.040 made it to America. 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.080 And so he gets to America, mark and what does 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:57.600 he do. 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:02.040 Well, he immediately starts work. His daughter told me that 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.160 there was never a day in Charlie Bluedorn's life when 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.440 he wasn't thinking about business or working a business. And 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.880 there's a story when he was a very, very young man, 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.000 he got a job as a broker in a commodity's 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:18.160 house in New York City and he was soon bringing 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.040 in a million dollars a year into this small company. 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:27.400 And Charlie had the ability to sell anything in everything, 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.559 even spaghetti, which he was selling to, of all places, Italy, 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:35.240 as if Italy didn't already have enough spaghetti. Then he 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:37.800 got into the coffee business, and then he got into 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:42.160 the autoparts business, and really he had his hands in everything, 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.160 which is how he started his company, which became a 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:50.160 conglomerate he called Gulf and Western, which signaled his ambitions 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.080 to stretch from the Gulf of Mexico to the western 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:54.199 Canadian border. 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:58.920 Blue Dorn had a huge appetite for what most people 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.520 would consider it will advised business ventures. He loved what 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.760 he called rec jobs, which are businesses that are almost 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:09.400 beyond repair. And in nineteen sixty six he bought what 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:11.360 he thought was the biggest wreck job of them all, 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:12.520 Paramount Pictures. 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.959 That's right. Paramount was once the fabled studio that produced 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:23.439 so many classics, Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend Breakfast at Tiffany's. 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:26.800 The list goes on and on and on. But by 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:31.120 the sixties, Paramount was in trouble. Robert Evans famously once 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:33.800 said there were eight major studios at the time, and 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:38.280 Paramount was ninth. And Hurricane Charlie felt like he wanted 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:41.320 to buy something that he could revive. The only thing 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.480 in this case is that Charlie knew absolutely nothing about 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:45.760 the movie business. 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.360 And that fits with what Barry Diller said about him, 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:50.600 which is that to Charlie, the only thing that was 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.599 worth anything was doing the impossible. 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:57.040 Yes, and Paramount was the impossible job. Like so many 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.960 immigrants to America, Charlie thought what could be more America? 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.120 And then Hollywood and movies and the dreams that they sold. 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.840 I mean, he loved what he called the Schmaltz factor. 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:09.000 Movies like Doctor j Evago and the sound of music. 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.640 All of these things represented America to him, and he 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:17.000 thought he could identify this secret ingredient that made the magic. 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:19.840 So he felt like he could run the studio, at 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.280 least in the beginning. And Charlie, who knew nothing about 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:27.000 running a studio, who knew nothing about movies except what 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.679 he'd seen on the screen, started getting into the editing 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.160 room and saying things like, I'm going to remake this 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:34.400 whole goddamn town. 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.000 How did that work for him? Thinking that he could 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:39.320 re engineer Hollywood. 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.160 Well, as you can imagine, it really didn't work out. 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:46.440 He produced a movie called is Paris Burning. It premiered 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.600 in Paris, no less. It was a big, big budget movie, 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.920 but the reviews were quite big, big brutal. Mad magazine 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.920 even said it should be called is Paris Boring. It 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:01.040 was something of a flop, but Charlie persevered. He would 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.360 walk through the back lot of Paramount and through the 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.960 Bonanza set and felt like the studio was just filled 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.839 with older men who were out of touch, and that 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.160 he was going to remake and rekindle that old Paramount 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:17.439 magic again. And Hollywood took one look at Charlie Bluehorn 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:19.840 and many people laughed. 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:24.360 They called him a cliche, a show business neophyte who 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.160 had no sense of what art is, and they sort 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.559 of dismissed him as a know nothing. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.440 Yes, but he proved him wrong, because underneath the scorn 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:39.800 and the laughter, Charlie was smart. He was brilliant. He 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.280 knew he had to do something, and what he had 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.040 to do was find what he called and this was 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.280 one of his favorite terms, a genius. 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.480 And by genius he means artistic genius. 