New Broom

He was a stage-struck Newark boy who acted on Broadway, then switched to writing. After six years as a Hollywood scripter, Dore Schary (rhymes, in Hollywood, with hoary sherry) won an Oscar for his work on Boys Town (1938). He moved forward fast--right into a producer's office, first with MGM, later with David Selznick.

Last year RKO hired Dore Schary as its production chief. The job made him one of Hollywood's biggest brasshats--the equal of Mayer, Zanuck and Warner--with an income of around $380,000 a year. Last week Schary was out of a job. Since May 11, when Howard Hughes stepped in as RKO's controlling stockholder, Hollywood has been speculating over Schary's future. Leftish Schary is proudest of having masterminded such films as the lowbudget, propaganda-heavy Crossfire; conservative Hughes favors blatantly sexy, splashily costly movies like his own Outlaw. They had never met, but neither man was particularly attracted by what he knew about the other.

Schary said he would resign, but Hughes, as usual, had the last word: a fortnight before the date agreed upon, he summarily canceled three pictures that Schary had announced for production. Producer Schary quit two days later. Cracked the studio's new boss: "It saved me paying him two weeks' salary."

Schary kept mum about his plans, and refused to verify any rumors (that he might go to Goldwyn, Columbia or back to Selznick). The people he left behind at RKO were not taking it so calmly. In a business where many of the bosses learned about movies in banks or haberdasheries, there was a special fondness for a producer who had worked his way up from a scripter. "It was a great shock," said one admirer. "That man is a writer's guy."

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