Eighty Odd Years in Hollywood: Memoir of a Career in Film and Television

by John Meredyth Lucas, Cari Beauchamp (Foreword)

John Meredyth Lucas, son of silent screen star and screenwriter Bess Meredyth (Ben-Hur, The Sea Beast, When a Man Loves, Don Juan) and stepson of renowned Hungarian-born director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Life with Father), came of age in Hollywood during the 1930s. Lucas went on to an impressive career of his own as a writer-producer-director. He made films with Hal Wallis, Ross Hunter, Walt Disney, and others, and he wrote, produced, and directed such classic television series as Mannix, The Fugitive and Star Trek. Completed shortly before his death in 2002, Lucas’ memoir is filled with never-before-told recollections of many Hollywood greats and features previously unpublished photographs. With Lucas, we go behind the scenes, onto the studio lots and into the parties with family friends John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Errol Flynn and Jack Warner, to name just a few. It’s a boy’s-eye-view of Hollywood in a time of glamour, decadence, and the golden years of filmmaking.

319 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2004

Reviews

[John Peel · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Meredyth Lucas was a writer, director and producer in Hollywood from the 50s to the 80s, working on many classic series from "Star Trek" to "Mannix" and "The Six Million Dollar Man", and he recounts his adventures on these shows. But his life was so much more, and he also tells the stories of his mother - 20s scriptwriter Bess Meredyth - and his step-father, director Michael Curtiz, originally Hungarian, and who could "make himself not understood in five languages". It's an excellent account of three unusual lives in the early days of the film and TV industry. Very much recommended.

[Nancy Loe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A privileged life. Interesting for Bess Meredith and Mike Curtiz and some Early Hollywood insights, but lags in the second half that recounts his work on episodic television of the 1960s.