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A Front Row Seat
From her idyllic childhood in the American midwest, to her Oscar-nominated performance in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and the social circles of New York and Los Angeles, actress Nancy Olson Livingston has lived abundantly. In her memoir, A Front Row Seat, Livingston treats readers to an intimate, charming chronicle of her life as an actress, wife, and mother, and her memories of many of the most notable figures and moments of her time. Entertaining and engrossing, A Front Row Seat deftly interweaves Livingston's life with her observations of the artists, celebrities, and luminaries with whom she came in contact – a paean to the twentieth century and a treasure for readers enamored with a bygone era.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2022
2 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 4, 2022
I'd like to thank Edelweiss and the publisher for allowing me a chance at reading this book.
Lets face it: Sunset Boulevard is THE movie. Perhaps if I ever made a list of my top 10 films, it's high on the list. The casting, the story, everything. But, what really gets me is that Betty Schaefer is one of my favorite characters. So when Nancy was coming out with a memoir I knew I had to read it.
I haven't seen much of her other films, besides Polyanna once a long time ago. So I was going in blind to the rest of her career. Though it surprised me that she was actually married to two men I had no idea she was married to - Alan Livingston, and Alan Jay Werner.
Nancy's memoir absolutely flows with the cadence as if you are right there watching it. Apparently she wrote a lot of these pieces down over the years and compiled them all into this book for her children. Not a lot of actors or actresses do that!
She is a very liberal person and she is also a very accepting person, too. Made me so happy that she abhors a certain president and absolutely hates the last 4 years like the rest of us.
My heart truly went out to her in regards to her marriage to Alan Jay Werner. The dude was a shit person and yet he created such memorable tunes. I can't believe he ended up having 8 romances and quite a couple marriages. Glad she got out of that mess and met her next husband...
Who was the dude in charge of Columbia and was famous for The Beatles getting exposure here in America.
The stories she told about various actors, writers, and politicians were eye-opening and not surprising, but she brings such a level-headed and frankness that you just have to accept her word (which I truly did).
If you were to read any sort of memoir or biography from an old Hollywood actress you must read hers!
Lets face it: Sunset Boulevard is THE movie. Perhaps if I ever made a list of my top 10 films, it's high on the list. The casting, the story, everything. But, what really gets me is that Betty Schaefer is one of my favorite characters. So when Nancy was coming out with a memoir I knew I had to read it.
I haven't seen much of her other films, besides Polyanna once a long time ago. So I was going in blind to the rest of her career. Though it surprised me that she was actually married to two men I had no idea she was married to - Alan Livingston, and Alan Jay Werner.
Nancy's memoir absolutely flows with the cadence as if you are right there watching it. Apparently she wrote a lot of these pieces down over the years and compiled them all into this book for her children. Not a lot of actors or actresses do that!
She is a very liberal person and she is also a very accepting person, too. Made me so happy that she abhors a certain president and absolutely hates the last 4 years like the rest of us.
My heart truly went out to her in regards to her marriage to Alan Jay Werner. The dude was a shit person and yet he created such memorable tunes. I can't believe he ended up having 8 romances and quite a couple marriages. Glad she got out of that mess and met her next husband...
Who was the dude in charge of Columbia and was famous for The Beatles getting exposure here in America.
The stories she told about various actors, writers, and politicians were eye-opening and not surprising, but she brings such a level-headed and frankness that you just have to accept her word (which I truly did).
If you were to read any sort of memoir or biography from an old Hollywood actress you must read hers!
June 30, 2024
Disturbing and misguided memoir written by a liberal elitist who looks down on just about everyone she meets. It's filled with stories about other rich and famous people, slamming a wide range from John F. Kennedy to John Wayne! This woman really thinks highly of herself but fails to give us much insight into her delusional elitism.
It starts off wrong by telling us that she grew up in a "rather middle class home" in Milwaukee. Um, you mean the five-bedroom house, which includes the maid's quarters (yes, she had a maid)? Maybe the two automobiles they owned during the depression when others had none? Or the fact that as a married adult she admits she had never made a bed before? Or maybe it was the rich acres of land with mansions that her doctor daddy moved to on Lake Michigan or in Los Angeles? Or their lake vacation home? This all sounds middle class, right?
So you know from the start that she's dishonest and has a warped view of the world. She was raised a rich WASP girl and that attitude never left her. She one of those types that acts like she's a direct descendant of those on the Mayflower and has a haughty attitude toward commoners beneath her.
By the time she started a Hollywood career (not from any talent or training but from what she says were her good looks, claiming "I was flattered") all the famous were trying to bed her (Kennedy, Howard Hughes) but she insisted on remaining a virgin until marriage.
She ended up in her early 20s marrying an older, Jewish, and ultra-rich Broadway lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, who cheated on her while she was pregnant with their first child but she stuck with him for years. I wonder why--oh, that's right, she likes older men with lots of money, just like her daddy.
Then the second baby came (along with a cook, housekeeper and nanny!), and Livingston admits, "If I were in the same circumstances today, I'm not sure whether I would continue that pregnancy." You read that correctly--she says she probably would have aborted the baby that became her second child. What a loving, caring mother to say such a thing in a book that her adult daughter will read!?
Once My Fair Lady opens (to which she takes a bit of the credit for its creation!), the couple is propelled to the upper stratosphere of New York City high society, including the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Jackie Kennedy. Livingston hilariously complains about the huge mansion on their rented summer estate, writing, "I earned a Ph.D. in keeping house, planning menus, picking the correct wines, as well as keeping everyone happy--a daunting task!" I'm sure it is difficult to juggle all those bank accounts, parties, and servants working for you.
There are a few surprisingly blunt revelations about the ultrarich, some that are difficult to believe. She claims that on the night of JFK's inauguration, he showed up totally alone and without Secret Service at the house of a closeted gay writer and spent an hour in the middle of the night with their group (including Henry Fonda's wife); then she later says she saw the President walking the streets of New York City alone in the dark in 1962. Seriously?
A theme is that Kennedy wanted her, she refused to let him have her. She writes about dozens of men in high-powered positions that wanted to bed her, though in most cases she refuses to name names. Nancy at times goes out of her way to even tell us the celebrities that didn't try to sleep with her but hinted at it (like William Faulkner) in an absurd attempt to communicate how F-able she was.
Want to learn behind-the-scenes stories regarding her film work? You won't find any here. That's especially disappointing with her Disney movies basically ignored (looking down her nose at Walt by calling him "quite provincial in his own life and tastes"). She spends more time describing every outfit she wore socially than she does her career. There are instead many things in the book about others, including full chapters about her husbands' backgrounds, but so little about herself admitting to any of her own flaws or errors (beyond hinting that she wished she had given up her virginity sooner to wolves like JFK!).
For some reason the author insists on pushing her liberal Democrat propaganda on readers throughout the book. Her political affiliation is mentioned often, and conservatives are smeared--including her father; Ronald Reagan, in a tacky swipe at how unhappy his daughter Patti was at their school; and John Wayne, who she quotes as making an insensitive comment about FDR's handicap then tells us how much she loved working with the western star!
When Kennedy is assassinated, the author admits she "started cursing the conservative southern politicians with their right-wing agenda and their hatred for our Democratic president." Huh? Most politicians from the south at the time were left-wing racist Democrats, and the man who killed Kennedy was a leftist socialist who once defected to Russia and passed out pro-Fidel Castro leaflets in New Orleans just months before JFK was killed!
Then she boasts of supporting Bill Clinton twice, though is concerned about his lothario ways and says his sex with an intern is what cost Al Gore the 2000 election. She then mentions Democrat Congressman Tom Lantos sexually harassing her at a dinner party, putting his hand up her skirt and placing her hand on his crotch. Before she is willing to place blame on fun-loving liberals, she inserts an unfounded rumor about a Republican Senator and some gossip about conservative Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor regretting giving the 2000 election to George Bush. This woman will stop at nothing to distort history and avoid seeing that leftist political stances and supporters like Harvey Weinstein lead to mistreatment of women.
