Is there life after Orson? Absolutely. Rumanian-born, British-bred John Houseman went on from his legendary 1930s collaborations with Welles (Run-Through, 1971) to an independent career as film producer and theater director--and this second memoir covers his year-by-year labors up to 1955. It must be admitted however, that without the demonic Welles around, Houseman's career makes sturdy rather than thrilling reading. After WWII, it was back to L.A.-- for over ten years of producing movies: The Blue Dahlia, with Raymond Chandler; Max Ophuls' Letter from an Unknown Woman (a disaster then, a classic now); The Bad and the Beautiful; Julius Caesar (Brando as Antony); and Lust for Life. He also found time to exchange a loose lifestyle for marriage and kids at age 50. With acerbic close-ups of Hollywood in the studios' last heyday, it is show-biz autobiography at its most literate and leisurely--shrewd and thorough and drily amusing.