Some Faces in the Crowd

by Budd Schulberg

One of the most accomplished novelists and screenwriters of our time (What Makes Sammy Run?, On the Waterfront), Budd Schulberg is a master of the art of the short story, as he proved in his early collection Some Faces in the Crowd. The crowd is the American landscape: indelible characters drawn coast-to-coast from the teeming streets of New York to tables at Hollywood's legendary nightclub, Ciro's. In these sparkling stories, Schulberg brings us vivid, restless people haunted by abrupt failure in the wake of rapid success. In "The Arkansas Traveler" he gives us Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes's down-home stories of Riddle, Arkansas, which later became the stuff of the celebrated movie A Face in the Crowd.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Budd Schulberg (1914–2009) was a screenwriter, novelist, and journalist who is best remembered for the classic novels What Makes Sammy Run?, The Harder They Fall, and the story On the Waterfront, which he adapted as a novel, play, and an Academy Award–winning film script. Born in New York City, Schulberg grew up in Hollywood, where his father, B. P. Schulberg, was head of production at Paramount, among other studios. Throughout his career, Schulberg worked as a journalist and essayist, often writing about boxing, a lifelong passion. Many of his writings on the sport are collected in Sparring with Hemingway (1995). Other highlights from Schulberg’s nonfiction career include Moving Pictures (1981), an account of his upbringing in Hollywood, and Writers in America (1973), a glimpse of some of the famous novelists he met early in his career. He died in 2009.

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Deborah Sheldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brisk writing, true-to-the-ear dialogue, terrific characters - Schulberg makes it look easy. Be advised that each story contains a dollop of cynicism. There are no "bright lights" in Schulberg's version of Hollywood. If you want happy-ever-after endings, look elsewhere.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Budd Schulberg writes stories about ordinary individuals who accomplish the extraordinary. Besides the brilliant "Arkansas Traveler" which turned into "A Face In The Crowd", my 2 favorite stories are "Memory In White", where a washed-up Puerto Rican boxer with a speech impediment aspires to be a ring announcer with his cheap megaphone; and "The Dare", about a rich debutante who'd rather play death defying sports than find true romance. Each story is a Turner Classic Movie in itself.

[M.R. Dowsing · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather slim volume containing 10 excellent short stories. It begins with "Your Arkansas Traveller" which is the basis for the excellent film "A Face In The Crowd" by Schulberg and Elia Kazan. The more I find out about Schulberg, the more I find that an awful lot of his work his closely based on real incidents and people he knew. A couple of the stories here feature very thinly veiled portraits of his movie mogul father, and "The One He Called Winnie" is repeated almost verbatim in his autobiography "Moving Pictures". Nothing wrong with that though. There are also a couple of excellent boxing stories - no surprise as he was one of the most respected writers on this subject.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

2o straightforward slice of life short stories. The lead story "Arkansas Traveler" was made into the film "A Face in the Crowd" starring Andy Griffith -- worth seeing.

I enjoyed the book, especially the lead story (a bit nastier than the movie). Unlike some modern short stories, you get the point by the end of these stories. No obscure literary devices or navel-gazing here.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the way he fleshes out his characters. Don't expect happy endings.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read Your Arkansas Traveler and watched the film A Face in the Crowd. Both were terrifying.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twenty short stories, beginning with “Your Arkansas Traveler,” which became a movie, “A Face in The Crowd.” Scott Simon recently talked about the film in his series about movies we missed. The story and the film date to the mid-fifties. https://www.npr.org/2019/03/09/701838...

A hayseed with a modicum of talent catches the eye of a girl who encourages him. He grows into an untalented monster who believes all the good press about himself, letting that go to his head. Sound familiar? Naturally it varies in the details while sharing similarities in the broad brush with today. The film overdramatizes the short story in an overdone film style of the day. Of the two versions, I prefer the story.

Lonesome Rhodes did not know how to read or write, but he exudes the popular touch as a man of the people. We meet him as a folk singer and storyteller on a rural radio station in mid-fifties Arkansas. His popularity with the women paved his way to a lucrative national gig in Chicago. Talking off the top of his head constantly got him into trouble. Lonesome lives as a braggy, egocentric. He found it difficult to stop talking about himself. But, unlike our president, he could look inward at his insecurities.

Lonesome, a conservative, favored returning to the open shop and scrapping the United Nations, just a few years after it began. He could overwhelm himself with his own sincerity. Lonesome would sound off on global issues without knowing the facts or history. He lived as a bold know-nothing, drawing courage from his ignorance, telling others how to run their lives. Members of his coterie wanted him to influence politics or run for president. In the end, he dissolved into his own self-propelled collapse and implosion.

