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Big Day. Before breakfast at his home on the beachfront in Santa Monica, Zanuck begins a chain-smoking day with one of his eight-inch cigars—the first of 20—and a phone call on his private wire to the studio to find out how movies—his own and competitors'—are grossing around the country. After a shave by Sam ("The Barber") Silver, who comes out from the studio, Zanuck drives his green Cadillac ten miles to the lot, attacks production schedules, mail, memos and telegrams until 1 p.m. Then he takes a sawed-off polo mallet, which he uses as a sort of swagger stick, trots over to the executive dining room, and starts monopolizing the conversation before he has sat down.
After lunch he charges back to his office, holds a story conference, sends more wires to Fox outposts. (Cracks his longtime pressagent Harry Brand: "If one of our pictures grosses as much as Western Union does on it, we can all retire.") By 3:30 or 4 p.m., he darts to his projection room for a look at rushes, wardrobe and make-up tests. By 4:30 he calls up his children—Richard Darryl, 15, Susan Marie, 16, and Mrs. Darrilyn Zanuck Jacks—for a fatherly chat.
At 6 p.m., after a rubdown from the studio masseur, he takes a nap in a soundproofed chamber off his office. Awakened at 8, he dines at the studio, sometimes with Mrs. Zanuck or his French tutor (he has been studying French on the run ever since he was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1936), sometimes alone, staring grimly at a television set. At 9, he is looking at more rushes or rough-cut complete films. Then he gives instructions to cutters, producers and directors who join him in relays into the night. He sees everything that is put on film at the studio, and the whole output of every major competitor. His working day ends some time between 2 and 4 a.m.
Served With Skill. Zanuck breaks up this grueling routine with three-day weekends, occasional flights in season to Sun Valley, where he skis expertly, and four-week vacations on the Riviera mingling with the international set ("They're freaks to me, and I'm a freak to them").
Except during the summer, when he bakes himself to a burnished mahogany on Santa Monica's beach, he weekends at his Palm Springs estate, 100 miles from Los Angeles, where the Zanucks usually entertain 12 to 16 guests. Among the regulars: Elsa Maxwell, Restaurateur Mike Romanoff, the Louis Jourdans, the Reginald Gardiners, Clifton Webb, Agents Charles Feldman and Fefe Ferry.
Zanuck runs the weekend party with the same steely control he uses at the studio. He refuses to play any game at which he does not excel. Since Playwright-Scripter Moss Hart introduced him to croquet, he has made it a cult, has turned his lawn into one of the world's best-kept croquet courts, complete with floodlights.