Both the title and the subtitle of “The First Time I Got Paid for It: Writers' Tales from the Hollywood Trenches” (2000) are suggestive and ambiguous. The subtitle informs us that neither the title nor the cover illustration reflect what the book is really about, yet what the subtitle suggests isn't quite accurate either.

The often entertaining (and often not) collection of brief memoirs edited by Peter Lefcourt and Laura J. Shapiro rarely describes how writers sold their first screenplays to the movies, and we can perhaps be glad of that. Most screenplays are collaborations, especially those involving beginners. Most such stories would probably sound pretty much alike.

Fortunately the 50-plus contributors interpreted the directions broadly, and the result is essays about a number of different kinds of "firsts."

Nat Mauldin, who would later write screenplays for Dr. Doolittle and The Preacher's Wife, tells of discovering he could write when he was called on to write an obituary for singer Ronnie VanZant, whom he had never heard of, that was well received.

Men in Black writer Ed Solomon remembers selling a joke to Jimmie Walker for $25 while in a comedy club, and enjoying the laughter when Walker performed the joke that very night.

Melville Shavelson tells of being sued by Mamie Eisenhower (his first lawsuit), who wanted to block the broadcast of a miniseries he wrote about Dwight Eisenhower's relationship with Kay Summersby, his driver, during World War II.

Anna Hamilton Phelan, who wrote Gorillas in the Mist, tells about getting her first agent. Gail Parent, who wrote comedy skits for Carol Burnett, describes what it was like earning the respect of male comedy writers. Charlie Hauck tells of getting his start after being encouraged by comedian Phyllis Diller. Peter Tolan, later to write Analyze This and The Larry Sanders Show, has an amusing tale about starring in a high school production of Bye Bye Birdie.

Screenwriters tend to be an anonymous lot, except to those few who bother to read credits. But a few contributors to this book have names that may ring a bell, including Alan Alda, Cameron Crowe, Delia Ephron, Larry Gilbert, Carl Reiner and William Goldman, who provides the foreword.

This is a mixed bag, but it contains enough entertaining show business stories to make reading it worthwhile. ( )

More entertaining than inspirational, but I do love to read about writers writing.
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