Behind the Screen (Unabridged‪)‬

Samuel Goldwyn, movie mogul and studio boss was the lion behind Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the golden age of cinema. As one reviewer put it, "Mr Goldwyn has known intimately all the screen stars, and he writes of their personalities with complete frankness and often with great affection. His book includes the best and most intimate account of Mary Pickford that has ever appeared, and there is a whole chapter devoted to Charlie Chaplin".

Even at his most hyperbolic, Goldwyn's autobiography is one of the most important accounts of early Hollywood, from one of its founding fathers. Film directors and stars featured include D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Adolph Zukor, Mabel Normand, Pola Negri, Jesse L. Lasky, Cecil B. Demille, Theda Bara, Mack Sennett, the Talmadge sisters, Geraldine Farrar, Jackie Coogan, and others, as well as interesting accounts of his attempts to lure George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells to Hollywood to become screenwriters for the Goldwyn film company.