The Kid Stays in the Picture

The Los Angeles Times once said...

...that never in the history of Hollywood has such glamour and talent sat under one tree.

Dr. Kissinger is here and there's no accident.

There's more oil on Bob Evans...

Take him home. Take him home! Just get him the hell out of here!

These past 10 years as chief of production at Paramount Pictures...

...I've been lucky, or fortunate enough to be involved with such unique pictures...

...as Rosemary's Baby, True Grit, Love Story, The Godfather...

How did you get discovered for the movies?

Well, I got discovered by jumping into a swimming pool.

But I was an actor for many years as a kid before that.

I was at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool. I was a businessman at the time.

- What was your business? - I was partners in Evan Picone.

We made women's pants. In other words, I was in women's pants.

We actually started the fad of women wearing slacks.

I'll never forget it, because...

It was the fall of 1956.

I flew out to Los Angeles to set up Evan Picone boutiques.

One afternoon, I decided to play hooky...

...sit by the pool and get some sun at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Suddenly a woman approached. "Excuse me, young man, are you an actor?"

Yeah, I was, a long time ago.

It was Norma Shearer.

Norma Shearer, at the time, was one of the few remaining icons...

...of Hollywood aristocracy.

A petite blond in a striped, short robe.

"Pardon me for being curious, young man, but why are you always on the phone?"

Gotta pay my bills. "You're not a bookmaker, are you?"

No, I'm not a bookmaker.

Then she changed the entire course of my life.

"Would you like to play my deceased husband, Irving Thalberg, in a film?"

I looked at her. Looked at her again. I didn't know what she was talking about.

"They're making a film at Universal called Man of a Thousand Faces.

My friend Jimmy Cagney is playing Lon Chaney.

Irving discovered him and made him the biggest star in silent film.

He was only 20 at the time. He was even too young to sign the checks.

But not too young to run a studio. "

I'm thinking to myself, wow, this can't be happening to me.

Miss Shearer, it would be an honor. Why not?

Cagney is the one guy I've always wanted to meet.

Two hours later, I'm on a sound stage at Universal.

Here I am, like out of a dream, I'm testing opposite Jimmy Cagney.

Mind if I come in a minute?

I know I don't look dressed for the barricades, but I've come from a revolution.

The premiere of The Jazz Singer. Lon, you should've seen that audience.

When Jolson's voice came from the screen...

...I could hear the bells tolling for silent pictures.

You haven't heard a word I said.

- I'm sorry, Irving. What were you saying? - Nothing much.

Just trying to tell you about a modern miracle.

Pictures that not only move, Lon, but they speak.

Oh, yeah, sure. Talking pictures.

It's the horse and the automobile all over again. No use fighting it.

When it was over, Cagney gave me a quick look, "You did good, kid. "

Forty-eight hours later, I made every newspaper around the country.

"Big splash: New York businessman dives into pool and comes out movie star. "

Was I lucky? I think so.

If I had stayed just an actor, Norma never would've given me a second look.

What caught her eye was a young go-getter, sure about himself. Persuasive.

A subliminal reminder of the man who was once her mentor and her husband.

It's the old story, though. Luck doesn't happen by mistake.

Rather, luck is when opportunity meets preparation.

As soon as the picture wrapped, I flew back to the Big Apple.

Evan Picone was on fire...

...the showroom packed with them leggy ladies prancing in their patrician pants.

It was turn-on plus. My brother Charles had built the top fashion company of its time.

Me? I was lucky to be part of it...

...never having a second thought about returning to La La Land.

Why should I?

In New York, I was a celebrity. From debutante, to starlet, to model.

There I was on their most-wanted list. Was I enjoying it? You bet your ass I was.

One night, my brother and I took a few femme fatales to El Morocco.

Me? I didn't feel like conversation, so I hit the dance floor.

Well, that night someone had eyes for me, and it wasn't her.

It was Darryl Zanuck, head honcho of 20th Century Fox.

He had no idea who I was. But just looking at me, he thought:

That kid's right to play the matador opposite Ava Gardner.

After years and years of knocking on doors, being turned down...

...here I am, discovered to star in two pictures within six months.

That's what you call incident, and that's what's also known as sense of discovery.

Thank God, I was the one discovered.

I was sent down to Mexico to study to be a bullfighter.

Mind you, I have never once seen a bull in my life.

I worked my ass off for three months.

Wearing a rubber girdle each day, so I'd lose weight around my midsection.

There was one big problem. No one wanted me in the picture.

Ernest Hemingway was furious they'd pick a guy out of a nightclub...

...to play Pedro Romero, who in the true-life story was him.

A telegram goes out to Darryl Zanuck. It reads:

"With Robert Evans playing Pedro Romero, The Sun Also Rises will be a disaster.

Signed, Ernest Hemingway, Tyrone Power...

...Ava Gardner, Eddie Albert. "

The only one who refused to sign it was Errol Flynn. He laughed.

I know I'm gonna get fired. But that gave me the resolve.

I said, fuck them. And, you know, when I knew that telegram went out...

...I became Pedro Romero in one week.

Zanuck arrives in Morelia, Mexico, and I'm summoned to the bullring...

...to do my quites and veronicas in front of him.

