ROCK WAGRAM

by William Saroyan ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 1950

A fast-flashing montage of a screen star's life, this shows Rock Wagram at two stages of his career, before he enters the Army in 1942, and in 1950, when the marriage, of which he had dreamed so much, has completely smashed. For, earlier, in his drive to the West Coast, he had only Ann Ford on his mind, and how much he wanted her, but there was time to remember his Armenian heritage and his comfortable relatives, the start of his career when Paul Key spotted him for his happy and arrogant bar-tending and took him from Fresno to crash the moving-picture box-office so that at 33 he is a valuable property and a recognized success. And with his family reunion, he persuades Ann to marry him. In 1950, he knows her to be a liar and a phony but decides to go back to work to supply her with the money she demands for their son and daughter, is thrown off base by his mother's death, later Paul Key's, and eventually does make his return to Hollywood. The old Saroyan touches of loving pity, self-hypnosis with philosophies and ideas about love, life, man and success, this marks a soberer approach to a more mature subject.

Pub Date: March 15, 1950

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1950

Categories: FICTION