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'''''The Pat Hobby Stories''''' are a collection of 17 short stories written by [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], first published by [[Arnold Gingrich]] of ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazine between January 1940 and May 1941,<ref>{{cite book |title=Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald |author=
Pat Hobby is a down-and-out [[screenwriter]] in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles, California|Hollywood]], once successful as "a good man for structure" during the [[Silent film|silent age]] of
Drawing on his own experiences as a writer in Hollywood,
[[Arnold Gingrich]], in an introduction to ''The Pat Hobby Stories'', notes how, "while it would be unfair to judge this book as a novel, it would be less than fair to consider it as anything but a full-length portrait. It was as such that Fitzgerald worked on it, and would have wanted it presented in book form, after its original magazine publication. He thought of it as a comedy."
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|colspan="4" align="center" style="background:#ffdead;" |'''''The Pat Hobby Stories'''''
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|colspan="5"|Forced into working over the Christmas holiday to meet a deadline, Hobby and his new secretary devise a scheme to blackmail studio executive Harry Gooddorf. Hobby entertains fantasies of recapturing his status and wealth once Gooddorf makes him a producer, but their incriminating evidence (a memo that seems to implicate Gooddorf in the unsolved murder of
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|colspan="5"|Short on ideas, Hobby wanders into what he thinks is an unoccupied office only to meet Priscilla Smith, a young writer who shares with him a story she is considering about an artist in wartime Europe who is turned down for the job of removing his own paintings from a museum for safekeeping. Hobby dismisses the idea, but when his own stories fail to excite the executives during a pitch meeting, he regains their favor by claiming the artist story as his own. Elated, Hobby calls
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|colspan="5"|Hollywood is abuzz about the arrival of [[Orson Welles]]. Meanwhile, tightened security prevents Hobby from entering the studio. His frustration takes the form of a hatred of Welles, about whom Hobby knows very little aside from the fact that he has a beard, and is making a great deal of money. Hobby encounters an executive, Harold Marcus, leaving the studio and asks for a ride in his limousine, during which Hobby coaxes Marcus to issue him a studio pass and downplays the Welles phenomenon, suggesting that Welles will be expensive to work with. Later, while looking to borrow money from the studio wigmaker, Hobby is reluctantly fitted with a false beard to play up his resemblance to Welles and driven around the studio where he endures the stares of the crowds he passes. When his identity is mistaken by Harold Marcus, who remembers Hobby's earlier warning about Welles, Marcus has a heart attack and this time Hobby is the one asked to take on a passenger, to drive Marcus to the infirmary. Hobby rushes out of the car and off the studio lot to a local bar where he uses the money borrowed from the wigmaker to buy drinks for a group of bearded extras.
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|colspan="5"|While attempting to borrow money from an actor, Hobby accidentally walks in front of the rolling camera and spoils a shot. The leading actress,
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|colspan="5"|Hobby encounters a series of people at the studio, including a beautiful young actress, a non-working director, an unstable executive, and a callboy with fresh story ideas. In need of an assignment, he puts together a team and tries to sell their idea for a film. After collaborating with Hobby's ex
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|colspan="5"|Hobby works on a short script about an American military figure, General [[Fitzhugh Lee]]. Between bouts of writer's block, he daydreams about his glory days as a well-paid writer. Hobby's memories become more and more fantastic, as he recalls a visit to the studio by the President of the United States, who later visited Hobby's neighborhood and complimented his swimming pool. Filled with self-loathing at what he has become, after being snubbed by an acquaintance in the hallway Hobby turns his frustration into dialogue for his script.
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==Screen adaptation==
A television adaptation of the Pat Hobby Stories was made in 1987, titled ''[[Tales from the Hollywood Hills: Pat Hobby Teamed with Genius]]'', starring [[Christopher Lloyd]] as Pat Hobby and directed by [[Robert C. Thompson]]. The cast also included
==Quotations==
*
*
*
▲*''...for an old-timer like Pat, what people you sat with at lunch was more important in getting along than what you dictated in your office. This was no art, as he often said - this was an industry.'' (From "'Boil Some Water - Lots of It'".)
*
*
▲*'' 'Mr. Marcus,' he said so sincerely that his voice trembled, 'I wouldn't be surprised if [[Orson Welles]] is the biggest menace that's come to Hollywood for years. He gets a hundred and fifty grand a picture and I wouldn't be surprised if he was so radical that you had to have all new equipment and start all over again like you did with sound in 1928.' '' (From "Pat Hobby and Orson Welles".)
▲*''Most writers look like writers whether they want to or not. It is hard to say why - for they model their exteriors whimsically on Wall Street brokers, cattle kings or English explorers - but they all turn out looking like writers, as definitely typed as 'The Public' or 'The Profiteers' in the cartoons.'' (From "Pat Hobby, Putative Father".)
▲*''Pat was at 'the end of his resources' - though this term is too ominous to describe a fairly usual condition in his life. He was an old timer in pictures; he had once known sumptuous living, but for the past ten years jobs had been hard to hold - harder to hold than glasses.'' (From "No Harm Trying".)
==Reviews==
*{{cite news |title=The Last Buffoon |author=Andrew Turnbull | author-link = Andrew Turnbull (biographer) |date=
*{{cite
==Essays==
*"Introduction by Arnold Gingrich" in ''The Pat Hobby Stories'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
*{{cite news |title=Fitzgerald vs. Hollywood |author=Paul Greenberg |date=2008-02-10 |work=The New York Times |url=
▲*{{cite news |title=Fitzgerald vs. Hollywood |author=Paul Greenberg |date=2008-02-10 |work=The New York Times |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/books/review/Greenberg2-t.html |accessdate=2008-02-09}}
==References and notes==
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*[http://www.esquire.com/cover-archive ''Esquire'' magazine Cover Gallery]<!-- Neat to see the magazine covers of the issues in which Pat Hobby first appeared serially -->
*[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks04/0400821h.html Online text of The Complete Pat Hobby Stories] at [[Project Gutenberg]]
*[
*[http://californialegacy.org/radio_anthology/scripts/fitzgerald.html Three short radio scripts] from Pat Hobby stories at [[California Legacy Project]].
{{Fitzgerald}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pat Hobby Stories, The}}
[[Category:1962
[[Category:Short story collections by F. Scott Fitzgerald]]
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[[Category:Hollywood novels]]
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