I walk into the bullring, take off my hat, throw it to him. For you.

And then I start going through my various things.

I feel like an idiot. I know I'm gonna get fired.

Suddenly, Zanuck stands up, all 5'3" of him, picks up a bullhorn:

"The kid stays in the picture. And anybody who doesn't like it can quit. "

Puts the bullhorn down, and walks out.

Also, it was then that I realized that's what Evans wants to be.

Not some actor shitting in his pants, waiting to get a role.

But the guy who can say, "The kid stays in the picture. "

Bob Evans is a 28-year-old New Yorker who is in the enviable position...

...of pursuing two careers on two coasts.

Here in the East, Bob Evans devotes his time and energy...

...to being a vice president of the Evan Picone sportswear firm.

On the West Coast, Bob Evans devotes his time and energy to being a movie star.

And, at last reports, he's doing pretty well at both.

- Evening, Bob. - Good evening, Ed.

- How are you? - Very fine.

Now you're getting established and recognized as a movie star...

...how long do you think you'll hold out as a bachelor?

Just introduce me to the right girl, Ed, and I can end my bachelorhood right here.

With all the hullabaloo and excitement about the new Valentino...

...I wasn't getting the parts I wanted. There were half a dozen parts offered to me.

I was looking for bigger things.

One day, my agent calls, George Chasen.

"Bob, I'm calling with good news. Fox is remaking Kiss of Death into a Western...

...and we've got you up for the Widmark part. It made him a star overnight. "

Finally, I got my first title role.

- Wow! - He's a kooky killer.

The most diabolical horror that ever roamed the earth.

The Fiend Who Walked the West.

He'll cut out your heart or break your neck, and laugh while he's doing it.

My acting career was over and out.

It was my last appearance on the silver screen.

At decade's end, I was sure of one thing.

I was a half-assed actor, and I knew it.

I knew I'd never become the next Paul Newman...

...maybe the next Troy Donahue.

But do you know who I really wanted to become? The next Darryl Zanuck.

That was my goal for the '60s. And I went for it all the way.

Sounds easy, doesn't it?

It ain't.

Next to winning the Olympics, I don't think there's a more difficult thing...

...than a pretty-boy actor transforming himself into producer...

...especially in those days.

I realized that I had to own something that nobody else could get.

I met a guy named George Weiser who worked for Publishers Weekly.

He moonlighted for me for about $ 150 a week.

He comes to me and says, "I just finished a book. It's called The Detective. "

This is one hot book. I read it, put $5000 down on it as an option...

...and go see David Brown, a pal from 20th Century Fox...

...who's a top producer there. I say, David, I think I have the next big book.

He reads it. In 48 hours, he says, "Bob, we're in business. " David, not so quick.

I wanna know what kind of business we're in.

Now, these are my conditions. I want a full spread of offices.

I want a three-picture deal.

To make a very long story short, I get everything I ask for.

They would've bought me out for half a million.

But I wanted my foot in the door, and I got it in the door, but good.

I learned a lot from that. When you own the property, you're king.

Without it, you're a peon.

If the euphemism, "You live by the press, and die by the press"...

...ever fit anyone, it fit me.

Who would've thought a journalist would change the entire course of my life...

...and also my career?

On reflection, I don't know if I should love him or hate him.

Peter Bart, West Coast correspondent for The New York Times...

...wanted to write a story about me in the Arts and Leisure section.

Is this a joke, Peter? Come on. He said, "This is not a joke.

What's interesting about you, and why you're worth writing about...

...is you're beating these big shots at their own game.

You know, you could become the guy you played, the next Thalberg. "

That's just what I want the audience to see, Mr. Chaney...

...the soul of a man that God made different.

If I was smart, I should have retired after Peter's article.

Instead, Greg Bautzer, the power broker of the town, calls.

"Pack. You're going to New York. " I can't, Greg, I got plans.

"Break them. Charlie Bluhdorn bought Paramount and wants to meet you.

He read the article about you in Sunday's New York Times.

He's a doer, Bob. Not a talker.

Now pack your bags. " And pack them I did.

Within five minutes after meeting Charlie Bluhdorn, I know this is no kibitzer.

Before I finished trying to answer one question, he was asking me more.

With him was a guy named Marty Davis.

He was responsible for the conglomerate Gulf and Western.

Buying this aging mountain they call Paramount.

There were eight major studios at the time.

Paramount? It was ninth.

Bluhdorn bought this giant at bargain basement prices, the only way he knew how.

Everybody thought he was nuts to get in a business he knew nothing about...

...much less a business as crazy as show business.

But, guys, I got a deal at 20th. "Get out of it.

You'll be running Paramount in three months. Is that right, Marty?"

Davis gives me a look.

"If you're gonna run Paramount, you better be tougher than you seem. "

Did I get the message? You bet. Then Bluhdorn blasted my other ear:

"Go by the seat of your pants. Make pictures people wanna see.

I wanna see tears, laughs. I want pretty girls in the pictures, beautiful girls.

Pictures people in Kansas City want to see.

That's all, Evans. What else do we have to go over?"

Being the head of production of a studio such as Paramount...

...and I'm sure you're aware of it, involves a tremendous responsibility.

You are dealing with millions of dollars.