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I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History

by Walter Mirisch

University of Wisconsin Press, 2008
eISBN: 978-0-299-22643-5 | Cloth: 978-0-299-22640-4
Library of Congress Classification PN1998.3.M568A3 2008
Dewey Decimal Classification 791.430233092

ABOUT THIS BOOK

This is a moving, star-filled account of one of Hollywood’s true golden ages as told by a man in the middle of it all. Walter Mirisch’s company has produced some of the most entertaining and enduring classics in film history, including West Side Story, Some Like It Hot, In the Heat of the Night, and The Magnificent Seven. His work has led to 87 Academy Award nominations and 28 Oscars. Richly illustrated with rare photographs from his personal collection, I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History reveals Mirisch’s own experience of Hollywood and tells the stories of the stars—emerging and established—who appeared in his films, including Natalie Wood, John Wayne, Peter Sellers, Sidney Poitier, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, and many others.
With hard-won insight and gentle humor, Mirisch recounts how he witnessed the end of the studio system, the development of independent production, and the rise and fall of some of Hollywood’s most gifted (and notorious) cultural icons. A producer with a passion for creative excellence, he offers insights into his innovative filmmaking process, revealing a rare ingenuity for placating the demands of auteur directors, weak-kneed studio executives, and troubled screen sirens.
From his early start as a movie theater usher to the presentation of such masterpieces as The Apartment, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Great Escape, Mirisch tells the inspiring life story of his climb to the highest echelon of the American film industry. This book assures Mirisch’s legacy—as Elmore Leonard puts it—as “one of the good guys.”

Best Books for Special Interests, selected by the American Association of School Librarians, and Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Association

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Walter Mirisch is the producer, in whole or in part, of more than one hundred films. Among his company’s honors are three Oscars for best picture—The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (1961), and In theHeat of the Night (1967). Mirisch has also received two honorary Academy Awards, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (1977) and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1983); and has been honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award (1977) presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the David O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures (1995) presented by the Producers Guild of America. He has been decorated by the Republic of France with its Order of Arts and Letters, has received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and is a recipient of the UCLA Medal, that university’s highest award. Mirisch served three terms as president of the Producers Guild of America and four terms as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

REVIEWS

“Walter Mirisch’s love of movies led him to make some of the best films that the industry has produced. Whether as producer or as an executive of one of the best production companies in town, he has seen it all and now can tell it all to you from his own fiercely independent perspective.”—Steven Spielberg

“From Bomba, the Jungle Boy to Some Like It Hot and In the Heat of the Night . . . Walter Mirisch produced many of the films which dazzled and inspired me (and I’m not kidding about Bomba. I loved those movies as a kid.)When I later acted in one of his (lesser) productions, The Spikes Gang, I learned that a prolific and brilliant producer could also be a terrific guy and a wonderful teacher.No surprise then that Walter has given us a wise and utterly engrossing look at his life . . . and extraordinary experiences in this film business.”—Ron Howard

“Walter Mirisch has written the quintessential behind-the-scenes book on the glory days of Hollywood. If you ever wanted to know everything there was to know, this will surely be touted as a ‘bible’ of our industry—for Walter tells it as it really was, with the integrity for which he is known and loved. It is an engaging story; insightful and entertaining, poignant with personal anecdotes.”—Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
Foreword by Sidney Poitier		000
Foreword by Elmore Leonard	000
Acknowledgments	000
Prologue		3
1. My Family		000
2. The University of Wisconsin		000
3. Los Angeles and Monogram		000
4. Allied Artists		000
5. The 1950s		000
6. The Screen Producers Guild	000
7. Back at Allied Artists		000
8. Moulin Productions, Inc. 		000
9. William Wyler and Friendly Persuasion and Billy Wilder and Love in the Afternoon		000
10. On Our Own		000
11. Billy Wilder and Some Like It Hot		000
12. John Ford and The Horse Soldiers		000
13. John Sturges and The Magnificent Seven		000
14. The 1960s		000
15. West Side Story		000
16. One, Two, Three and Other Projects		000
17. William Wyler, Elvis Presley and John Sturges		000
18. A Big Hit and a Few Misses		000
19. Blake Edwards and The Pink Panther		000
20. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences		000
21. 633 Squadron, a New Corporate Identity, and Unrealized Projects		000
22. The Start of a Jinx and Cinerama		000
23. Hawaii		000
24. A New Relationship with Norman Jewison		000
25. In the Heat of the Night		000
26. A Western, a Comedy, a Drama, and a Caper		000
27. Personal Matters¿Familial and Corporate		000
28. Dark Days for the Film Industry		000
29. Billy Wilder and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and Avanti!		000
30. Fiddler on the Roof		000
31. Goodbye to United Artists		000
32. And Hello to Universal		000
33. The Return of Peter Sellers		000
34. The 1980s and the 1990s		000
Epilogue		000
Filmography		000
Awards		000
Index		000

EXCERPT
“Legendary producer, visionary filmmaker, courageous seeker of truth, especially in troubling times.”—Sidney Poitier, from the foreword

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