A Front Row Seat: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood, and the Age of Glamour

by Nancy Olson Livingston

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.

Genres: Biography

540 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 22, 2022

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy Olsen, the actress who rose to fame as the screenwriter William Holden falls in love with in the film Sunset Boulevard, writes this autobiography. She is in her '90's now and recounts her long life in and around Broadway and Hollywood, her two marriages - one unhappy and then thankfully one rewarding and happy - her children, and her midwestern upbringing in Wisconsin. It's an entertaining read, with bonus descriptions of the fabulous cocktail dress outfits she wears to galas and parties. Old Hollywood glamour shines through.

[Anne Settanni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nancy Olson

I have always been a great fan of Nancy Olson and purchased her book as soon as I learned it was published. It is almost impossible to put down! I knew it would be interesting but it’s contents were beyond that, Nancy takes the reader to the “other side of the curtain” and shares intimate details of life during the 20th century. I highly recommend it.

[Gary Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful and straightforward memoir. About two thirds of the way through the book Mrs. Livingston stops discussing her own acting career, which i would have enjoyed hearing more about.

[Janet Poling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written very interesting book

I was sorry to come to the end if the book. I will miss reading it every night. What an amazing life Nancy Olson Livingston has had!