Buddy Beaverhausen Book Nook: The Life and Times of Squeaky Fromme

Nothing like wearing an inconspicuous outfit when trying to shoot a POTUS. Lynette looks like she's ready to attend Feast of Fools Day. This is a book about how a good girl can turn so sour so fast. She was part of The Manson Family and was present at the Sharon Tate murder scene.

The daughter of s middle-class family, she had a workaholic father whom the author, Jess Bravin, describes as emotionally abusive. In search of a father figure, she found the charismatic but demonic Charles Manson.

On parole in 1976, our li'l Squeaky wasted no time in getting herself a gun and trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford. (And you say we don't need gun control in America?)

Bravin's bio is a fascinating read that would make a great movie. I say Emma Watson or, better yet, Rachel Wood could assay the role quite nicely.

A powerful book and a fascinating read. Try it.

Beaverhausen Book Nook: Alice in Zombieland

Alice in Zombieland proves to us that zombie-ized adaptations of literary classics grow tiresome after a short while.

I felt compelled to purchase this book but found it to be a big bore in a been there-done that kind of way. There were fun moments sprinkled throughout but this is basically pure junk.

Best-selling author Gena Showalter penned this. There is some giddy fun along its route, but it's not particularly worth stepping through the looking glass for.

Showalter's zombies, you should be aware, are spirits rather than the usua physical,l flesh-eating kind. Whether that's good news to you or bad depends on where you stand on the issue. Who knew there could be a zombie controversy!

In the final analysis, though, I cannot and do not recommend this book particularly. If you're craving more Alice, go back to the Lewis Carroll originals, I say.

Beaverhausen Book Nook: Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train

A three-day hospital stay is a great time for a good book. Luckily, a close friend lent me Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train to read.

Strangers was a hit 1951 Hitchcock film, mostly faithful to the novel, and not missing out on the gay subtext of the relationship between Guy (the gorgeous Farley Granger) and Bruno (Robert Walker). Raymond Chandler co-wrote the screenplay.

The author, from Fort Worth, Texas, was alcoholic, unpleasant to most people due to her misanthropic attitude, a lesbian and an existentialist. This didn't exactly endear her to the  entertainment industries at the time though she was a very talented writer and recognized as such later in life.

Highsmith also wrote The Talented Mr Ripley and The Price of Salt, the latter being the basis for the Oscar-nominated film Carol.

As for Strangers on a Train, there's a distinct brilliance to the plotting which can best be enjoyed, perhaps, on the printed page. The plot involves two young and handsome men who meet on a train and eventually plan a mutual murder scheme. Of course, drama and complications ensue.

I think, based on reading the novel, that Walker was not the best choice to play Bruno, though he was a wonderful actor. He just doesn't resemble the character described in the book.

Buddy Beaverhausen Book Nook: Illeana Douglas' Tell-All Memoir

I've always admired actress Illeana Doulas at the movies. Some may not know she is Melvin Douglas' granddaughter, so she is from Hollywood royalty.

She was in my very home in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, at a New Year's Eve party to which I was invited but could not attend. This was well before I moved here from Manhattan. She was a guest of our friend, Marcus and the party was in my friend Kevin's apartment.

I was especially smitten with Ms Douglas, at the movies, in the 1996 film directed by Allison Anders, Grace of My Heart. So I was as pleased as punch to read her recent memoir, I Blame Dennis Hopper: and a Life I Lived in and out of the Movies, now in hardcover from Deckle Edge and -- of course -- on Kindle. Available at Barnes & Noble and other fine bookstores, and on Amazon.com and audio cd.

Douglas devotes an entire chapter, gratefully, to her starring role in Grace of My Heart. This Allison Anders film is one of my favorites from the 1990s. Douglas has only positive things to say about Ms Anders, though she speaks candidly throughout her book -- really a collection of personal essays -- about others, so there's no shortage of gossip in these pages.

I Blame Dennis Hopper was released in November and takes its title from the fact that Illeana's parents were inspired to move to a hippie commune from their comfortable upper-middle class home, and that's where Illeana was raised. She talks about her longtime romantic relationship with Martin Scorsese and about working with Robert DeNiro. She is a wonderful name-dropper, discussing her meetings with other celebrities, like Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers.

I highly recommend this tell-all, probably the best book of its kind since Grace Jones' memoirs.

Beaverhausen Book Nook: Debbie Reynolds' Make 'Em Laugh

Debbie Reynolds is a very bright, funny lady, which is evident when you read her latest memoir, Make 'Em Laugh. Memoirs have been very popular over the last couple of years and this one's bound to be a big seller.

Ms Reynolds' new book is rich with gossipy tidbits. Like how Milton Berle hired Scotty Bowers (author of his own gossipy Hollywood memoir, Full Service http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2012/02/fill-it-up.html) to serve food at his party with his well-endowed manly parts displayed on the tray along with the food. (Lee Roy Reams confided a similar story to me earlier this year.) Or how Desi Arnaz was a big womanizer. "He was a charmer when he was sober, but when he drank it was all over." Bob Hope was yet another famous Hollywood cad according to Debbie.

Everyone who's anyone in Film Land is in this book. Ms Reynolds compares Faye Dunaway to her nemesis Shelley Winters as having a Method actress look in her eyes "even when there's no acting to be done." As for Ms Winters, Reynolds describes her as a rich skinflint and talks about how Winters one-upped her at a What's the Matter with Helen? promotional stage event.

Reynolds is a friend of the LGBT community and has starred as Liberace's mother in Behind the Candelabra, Kevin Kline's mom in In and Out, and has guested as Deborah Messing's mother on Will and Grace in a recurring role. She has previously published an autobiography in 1988 and, in 2013, a previous memoir, Unsinkable.

Make 'Em Laugh, co-written by Dorian Hannaway, is chockfull of entertaining details and descriptions about the stars, told at a rapid pace by a motion picture icon and insider. Intimate information of her marriage to Eddie Fisher, his relationship with Liz Taylor, their daughter Carrie, and husband Harry Carl (who left her bankrupt) are all laid bare. Photos from the star's scrapbooks are included. Gossip enthusiasts are assured a good time reading Make 'Em Laugh. And, yes, it has an index.

Highly recommended. Available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and bookstores everywhere.

Beaverhausen Book Nook: Truman Capote's Answered Prayers

Answered Prayers is an unfinished roman a clef novel written by Truman Capote, put together by his publishers posthumously.

Lo these many years, I'd never read this tome, though it is legendary. I finally bought a copy and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm rather surprised this has never been turned into a feature film. It would make a marvelously sophisticated comedy.

Dorothy Parker and Tallulah Bankhead are in here (together) in a particularly rib-tickling moment, as are Montgomery Clift, the Duchess of Windsor and Colette, but most of the celebs in Answered Prayers are strictly guess who?-Don't sue!

The book details the fly-on-the wall friend to socialites and their husbands, P.B. Jones. Andy Warhol and Tennessee Williams among others are thinly disguised in this scathingly satirical view of the 1960s-'70s social scene.

The author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's was already killing himself by drinking far too much at the time he wrote this novel. He was afraid he'd be ostracized by friends if he published it. When interviewed by Dick Cavett about his writing the book, he told his tv host, "Either I'm going to kill it or it's going to kill me."

In the 1970s, when I was in my early 20s, I worked in the United Nations area, directly across from Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. During my lunch break, I saw Mr Capote as I stepped outside. He approached me and offered to pay me to go home with him. I turned his offer down. This was around the time he was working on Answered Prayers.

Answered Prayers was last released, internationally, in 2012 byVintage Books. It is currently available via Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and most bookstores. Enjoy, gossip lovers!

Beaverhausen Book Nook: The Mommie Dearest Diary ~ Carol Ann Tells All

Now it can be told ~ from Rutanaya Alda's (Carol Ann from the movie Mommie Dearest) point of view! It's not a pretty picture, gossip fans rest assured. As Faye Dunaway has her own memoir coming out about the making of Mommie Dearest, this could turn into a she said/ she said gossip feud.

Rutanya describes a very chaotic set and shoot. She quotes sources and strongly implies Dunaway had a substance abuse problem at this time. She cites people in the film industry, like Bette Davis and Roman Polanski, discussing their own difficulties working with the tempestuous star. Dunaway has accused Mommie Dearest of ruining her career but, clearly, it was her own reputation to blame.

Ms Alda recalls emigrating from Latvia to the USA as a child and of her own physical and emotional childhood abuse by her mother. She also recalls meeting the real Joan Crawford on the set of Rosemary's Baby where she was Mia Farrow's stand-in.

Rutanya's book has many fascinating stories about the bevy of Hollywood stars and directors she's worked with, and her personal life, though the focus is on the chaotic set of 1981's now camp classic Mommie Dearest, based on Christina Crawford's best-selling autobiography at the time. Faye Dunaway is described as an unstable ego-monster, as over-the-top on the set as she is on-screen, assured she was going to be nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Crawford.

The book has a lot of off-topic padding as well as unnecessary diary entries, like "Friday, January 23 (No entry)," for instance. However, when it gets to the meat of the matter, Carol Ann indeed tells all in juicy, delicious detail: Faye's on- and off-the-set discord with Diana Scarwid (the teen & adult Christina); director Frank Perry's weaknesses as a director kowtowing to his star's whims; veteran technical people quitting the making of the movie; how Faye stole her role from under Anne Bancroft's nose; Faye carelessly cutting into child actress Mara Hobel's flesh during the haircut scene; Faye Dunaway insisting on eight takes of slapping Caol Ann (rehearsing for Mildred Pierce), once so hard as to leave an imprint on her co-star's face; and much more.

