The Movieland

About the Book

to see america—THE MOVIELAND begins its chronicle as the Portuguese liner SS Serpa Pinto (one of a few passenger ships that in the spring of 1943 is allowed to cross the Atlantic with a modicum of safety) lies seaboard off the Pennsylvania coast. Children, wakened without warning by the sudden stillness of the engines, dress quickly in the dark as best they can and rush out of their cabins. Where do you think you’re going?’ Victor Landau, a boy a year older and a year taller and a year meaner than Arthur Spelmin, blocks his way. “To see America.” Arthur shouts as he manages to run by his antagonist. “To see America!”

THE MOVIELAND by Fischbach Harry Harman tells the story of eleven—year old Arthur Spelmin as he reaches America whose new tastes, new sounds and new sights overwhelm as he becomes at one with the rhythms of his new homeland. The novel also recounts the life and career of the adult Arthur Spelmin; the beginnings of live-television in New York, his work with the Nouvelle Vague, his marriage to the expatriate American actress, Jenny Crystal with whom he has a daughter, his divorce, his success in Public Television and his entrance into big-time Hollywood motion-picture-making where, as head of production for a major studio, he is haunted by unwanted involvement in financial undertakings which are at odds with what was once his American Dream.

“As insightful a look at the moviemaking business as the one offered us by Budd Schulberg when Sammy Glick was running things there some six decades ago.”
-Irv Liberman

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