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:
“That’s one thing I like about Hollywood. The writer is there revealed in his ultimate corruption. He asks no praise, because his praise comes to him in the form of a salary check. In Hollywood the average writer is not young, not honest, not brave, and a bit overdressed. But he is darn good company, which book writers as a rule are not. He is better than what he writes. Most book writers are not as good.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“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)
“If New York is the Big Apple, tonight Hollywood is the Big Nipple.”
—Bernardo Bertolucci (b. 1940)