The author of The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear, brings us another sensational Hollywood tell-all celebrating the 40th anniversary of Brian De Palma’s legendary 1983 gangster film, while also showcasing its broader appeal across the past century by confronting the equally controversial legacy of its 1932 predecessor. When Brian DePalma’s operatically violent Scarface debuted in 1983, the film drew almost as much fire as the relentless gunfire in the film itself. Starring Al Pacino as Cuban refugee-turned-crime-boss Tony Montana, Steven Bauer as his best friend Manny, and Michelle Pfeiffer as an Eighties gangster’s moll, the movie revamped the original 1932 film for a new era of drugs, sex, and graphic violence. Attacked as both a celebration of cocaine-fueled excess and a condemnation of it, the film’s reputation continued to rise over the years. But the real story of its success started nearly a century ago—when Hollywood first fell in love with the American gangster . . . Hollywood’s infatuation with money, power, and organized crime has captured the public’s imagination and made Scarface one of its most enduring modern myths. From a 1912 gangster film by D.W. Griffith to the 1932 hit Scarface starring Paul Muni, to Brian DePalma’s 1983 shocker, the antihero’s rise and fall exposes the dark side of the American Dream—whether it’s Prohibition Era bootleggers or modern-day drug dealers. When actor Al Pacino got the idea of doing a remake of Scarface after screening the original, a legend was (re)born—and the rest is history. Filled with behind-the-scenes anecdotes, untold tales from Old and New Hollywood, and sixteen pages of eye-popping photos, Say Hello to My Little Friend is the ultimate guide to everything Scarface. With guns blazing and chainsaws whirring, movie biz writer Nat Segaloff tears into this pop culture phenomenon with fascinating insights, stunning revelations, and a true fan’s glee. This is a must-have book for movie buffs, crime lovers, and culture vultures everywhere.
Breaking the Code reveals the efforts of director-producer Otto Preminger to bring his aesthetic vision to the screen even if it meant challenging the Production Code, a system of self-censorship that shaped the movies during the four decades it was in force. Along the way, Preminger sent shock waves through Hollywood and a network of exhibitors, publishers, and religious leaders who had personal, and even financial, stakes in the repression of artistic freedom. The process of telling this story began in 2003 when Arnie Reisman and Nat Segaloff thought it might be interesting to write a play about Preminger's efforts to get a Code seal for his 1954 romantic comedy The Moon is Blue, based on F. Hugh Herbert's 1951 play. In those days, no film could be shown that did not receive authorization from the Production Code Administration, and his film was deemed too "adult" for even adults to see. Preminger was met with opposition from administrator, Joseph Breen, who was prepared to go to war to save the rest of the country from its sensibilities. Along with their play Code Blue, which dramatizes the clash between these two evenly matched but wildly disparate titans, Breaking the Code chronicles the battle between Otto Preminger and the Code. Between 1953 and 1962, he fought the censorship of The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, Anatomy of a Murder, and Advise and Consent. The details of each skirmish vary, but they cover the same issues: art versus commerce, freedom of speech versus censorship, and money versus principle. Times may have changed, but these battles continue. Breaking the Code is an attempt to go back and see how the walls can be made to crumble.
How do the most glamorous people in Hollywood behave when they're not in Hollywood? They run the gamut, and Nat Segaloff followed them for twenty-five years. He started in the staid and stuffy (but also politically tinged and rapidly evolving) city of Boston, Massachusetts, then picked up the trail in Los Angeles. In Screen Saver: Private Stories of Public Hollywood, he writes about the celebrities he worked with when they thought they were out of the public eye. Read about: Why Film Critic is one of the most dangerous jobs in journalism! How Deep Throat almost got un-banned in Boston! Pointers on how to lie, cheat, and steal in Hollywood! What really happens on those glitzy Hollywood press junkets! Personal stories about Hollywood in transition during the last great age of American cinema. Read the scoop about the Bad, the Beautiful, the Boring, and the Blessed as seen by the publicist who kept it out of the papers and then became a reporter who put it back in. About the author: Nat Segaloff is a movie publicist who crossed the professional street to become a film critic and journalist-a move that gave him insight into the ways of Hollywood but made him an infidel to the studios he used to work for. His previous BearManor titles are Final Cuts: The Last Films of 50 Great Directors, Stirling Silliphant: The Fingers of God, and Mr. Huston/Mr. North: Life, Death, and Making John Huston's Last Film. His next project is the biography of Harlan Ellison.
The definitive, fascinating story of the scariest film ever made and its enduring impact in Hollywood and beyond—from the director’s biographer comes a must-read for horror fans and cinema buffs, just in time for the movie’s 50th anniversary and the release of the first movie in a new Exorcist trilogy. Includes a foreword by John Russo, author and cowriter of the seminal horror film Night of the Living Dead. On December 26, 1973, The Exorcist was released. Within days it had become legend. Moviegoers braved hours-long lines in winter weather to see it. Some audience members famously fainted or vomited. Half a century later, the movie that both inspired and transcends the modern horror genre has lost none of its power to terrify and unsettle. The Exorcist Legacy reveals the complete story of this cultural phenomenon, from the real-life exorcism in 1949 Maryland that inspired William Peter Blatty’s bestselling novel on which the movie is based, to its many sequels, prequels, TV series, and homages. Nat Segaloff, biographer of the film’s director, William Friedkin, draws on original interviews with cast, crew, and participants as well as revelations from personal papers to present an intriguing and surprising new view of the making of the movie, and its aftermath. Segaloff also examines as never before the keys to the movie’s enduring appeal. Friedkin and Blatty’s goal was far more ambitious than making a scary movie; they aimed to make people “think about the concept of good and evil.” The Exorcist succeeds, and then some, not just by creating on-screen scares, but by challenging viewers’ deepest personal beliefs—and fears.