Everything considered, I can only recommend this book to die-hard fans of the film and avid readers of behind-the-scenes Hollywood memoirs.





Available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.

Beaverhausen Book Nook: Joi Lansing ~ A Body to Die For ~ A Love Story

So many of the blonde "bombshell" sex symbols of the 1950s-'60s died tragically young, and perhaps there's something to be learned about that in this moving, personal account of the life of actress Joi Lansing, who died of cancer at age 43.

Ms Lansing was a poor man's Marilyn, in a sense, always on the brink of stardom though her big break never came. Subtitled "A Love Story," this is indeed a very up-close and personal account by the woman who was Lansing's close companion during the actreess' last four years.

Lansing was a mass of contradictions and inner conflicts. She was a Mormon for one thing. She didn't drink or smoke. Immodesty didn't seem to be a problem, however, although she never posed in the nude. She also had a drug problem. I doubt she wore Mormon underwear. Also, during her affair with the author, she was in a marriage to a man. Kind of a mess in a dress, but she wore it well.

As for Ms Hunter, she is a wonderful writer and chronicler. Joi Lansing ~ A Body to Die For is an engrossing but quick read at over 160 pages in trade paperback from BearManor Media. I love a good tell-all and this may be the best since the scandalous Full Service by Scotty Bowers. Unlike the Bowers book, however, this new one is full of very touching moments. I just devoured this bio! It is a great summer read I highly recommend before you head off to the beach. Lots of photos -- some very personal.

In the long run, Joi emerges as a sweet, loving, charismatic woman in this book, whatever her shortcomings. You can see her prominently in many classic films, notably Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958), A Hole in the Head with Frank Sinatra (1959) and as the woman who waves goodbye to her astronaut boyfriend right on the launch pad as his rocket blasts off, in the camp favorite, Queen of Outer Space (''58). Joi was always so close to blast-off herself but never quite launched. Thank you, Alexis Hunter for this great, stirring story.

Available on Amazon & fine book stores everywhere.

Beaverhausen Book Nook: Is That All There Is? The Strange Life of Peggy Lee

Author James Gavin's new biography, Is That All There Is? The Strange Life of Peggy Lee, is a stunning tell-all that goes on sale Tuesday, November 11. Well-researched, making use of a multitude of interviews, this bio really gripped me from start to finish. The first two chapters, devoted to Ms Lee's early life before joining Benny Goodman's band as vocalist, give us essential information about the singer's formative years, gratefully without belaboring that period.

With a cool-as-a cucumber on-stage presence, it never occurred to me that this diva had so many personal demons and such a tumultuous psyche. Gavin details her traumatic childhood and how one Norma Egstrom of North Dakota transformed herself into Peggy Lee and became an international star.

But, yikes, what a scary and volatile star she could be! Despite the sexy purr of her voice, there was one sick pussycat behind what the book's press release describes as "her sphinx-like presence [that] made her seem as mysterious as the Mona Lisa." Better she should be a mystery because those who worked with her got to see the real Miss Peggy Lee. "Peggy seemed to run on anger," composer Mike Stoller (of Leiber & Stoller, who co-wrote the song "Is That All There Is?") is quoted as saying. And, in 1986, the wheelchair-bound diva took Disney Pictures to court over unpaid royalties to which she felt entitled from the video release of Lady & the Tramp.

Her stage, screen, television and recording triumphs (and flops, like her Broadway show that folded after three performances) are all discussed and detailed. But it's largely her personal life that captivates. Every prurient moment of her failed marriages, affairs, bad relationship with daughter, erratic behavior, feuds with other celebs like Liz Taylor, ballooning weight (like Liz Taylor), litany of health troubles (like Liz Taylor) and addiction to pills (Quaaludes and Black Beauties, for instance, the kind of meds doctors no longer prescribe so much these days) and alcohol (like Liz Taylor) is scrutinized. Talk about a mess in a dress! Peggy was enough to give anybody fever ~~ and not in a good way.

This true life story was more trashy fun than reading Valley of the Dolls! Ms Lee's dirty linen is spread before us by the author through such eloquent prose, it's impossible not to take it all very seriously despite its salacious juiciness. The book is also full of handsome black-and-white photos throughout.

Peggy Lee's private hell would be Oscar-material heaven for some daring young actress. Reese Witherspoon and Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven, HBO's Mildred Pierce) are currently attached to a Peggy Lee biopic from a script by the late Nora Efron. Too bad they didn't option this well-investigated and sensational book instead. When it comes to telling the story of Peggy Lee, it can't be topped.

Thanks to friend Kevin Scott Hall for bringing this biography to my attention. Kevin has an interview with James Gavin coinciding with the release of Is That All There Is? at fine bookstores throughout the USA tomorrow. Look for the interview on-line at Edge New York.