Hollywood
After leaving the White House, Roosevelt moved to Hollywood, California, where he first accepted a job as a $750/week administrative assistant for motion picture producer Samuel Goldwyn. He was on Goldwyn's payroll until November 1940. In 1939 he set up "Globe Productions", a company to produce short films for penny arcades, but the company was liquidated in 1944 while James was on active duty with the Marine Corps. Roosevelt also produced the film Pot o' Gold and distributed the British film Pastor Hall.
During his Hollywood period, James Roosevelt became closely involved with Joseph Schenck, the movie mogul who funnelled mob money to the Democratic Party. Schenck also lent James money for his movie. When Schenck went to jail, James interceded with his father to pardon him, but again Henry Morgenthau vetoed the plan. James later wrote that "Stories appeared that I was mixed up with Mafia mobsters."
Read more about this topic: James Roosevelt
Famous quotes containing the word hollywood:
“Isn’t Hollywood a dump—in the human sense of the word. A hideous town, pointed up by the insulting gardens of its rich, full of the human spirit at a new low of debasement.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Just like those other black holes from outer space, Hollywood is postmodern to this extent: it has no center, only a spreading dead zone of exhaustion, inertia, and brilliant decay.”
—Arthur Kroker (b. 1945)