Preston Sturges

I just read the autobiography of Preston Sturges (edited by his 4th wife and with an introduction by his 2nd son). It really reminds me of Roald Dahl's autobiography, Going Solo (though Dahl had the chance to polish and present it exactly as he wished).

Both men were fundamentally opportunists, I suppose, who took their chances wherever they found them - in work and in romance. Thus a similar worldview and sensibility, leavened with a cynical, dry humor, I suppose.

To me, they also both lived in similar (even overlapping) eras, although Dahl was born 18 years later than Sturges and lived considerably longer. Coincidentally, both learned to fly for their country's air force - Sturges for WWI, though he was never deployed because his training was completed after the war; Dahl for WWII.

What I found surprising in the Sturges book was his repeated, bitter comments about the IRS. As he tells it, he gained and lost some fortunes and potential fortunes in his time -- but he also was present for the inauguration of the income tax, and has some fairly mordant comments about the institution... including the maneuver that essentially deputized employers into tax collectors.

Writing before MPAA rating system (which seems to have been instituted in 1968), Sturges also commented that parents should not confuse movie theaters with ice-cream parlors. Instead, he suggested that parents could easily find out the subject matter of a movie before permitting their children to see it. What a concept! Alas, I don't think this kind of hands-on parenting (closely monitoring what the children watch or even - shudder - actually watching with them to ensure that material is suitable and/or suitably curated) will ever catch on. Nope. So much easier to drop them off at the movie theater or plop them in front of the TV so one can attend to far more important things.