He had one goal in mind: to become a writer.
A Dream Come True
Zanuck sold his first story to a pulp fiction magazine and then decided to sell the story to a film studio. His girlfriend suggested he join the Los Angeles Athletic Club to make contacts with movie people. When Zanuck attempted to join, however, he was rejected. He had been blackballed because people thought he was Jewish (he was not), and the club did not admit Jews. Zanuck later used the experience to produce the Academy Award winning, Gentleman's Agreement, Hollywood's first film dealing with anti-Semitism.
At the age of 19, Zanuck wrote and sold his first Hollywood screenplay. At age 20 he became a gag writer for Mack Sennet and later for Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Working for Warner Brothers, Zanuck wrote the scripts for the highly popular Rin Tin Tin movies, which starred a German shepherd. At 23, Zanuck became head of production for Warner Brothers. Two years later he produced the movie The Jazz Singer, often called the first "talkie" or movie with sound. In reality it was a silent movie with several sound musical and talking sequences, but it brought about the end of the silent film era and changed the nature of the film industry forever.
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