IF at this moment you are in a bookstore leafing through these early pages and wondering if the whole thing is worth a sizable ex- penditure, may I suggest that you keep your back toward the sales- man and read on because, coming up, is a brief description of what this book is all about. To be an actor, it is essential to be an egomaniac; otherwise it just doesn t work. The supreme act of egomania is to sit down and write x3o,ooo words about oneself. That I have already done in The Moon s a Balloon, so you will be relieved to learn that this is not a book about David Niven... at least, it is not meant to be. Unfortunately, the actor s urge to take up a firm position at center stage is a strong one, and if, despite valiant efforts to remain in the wings, I have, on occasion, eased myself forward, I apologize. This book is about Hollywood; not the whole mishmash, because that has been done a hundred times, and anyway, the canvas is too huge and quite beyond my mini-brushwork, so I have attempted to splash a little color on just one comer--the twenty- five years between 1935 and 196o. I was there from "extra" on down (or up--it s for you to decide), and I was part of it, but I have made little effort to keep things in chronological order; provided the people and events coincided with the allotted time span, I have just described them as I saw them.