This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me

by Norman Jewison

For over forty years, Norman Jewison has been one of Hollywood's preeminent storytellers. His films have spanned every genre, from drama to comedy to musical to action, and have been embraced by audiences and critics alike. Throughout his career, Jewison has shown an honesty, humor, and unflappable spirit that have made him one of Hollywood's best-loved and most successful directors, culminating in an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1999.

In this candid and witty autobiography, Jewison reveals how he went from a quiet childhood in Canada to the heady world of entertainment, working with the biggest stars and winning some of the most sought-after awards. He began his career in television, earning three Emmy Awards for his work with luminaries such as Harry Belafonte, Judy Garland, and Frank Sinatra, but soon made the move to the big screen. In Hollywood, he started out directing romantic comedies with Doris Day and Rock Hudson, but soon proved himself adept as an independent filmmaker with The Cincinnati Kid, starring a young Steve McQueen.

Jewison - or the "Canadian Pinko" as John Wayne called him -- has been a tireless promoter of civil rights around the world in both his films and life. His pre-glasnost comedy The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! made him one of the first Western directors to go behind the Iron Curtain. Robert Kennedy became a friend after supplying details of his own experiences in the South for the making of In The Heat of the Night, starring Sidney Poitier. The landmark film went on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but not before Jewison, Poitier, and the rest of the crew spent a tense, sleepless night in a Southern motel. In the '80s and '90s, his films A Soldier's Story and The Hurricane with Denzel Washington each received worldwide acclaim for their portrayal of some of the most fundamental issues of race in America.

No matter what genre, Jewison's films were career highlights for countless actors, and he offers never before told details of his own working relationships with the stars and studios. How did he, a Canadian - Christian - get to direct the hit musical Fiddler on the Roof? How did the rugged, motorcycle-riding Steve McQueen convince Jewison he could play the sophisticated Thomas Crown? How did Jewison help invent the futuristic sport of Rollerball? How did Moonstruck reverse a box office curse and go on to become a smash success and multiple Oscar-winner?

This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me reveals the little-known details in these funny, charming stories of life on the other side of the camera.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Film

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 27, 2004

About the author

Norman Frederick Jewison, CC, BA, LL.D was an Academy Award-winning Canadian film director, producer and actor.

Reviews

[Suzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read about half this memoir of Norman Jewison's life, from his roots growing up in working class Toronto to becoming a Hollywood film director of some of the top movies of all-time. His movies include many of my favorites including the one that led to reading this book, In the Heat of the Night. What he has to say about his life and his films makes for highly entertaining reading and led to some terrific conversations with my guy. I just learned from this article that Jewison made 24 motion pictures, which earned 46 Academy Award nominations (and 12 wins). The article showcases a new biography published to coincide with Jewison's 95th (!) birthday, Norman Jewison : A Director's Life, which I will definitely check out. If you love film, I think you'll enjoy this memoir!

Why I'm reading this: I recently read In the Heat of the Night . . . as a buddy read and as a GR group read. My husband also read it and then we rented the (amazing!!) movie. He was looking around for books related to the movie and found this autobiography by the director. Loved it and has passed it on to me. Also loving it so far.

[Mediaman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Imagine a great movie musical with a fantastic opening, some entertaining moments in the first 20 minutes, and then it suddenly takes a sudden serious turn to focus on long dull interludes of chatter regarding unimportant characters before starting to talk politics and go off on tangents. Eventually the film sputters out in a frantic mess, failing to complete storylines and even upsetting the audience that what they paid to see isn't what they actually got on film.

That is what reading this very disappointing memoir is like. It has a strong start where Jewison barely touches on his childhood and tells us that this book will be about his career. He was there for the golden age of television and then directed a couple of the great Doris Day films.

But this book isn't really about his career. It quickly becomes about ego-stroking, where he brags about everything he does, makes claims that are completely false, includes factual errors (even misstating the plot of one of his most famous films!), forces his leftist politics down readers' throats, and tries to memorialize himself as a game-changing director and producer. He's not.

This book first charmed me, then infuriated me. I loved hearing about his work with live TV music specials, and movies with Tony Curtis and Doris Day. In early portions of the book he gives plenty of details about the projects he was involved in.

But then we get to The Art of Love, a gigantic flop starring Dick Van Dyke, and The Cincinnati Kid, a movie he thinks was one of his greatest when in truth it's slow, dull, and barely worth watching. He wastes a lot of pages on these.

Soon out of nowhere we get this Canadian philosophizing on U.S. politics with his films The Russians are Coming and In the Heat of the Night. He starts his anti-American, pro-communism preaching. He ignores common sense and seems to know little about the true America, basing it only on a short trip he made hitchhiking across the country after he served in the Canadian miliary when he was young. So this scammer, who wore his uniform in order to get free rides and food from people around the United States, thinks he's an expert on the deep South, racism, socialism, and war.

