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The Fame Game Lib/E: An Insider's Playbook for Earning Your 15 Minutes
Legendary Hollywood entertainment manager and publicist Ramon Hervey II shares insightful tales of his remarkable four-decade career plotting and overseeing fame, success, crisis and spinning for seminal talents at the top of their game, from Little Richard, Bette Midler, and the Bee Gees, to Aaliyah, Rick James, and Vanessa Williams--a juicy and addictive retrospective that also traces the origins of fame and how social media is changing the rules.
Superstar manager and PR guru Ramon Hervey II has been playing the fame game for more than four decades, shaping, protecting, and sometimes rehabilitating the reputations of some of today's biggest celebrities. Throughout his career, Hervey has mined, molded, and managed, mopped up messes, and mounted major celebrity comebacks.
The Fame Game is his uncensored, behind-the-scenes look at rich and famous celebrities as they are rarely seen. Hervey shares the hilarious, the absurd, the disappointing, and the surprising as he recalls how he became a trusted confidant to a Who's Who in music, comedy, film to A-listers including Richard Pryor, Bette Midler, Quincy Jones, Don Cornelius, the Bee Gees, Herb Alpert, Andrae Crouch, Vanessa Williams, Kenny Babyface Edmonds, Luther Vandross, Rick James, Paul McCartney, Peter Frampton, Andrae Crouch, Nick Nolte, James Caan, and Muhammad Ali. Filled with never-before-told anecdotes, cameos, and unforgettable stories, moving from the legendary disco era of the '70s and post-civil rights era to Hollywood soundstages, and viewed through his acute and trained lens, The Fame Game is an enlightening historical view of the origins of fame, entertainment and media that examines our obsession with fame and the famous, and how social media is cultivating is own fame--an irresistible, addictive and utterly fascinating exploration of our insatiable obsession with celebrity culture.
Superstar manager and PR guru Ramon Hervey II has been playing the fame game for more than four decades, shaping, protecting, and sometimes rehabilitating the reputations of some of today's biggest celebrities. Throughout his career, Hervey has mined, molded, and managed, mopped up messes, and mounted major celebrity comebacks.
The Fame Game is his uncensored, behind-the-scenes look at rich and famous celebrities as they are rarely seen. Hervey shares the hilarious, the absurd, the disappointing, and the surprising as he recalls how he became a trusted confidant to a Who's Who in music, comedy, film to A-listers including Richard Pryor, Bette Midler, Quincy Jones, Don Cornelius, the Bee Gees, Herb Alpert, Andrae Crouch, Vanessa Williams, Kenny Babyface Edmonds, Luther Vandross, Rick James, Paul McCartney, Peter Frampton, Andrae Crouch, Nick Nolte, James Caan, and Muhammad Ali. Filled with never-before-told anecdotes, cameos, and unforgettable stories, moving from the legendary disco era of the '70s and post-civil rights era to Hollywood soundstages, and viewed through his acute and trained lens, The Fame Game is an enlightening historical view of the origins of fame, entertainment and media that examines our obsession with fame and the famous, and how social media is cultivating is own fame--an irresistible, addictive and utterly fascinating exploration of our insatiable obsession with celebrity culture.
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Published August 16, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 5, 2022
Book:- The Fame Game
Author:- Ramon Hervey II
📚My Review:- The tittle of the book personifies the inherent spirit of the unpredictability of fame. This book revolves around the story and experiences of the protagonist named Ramon Hervey II, who was a well known Hollywood entertainment manager. Over the past four decades, he has passionately invested his professional career and livelihood in playing the fame game. Everyone wants to be famous, gain fame and be successful in life. Through this book he teachs the readers not only to chase their dreams, but also to concentrate and focus on being the best at whatever they want to be. One of the most valuable lessons the author has learned about collaborating with famous celebrities is that fame isn’t a destination; it’s an arbitrary reward and outcome that emanates from achieving success—but it’s not promised. It's a really motivating read and I've got to learn many helpful things, we learn from our mistakes and other's stories, experiences. Fame is currency, but it only belongs to the person who earned it. It’s not yours to exploit or like having a shared bank account. It’s impossible to manage fame without interacting with people who have achieved it. Turn the pages to explore this book in detail. Would love to read more books by the author. Starting from the narration to the writing style, content shared, cover, tittle everything is just so perfect. Highly recommended to all. Overall, i totally enjoyed reading this.