She even ridiculously goes out of her way to says she agrees with one of Barack Obama's most insulting, bigoted, and insidious statements attempting to abridge First and Second Amendment rights: that less-educated white people in rural Pennsylvania "cling to guns or religion." (Obama later repeated the phrase regarding Trump supporters.) How ignorant and hypocritical these supposedly highbrow, overeducated people are!
She then backs her anti-rural insults in writing at length about her rich second husband Alan Livingston, another rich older guy who was the head of Capital Records, Jewish and raised in Pennsylvania in a town with what the author calls "a largely uneducated populace." This bigoted woman uses her pen to diminish others beneath her, yet she is guilty of the very intolerance she accuses others of. Meanwhile, Livingston's career allows her to mingle with Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Princess Grace, and even Bozo the Clown! (Believe it or not, her second husband created Bozo.)
BTW, the only great sections of the book deal with the fascinating Alan Livingston, who first put out records of The Beach Boys and Nat King Cole as well as helping to create Bonanza on NBC and being the only guy who believed in the Beatles to bring them to America. It's too bad that when the man suddenly dies it's unclear what happened because she rushes through his illness yet finds time to brag that she was awarded his posthumous Grammy.
She does, however, waste a couple dozen pages on her leadership of Hollywood women's charities. Instead of providing any real stories, it's all about bickering and bitterness toward insecure show business elites that are always trying to one-up each other.
The writer's contempt includes anyone serious about their Christian faith. For some reason she insists on detailed sections that mock followers of Jesus, though she was raised Lutheran before her parents turned Universalist, while at the same time she uses the text to righteously defend the Judaism of her two non-practicing, non-religious husbands! Her anger, which is justified in the stories about the anti-Semitic treatment of the men when they were young, should also be equally directed at those who condemn Christians, such as Jewish parents that abandon children who marry outside the faith.
What is her religion? Late in the book she uncovers that she is a follower of EST--that creepy authoritarian mind control group that is often called a cult. Why didn't that surprise me?
But she saves the final surprise for chapter 99 (out of 100) when she states it's "possible that I am a direct descendent of a king of Sweden!" Her snobbery knows no bounds when she adds, "I have to share a secret. All my life, people have treated me differently, beginning with my beloved father who always made me feel treasured. Does it surprise me that I might actually be a princess?"
This is the delusional core of her thoughts of grandeur. Nancy Olson Livingston represents all that's wrong with hypocritical left-wing elitists, who think nothing of pushing for tax money from average Americans to be used for pet highbrow social causes that they don't want to give up their own wealth to pay for.
Nancy Olson was a rich brat from birth and just got worse in adulthood; this book simply proves that she never learned what middle America is really all about and is still acting like a princess.
It starts off wrong by telling us that she grew up in a "rather middle class home" in Milwaukee. Um, you mean the five-bedroom house, which includes the maid's quarters (yes, she had a maid)? Maybe the two automobiles they owned during the depression when others had none? Or the fact that as a married adult she admits she had never made a bed before? Or maybe it was the rich acres of land with mansions that her doctor daddy moved to on Lake Michigan or in Los Angeles? Or their lake vacation home? This all sounds middle class, right?
So you know from the start that she's dishonest and has a warped view of the world. She was raised a rich WASP girl and that attitude never left her. She one of those types that acts like she's a direct descendant of those on the Mayflower and has a haughty attitude toward commoners beneath her.
By the time she started a Hollywood career (not from any talent or training but from what she says were her good looks, claiming "I was flattered") all the famous were trying to bed her (Kennedy, Howard Hughes) but she insisted on remaining a virgin until marriage.
She ended up in her early 20s marrying an older, Jewish, and ultra-rich Broadway lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, who cheated on her while she was pregnant with their first child but she stuck with him for years. I wonder why--oh, that's right, she likes older men with lots of money, just like her daddy.
Then the second baby came (along with a cook, housekeeper and nanny!), and Livingston admits, "If I were in the same circumstances today, I'm not sure whether I would continue that pregnancy." You read that correctly--she says she probably would have aborted the baby that became her second child. What a loving, caring mother to say such a thing in a book that her adult daughter will read!?
Once My Fair Lady opens (to which she takes a bit of the credit for its creation!), the couple is propelled to the upper stratosphere of New York City high society, including the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Jackie Kennedy. Livingston hilariously complains about the huge mansion on their rented summer estate, writing, "I earned a Ph.D. in keeping house, planning menus, picking the correct wines, as well as keeping everyone happy--a daunting task!" I'm sure it is difficult to juggle all those bank accounts, parties, and servants working for you.
There are a few surprisingly blunt revelations about the ultrarich, some that are difficult to believe. She claims that on the night of JFK's inauguration, he showed up totally alone and without Secret Service at the house of a closeted gay writer and spent an hour in the middle of the night with their group (including Henry Fonda's wife); then she later says she saw the President walking the streets of New York City alone in the dark in 1962. Seriously?
A theme is that Kennedy wanted her, she refused to let him have her. She writes about dozens of men in high-powered positions that wanted to bed her, though in most cases she refuses to name names. Nancy at times goes out of her way to even tell us the celebrities that didn't try to sleep with her but hinted at it (like William Faulkner) in an absurd attempt to communicate how F-able she was.
Want to learn behind-the-scenes stories regarding her film work? You won't find any here. That's especially disappointing with her Disney movies basically ignored (looking down her nose at Walt by calling him "quite provincial in his own life and tastes"). She spends more time describing every outfit she wore socially than she does her career. There are instead many things in the book about others, including full chapters about her husbands' backgrounds, but so little about herself admitting to any of her own flaws or errors (beyond hinting that she wished she had given up her virginity sooner to wolves like JFK!).
For some reason the author insists on pushing her liberal Democrat propaganda on readers throughout the book. Her political affiliation is mentioned often, and conservatives are smeared--including her father; Ronald Reagan, in a tacky swipe at how unhappy his daughter Patti was at their school; and John Wayne, who she quotes as making an insensitive comment about FDR's handicap then tells us how much she loved working with the western star!
When Kennedy is assassinated, the author admits she "started cursing the conservative southern politicians with their right-wing agenda and their hatred for our Democratic president." Huh? Most politicians from the south at the time were left-wing racist Democrats, and the man who killed Kennedy was a leftist socialist who once defected to Russia and passed out pro-Fidel Castro leaflets in New Orleans just months before JFK was killed!
Then she boasts of supporting Bill Clinton twice, though is concerned about his lothario ways and says his sex with an intern is what cost Al Gore the 2000 election. She then mentions Democrat Congressman Tom Lantos sexually harassing her at a dinner party, putting his hand up her skirt and placing her hand on his crotch. Before she is willing to place blame on fun-loving liberals, she inserts an unfounded rumor about a Republican Senator and some gossip about conservative Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor regretting giving the 2000 election to George Bush. This woman will stop at nothing to distort history and avoid seeing that leftist political stances and supporters like Harvey Weinstein lead to mistreatment of women.
She even ridiculously goes out of her way to says she agrees with one of Barack Obama's most insulting, bigoted, and insidious statements attempting to abridge First and Second Amendment rights: that less-educated white people in rural Pennsylvania "cling to guns or religion." (Obama later repeated the phrase regarding Trump supporters.) How ignorant and hypocritical these supposedly highbrow, overeducated people are!
She then backs her anti-rural insults in writing at length about her rich second husband Alan Livingston, another rich older guy who was the head of Capital Records, Jewish and raised in Pennsylvania in a town with what the author calls "a largely uneducated populace." This bigoted woman uses her pen to diminish others beneath her, yet she is guilty of the very intolerance she accuses others of. Meanwhile, Livingston's career allows her to mingle with Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Princess Grace, and even Bozo the Clown! (Believe it or not, her second husband created Bozo.)
BTW, the only great sections of the book deal with the fascinating Alan Livingston, who first put out records of The Beach Boys and Nat King Cole as well as helping to create Bonanza on NBC and being the only guy who believed in the Beatles to bring them to America. It's too bad that when the man suddenly dies it's unclear what happened because she rushes through his illness yet finds time to brag that she was awarded his posthumous Grammy.
She does, however, waste a couple dozen pages on her leadership of Hollywood women's charities. Instead of providing any real stories, it's all about bickering and bitterness toward insecure show business elites that are always trying to one-up each other.
The writer's contempt includes anyone serious about their Christian faith. For some reason she insists on detailed sections that mock followers of Jesus, though she was raised Lutheran before her parents turned Universalist, while at the same time she uses the text to righteously defend the Judaism of her two non-practicing, non-religious husbands! Her anger, which is justified in the stories about the anti-Semitic treatment of the men when they were young, should also be equally directed at those who condemn Christians, such as Jewish parents that abandon children who marry outside the faith.
What is her religion? Late in the book she uncovers that she is a follower of EST--that creepy authoritarian mind control group that is often called a cult. Why didn't that surprise me?
But she saves the final surprise for chapter 99 (out of 100) when she states it's "possible that I am a direct descendent of a king of Sweden!" Her snobbery knows no bounds when she adds, "I have to share a secret. All my life, people have treated me differently, beginning with my beloved father who always made me feel treasured. Does it surprise me that I might actually be a princess?"
This is the delusional core of her thoughts of grandeur. Nancy Olson Livingston represents all that's wrong with hypocritical left-wing elitists, who think nothing of pushing for tax money from average Americans to be used for pet highbrow social causes that they don't want to give up their own wealth to pay for.
Nancy Olson was a rich brat from birth and just got worse in adulthood; this book simply proves that she never learned what middle America is really all about and is still acting like a princess.
August 15, 2022
Want to see a classic film historian geek out? Get her on the phone with the Oscar-nominated star of her all-time favorite movie.
The fan is me. The star is Nancy Olson. The film is Sunset Blvd.
We talked for an hour, and Olson patiently answered every question I posed, including the most crucial one: “Was Bill Holden a good kisser?” (Short answer: Hell yeah!). I play clips from our conversation whenever I host the movie. She’s the most down-to-earth performer I’ve ever interviewed, and couldn’t have been nicer as I fan-girled all over her.
Now, with the October release of Olson’s memoir, A Front Row Seat, you can savor her inside “dish,” too. Not only did Olson co-star in one of the best motion pictures ever made, she married legendary Broadway lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (My Fair Lady, Camelot), and later, Alan Livingston, a Capitol Records executive who did everything from creating Bozo the Clown to signing four unknown British mop tops to a recording contract. (Olson’s reaction to hearing I Want to Hold Your Hand for the first time is priceless.)
Olson’s Cinderella story unfolds like a three-act play. Part One: She’s a UCLA college student, nicknamed “Wholesome Olson,” who’s discovered at age 20 by a Paramount talent scout, and hand-picked by Billy Wilder for Sunset Blvd. Part Two: She moves to New York as Lerner’s muse, but his serial cheating straps her onto a roller coaster ride of heartache. Part Three: She divorces Lerner, finds wedded bliss with Livingston, and focuses on a traditional wife-and-mother role, while occasionally resurfacing on screen (Pollyanna, The Absent-Minded Professor) – that is, when she’s not doing super-cool things like hosting private parties at her house with John, Paul, George and Ringo.
A Front Row Seat is packed with juicy scoops about A-List celebrities. Olson spills untold secrets about John F. Kennedy (before and after he became president), Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Ira Gershwin, John Wayne, Bing Crosby, William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Marlon Brando, Salvador Dali, Nat King Cole, Howard Hughes, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney, Grace Kelly, Natalie Wood, and writers William Faulkner, Norman Mailer, and Clifford Odets.
Olson candidly covers the highs and lows of her life, which began on July 14, 1928. She writes about her (mostly) idyllic Wisconsin childhood, her passion for acting (but not movie stardom), and the charming moment when she inspired Lerner to craft My Fair Lady’s hit song, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.” Yet Olson also doesn’t paper over Lerner’s shocking betrayals (when we spoke, she dryly told me, “I was the third of Alan’s eight wives.”); her struggles as a single mother and stepmom; and how psychotherapy helped Olson make peace with her past and herself.
From movie studios to Broadway stages, Olson puts us in the Front Row Seat of entertainment history. She captures the seductive power and price of fame, but navigates its landmines with her integrity intact, in this page-turning, “must-read” book. (I read an advance review copy.)
The fan is me. The star is Nancy Olson. The film is Sunset Blvd.
We talked for an hour, and Olson patiently answered every question I posed, including the most crucial one: “Was Bill Holden a good kisser?” (Short answer: Hell yeah!). I play clips from our conversation whenever I host the movie. She’s the most down-to-earth performer I’ve ever interviewed, and couldn’t have been nicer as I fan-girled all over her.
Now, with the October release of Olson’s memoir, A Front Row Seat, you can savor her inside “dish,” too. Not only did Olson co-star in one of the best motion pictures ever made, she married legendary Broadway lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (My Fair Lady, Camelot), and later, Alan Livingston, a Capitol Records executive who did everything from creating Bozo the Clown to signing four unknown British mop tops to a recording contract. (Olson’s reaction to hearing I Want to Hold Your Hand for the first time is priceless.)
Olson’s Cinderella story unfolds like a three-act play. Part One: She’s a UCLA college student, nicknamed “Wholesome Olson,” who’s discovered at age 20 by a Paramount talent scout, and hand-picked by Billy Wilder for Sunset Blvd. Part Two: She moves to New York as Lerner’s muse, but his serial cheating straps her onto a roller coaster ride of heartache. Part Three: She divorces Lerner, finds wedded bliss with Livingston, and focuses on a traditional wife-and-mother role, while occasionally resurfacing on screen (Pollyanna, The Absent-Minded Professor) – that is, when she’s not doing super-cool things like hosting private parties at her house with John, Paul, George and Ringo.
A Front Row Seat is packed with juicy scoops about A-List celebrities. Olson spills untold secrets about John F. Kennedy (before and after he became president), Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Ira Gershwin, John Wayne, Bing Crosby, William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Marlon Brando, Salvador Dali, Nat King Cole, Howard Hughes, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney, Grace Kelly, Natalie Wood, and writers William Faulkner, Norman Mailer, and Clifford Odets.
Olson candidly covers the highs and lows of her life, which began on July 14, 1928. She writes about her (mostly) idyllic Wisconsin childhood, her passion for acting (but not movie stardom), and the charming moment when she inspired Lerner to craft My Fair Lady’s hit song, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.” Yet Olson also doesn’t paper over Lerner’s shocking betrayals (when we spoke, she dryly told me, “I was the third of Alan’s eight wives.”); her struggles as a single mother and stepmom; and how psychotherapy helped Olson make peace with her past and herself.
From movie studios to Broadway stages, Olson puts us in the Front Row Seat of entertainment history. She captures the seductive power and price of fame, but navigates its landmines with her integrity intact, in this page-turning, “must-read” book. (I read an advance review copy.)
January 4, 2023
I thought this book was well written, and many of the stories were interesting, but the author comes across as a bit arrogant. I enjoyed the show business stories but the long portion near the end about her work with the Music Center of Los Angeles County got boring and was too much about tooting her own horn. I was disappointed. However, the sweet encounter with author William Faulkner was unforgettable.
December 14, 2023
Real Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: From her idyllic childhood in the American Midwest to her Oscar–nominated performance in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and the social circles of New York and Los Angeles, actress Nancy Olson Livingston has lived abundantly. In her memoir, A Front Row Seat, Livingston treats readers to an intimate, charming chronicle of her life as an actress, wife, and mother, and her memories of many of the most notable figures and moments of her time.
Livingston shares reminiscences of her marriages to lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner, creator of award-winning musicals Paint Your Wagon, Gigi, and My Fair Lady (which was dedicated to her), and to Alan Wendell Livingston, former president of Capitol Records, who created Bozo the Clown and worked with legendary musical artists, including Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Band, and Don McLean. One of the last living actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Livingston shares memorable encounters with countless celebrities—William Holden, Billy Wilder, Bing Crosby, Marilyn Monroe, and John Wayne, to name a few—and less pleasant experiences with Howard Hughes and John F. Kennedy that act as reminders of women's long struggle for equality.
Entertaining and engrossing, A Front Row Seat deftly interweaves Livingston's life with her observations of the artists, celebrities, and luminaries with whom she came in contact—a paean to the twentieth century and a treasure for readers enamored with a bygone era.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Oscar nominee for her second role, in Sunset Boulevard, Olson was a woman with a future in acting on stage and screen. Instead, she hitched her star to two powerful men and became a wife and mother. As they were powerful, she was never far away from the glamour of the industry she'd left behind.
She never stopped working, she never made it as big as she would have had she stuck it out, but this lady had herself one amazing ride through the greatest years of the industry she walked away from serving.
Imagine her two daughters born in the early 1950s as Mom and Stepdad bring 'em to meet the Beatles.
What this book does is give you exactly what the title says it will: A front row seat, next to a bona fide insider, at all the major theatrical, musical, and entertainment world events of the Jet Set/Rat Pack era.
The personal life the lady led was honestly one of pretty typical stuff for a woman in that time...a lot of hard work supporting the career of her husband, a lot of swatting away the eight hands most men seemed to grow when her lovely blonde-capped profile hove into view, raising three children in an ever-scarier world. She stints with none of it.
Come for the glamour, the nostalgia of this bygone cultural moment; stay to get acquainted with someone you can easily imagine becoming your friend. A book of delights and pleasures that raids a scrapbook of stunning depth and fun! There are so many more images than I could show to you, but I chose some to demonstrate the feel of them all.
Your women-in-film reader, your glamour-chaser giftee, and your own good self could really sink into this charming hostess's beautifully curated cocktail party. Great for #Booksgiving.
The Publisher Says: From her idyllic childhood in the American Midwest to her Oscar–nominated performance in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and the social circles of New York and Los Angeles, actress Nancy Olson Livingston has lived abundantly. In her memoir, A Front Row Seat, Livingston treats readers to an intimate, charming chronicle of her life as an actress, wife, and mother, and her memories of many of the most notable figures and moments of her time.
Livingston shares reminiscences of her marriages to lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner, creator of award-winning musicals Paint Your Wagon, Gigi, and My Fair Lady (which was dedicated to her), and to Alan Wendell Livingston, former president of Capitol Records, who created Bozo the Clown and worked with legendary musical artists, including Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Band, and Don McLean. One of the last living actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Livingston shares memorable encounters with countless celebrities—William Holden, Billy Wilder, Bing Crosby, Marilyn Monroe, and John Wayne, to name a few—and less pleasant experiences with Howard Hughes and John F. Kennedy that act as reminders of women's long struggle for equality.
Entertaining and engrossing, A Front Row Seat deftly interweaves Livingston's life with her observations of the artists, celebrities, and luminaries with whom she came in contact—a paean to the twentieth century and a treasure for readers enamored with a bygone era.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Oscar nominee for her second role, in Sunset Boulevard, Olson was a woman with a future in acting on stage and screen. Instead, she hitched her star to two powerful men and became a wife and mother. As they were powerful, she was never far away from the glamour of the industry she'd left behind.
She never stopped working, she never made it as big as she would have had she stuck it out, but this lady had herself one amazing ride through the greatest years of the industry she walked away from serving.
Imagine her two daughters born in the early 1950s as Mom and Stepdad bring 'em to meet the Beatles.
What this book does is give you exactly what the title says it will: A front row seat, next to a bona fide insider, at all the major theatrical, musical, and entertainment world events of the Jet Set/Rat Pack era.
The personal life the lady led was honestly one of pretty typical stuff for a woman in that time...a lot of hard work supporting the career of her husband, a lot of swatting away the eight hands most men seemed to grow when her lovely blonde-capped profile hove into view, raising three children in an ever-scarier world. She stints with none of it.
Come for the glamour, the nostalgia of this bygone cultural moment; stay to get acquainted with someone you can easily imagine becoming your friend. A book of delights and pleasures that raids a scrapbook of stunning depth and fun! There are so many more images than I could show to you, but I chose some to demonstrate the feel of them all.
Your women-in-film reader, your glamour-chaser giftee, and your own good self could really sink into this charming hostess's beautifully curated cocktail party. Great for #Booksgiving.
May 31, 2023
I enjoyed reading Nancy Olson Livingston's autobiography "A Front Row Seat"; she has been indeed on the front row of many events. When she was young she was a contract actress for Paramount Pictures and one of the films that made was the classic "Sunset Boulevard." She made films with Bing Crosby, several with William Holden, and for the Disney organization (two with Fred MacMurray).
Mrs. Livingston married twice, to lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and Capitol Records executive Alan Livingston with whom she had a blended family. During her marriage to Mr. Livingston she was a major volunteer with organizations dealing with the Hollywood and greater Los Angeles arts scene. I found those stories quite fascinating. She does name names and if readers wish to learn more about the personalities of whom she writes check them out on Google.
Her account of her childhood years are quite interesting. Hers has been a self-analyzed life which is a good thing. She is a curious person in the best sense of the word.
The book is recommended.
Mrs. Livingston married twice, to lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and Capitol Records executive Alan Livingston with whom she had a blended family. During her marriage to Mr. Livingston she was a major volunteer with organizations dealing with the Hollywood and greater Los Angeles arts scene. I found those stories quite fascinating. She does name names and if readers wish to learn more about the personalities of whom she writes check them out on Google.
Her account of her childhood years are quite interesting. Hers has been a self-analyzed life which is a good thing. She is a curious person in the best sense of the word.
The book is recommended.
April 11, 2023
I have long been a fan of Nancy Olson. “Sunset Boulevard” and then her work with Disney: “Pollyanna,” “The Absent Minded Professor.” She is such a talented actress and always so graceful!
When I saw she had a book coming out, I was eager to read it. I knew also that she had been married to Alan Jay Lerner of Lerner and Lowe. Her stories about the creation of “My Fair Lady” were great (she would be the “Nancy” for whom the musical is dedicated).
Her second husband was Alan Livingston, famed music producer and executive. Her stories involving Sinatra and the Beatles certainly painted a picture of time gone by!
I also enjoyed reading about her charitable involvement with LA’s Music Center. I read another review about the detailing of what she wore, but I found that to give me a clearer picture.
I thoroughly enjoyed this journey hosted by one of the few people left from Hollywood’s golden age! Nancy Olson Livingston was a wonderful actress, and she is a fantastic writer too!
When I saw she had a book coming out, I was eager to read it. I knew also that she had been married to Alan Jay Lerner of Lerner and Lowe. Her stories about the creation of “My Fair Lady” were great (she would be the “Nancy” for whom the musical is dedicated).
Her second husband was Alan Livingston, famed music producer and executive. Her stories involving Sinatra and the Beatles certainly painted a picture of time gone by!
I also enjoyed reading about her charitable involvement with LA’s Music Center. I read another review about the detailing of what she wore, but I found that to give me a clearer picture.
I thoroughly enjoyed this journey hosted by one of the few people left from Hollywood’s golden age! Nancy Olson Livingston was a wonderful actress, and she is a fantastic writer too!
April 5, 2025
Amazing how long she has lived the Hollywood life. This bubble certainly warped some of her sense of normalcy.
She went out of her way to show how perfect her second husband was, to the point of idolotry. There was a whole bunch of things in there where she dished on low-stakes, Hollywood fund-raising organization politics... and {gasp} named names.
Parts of it were fun, but overall it is just a kinda strange read.
She went out of her way to show how perfect her second husband was, to the point of idolotry. There was a whole bunch of things in there where she dished on low-stakes, Hollywood fund-raising organization politics... and {gasp} named names.
Parts of it were fun, but overall it is just a kinda strange read.
August 11, 2023
The stories in this book are interesting if you like old Hollywood, which I do. It was fun to hear a behind- the- scenes view of various events. However, the flow is extremely stilted with random tidbits of informative tossed in seemingly hap hazard. It was tough to pull it all together. Read it in small doses.
March 22, 2023
Was fascinated by all that Nancy has done.
Very well written
Very well written
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