Show Business: The Book Buyer

Not too long after Hollywood learned to talk it also learned to read, and producers have always liked movies about books—or at least about book titles. But never before have the moviemakers so eagerly turned the bestseller lists into production schedules. Hollywood now has nearly 500 books in some stage of production. The man who is leading the book trend, galley proofs flying and reading glasses agleam, is a glib, moon-faced middleman of culture named Jerry Wald.

Producer Wald (20th Century-Fox) is running up new box-office records with Peyton Place, has a dozen other books (from Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio to Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury) either almost in the can or getting ready for the cameras. When there are not enough books to his liking on the market, Wald invents some. For years he saved clippings on the subject of young college-grad career girls in the big city, finally talked to Simon and Schuster’s late editor. Jack Goodman, who passed the tip on to a promising young writer (and Radcliffe graduate) named Rona Jaffe. Result: The Best of Everything, Author Jaffe’s bestseller (TIME, Sept. 15), which Wald duly bought for $100,000.

No Pants. A jowly, barrel-shaped operator addicted to ice-cream sodas, Wald is at his bungalow office on the Fox lot every day at 7 a.m. For three hours he reads, reads, reads (“I can finish a book between 7 and 10”) and chatters his reactions into a recording machine. His interest in books dates back to his days at N.Y.U.. where he studied under Thomas Wolfe. Wald did not forget that prolix prose poet’s advice: “Gentlemen, never write anything but masterpieces; there’s such a good market for them.” Says Wald: “That’s a pretty good idea for movies too.” In 1933 Wald sold a story to Modern Screen magazine, was brought West to Warner Brothers to turn it into a movie. From Warner he bounced on to RKO, next tried Columbia, then Fox. Over the years, Producer Wald, 46, has built up a reputation for idiosyncrasies, something that is increasingly rare in the new Hollywood. Examples: he never lets female stars wear hats (“dangerously distracting”) or slacks (“Take a love scene where you got two pairs of pants; I want to know who is doing what to whom”).

For Grace. While he was busy buying up such surefire successes as The Last Hurrah, Wald also found time to write to 10,000 librarians all over the world, asking for the names of their most popular books. As a result of the poll, he has since bought D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers (an overrated but filmable story of British miners) and Lady Chatterley’s Lover (a-nearly unfilmable tale of four-letter words and high-level adultery).

Most popular theme turned up by the poll was survival. Second was security. In third place came sex. Nevertheless, Wald has dictated a 95-page outline for Grace Metalious, from which she promises to produce a sequel to Peyton Place. Maybe only Grace will think the result a masterpiece, but if Jerry Wald likes it, it will make a movie—and money.