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Hollywood Heyday: 75 Candid Interviews with Golden Age Legends
"What audacity!" exclaimed actor Robert Wagner when he heard about the authors' adolescent exploits in nabbing interviews with Hollywood celebrities. In 1978, Fantle and Johnson, St. Paul teenagers, boarded a plane to meet with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. They had written the stars requesting interviews--and to their amazement, both agreed.
Over the years, more than 250 other stars also agreed--Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Debbie Reynolds, George Burns, Rod Steiger, Milton Berle, Frank Capra and Hoagy Carmichael, to name a few. Published for the first time and with exclusive photos, this selection of 75 interviews chronicles the authors' 40-year quest for insights and anecdotes from iconic 20th century artists.
Over the years, more than 250 other stars also agreed--Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Debbie Reynolds, George Burns, Rod Steiger, Milton Berle, Frank Capra and Hoagy Carmichael, to name a few. Published for the first time and with exclusive photos, this selection of 75 interviews chronicles the authors' 40-year quest for insights and anecdotes from iconic 20th century artists.
- GenresNonfiction
306 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 4, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 10, 2018
A nice enjoyable read for movie buffs. There isn't anything salacious (well, except Yvette Mimieux streaking the authors), but fans of Hollywood's golden age will enjoy the chutzpah of Fantle and Johnson in making these interviews happen.
June 22, 2019
The authors interviewed 75 people associated with Hollywood's Golden Age, starting just after graduating high school. Some they interviewed twice, with as much as 20 years in between the two interviews. These are short (2-3 page), pithy interviews, with a lot of information you wouldn't get from a biography.
June 26, 2019
This book has some good points and bad points, but for the most part it's the story of a couple know-it-all college students who turn their love of movies into a chance to meet major old Hollywood players. The problem is that you've heard most of the material before.
The Good: they do manage to get some really big names, and as the book goes on it's surprising to see them able to convince people like Jerry Lewis and Charlton Heston to talk with them.
It's also different that they include a lot of personal information about dealing with the celebrities (often interviewed at home), as well as sharing some stories about how the authors contacted the stars. If anything I wish the book would have dealt more with their adventures in lining up the interviews.
In a couple of cases they don't hold back when a star is a jerk. Tonight Show producer Fred DeCordova really gets slammed, as does director Stanley Donan.
Some of the aside stories are actually more entertaining than the interviews, such as seeing Yvette Mimieux naked or Dean Jones being pals with Steve McQueen. Why they seem to have not given chapters to some of these people is hard to understand. It was also interesting to hear a number of the celebrities dislike specific questions about their famous movies, saying they don't care about the work and would rather talk about something else. And what's up with so many celebrities wearing bathrobes when meeting the two visitors?
There also is a great index in the back of the book.
The Bad: most of the sections are too short, with only a couple pages devoted to each person. How they can spend hours and hours with someone like Rod Steiger then only give him three pages seems unforgivable.
The authors tend to focus on a vary narrow set of interests, such as movie musicals or films from the 40s and 50s, instead of expanding to a star's entire career. In a couple cases they didn't ask about some of the obvious work we know the person for.
There are sections about people most of us won't care about or even know. Who are Benny Rubin, Hermes Pan, or Louis Marx? Odd choices for inclusion in a general public publication. They might have been better for an academic overview of movie or entertainment history.
There are too many references to Minnesota and specific questions about stars appearing in Minneapolis/St. Paul. They also mention smoking way too much--we get that they don't like smokers (neither do I) but by the tenth time we've been told how many cigarettes someone smoked it gets old.
The book's title and cover are weak. It detracts from the content inside, which is better than the cheap cover with bad graphics.
They also have a problem with accuracy. Some of their facts are wrong (Ted Knight's Too Close for Comfort was on ABC, not CBS). They also use some inside Hollywood terminology incorrectly. It's frustrating when they try hard to use big vocabulary and fail.
Overall the main problem is that the entire book reads like a series of short Wikipedia entries, and most of the information they include we could read online. So what's the purpose of a book if it isn't to bring fresh insights into the lives of each person mentioned? The authors seem to believe everything the celebrities tell them instead of pointing out flaws in the the famous people's thinking or remembrances. So while the stories bring back fond memories, we have to question how accurate it all is. About as accurate as a Wikipedia entry I guess.
The Good: they do manage to get some really big names, and as the book goes on it's surprising to see them able to convince people like Jerry Lewis and Charlton Heston to talk with them.
It's also different that they include a lot of personal information about dealing with the celebrities (often interviewed at home), as well as sharing some stories about how the authors contacted the stars. If anything I wish the book would have dealt more with their adventures in lining up the interviews.
In a couple of cases they don't hold back when a star is a jerk. Tonight Show producer Fred DeCordova really gets slammed, as does director Stanley Donan.
Some of the aside stories are actually more entertaining than the interviews, such as seeing Yvette Mimieux naked or Dean Jones being pals with Steve McQueen. Why they seem to have not given chapters to some of these people is hard to understand. It was also interesting to hear a number of the celebrities dislike specific questions about their famous movies, saying they don't care about the work and would rather talk about something else. And what's up with so many celebrities wearing bathrobes when meeting the two visitors?
There also is a great index in the back of the book.
The Bad: most of the sections are too short, with only a couple pages devoted to each person. How they can spend hours and hours with someone like Rod Steiger then only give him three pages seems unforgivable.
