The New American Dream in What Makes Sammy Run Essay

The New American Dream

Hollywood, aside from being a metonym for the American film industry, has come to symbolize Manifest Destiny and the American Dream. Hollywood also carries an implication of pace; not just of the fast, wild lifestyles that people in the film industry lead, but of the quickness with which dreams are made and just as easily dashed. Despite the high risk, high reward nature of Hollywood, it still epitomizes the rags-to-riches story that America has dubbed the American Dream. In What Makes Sammy Run, Budd Schulberg scathingly represents Hollywood as the perversion of this dream. Schulbergs Hollywood is an industry driven by the hard-working, honest, talented man, and then exploited by an amoral few. Schulberg criticizes this Hollywood as an industry where success comes only at the price of ones own moral constitution.

Schulberg uses the relationship between the frighteningly ambitious Sammy Glick and the blindly trusting Julian Blumberg as a microcosm of Hollywood. Sammy continually exploits Julians talent and navet in order to rise to the top of the Hollywood ladder. Despite the fact that Julian writes the screenplay, Sammys name gets the credit title for original screenplay. The narrator, Al Manheim, becomes the voice of Schulberg, as he chides Sammy for this deceit: The worst it (credit titles) should have been was original story by Sammy Glick and Julian Blumberg preceding the screenplay credit. But there it was, all Sammy Glick, no Julian Blumberg (99). Sammy disregards Als comment, telling him, its a tough break for the kid, but thats Hollywood (99). Sammy stating that its Hollywood indicates that usery and deceit are common practice in Hollywood. Schulberg uses this abusive relationship to represent the greater exploitative structure of Hollywood.

Schulberg also uses Sammy and Julians relationship to highlight the unjust monopolization of power in the film industry. After Sammy uses Julians screenplay to quickly rise in Hollywood, Sammy makes an empty promise to bring Julian out from New York. Julian eventually decides to come out to Hollywood, only to hear from Sammy that there are no job opportunities. However, it is clear to the reader that Sammy could not be bothered with finding Julian work, as Sammy is perpetually looking in one direction, forward. The Hollywood Julian finds himself in at this point is hardly the alluring place that the fan magazines depict. He found a new side of Hollywoodthe call-again-next-month sideHe learned how many Julian Blumbergs there were, who found nothing by No Admittance signs, for every Sammy Glick who opens the lock with a wave of his cigar like a magic wand (122). This quote depicts Hollywood as a hierarchy in which the cunning few effortlessly and thoughtlessly decide the fate of the talented downtrodden.

Though he eventually takes Julian on as a ghostwriter with a meager salary, his shameless exploitation of Julians work would not cease. Al pleads with Sammy to give Julian writers credits for the next movie Julian writes. Sammy brusquely shrugs off Als request for compassion towards Julian, citing survival of the fittest as his justification. Al responds, What do you mean fittest? Whos more fit to write screenplays, you or Julian (134)? Als quip gives the reader insight into Schulbergs ideal Hollywood structure. Transferring the principle of survival of the fittest to the movie industry would mean that the person best fit to make movies, or in this case write movies, would thrive at doing just that. However, Schulberg understands that Sammys interpretation of survival of the fittest rules in Hollywood. Schulberg acknowledges the grim reality of Hollywood as an industry, in which the talented make or write movies, the benefits of which are reaped by the cunning and amoral Sammys of the world.

Although ultimately in vain, the struggle of the Writers Guild is the closest a group comes to toppling the juggernaut that is the Hollywood machine. Schulberg presents this effort in simple moralistic terms, with the guild representing the honest, oppressed writer and the studios representing cold, relentless exploitation. The guild, in order to escape from the shackles of the studio system, requests that the members refuse to sign contracts that would bind them for more than two years. Thus, the weak, mild-mannered Julian is faced with a decision: Either sign the contract in the interest of himself and his wife, thereby dissolving the movement and allowing the future exploitation of men like himself. Or refuse to sign in and become a martyr for what is most likely a lost cause. In a heroic gesture in front of the entire guild, Julian refuses to sign the contract. As the other guild writers signed their contracts and returned to their old posts, Julians decision meant him being blacklisted from Hollywood for good, while Sammys resulted in him being promoted to a position as a producer. Sammy and Julians respective success and failure reveals Schulbergs understanding of morality in Hollywood. Schulberg presents morality as not the foundation for ones life, but rather a burden which one must completely shed in order to succeed in the industry. The decision that the guild members were forced to make was essentially a litmus test for all people in Hollywood. They had to choose between ambition and their conscience; being a martyr and being successful. In the end, amorality prevailed as the guild dissolved and Hollywood returned to the old order.

One of the questions Schulberg leaves the reader with in the end of What Makes Sammy Run is how to beat the Sammy Glicks of the world? How can the Hollywood machine, which co-opted a movement as well intended as the Guild movement, be overturned? In one of Sammys only moments of honesty and vulnerability, he reveals his concerns regarding his new protg, Ross. Take that kid Ross, for instance. Hes got something on the ball. But I dont like him. Dont trust him. Hes a smart-aleck. I can see he already thinks he knows more than I do. And who the hell knows, maybe he does (299). The characteristics Sammy describes as threatening in Ross are all characteristics which Sammy himself possesses: lack of trustworthiness, sharpness, unbridled confidence. Al goes on to imagine Sammys future in all its success, loneliness, fear. Fear of all the bright young men, the newer, fresher Sammy Glicks that would spring up to harass him, to threaten him and finally overtake him (302). Als insight into Sammys future tells the reader the one way to beat the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut that is Sammy Glick. To surpass him, one must become a blindly ambitious, stronger, sharper, more confident, and, most importantly, faster version of Sammy. Through the rise of Sammy, Schulberg makes it clear that achieving success in Hollywood and maintaining ones own moral constitution are mutually exclusive.

What Makes Sammy Run by Budd Schulberg, an insider into the film industry, takes the Horatio Alger story of success through hard work and honesty and flips it on its head through the novels depiction of Hollywood (37). Schulberg grimly portrays Hollywood as exploitative, monopolized and amoral. Despite the failure of the guild movement in the novel, it is unlikely that Schulberg is advocating apathetic acceptance of the Hollywood structure. Considering Schulbergs Communist leanings, What Makes Sammy Run can be seen as a tool meant to incite rebellion against the Hollywood system, rather than a tale of hopeless acceptance of it.

Works Cited

Schulberg, Budd. What Makes Sammy Run? Cambridge, MA: R. Bentley, 1979. Print.