Author:- Ramon Hervey II
📚My Review:- The tittle of the book personifies the inherent spirit of the unpredictability of fame. This book revolves around the story and experiences of the protagonist named Ramon Hervey II, who was a well known Hollywood entertainment manager. Over the past four decades, he has passionately invested his professional career and livelihood in playing the fame game. Everyone wants to be famous, gain fame and be successful in life. Through this book he teachs the readers not only to chase their dreams, but also to concentrate and focus on being the best at whatever they want to be. One of the most valuable lessons the author has learned about collaborating with famous celebrities is that fame isn’t a destination; it’s an arbitrary reward and outcome that emanates from achieving success—but it’s not promised. It's a really motivating read and I've got to learn many helpful things, we learn from our mistakes and other's stories, experiences. Fame is currency, but it only belongs to the person who earned it. It’s not yours to exploit or like having a shared bank account. It’s impossible to manage fame without interacting with people who have achieved it. Turn the pages to explore this book in detail. Would love to read more books by the author. Starting from the narration to the writing style, content shared, cover, tittle everything is just so perfect. Highly recommended to all. Overall, i totally enjoyed reading this.
November 9, 2024
I was actually quite disappointed. I expected a Robert Greene style manual or something not a chunk of anecdotes of people am probably never ever gonna meet. And to make it even more depressing, I don't even know any of those people & with modern-day social media it's kinda hard to keep up with this kind of literature. Unless you have all the time in the world & enough resources to justify it.
Anyway, that's my opinion am sure u have yours. I merely skimmed it & kinda wish it was more direct & straight to the point.
Anyway, that's my opinion am sure u have yours. I merely skimmed it & kinda wish it was more direct & straight to the point.
January 21, 2023
This book is an excellent professional memoir from a top manager and publicist who has worked with many show business greats.
September 22, 2022
I am proud to say I am the first person to review Ramon Hervey's new book. It reads very well. Ramon is cool, down to earth, and exciting in the way he presents his new book. The stories are entertaining, exciting, and memorable. Each one of his celebrity clients are so fascinating. He reveals unique and fascinating stories about each and every one of them. Ramon presents himself as humble yet very experienced with his line of work. He displays fantastic examples on how to deal with people and work with them to make sure that their needs are met and that they are presented to the public in a clean and sparkly way. His individual trials and tribulations, as well as successes display to the reader the story of a publicist who is unwavering in his support for his clients. Ramon is like a superhero with the way he saves the day over and over again finding ways to book his clients for films, book tours, and present his celebrity clients well to the public. This book is chock full of stories about legendary performers including Rick James, Little Richard, Peter Frampton, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Vanessa Williams, Bette Midler and many more fabulous stars. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from start to finish and I am sure you will too.
May 24, 2022
The author has lived a fascinating life advising some of the biggest stars of a generation: Bette Midler, Richard Pryor, Paul McCartney, Little Richard, the Bee Gees. This book is a chronicle of their deals, tours and strategies for making art and making money. In Ramon Hervey II's meticulous telling, he teaches the reader about the business of managing fame while relating behind-the-scene stories that are gems. I found his musings on fame interesting, but secondary to the colorful stories of the people he managed, tangled with, befriended, covered for. Special props for telling these tales from the perspective of a Black man in an industry and time when that was rare. This book is an important addition to pop cultural history, and it's a treat for readers. I highly recommend it.
May 28, 2022
Very good read of the author’s time in managing various well known enrertainers. Good insight on what he did as well as information about the stars themselves. The chapters on Bette Midler and Don Cornelius are my favorites. Read this book in one setting. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews