Musician: A Hollywood Journal: Of Wives, Women, Writers, Lawyers, Directors, Producers, and Music

From the 720-page journal that English-born composer-arranger Murray kept from 1947 to 1983, Corwin, doing ""a regular Maxwell Perkins number,'' produced this still-hefty volume that Hollywood fanatics may succeed in reading to the end. The stories deal mostly with Murray's earnings and yearnings, work on movie and TV scores, his friends, colleagues, wives and amours, and the long drawn-out court case over his fourth divorce. Often he expresses depression about devoting his life to ``unimportant matters like making money to pay tuition, teeth straightening, alimony, insurance, rent, etc.,'' yet at the age of 60he admits that he would do anything for money. There are nuggets amid all this despondency, however: ``Hitchcock said Grace Kelly has an affair with every leading man she works with but blushes when you tell a dirty story . . . .'' John Mundy taught cello to Irish nuns who, since they weren't allowed to open their legs to accommodate the instrument, played it sidesaddle. (April 14)