You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet: Interviews with Stars from Hollywood's Golden Era

by James Bawden, Ronald G. Miller

Journalists James Bawden and Ron Miller spent their careers interviewing the greatest stars of Hollywood's golden age. They visited Lee Marvin at home and politely admired his fishing trophies, chatted with Janet Leigh while a young Jamie Lee Curtis played, and even made Elizabeth Taylor laugh out loud.

In You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, Bawden and Miller return with a new collection of rare interviews with iconic film stars including Henry Fonda, Esther Williams, Buster Keaton, Maureen O'Sullivan, Walter Pidgeon, and many more. The book is filled with humorous anecdotes and incredible behind-the-scenes stories. For instance, Bette Davis reflects that she and Katharine Hepburn were both considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara but neither was "gorgeous enough" for the part; Janet Leigh analyzes the famous shower scene in Psycho (1960), which was shot in seven days and gave the actress nightmares for years; and Jimmy Stewart describes Alfred Hitchcock as a "strange, roly-poly man, interested only in blondes and murder." Popular horror film stars from Lon Chaney Jr. to Boris Karloff and Vincent Price are also featured in a special "movie monsters" section.

With first-person accounts of Hollywood life from some of the most distinguished luminaries in the history of American cinema, this entertaining book will delight classic movie fans.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Media Tie In

415 pages, Hardcover

Published October 20, 2017

About the author

James Bawden was a Toronto Star entertainment columnist for 40 years. Renowned for his distinguished profiles of movie stars and directors, he co-authored three books and wrote for Films in Review and numerous cinema magazines.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great stories from stars of days gone by. While it's nice to have this record, many of the entries are quite brief, with many feeling like they end rather abruptly, without really giving us much of an in-depth look at the subjects. The biggest problem, however, is that many of the comments are very dated, and come off as incredibly sexist today. Yes, these actors and the offending comments may have been a product of their time, but they only serve to show how wrong the viewpoints of the offenders were in their time. Even the co-author Miller is not exempt here, as his rather frequent comments objectifying women prove. And Miller's fat-shaming of Victor Buono is just inexcusable - it's frankly odd that they even decided to include this interview at all, given how mean-spirited it is.
I'm quite tempted to give only two stars for the bad taste some of that trash leaves, but the stellar portraits that emerge from the interviews with a few of the subjects (notably Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Vincent Price) edges it up to three stars.

[John Yingling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was quite an entertaining read, and the love the authors have for old Hollywood and for the people they interviewed shows in the warm, delightful discussions they had with the stars. It was particularly fun for me to read about people who played such nasty villains on screen who turned out to be nice, friendly people, more than willing to talk with the authors. I smiled a lot while reading this book, and felt as though I had a personal connection to the interviewees. Highly recommended.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection of interviews with a wide variety of performers of Hollywood's Golden Age. Looking through the index the big stars (Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart etc) are there and the discussion they have with the authors interesting and informative but not necessarily anything you haven't heard before if you're a fan of theirs. Where the gold is in this is the more obscure talents who either faded or walked away from their careers and so much less is known of their experience.

For instance stop number one for me was the interview with one time child star and Oscar nominee Anne Shirley who had called it quits in 1944 after one of her most famous pictures-Murder, My Sweet. She came across as plain speaking (on sitting down with the interviewer she said "You got two hours so you better get crackin' Bub), down to earth and full of info about her career and the people she worked with.

Only a few are letdowns, Tony Perkins in particular is dry unless you're dying to know about Psycho III, but that seems more due to time constraint with that particular person than anything else. All in all a fascinating read that will be catnip for movie lovers.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining enough collection of interviews with old-timey movie stars, most of which were conducted long ago in the 60s, 70's or 80s. The interesting thing is that in addition to the big names, such as Bette Davis, Henry Fonda & James Stewart, there are also talks with folks like Raymond Massey, Anne Shirley, & Cornell Wilde—folks who were famous back in their day but have long since faded from the general public's memory. A lot of the interviews are quite short and few go into any depth, but there are some good snippets of gossipy info (for example, Robert Young lets us know that Shirley Temple loathed Ronald Reagan (me too, Shirley!), and we find out that Katherine Hepburn was a huge arrogant pain in the ass to work with, which is hardly a surprise). The interviewers are fully invested in talking about the work of the actors produced—their movies—so in general controversial subjects are avoided. If you're like me and a fan of the classic Hollywood era you should generally enjoy this, otherwise file under Eminently Skippable.

[Annie Garvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is no depth to any of these interviews. I especially disliked the Victor Buono profile. Miller states, "I met Victor Buono when he was appearing in the 1965 stage production of Molière's 'Tartuffe' at the Comedia Repertory Theater in Palo Alto, California. He was absolutely fabulous in this stage role, commanding the stage whenever he set foot upon it. He was such a powerful stage performer that I don't believe his movie and TV fans ever experienced the real Buono if they hadn't seen him live a theater stage." Then Miller interviews Buono about his weight.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading both their collections of interviews with conveniently dead classic movie stars I have come to not believe a word of them. The same anecdotes and descriptions turn up in different interviews and everyone sounds the same. How many times did I hear someone refer to "Livvie De Havilland" yet she was not among those interviewed, presumably because she is still alive.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this interviews to be pretty insightful, even though the original intent was fluff. Actually found it hard to put down. Most of the stars are being interviewed after their “hey day” so seem rather honest in their accounts. Good read for the movie buff. Have even ordered another book by these two.

[Sevelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carey Grant was fussy. Lee Marvin is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Esther Williams once nearly drowned filming a scene. Jane Wyatt and Raymond Massey both came from rarefied childhoods. These are a few gems mined from this rich storehouse of great stories told by the stars themselves. Highly recommended. Good nightstand book.

[Malcolm Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining and interesting particularly when they are interviewing lesser lights such as Bonita Granville and Reginald Owen.
However some interviews are ridiculously short and the one with Elizabeth Taylor was pointless.

[Sydney]

Riveting. Thank you so much for this book -- for all these incredible interviews. I have such gratitude as a reader.