From KCRW Santa Monica and KCRW.com, it's The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment.

I'm Elvis Mitchell, sitting across to the man who wrote a series of terrific books about movies that really books are about the end of an era,

but also, as he mentioned, his book on Blake Edwards, The Splitch and the Kisser, books about identity,

artists trying to figure out who they are and coup through periods in their lives.

And his new book, The Big Hollywood, about the making of China in town, which is really about three men, Robert Town,

Roman Polansky and Robert Evans, is a really incredible book. And Sam Watson, the author,

sitting across me. First of all, thanks so much for being here, Sam.

Thank you, Elvis. Thank you. I'm really honored to be here and excited to meet you.

Again, a low threshold for honor. What I'll say about those, and I really thought about

the opening of the Blake Edwards book about identity,

because that really unites all these books, doesn't it?

People trying to figure out who and what they are.

Even the improv book is about that, too.

I never thought about it until this moment, but I guess that's why I write biography,

because it's a question, it's an attempt to answer where creativity comes from.

You cannot approach that unless you approach identity. So to me, what's on the, I mean, in a

great artist, uh, identity is what's on the screen. It's the same exact thing. I, I, I guess

that's what I'm obsessed with. Yeah. And what I like to is, because I think, I keep mentioning the Edwards books, because it feels like that book and Big Collingwood, to me, are kind of companion pieces because they're both about this transition period for Paramount Pictures.

Yeah, and from two different sides.

I mean, from Blake's perspective, it was the beginning of the end.

But what was for Evans and Jack and Town and Nicholson, the beginning of the beginning. I could see if you put those two

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