The authors tend to focus on a vary narrow set of interests, such as movie musicals or films from the 40s and 50s, instead of expanding to a star's entire career. In a couple cases they didn't ask about some of the obvious work we know the person for.
There are sections about people most of us won't care about or even know. Who are Benny Rubin, Hermes Pan, or Louis Marx? Odd choices for inclusion in a general public publication. They might have been better for an academic overview of movie or entertainment history.
There are too many references to Minnesota and specific questions about stars appearing in Minneapolis/St. Paul. They also mention smoking way too much--we get that they don't like smokers (neither do I) but by the tenth time we've been told how many cigarettes someone smoked it gets old.
The book's title and cover are weak. It detracts from the content inside, which is better than the cheap cover with bad graphics.
They also have a problem with accuracy. Some of their facts are wrong (Ted Knight's Too Close for Comfort was on ABC, not CBS). They also use some inside Hollywood terminology incorrectly. It's frustrating when they try hard to use big vocabulary and fail.
Overall the main problem is that the entire book reads like a series of short Wikipedia entries, and most of the information they include we could read online. So what's the purpose of a book if it isn't to bring fresh insights into the lives of each person mentioned? The authors seem to believe everything the celebrities tell them instead of pointing out flaws in the the famous people's thinking or remembrances. So while the stories bring back fond memories, we have to question how accurate it all is. About as accurate as a Wikipedia entry I guess.
January 2, 2020
I enjoyed the short interviews in this book. It included lots of names I recognized, and some that I didn't. It covers actors, directors, producers, composers, choreographers, and strangely a vintage toy manufacturer. I didn't get why the toy guy was included, since there was no actual interview with him, just information about him. It was fun to read how the journalists, as young college students, got the interviews with big stars. The interviews were rather candid and the journalists shared their opinions of how the interviews went. Sometimes they shared what was like a transcript of the interview, other times it was more of a narrative of their visit and discussion. It was one that had been on my to-buy list for awhile, so I'm happy to have read it. Each interview is about 2-3 pages, which makes this an easy book to pick up and put down at any time.
February 21, 2023
Some interesting Tidbits Here
This is an eclectic collection of articles about folks from Hollywood's heyday. All of them are short, and calling them "interviews" is a bit of a stretch. They are based on meetings the authors had with the subjects, and they do all have quotes from the person profiled, but only a few are in a strict interview format. So if you're looking for in-depth, career-spanning interviews with the people in the book, you'll be disappointed. That said, there are a few good insights, pieces of gossip, and fun memories offered by the actors, directors and songwriters profiled here. For any fan of old Hollywood, and especially the MGM musicals, this will be a fun read.
This is an eclectic collection of articles about folks from Hollywood's heyday. All of them are short, and calling them "interviews" is a bit of a stretch. They are based on meetings the authors had with the subjects, and they do all have quotes from the person profiled, but only a few are in a strict interview format. So if you're looking for in-depth, career-spanning interviews with the people in the book, you'll be disappointed. That said, there are a few good insights, pieces of gossip, and fun memories offered by the actors, directors and songwriters profiled here. For any fan of old Hollywood, and especially the MGM musicals, this will be a fun read.
November 12, 2018
Golden Age Greats
Loved this book—short pithy interviews with famous and not so famous actors, directors, writers, composers and choreographers from the golden age of Hollywood and the latter part of vaudeville. Ranging from Georgie Jessel to Robert Stack, the authors provide a fascinating oral history of a time quickly receding in the collective memory. If you have any interest in any of this stuff, read this book now. I mean who interviewed Jules White..?
Loved this book—short pithy interviews with famous and not so famous actors, directors, writers, composers and choreographers from the golden age of Hollywood and the latter part of vaudeville. Ranging from Georgie Jessel to Robert Stack, the authors provide a fascinating oral history of a time quickly receding in the collective memory. If you have any interest in any of this stuff, read this book now. I mean who interviewed Jules White..?
December 21, 2018
Fantle and Johnson have interviewed stars, producers and directors for the last 40 years. This book recalls the interviews of the famous including Charlton Heston, Fred Astaire, Robert Wagner, Esther Williams, Ernest Borgnine and Tippi Hendren to name a few. This was an interesting look back on Hollywood at its peak and its descent through the eyes of the major players themselves.
March 26, 2019
Loved this book. Through a series of interviews and bioographical sketches, the reader gets a birdseye view into the Golden Age of Hollywood. The interviewees are a cross-section of actors, directors, songwriters/composers, choreographers, comedians, and assorted other individuals connected with entertainment.
It a candid and fun; a must for anyone addicted to Hollywood lore.
It a candid and fun; a must for anyone addicted to Hollywood lore.
January 19, 2019
It was fun to read and recall so many celebrities from those eras. I just felt that they seemed to enjoy too much criticizing and making fun of some of the older interviewees who probably struggled with growing older.
October 6, 2019
This was a great compilation of reviews with the knowns an unknowns of the movie industry. Not at all repetitious , but down to earth comments and conversations with people who made the movie industry function. I was delighted with some of the movie lines that distinguished people in their movies
January 14, 2019
What a wonderful read. Great stories from Hollywood at its best.
July 29, 2018
Worth the read
The interviews took me back to my childhood. although there were some I didn't recognize their names but when I read the chapter, I realized I knew of them.
What a fun time you must have had doo r the interviews.
The interviews took me back to my childhood. although there were some I didn't recognize their names but when I read the chapter, I realized I knew of them.
What a fun time you must have had doo r the interviews.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews