A memoir by agent, author, and international copyright pioneer George Marton, Stories For Sale follows the authors' career as an agent, starting from his first memories of copyright: A producer delivering "two geese, four chickens and forty eggs" to his father's offices, as payment of the 10% performance royalties on Ferenc Molnar's Liliom, in a Hungarian backwater.
As an agent for the theater, he worked on By Candle Light (Later adapted into a film by universal pictures, 1933), The Play's the Thing, Grand Hotel, White lilac (later adapted into a film by Fox), and many others.
Though he started out as an agent for the theater, George saw the potential for his clients in the growing American film industry. He capitalized on this, and his career as an agent would largely be defined by his ability to sell European plays to Hollywood film studios, where the translated scripts were adapted into vehicles for studio stars. On his first meeting with Al H. Woods in Paris, he sold over 60 scripts to MGM.
George was instrumental in orchestrating the escape of numerous writers deemed "undesirable" from Nazi Germany to Paris, then from Paris further afield as WW2 unfolded. He also assisted Hungarian author Timor Meray to escape Hungary during the 1956 revolution.
After being forced to flee Europe himself, George moved to Hollywood and established his "script factory": A group of Hungarian jewish refugee playwrights who supplied Hollywood with original screenplays for nearly 10 years. During WW2, George served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the National Guard for the USA.
After ten years in Hollywood, Marton returned to Europe to found MartonPlay, an agency which also represented 20th Century Fox in France.
George Marton is the author of several published works of fiction, including The Raven Never More [with Tibor Meray], Three-Cornered Cover [with Christopher Felix], The Obelisk Conspiracy [with Michael Burren], Alarum, and The Janus Pope. "Catch Me A Spy", also coauthored with Tibor Meray, was made into the 1971 film "To Catch A Spy", starring Kirk Douglas.
The natural magnetism that helped George earn success as an agent is evident in his writing. By the end of his book, he feels like an old friend, telling stories over drinks and perhaps a cigar, looking out over lake Maggiore:
"Did I ever tell you about that time in Budapest?"...