The library owns five copies of the film, which were reserved quickly after Scott Simon’s segment aired three weeks ago. But first I wanted to read the story that inspired the movie. The library owns one copy of Some Faces in The Crowd. Goodreads does not show it, but this edition of the anthology published in 1953. It lives in one of the tiers for old books below street level.

Thanks to Scott Simon for turning me onto the voice of Budd Schulberg. I will read more of him. Good writer. He appears on the DVD in a special feature talking about the mid-fifties, his inspiration for the story and the black-listing of the day. But read the book first.

[Ben Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great collection of short stories.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Budd Schulberg (Seymour Wilson Schulberg) led quite a life. As the son of a Hollywood film producer, he was almost destined to become involved with that business in some form and he certainly did, mostly as a writer of such classic films as “On the Waterfront”, “A Face in the Crowd” (based on a story in this volume) and “The Harder They Fall”. Earlier stints in the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, and as part of John Ford's documentary unit, further equipped him to become a successful novelist and short story writer.

This collection of 20 short stories reflects many of his own experiences and interests. Being a lifelong fan of boxing led to several of these stories whereas his time in the Navy is visible in several others. And of course, a heavy influence of the Golden Age of Hollywood is also reflected. If there is a common thread among all of them it’s evident in the title. All of these stories are about more-or-less “common” people; faces in the crowd. The characters are always well drawn and interesting, the plots intriguing although readers can’t always expect a happy ending.

The stories collected here were previously published in the major magazines of the day (1930s-50s) such as The Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, The New Yorker, etc. As such they are tasteful and likely of interest to a wide variety of people. I tend to read mostly genre fiction, but I confess to thoroughly enjoying almost every one of these stories.

[ohanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25⭐️

do you think the og fox, wyoming listeners tried to gatekeep lonesome? because i would've. i loved marcia so fucking bad this is exactly how i speak to men so you know i was cheering and snapping and clapping every time she clocked that man's bullshit. an educated and witty woman who sees through the male protagonist's act and calls him on it? in the 50's?? i used to pray for times like this (even though she lowkey kept entertaining him... but i'll let it slide this one time). and maybe i'm the killer but i would've told him to kill himself and STOOD ON IT. that man was silly and charming at the start but once he hit republican podcaster status it was so beyond over. because why would he absolutely THRIVE today? the charlie kirk of his time truly. also the cuba mention was crazy as fuck. just had to slip that in there

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent stories that are hard to put down once you start reading. While none are masterpieces in a more subtle, literary sense, they are nearly all first-rate examples of great storytelling. And they don't usually take the most predictable route. Some reviewers here state that the stories don't have "happy endings", which may be true, but they don't always have the more expected tragic outcome, either. Well worth any reader's time, these are stories that have held up very well since the time they were written in.

[Vincent Lombardo · Rating 2 out of 5]

"A Face in the Crowd" is one of my favorites films, and I wanted to read "Your Arkansas Traveler" because the film is based on that story. The story was good, and Schulberg writes well, but the movie is much better! I am not a fan of short stories in general, so I stopped reading the book after reading "Your Arkansas Traveler".

[Patty]

The Arkansas Traveler, Prof Mickey

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this collection consisted only of "Your Arkansas Traveler" (the short story that was the basis for the movie "A Face in the Crowd"), it would be a solid 4-stars. Unfortunately, the other stories, while not bad, are so mediocre that they bring down the combined rating.

Here are a few gems:

"He was one of those magnificent fakes who could overwhelm himself with his own sincerity."

"He had a kind of mixed-up evil genius for doing good, along with a warm-hearted gift for working evil."

"A-course I'm not tryin' t' run your busyness, gents," he Arkansighed.

"But he was male-stubborn and he knew so little that any meager idea he had came to him as a world-shaking revelation that had to be shared with his public."

"She laughed with all her ambition if not with all her heart."

[Pierre-emmanuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avant tout, il faut savoir que l'édition française ne comprend qu'une partie des nouvelles du recueil initial Somes Faces in the Crowd. Un homme dans la foule complète le visage d'Hollywood. L'écriture y est serrée et sait mettre en valeur des situations et des personnages avec toujours une petite pointe douce amer.

[Pierre-emmanuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très belle série de nouvelles. Un grand sens des situations, des caractères et souvent d'un dernier retournement. [l'édition française ne comprend qu'un sous ensemble des nouvelles publiées dans le recueil initial]

[Rebecca Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short stories.