Adventures in the Screen Trade

by William Goldman

I don’t mean to imply that Gable dined on gruel during his glory years. He was well paid, obviously; all the great pre-1950 stars were. But they didn’t share in profits of films. They were contract players: They did what they were told, not only because of the legal agreement, but because they needed the bread. Sure, they lived well, but today’s stars have retirement money. Bend of the River changed everything. In many ways, this little-remembered 1952 Jimmy Stewart Western is as important as any film ever in its effect on the industry. Stewart’s agent then was the remarkable Lew Wasserman, today the head of MCA-Universal. Stewart was already a major star. The studios were losing (or had lost) their contractual autonomy. And what Wasserman did was arrange for Stewart to take less than his usual salary in exchange for a percentage of the film’s potential profits. It was a gamble that worked: Bend of the River was the number-two box-office film of its year, and Stewart cleaned up. Nothing has been the same since.