Its frustrating this isn't footnoted but it was very entertaining and remains perhaps the best known book about Cohn, one of Hollywood's legendary tycoons. Like most of them he was Jewish, and admirable and terrible and missed.
Cohn's reputation has suffered in recent years along with Daryl F Zanuck because they are the tycoons probably most like Harvey Weinstein - i.e. skirt chases - which means it's highly likely they would have engaged in sexual harrasment and possibly worse. Cohn was also a bully like Weinstein who swore and was prone to fits of rage.
He could be kind and decent but also a prick. His second marriage seems to have been happy - they had three kids, lost one, adopted another. He had a lot of admirers but a lot of that was due to his business acumen.
He worked his way up the hard way like all the great tycoons. He was a song plugger and fur salesman before going into films. Columbia started as a poverty row studio but Cohn and his brother (like the Warners there was a brother) pulled it up to the majors. He was helped by the skill of Frank Capra, but a lot of it was Cohn... he was very well informed, and he had a nose for talent: Leo McCarey, George Stevens, Cary Grant, Sidney Buchman, Stanley Kramer, Daniel Taradash, Buddy Adler are among those who benefited and prospered from working for Cohn... then had to leave because there can only be one. He built some stars like Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak.
Things that were once seen to hold Columbia back like having no theatres helped it thrive in the 50s - also he got in on the ground floor with TV via Screen Gems.
People have affection for Cohn in part because he exemplified the role of Hollywood tycoon so well - lecherous, foul mouthed, cunning.
Thomas has a journo's gift for funny/scary/ touching anecdotes - there are moving accounts of his last months, funny tales of Norman Krasna teasing him, the unexpectedly strong friendship with Buchman, bullying Jean Arthur and John Wayne, enjoying fighting with Broderick Crawford. Very human, very smart, very ideal for his job, very good man to stay away from.
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