John Meredyth Lucas, son of silent screen star and screenwriter Bess Lucas (Ben-Hur, The Sea Beast, When a Man Loves a Woman, Don Juan) and stepson of renowned Hungarian-born director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Life with Father), came of age in Hollywood during the glamorous and decadent 1930s. He went on to an impressive career of his own as a writer-producer-director, and he completed this memoir shortly before his death in 2002. Lucas' memoir is filled with never-before-told recollections of many Hollywood greats and features a number of previously unpublished photographs. It is a boy's-eye-view of John Barrymore (who starred with Lucas' mother Bess in three films and frequently stopped off at the Lucas home after a night on the town), Jack Warner, Darryl Zanuck, Louella Parsons, and Hal Wallis, to name just a few. Intrigue and scandal swirled around Lucas during his lifetime, and he learned fast and kept secrets.