The Pat Hobby Stories: Difference between revisions

[[File:ThePatHobbyStories.jpg|thumb|right|1stFirst edition]]

'''''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=Matthew Joseph Bruccoli |publisher=[[University of South Carolina Press]] |edition=Revised edition |date=2002-08-01 |chapter=Appendix 3 |pages=554–555 |isbn=978-1-57003-455-8 |authorlink=Matthew Bruccoli}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Bibliography of the Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald (and Zelda Fitzgerald) |author=Tom Larson |url=http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~tdlarson/fsf/ssbib.htm |accessdate=2008-02-10}}</ref> and later collected in one volume in 1962. The last five installments in ''Esquire'' of ''The Pat Hobby Stories'' were published posthumously; Fitzgerald had died inon December 21, 1940.

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 [[Film|cinema]], but now reduced to an alcoholic hack hanging around the [[Movie studio|studio]] lot. Most stories find him broke and engaged in some ploy for money or a much-desired screen credit, but his antics usually backfire and end in further humiliation.

Drawing on his own experiences as a writer in Hollywood, Scott Fitzgerald portrays Pat Hobby with (self-)mockingdeprecating humor and nostalgia.

! style="background:#ffdead;" | Order !! style="background:#ffdead;" | Title !! style="background:#ffdead;" | ''Esquire'' Issueissue !! style="background:#ffdead;" | Author

|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 athe director [[William Desmond Taylor]]) turns out to be nothing more than a slightly cryptic expression of grief. Wise to the plot, Gooddorf grants Hobby his new Christmas wish;: that he ignore the accusation and leave Hobby on the payroll as a lowly writer.

|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.

|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, putfinished offwith byher final scene for the commotionpicture, stormsdashes off theto catch a plane to New York and go home to setEngland. The next day, Hobby is confronted by Mr. Berners who scolds him for the trouble he caused but then informs him that he will be forced to act in the film to explain his appearance in yesterday's shot. On his first day of shooting, Hobby is outfitted with protective armor so that he can be run over by a car. Just before the fateful moment, Hobby loses consciousness and wakes up later that night, alone and still encased in the metal suit. He is informed by a guard that he must have been forgotten in the chaos after the actor driving the car caused an accident and broke his leg. Hobby reflects with pride on the way he fulfilled his role, even unwittingly.

|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 -wife on a script, the team pitches their idea to Mr. LeVigne, who rejects them outright, pointing out their crippling inadequacies, including the actress's inability to speak English. The callboy is offered a job writing, and Hobby is given another month of work, though still without an assignment.

|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.

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 a very young [[Colin Firth]] as Rene Wilcox, [[Joseph Campanella]] as Jack Berners, and [[Dennis Franz]] as Louie.

*''"Pat was forty-nine. He was a writer but he had never written much, nor even read all the 'originals' he worked from, because it made his head bang to read much. But the good old silent days you got somebody's plot and a smart secretary and gulped benzedrine 'structure' at her six or eight hours every week. The director took care of the gags. After talkies came he always teamed up with some man who wrote dialogue. Some young man who liked to work.''" (From "A Man in the Way".)

*{{cite news |title=The Last Buffoon |author=Andrew Turnbull | author-link = Andrew Turnbull (biographer) |date=1962-07-July 22, 1962 |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=httphttps://www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/24/specials/fitzgerald-hobby.html |accessdate=2008-02-09}}

*{{cite newsmagazine |title=Wire the Money |date=1962-08-03 |workmagazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896490,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110219070209/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896490,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 19, 2011 |accessdate=2008-02-09}}

*[httphttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165419 Tales from the Hollywood Hills: Pat Hobby Teamed with Genius] at the [[Internet Movie Database]]

[[Category:Los Angeles, California in fiction]]