The Short Stories

Shortly after graduating from Dartmouth, Budd Wilson Schulberg began selling short stories to some of the top magazines in the country, including The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, Story, Esquire and Liberty.  He was just 23 when his short story version of "What Makes Sammy Run?" appeared in the October 30, 1937 issue of Liberty.  "Once in a blue moon such a story as this!" read the blurb below the title.  "A tingling tale of one man’s way with the thing we call Success. (Reading time 25 minutes 27 seconds)."

Schulberg’s story was narrated by Al Manners (who would be renamed Al Manheim in the novel) and dealt primarily with Sammy’s relationship with Rosalie Goldbaum (see illustration below) and his initial encounter with his future ghost writer Julian Blumberg (called Eugene Spitzer in the story).  "What Makes Sammy Run?" was so well received, Liberty asked Schulberg to submit a second installment.  The result was "Romance Comes To Sammy Glick," in which Sammy meets and marries Laurette Harrington.  It was published in the July 16, 1938 issue of Liberty with the blurb:  "Hearts in Hollywood!  A vivid, ironic tale of a man and a girl who knew what they wanted -- and got it.  (Reading time 24 minutes 46 seconds)." 

Original Liberty artwork by Paul Meylan (above) and Charles La Salle (right)

For the sake of literary history, if that doesn’t sound too pompous, I have left the secondary characters’ names as they were in the original stories.  Al Manners, the laid-back narrator who becomes obsessed with Sammy’s ruthless climb to the top, becomes Al Manheim in the novel.  Eugene Spitzer, the nebbish whose story Sammy steals for his breakthrough to Hollywood, becomes Julian Blumberg.  Geoffrey Boyce, the dignified studio head whose place Sammy usurps, becomes Sidney Fineman.  I believe the reason for these changes was to counter the possible charge of anti-Semitism. Since Sammy is obviously Jewish, I thought it should be clear that nearly all his victims – Rosalie, Manheim, Blumberg, Fineman, his brother, Israel – were also Jewish, suggesting the wide range of personalities and attitudes under the one ethnic umbrella.