Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club discussion
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Casually re-reading his bio, I myself was charmed to notice that this forceful, powerful actor shied from publicity and limelight, and was uncomfortable being recognized by fans in public.
I also admire that he remained faithfully married to just one woman; and ended his days peacefully in a little cottage in California, reading books and listening to radio plays. He was probably a fan of 'Dragnet' and whatnot.
Feliks wrote: "New series of ref books (?)[bookcover:Elvis Presley: A Life From Beginn..."Thoughts on these hourly history books?
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But the cover design caught my eye. Consistent layout from spine to spine. Probably look swell on a library shelf.
But really, who knows what 'quality' out there these days, passes itself off as 'work of historical reference'? It's becoming a free-for-all.
There are companies which 'broker' fraudulent reviews now, on-demand. Authors can buy glowing reviews in bulk.
So the cheapest mud-slinging paparazzi can publish a series on Hollywood legends and tout themselves as the next Richard Shickel. They're not even the next Robin Leach, Rona Barett, or Leeza Gibbons.
Looks like possibly OK for teens to get a cursory knowledge of pop culture? Reviews suggest that's all they are setting out to do. Some said the Liz book is overly lurid. What do you really expect about someone so larger than life? Anyway, could be worth picking up 2nd hand.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_o...
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a legendary Brit comic I'm not very familiar with at all
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Hay
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnsto...
Surprised to learn that my fave Brit, Ralph Richardson, is distantly related.
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Must admit I've never seen any of his work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Sm...
Believe it or not, I have actually seen some of the Pete Smith shorts but don't remember much about them.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterb...
A beloved African-American musical comedy duo from the vaudeville era
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr--an author I grew up reading from an early age --his father (Kurt Vonnegut Sr) is even more intriguing.
He was a member of these famous Indiana architectural firms:
Vonnegut & Bohn
Vonnegut, Bohn & Mueller,
Vonnegut, Wright & Yeager
Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vo....
Why is Kurt's dad in any way, unusual?
You may well ask.
First: Kurt Sr's architectural firm designed the central phone exchange building for the Indiana Bell Telephone Company. This was around --eh, 1910 or so. Some dim year like that.
Anyway, so far so good. It was a sturdy 20-story phone exchange building. Straightforward, nondescript. This was where all phone service for Indiana was housed.
But --this particular project --later posed a dilemma worth of King Solomon.
As the street system around the phone company grew, the building was found to be oriented completely at odds from the street grid around it. The building couldn't expand or enlarge as Indiana needed more phones.
By 1930, streets had hemmed it in.
Indiana Bell Co was faced with the enormous setback of cutting phone service to Indiana while the old building was demolished and a new building was constructed.
So what happened? This is the point of my anecdote here --someone from the arch. firm which had designed the original phone exchange stepped forward with an idea.
This was Kurt Vonnegut's father. Vonnegut Sr proposed that they just rotate the building around to match the new streets.
It's almost too incredible to believe. But that's what they did. To this day, it is a milestone in American engineering.
Watch it here:
https://youtu.be/p2jM5mEM468
What's more? Well this is not even all. Things get even better.
Kurt Vonnegut's older brother (Barnard) was responsible for the idea of atmospheric cloud-seeding. Like, those zany secret USAF projects. HAARP and all that Project Bluebook weirdness.
Can you stand it? I can't even stand it. Surreal. What a family.
Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Grace Kelly: A Life from Beginning to End (other topics)Walt Disney: A Life from Beginning to End (other topics)
Hedy Lamarr: A Life from Beginning to End (other topics)
Marlon Brando: A Life from Beginning to End (other topics)
Audrey Hepburn: A Life from Beginning to End (other topics)
More...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_...