In truth he's just an undereducated egotistical Hollywood know-it-all who misunderstands which of his films were actually good. Many of them have not aged well, yet he proclaims them to be classics and he's upset that he didn't win an Oscar for directing or producing them (even though he was nominated).

Bottom line in my book he will go down in history not for his political films that are outdated but the two musicals that people will still be watching 50 years from now--Fiddler on the Roof and Jesus Christ Superstar. He took outside material and transformed it into things on film that were dramatically different from his sources.

Fiddler, in my opinion, was a bit of a disaster with a horrible star performance by Topol (who couldn't speak English and had to distractingly enunciate syllables he memorized) and bizarre shots that took the movie out of the 19th century with modern techniques like freeze frames and double prints. Jewison is the one that kept us from seeing Zero Mostel as the lead in the movie, and changed the humorous stage production into a sad, dark, serious period piece that sucked all the charm out of the show.

So what kind of mention does Fiddler get in the book? Almost nothing, just a few pages that are things we've heard before about his trouble finding a place to make the movie.

Superstar gets the same lack of treatment with eight pages that are mostly about the cast partying and smoking dope, and how he had to juggle it with another movie he was producing. Absolutely no insight into the actual making of the film, which also included bizarre creative choices (freeze frames, tanks, guns, and jets) but incredible shots. After reading this book I know nothing more about the movie than before.

So if you're looking for any depth here on those two musicals you'll be extremely disappointed.

Then Jewison rushes through the rest of his movies and even ignores some of them completely, which is bizarre when this book is supposed to be about his career. He simply keeps bragging about the "firsts" that he claims to have done, which just weren't true, and takes any chance he can get to belittle Republicans and conservatives.

The worst part is his need to push his political agenda in the book. This uneducated Canadian thinks he knows how racist America is and how his pal Democrats like Bobby Kennedy could save blacks. But he fails in all this propaganda to mention some key things, such as how rich elitists like the Kennedys didn't practice what they preached and that it was the Democrats that continued to fight for segregation into the mid-20th century, long after a Republican president set the slaves free one hundred years earlier.

It's tough to hear a foreign non-citizen who left home at 17 and never had a real education try to condemn our country for its history and make claims about the current state of American politics. Not just tough, but infuriating. No wonder he was so heavily criticized by others, but he's extremely defensive here and belittles those who don't share his progressive beliefs. So much for liberal tolerance.

I ended the book upset that this jerk wasted my time in self-promotion, false information, and political propaganda. Don't believe what you read here--I caught so many factual errors that people outside the business probably will buy at face value, but as with most leftist propagandists there's always a selfish purpose behind twisting the facts in their storytelling. Norman Jewison did that on screen and in this book.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like Michael Moore, Norman Jewison manages to relate his life story in crisp, happy, anecdotal passages that manage to also include enough biographical background and social commentary to make this something truly special. This is a man who deserves far more credit than he receives for being a great artist AND a great Canadian...particularly one with a social conscience.

[Paul Lyons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly good autobiography of the great film and television director Norman Jewison. What works best in "This Terrible Business Has Been Good To Me" are the tales of the author's behind the scenes adventures in creating films like THE CINCINNATI KID, ROLLERBALL, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT. What drags the book down are Jewison's take on politics, political causes as well as any and all self-aggrandizing about his films and career.

The strength of "This Terrible Business Has Been Good To Me"is also its weakness. Norman Jewison did an excellent job chronicling his early years growing up in Canada, his first visit to the United States, and the very start of his television and film career. The book contains great stories about the author's experiences with stars Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Carl Reiner, Steve McQueen, Alan Arkin, Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. However the problem is that the book is front-loaded, hitting the half-way mark of its 304 pages at 1968. As a result, the second half of "This Terrible Business Has Been Good To Me" isn't as good as the first half.

Sure, the reader does get some good, detailed stories about Jewison's work on FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. Yet after that, the author and his editor cut corners with Jewison's post-1973 films. ROLLERBALL and F.I.S.T. at least gets some brief attention, while movies like ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL and BEST FRIENDS get barely any attention at all. At least, however, the author does give 1987's MOONSTRUCK ample time of day.

True, I was not enthused by Norman Jewison's choice of forgoing fascinating filmmaking stories in favor of taking up valuable page time with mentions and quotations from critical reviews, award nominations, and his opinions as to who should have won this or that award. Jewison's dismissiveness about THE FRENCH CONNECTION in relation to his FIDDLER ON THE ROOF did not win him any favors, and in fact made him appear ignorant and foolish.

