Showing posts with label Robert Pirosh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Pirosh. Show all posts

Monday, July 29, 2013

Robert Pirosh to Hollywood

When copywriter Robert Pirosh landed in Hollywood in 1934, eager to become a screenwriter, he wrote and sent the following letter to all the directors, producers, and studio executives he could think of. The approach worked, and after securing three interviews he took a job as a junior writer with MGM. Pirosh went on to write for the Marx Brothers, and in 1949 won an Academy Award for his Battleground script.


Madison Avenue, November, 1934

Dear Sir:

I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady.

I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory.

I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde.

I like suave "V" words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve.

I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty.

I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl.

I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land's-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid.

I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon.

I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip.

I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp.

I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around.

I have just returned and I still like words.

May I have a few with you?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
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