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.640 Right well, I think he meant a business genius, someone 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.480 who could guide him through the treacheries of Hollywood, which 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:00.760 can be a cutthroat town if you don't know what 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.120 you're doing. He wanted a genius to help him revive 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.960 the studio, revive the magic to make the movies like 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.439 Paramount used to make. And that's how he found the 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:15.439 most unlikely genius of them all, Robert Evans. 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:18.920 Where did he dig up Evans? 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.400 Funny enough, he found him in the New York Times. 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.000 It was an article written by Peter Bard, a young 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:27.120 reporter who we'll talk about later, and the story was 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.480 about this rising producer who was on the lookout for 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.840 books and scripts and properties that he could make into films. 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.200 And the headline was, and I love this one. I 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:39.600 like it, I want it. Let's sew it up. 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.080 Mark That headline sort of gives you a hint as 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.320 to what Robert Evans was doing before he got in 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:47.480 the producing business exactly. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.040 So Evans was in the clothing business. He and his brother, 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.640 Charlie Evans were partners in a company called Evan Pocone 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:59.480 Clothing Company, and so Bob traveled to La often. And 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:01.560 one day he's sitting out by the pool at the 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.880 Beverly Hills Hotel, and this shows how lucky Evans was. 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.960 Norma Shearer, the famous actress, was on the lookout for 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.440 the perfect actor to play her late husband, the producer 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:17.160 Irving Lahlberg, in a movie called The Man with a 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:21.280 Thousand Faces, and she took one look at Evans by 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:25.280 the pool, who was so handsome and deeply tanned, and said, 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.880 that's him. So she sends her new husband over to 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.920 make an introduction. The three of them get to talking 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:35.800 and Shearer ask Evans if he's an actor, and Evans, 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:40.280 being Evans, says no, I'm in ladies' pants. It's nineteen 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:41.479 fifty six. 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:43.920 And just like that, Robert Evans is an actor. 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:47.360 It's as easy as that. He stars in the movie 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:50.800 The Man with a Thousand Faces with no less than 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:55.200 James Cagney, and pretty soon he's in other films, including 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:59.240 the Sun Also Rises, And according to Evans, the cast 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.800 and crew were It's so skeptical about his acting abilities 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.440 that some of them threatened to walk off the set 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:09.160 over it. And Darryl Zanik, the producer, heard about it, 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:14.080 and in the classic scene with a bullhorn, while Evans 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:18.200 is in the bullfighting ring, Zanick yells out, the kid 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:22.880 stays in the picture, and that becomes the title of 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.280 Robert Evans's autobiography. 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:28.560 So he's working as an actor. How does he get 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:29.200 into production. 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:31.960 Well, you can say a lot of things about Robert Evans, 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.560 but one thing is he's really smart. He's a businessman, 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:39.640 first of all, and he started inquiring properties, including a novel, 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.840 The Detective, which he produced and was a fairly substantial hit, 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:48.120 starring Frank Sinatra of all people. And suddenly Evans is 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:50.800 a producer and he became a man about town. 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:53.760 And this is when Peter bart starts to take notice. 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.280 He's a young writer, fresh from New York in Hollywood 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.040 to write stories about the town. 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.640 Guy, to come out here tell you like this, it 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:03.360 was a great job. 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.440 He keeps hearing about Robert Evans and he thinks to himself, 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:08.760 this is the perfect story. 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.199 I will kind of a snarky piece about how this 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:16.480 guy from the garment business. He was buying books and 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:18.840 making deals for himself. And he knew as he was saying, 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.960 sort of a glam story about how somebody he had 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:24.120 a time when Hollywood was in its gold Brooks could 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:24.560 come in. 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:25.240 And have an impact. 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:29.000 Yes, and it gets better. Charlie Bluedorn reads the story 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.400 about Robert Evans and the New York Times. 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.320 What I wrote, which talked about what a sub promoter 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:38.600 Bob was. Charlie said, Ah, this guy's a fucking guy's 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:39.240 a sup promoter. 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:41.920 He may be a good guy for me. He gets 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:44.680 on the phone and he says, get Evans up here. 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.320 And Evans said, he wasn't interested. He's out in Hollywood. 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:50.320 What's he want to go to New York for, especially 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.119 to meet the new owner of Paramount Pictures, the Last 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:57.760 Place studio. But his lawyer, the legendary Greg Baltzer, says 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.600 Charlie Bluedoor, and he's a true operator. When he wants something, 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:03.800 he wants said you should get up there and meet him. 