Time and money were on the line, not to mention the embarrassment if the long-delayed Movie of the Century had to close down at the start of shooting.

"Wall back there," Wally said, nodding to the right. "That's the one on Skull Island, kept Kong out. I hear that's Hitler's favorite movie."

I grunted, the heat warming my face. Wally was a good guy, ready for retirement, fond of the bottle, full of information about the movies, and obsessed with the daily movements of Adolph Hitler who, Wally insisted, his sagging jowly face nodding, would soon attack all of Europe and pull us into a war.

We were about a dozen yards behind David O. Selznick, who was wearing a helmet and had already gone hoarse from shouting directions through a megaphone from a spindly tower that had been built so he could see every camera and actor, and most of the forty acres of lot stretching into the early-morning darkness. Behind us, George Cukor, director of the movie, was sitting on a chair, whispering to a thin young guy I didn't recognize. Cukor was staying out of the way while the burning of Atlanta was directed by William Cameron Menzies. It was an action shoot, a second-unit job made harder by Selznick's taking over.

"The wagon," Selznick shouted, pacing and smoking a cigarette at the foot of his tower. "Where's the wagon?"

The wagon was off to the right, in darkness. Wally and I had been there when Dorothy Fargo and Yakima Canutt, dressed like Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, had gone over the action with Menzies and his assistant. Yak had been around forever, a lean, board-hard man with a dark Indian face, as much the king of stunt men as Clark Gable was king of Hollywood.

"Mame Stoltz in publicity, you know Mame?" Wally asked, while I tried to do my job. "Mame says Paulette Goddard's out as Scarlett. Too Jewish, something. Who knows? Start a picture you don't have a star. Bad luck. Not that I'm fool enough to tell anybody that. Been here since Ince owned the studio, made it through Goldwyn, Pathe, and R.K.O. And I'm hanging on with Selznick. You know why I'm hanging on?"