THE FAMOUS MR. FAIRBANKS: A STORY OF CELEBRITY by Richard Schickel (Felix Farmer Press) I was happy to reacquaint myself with this book, a lengthy essay about the nature of celebrity based on the first man who embodied its…
INK-STAINED HOLLYWOOD: THE TRIUMPH OF CINEMA’S TRADE PRESS by Eric Hoyt (University of California Press) This vital new book is the result of Herculean research by the man who now supervises the Media History Digital Library, where one can…
BUSTER KEATON: A FILMMAKER’S LIFE by James Curtis (Knopf) At more than 600 pages, this is not the kind of book one takes up casually. I cleared time on my calendar to read it cover to cover. By the…
Some of these books are new, while others were released under cover of pandemic darkness. In any case, this is my first opportunity to acknowledge and write about them. KEEP ‘EM IN THE EAST: KAZAN, KUBRICK AND THE POSTWAR…
I never dreamed I would be in partnership with the world-famous Larry Edmunds Bookshop, but they are your one-stop source for a personally signed copy of my brand-new book Starstruck: My Unlikely Road to Hollywood (GoodKnight Books) When I made my…
I can’t pretend to have any objectivity about Jerry Lewis. I grew up worshiping him. And while I came to realize that he was fallibly human I never stopped being impressed, especially after I met him. That’s why I…
A LOT CAN HAPPEN IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE MAKING OF FARGO by Todd Melby; foreword by William H. Macy (Minnesota Historical Society Press) Despite the pedigree of its publisher, this book is not…