Nonetheless, despite its shortcomings, I did enjoy several parts of "This Terrible Business Has Been Good To Me." It was fun to read Norman Jewison's take on Hollywood, directing, movie stars and his own films. The book also gave me a better understand of who Jewison is as a human being, a husband and father, a farmer, a Canadian, a passionate supporter of justice and left-wing causes. Sure, the autobiography was not as good as I had hoped, yet it had enough good in it to make the reading of "This Terrible Business Has Been Good To Me" worth my time.

[Elvis2 · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a while I enjoyed the book. There were just the right amount of words about his childhood and interesting details of his serendipitous journey behind the camera. I particularly enjoyed learning what went on behind the scenes in his films, especially "In the Heat of the Night."

When he got to China I started skimming, not a good sign. When he finished with "Moonstruck" I wondered why he had told us so little about that film.

It's a meandering mess, filled with ultimately offensive political ramblings and lots of names of people I've never heard of. It's as if he had to include every person whom he ever met on the planet, who worked in the industry in Canada, was a Canadian working in the industry in the US, or simply was a Canadian. The book needed an editor to tighten it up and clean it up. Among the many errors were the misnaming of one of the Bergmans' songs, "How Do You Keep the Music Playing," and of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, once owned by the Kennedy family. It's not "the mercantile mart."

I found the story of his wife's climbing out on the White House roof to smoke disrespectful to this symbol of our nation. By the time Mr. Jewison wrote this book, he should have noticed how much he had benefited from coming over the border and finding work here. If he did notice, he didn't notice quite enough for me.

[Sherrie74 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am totally biased as I knew the man slightly so will admit to that going in. There could have been sooo much more included but as it is .. it is chocked full of so much iinformation it could have been Part 1 of 2 books.

Not sure if all the books are like the one I got, but it was just the most beautifully bound book I think I have ever held. Key Porter did an amazing job. Working in two book publishing companies in my past, one being where Anna Porter worked also at one time (M&S) you tend to notice the weight and silky smooth cover and how slick the pages were.

[Moses Gunaratnam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good start and decent conclusion, but the middle gets terribly bogged down by his takes and inconsistency when providing details about his films. To be fair, he does give the disclaimer that it will be written in the form that memories occur to us, but it didn’t always make for easy reading. Don’t see myself coming back to this one. 5/10

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memoir of his career as TV and movie director and producer. Entertaining, some insight on the business.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars

[Maryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Not one who usually reads autobiograpies I was inspired to read it after viewing 12 of Jewison's films this winter with a friend. His book opened my eyes to the real job of a director - everything from getting money to getting talent (to do what you want). He has a true love of people, films, and a burning passion to tell stories in ways that matter, that touch the viewer emotionally, that challenge assumptions, pose important questions and inspire one to view the world from many perspectives. His determination to stay true to Canadian values is indeed admirable when you realise how little support and recognition he got here in his early years. An artist, an entrepreneur and a master film maker. How lucky are we!

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breezy and engaging, Jewison's autobiography covers what you'd imagine: his Canadian roots, his breakthrough in television, his movies and the extraordinary career he built, along with the founding of the Canadian Film Centre, a client, which is how I wound up reading the book nonstop on a plane ride from Toronto. I was especially interested in his passion for social justice, seen of course in many of his movies, but reflected in his involvement in the civil rights movement and a generally leftist tilt towards international affairs. I was also quite intrigued by his love/hate for his home country of Canada, and his frank assessment of its national inferiority complex. Plus, the stories, without being gossipy and never bitchy, were indeed juicy.

[Jim Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice autobio from a very interesting director with a wonderful body of work behind him: In the Heat of the Night ("They call me Mr. Tibbs"), A Soldier's Story ("geechee!"), The Hurricane, And Justice for All "No, YOU'RE out of order, your honor", but also Moonstruck ("snap out of it!"), The Russians Are Coming [squared] ("every - body - to - get - from - street"), The Thomas Crown Affair, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Fiddler on the Roof. Two amusing facts of very little importance: he ain't Jewish, and he is Canadian.

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about how a theater director from Canada stumbled into being one of the biggest movie directors of his time, "Fiddler on the Roof, Mississippi Burning."

What's amusing is that he is English but he mentions on numerous occasions how he is mistaken for being Jewish because of his last name and how it helps his career. Ex: He had to make a point of telling the producers of "Fiddler on the Roof" that he had no familiarity with the Jewish experience.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw an interview with Mr. Jewison so his autobiography has added only a little more information. I am amazed how down to earth and honest he is and how he wanted to make movies to make people realize and think about the events they saw and to hopefully begin to make changes in society. The fact that he has retired to his farm north of Toronto only endears him more.

[Diane]

Interesting memoir from an award-winning director/producer. Checked it out for a work assignment, but it was entertaining enough I decided to read the whole thing. If you're interesting in moviemaking, it's a fun read.