Goldwyn Audiobook By A. Scott Berg cover art

Goldwyn

A Biography

Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Goldwyn

By: A. Scott Berg
Narrated by: Roddy McDowall
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $12.60

Buy for $12.60

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

In this adventure, which would have played well in one of his own films, Schmuel Goldfisz left the Warsaw ghetto in 1895. He walked 300 miles to the Oder River, where he paid someone to row him across, smuggling him out of the Russian empire into Germany, past border patrols to another long walk to Hamburg. The gleam in his eye was America, "a far-away country, a vision of paradise."

Schmuel Goldfisz became Samuel Goldwyn, one of the producers who created the Hollywood film industry. His pictures, notably Stella Dallas, Wuthering Heights, and The Best Years of Our Lives, were famous for "the Goldwyn Touch". And Goldwyn himself was one of the most colorful of the vivid personalities of his time. The Saturday Evening Post called him "the central figure of the great comic legend". Americans still indulge in "Goldwynisms" when they order somebody to "include me out" or "stop biting the hand of the goose that laid the golden eggs." Goldwyn's son calls this book "the biography my father would have wanted"—a very special look at Hollywood and one of its leading figures.

©1998 A. Scott Berg (P)2009 Phoenix
Art Direction & Production Entertainment & Celebrities Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV History & Criticism Celebrity Imperialism Business Biography
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup

Critic reviews

"A. Scott Berg's big, rich, graceful biography of Sam Goldwyn brings the 'movie book' to a new rarified plateau.... The book proves worthy of what would be, in context, the highest praise of all: It has the Goldwyn Touch." (The Washington Post Book World)

All stars
Most relevant  
I fully enjoyed this story and the wonderful narration of Roddy McDowall. It is an honest story of Hollywood’s beginnings and its most influential and successful independent producer.

Very honest story. Wonderful narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Short, interesting story of Samuel Goldwyn. Great way to spend a flight. or a couple of rainy day hours too.

Interesting read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you try another book from A. Scott Berg and/or Roddy McDowall?

Yes, love his books.

What didn’t you like about Roddy McDowall’s performance?

What was with the voice of Samuel Goldwyn, why was it so ridiculously high? Did he actually talk like that?? Sounded completely ridiculous and ruined the book.

Great story, terrible performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Loved it, wish it were more in depth but thankful for this books research as it brought us the book Kate Remembered.

Great short bio

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Great author. Impression of Goldwyn’s voice detracted for me. Mostly disappointed with cost for 3 hours only!!! Total waste of a credit

Great story, way too abridged for price!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Great book. Roddy McDowell gives a fine reading BUT Audible needs to let people know when a book is abridged. I am tired of wasting my money on a 2 hour distillation of a great book. It's downright theft

Great story, great narrator BUT...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Amazon/Audible, please give me my money back!

My friend strongly recommended this book (he read the print version). So I bought this from the Audible.com app. Unfortunately, on the little screen, I didn't see that it was ABRIDGED.

Abridging any book is dangerous. Done by an incompetent it's fatal. THIS BOOK IS INCOHERENT.

And what is up with the guy reading --- IN FALSETTO?

Can you think of any other way to ruin it?

Just give me my money back, please.

The worst audiobook I've ever heard

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.