Long Lunch Hour

This week, as Hollywood's trade talk has long prophesied, 20th Century-Fox's Production Boss Darryl F. Zanuck, one of moviedom's best-preserved (53) boy wonders, stepped out for what was billed as a four-month lunch. Announced Fox's President Spyros P. Skouras: "It is contemplated that the details of an agreement for an independent production unit to be headed by Mr. Zanuck will be worked out between him and the company."

Movie Pioneer Zanuck had a world of know-how for setting up an independent unit in his four-month leave of absence. His "temporary" replacement: Oscar-Winning Producer Maurice ("Buddy") Adler, 47 (From Here to Eternity).

Zanuck's departure from 20th Century-Fox, the studio he founded (with veteran Moviemaker Joseph M. Schenck) in 1933, stirred memories of his role in helping to guide Hollywood through adolescence. In the '20s at Warner Bros., Zanuck made so much money for the studio with his silent Rin-Tin-Tin series that Warner decided to shoot a barrel of profits on a daring experiment: The Jazz Singer (produced by Zanuck), which starred Al Jolson and ended silent films with a spoken line ("You ain't heard nothing yet, folks!"). Always keen to sense a popular trend, Zanuck took advantage of the movies' gangster cycle by featuring such early hair-triggered tough guys as Edward G. (Little Caesar) Robinson.

Zanuck has now succumbed to the familiar Hollywood malady that fills big studio bosses with envy at seeing independent producers (even makers of grade B movies) making more money than they do. One of the highest paid executives in the U.S., Darryl Zanuck was weary of handing over roughly 90% of his earnings to the tax collectors. As an independent, he can coin money in the gravy-train, 25% long-term capital-gains bracket.

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