Hollywood Tales

“I lobbied for Billy for the movie. When the play was up for sale, I said, “I want Billy Wilder.” I longed to meet Billy Wilder. [The agent] Irving Lazar got into the act, and he put the package together and offered it to [the agent-producer] Charlie Feldman and Billy Wilder. I was sitting in my kitchen one night and the phone rings and it’s Billy Wilder. He said (Billy Wilder imitation ), ‘You are putting me in the impossible position of bidding against Loew’s Incorporated!’ He said, ‘You will do the following: you will get on the airplane in the morning; then you will come out here and . . . ‘ Right away, he started running my life.”

 — screenwriter George Axelrod (Bus Stop, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Manchurian Candidate) on how Billy Wilder got involved as the director of the movie The Seven Year Itch

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