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.760 Evans was reluctant, of course, but he goes to New York. 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:12.280 He meets Blueorn and like a miracle, like something out 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:17.320 of the movie. Charlie Bludorn taps Robert Evans to run Paramount, 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.679 first stationing him in London and then bringing him to 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:22.800 la as the head of production. 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:27.400 So Charlie Bludorn picked Robert Evans to run Paramount all 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.080 on a hunch. In a New York Times article. 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.800 Yeah, and blue Doorn's wife would later say that maybe 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:36.600 he picked him because he was handsome, he was glamorous, 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.240 he could fit into the town. But if blue Dorn 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.960 was considered a laughingstock when he bought Paramount, oh my gosh, 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:46.240 Evans was even more so because people said, what does 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.679 he know about motion pictures? He's never really produced a movie. 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:52.879 What was Evans's directive from blue Dorn. 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:57.639 Nothing short of this, save this studio, green light and 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:02.160 produce hits quick. Blue Doorn told him, Bobby, I want 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.199 twenty pictures a year from you. I want pictures that 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:08.080 people in Cincinnati are gonna want to see. I want 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.639 beautiful girls, I want action, I want fun. 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.719 Charlie had boundless energy and enthusiasm, and it seems like 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.960 Evans fed off of that. His first order of business 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:19.960 was to find his own right hand man. 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.639 Right yes, and this is where it gets even crazier. 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:26.280 Who does he hire as his right hand man, but 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:28.960 the author of the New York Times story about him 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.919 which got him his job, the reporter Peter Bark. 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:36.520 You get the sense that none of these people actually 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.879 knew anyone. They kind of just, you know, hired the 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:41.399 first person that came to mind. 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.760 It was a comedy of errors. It started that way anyway. 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:47.400 Everybody was laughing about these new hires. 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:50.440 I took there because Bob was a friend of mine, 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.880 and he was in a bit over his head and said, 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.480 you know, I've got to work with me. The brine 0:19:57.520 --> 0:19:58.920 will leave the brine. 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.080 What was their strategy? How are Evans and bar going 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:02.960 to save the studio? 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:07.320 Where their strategy was really pretty simple. Peter Bart was 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:11.480 a voracious reader, and Robert Evans, who might not have 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:14.639 been respected his taste in novels. He was looking for 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:18.000 hot properties, best selling books that could be turned into films. 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.040 You know, with all of the attributes that bluedrn had 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.440 directed him to find films that could save the studio. 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:29.199 And as it turns out, Evans's hunch about Peter Bart 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.800 was actually right. They started unearthing these great stories and 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:36.360 hit books and best sellers that they could make into films. 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:41.440 They produced The Odd Couple, Rosemary's Baby, and then finally 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:45.480 a thin book, which became an even thinner script, which 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:50.560 turned into a huge hit for Paramount. Love Story, starring 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:53.160 Evans's future wife Ali McGraw. 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.760 Exactly, and Love Story was a smash hit. Evans liked 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.119 to say that people were crying so hard the audience 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:02.960 turned into one big Kleenex. 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:05.320 But as big of a hit as the film was, 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:07.760 they'd need a bigger reprieve for Paramount. 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:10.440 Yeah, a Love Story, as I wrote in the book, 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:15.400 was a reprieve, not a rescue. They needed another hit, 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:18.840 an even bigger hit, and that's when they found the 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:21.199 novel that will become The Godfather. 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:24.639 So let's talk about how Paramount came to acquire the 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:25.800 rights to The Godfather. 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:28.520 Well, this is another one of the biggest myths of 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:31.159 the Godfather. And who knows what's true and what's not. 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.280 But Evans knows how to tell a story. He knows 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:36.479 how to make a myth out of reality. And this 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:40.119 is what he told me. A guy named George Weezer, 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.960 a veteran of the New York literary scene, calls him 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:45.880 up one day and ask him for a favor. 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:52.800 He had from George Weezer above the Palamid. He's a 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:56.640 writer named Mary Epuso, a very good writer. He's real, 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.520 short and green. He's the deep of the bookies. Here's 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.800 the bookies, a lot of money and he has thirty 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:06.040