I was mostly familiar with David Picker as the smug, gruff, tightly spoken figure who popped up in Bond docos, talking about his involvement in the series, but of course his name is well known for all those students of cinema in the 60s and 70s. Picker was head of production at United Artists in their hey day when they seemed to touch the zietgeist at will - among the films Picker greenlighted were Tom Jones, the Bond series, A Hard Day's Night, Midnight Cowboy, Last Tango in Paris.
Its an incredible record, and yes while Picker mostly said yes and then stayed out of the way, what he said yes too was very impressive. This was Picker's great time in the sun - he became an independent producer with more mixed success, as well as short stints being head of Paramount and Columbia.
Picker puts up the impression of being down to earth but not really; some places in this book seems downright petty, slagging off on Robert Altman for calling him a prick and Mike Medavoy for not inviting him to a party, whingeing about inadequate press coverage of his achievements (he says the story of how the Bond series was started has never been told by a person who was there before... but Cubby Broccoli published his memoirs in the late 90s) and how UA execs got paid less than execs at other Hollywood studios and how Transamerica made them stay at a corporate camp rather than a nice hotel. If his films don't succeed its normally the fault of someone else eg Stella and Leap of Faith was because of the nasty and incompetent directors, The Greatest Story Ever Told was down to its megalomaniac George Stevens. It was Arthur Krim not him who turned down American Graffiti and Bonnie and Clyde, Bob Benjamin Planet of the Apes (to be fair he admits he turned down The Graduate because he didn't get it).
But some anecdotes are gold: Charles Bludhorn being determined to make a movie featuring Buffalo Bill and Hitler, Picker being talked into buying Grease purely on the basis of Allan Carr's enthusiasm, Harold Mirisch desperately trying to get Truman Capote over to his house as a guest, falling out with friend Herb Gardener. George Roy Hill's mistress inspired the native extras to come to his defense and save his job on Hawaii, Picker suggesting John Newcombe as James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I liked that he actually praised some critics (Pauline Kael and Clive James) and took the fall for some things, and there are lively sketches about people such as Richard Lester and Harry Salztman. It's an important book by one of the most significant film execs of his time; I just wish he was a little less pompous on the page and that he had spoken about some of his works like Royal Flash.
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