'My Place in the Sun' by George Stevens, Jr.
George Stevens Jr. is the ultimate insider. As the son of acclaimed Hollywood director George Stevens (Shane, Giant), he grew up surrounded by stars and their satellites. In 1961 he met legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow, recently appointed by John F. Kennedy as head of the U.S. Information Agency, who offered young Stevens a job running USIA’s motion picture division. Soon enough, Stevens Jr. became a Washington as well as a Hollywood insider.
From his account, one imagines Stevens as alert and conscientious, comfortable in the company of fame and stamped with the spirit of public service. Much of his memoir, My Place in the Sun, concerns his work in founding the American Film Institute (AFI) and the Kennedy Center Honors. The book’s tone is chatty, as if he’s recounting episodes from his life over a brandy and soda at the club.
Make that several brandies and soda, with a round for everyone in the room, because the stories fill a hefty 500 pages. He was closely associated with Robert Kennedy and dined at the White House with Lyndon Johnson. He met Pope John XXIII and his Eastern Orthodox counterpart, Patriarch Athenagoras I. Stevens claims friendship with the leading directors of dad’s generation, including William Wyler, John Huston, John Ford and Rouben Mamoulian. He played a cameo in Apocalypse Now—the CIA agent who told Capt. Willard to “terminate” Col. Kurtz “with extreme prejudice” (but then Harvey Keitel was replaced by Martin Sheen and the scene was reshot without Stevens).
Should I add that he led the U.S. delegation to the 1963 Moscow Film Festival, and met with Jacqueline Kennedy as part of the committee that organized the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts? Half of the committee’s members were appointed by Jackie K and the other by LBJ, an example of the Great Society’s public-private philanthropy that ed to founding the AFI. Stevens served on a cultural committee that advised Barack Obama. Trump merits no mention.
My Place in the Sun is a pleasure to anyone interested in the high-end, inner workings of 20th century American culture and will be a source book for future historians. My Place in the Sun: Life in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Washington is published by University Press of Kentucky.