Arthur Penn: American Director is the comprehensive biography of one of the twentieth century's most influential filmmakers. Thematic chapters lucidly convey the story of Penn's life and career, as well as pertinent events in the history of American film, theater, and television. In the process of tracing the full spectrum of his career, Arthur Penn reveals the enormous scope of Penn's talent and his profound impact on the entertainment industry in an accessible, engaging account of the well-known director's life. Born in 1922 to a family of Philadelphia immigrants, the young Penn was bright but aimless -- especially compared to his talented older brother Irving, who would later become a world-renowned photographer. Penn drifted into directing, but he soon mastered the craft in three mediums: television, Broadway, and motion pictures. By the time he made Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Penn was already a Tony-winning Broadway director and one of the prodigies of the golden age of television. His innovative handling of the story of two Depression-era outlaws not only challenged Hollywood's strict censorship code, it shook the foundation of studio system itself and ushered in the film revolution. His next films -- Alice's Restaurant (1969), Little Big Man (1970), and Night Moves (1975) -- became instant classics, summoning emotions from shock to sensuality and from confusion to horror, all of which reflected the complexity of the man behind the camera. The personal and creative odyssey captured in these pages includes memorable adventures in World War II; the chaotic days of live television; the emergence of Method acting in Hollywood; and experiences with Marlon Brando, Anne Bancroft, Warren Beatty, William Gibson, Lillian Hellman, and a host of other show business legends.
Bogie always said that, if there's an impossible location, you can be sure John will find it. John's authentic. He was about something." - Lauren Bacall "He was a landmark in film history, a great friend, and I'll miss him very much." - Michael Caine "There is nothing more fascinating-and more fun-than making movies. Besides, I think I'm finally getting the hang of it." - John Huston IN THE SUMMER OF 1987, a group of the screen's most notable stars gathered in glamorous Newport, Rhode Island to make Mr. North, a charming but unpretentious film about a magical man who turns the town upside-down. They included Anthony Edwards, Anjelica Huston, Lauren Bacall, Harry Dean Stanton, Virginia Madsen, Tammy Grimes, and a host of other talents, including legendary director John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen). The filmmaker was Danny Huston, John's son. But just as the cameras turned, John fell ill and was replaced by Robert Mitchum. There were daily reports on Huston's failing health, and the world wondered whether the lion of Hollywood, after surviving so many close calls with death over the years, would finally succumb. Nat Segaloff was the only journalist-in fact, the only outsider-allowed onto the set and behind the scenes of Mr. North, and he reported on it for The Boston Herald. But only some of it. Now, after more than a quarter century, the full story can be told of the daily interactions of these famous egos struggling to finish their movie while being overshadowed by the one person who wasn't even in it.
A Lit Fuse is an unguarded, uncensored, unquiet tour of the life of Harlan Ellison. In late 2011 Harlan Ellison the multi-award-winning writer of speculative fiction and famously litigious personality did two uncharacteristic things. First, he asked biographer Nat Segaloff if he d be interested in writing his life story. Second, he gave Segaloff full control. The result is the long-anticipated A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison. The expansive biography, which is the first such project in which Ellison has permitted large portions of his varied works to appear, is published by NESFA Press. Segaloff conducted exhaustive interviews with Ellison over the course of five years and also spoke with many of his friends and enemies in an effort to get inside the man and pin down the best-known Harlan stories. Their wide-ranging discussions cover his bullied boyhood, his storied marriages, his fabled lawsuits, and his compulsive writing process with more depth and detail than has ever before appeared in print. But it also delves deeply into the man s deeply held principles, his fears, and the demons that have driven him all of his 83 (so far) years. Friends, colleagues, and admirers such as Neil Gaiman, Patton Oswalt, Peter David, Robert Sawyer, Michael Scott, Edward Asner, Leonard Nimoy, Ed Bryant, Alan Brennert, Robert Silverberg, and many other notables add their voices. Along the way the reader is treated to an analysis of the Connie Willis controversy, the infamous dead gopher story, allegedly pushing a fan down an elevator shaft, and the final word on The Last Dangerous Visions. What emerges is a rich portrait of a man who has spent his life doing battle with his times and himself, always challenging his readers to reach for a higher plane and goading himself to get them there. It s funny, wise, shocking, and well, it's Harlan. A Lit Fuse contains a 32-page color photo section.
Sometimes fiction is the best way to tell the truth. In this, his first collection of short stories, Nat Segaloff (Final Cuts, Guarding Gable, Mr. Huston/Mr. North) reveals the truth behind some of Hollywood's biggest scandals, agendas, and confidences.
During the 1950s and 1960s it seemed that every TV show was written by Stirling Silliphant. His scripts for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tightrope, Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre, Perry Mason, and, of course, Naked City and Route 66, made him Hollywood's most produced writer. Later he dominated the disaster film cycle with The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, brought martial arts phenomenon Bruce Lee to screen prominence with Marlowe and Longstreet, won an Oscar(r) for In the Heat of the Night, and helped create the TV mini-series. He lived the life of a movie star, not a movie writer, attending A-list parties, sailing his yacht around the world, driving posh cars, and turning out one hit after another. But it came at a price: Four marriages, estranged children, a son's death, and, ultimately, expatriation. Stirling Silliphant: The Fingers of God intimately explores the life and creative process of the man behind Charly, Pearl, The Grass Harp, Village of the Damned, and other big and small screen events. Drawn from exhaustive interviews conducted by author Nat Segaloff in the years before Silliphant's 1996 death and augmented by material from his private files, what emerges is a complex portrait of a larger-than-life figure who rose to the top of a larger-than-life industry. About the Author Nat Segaloff has written biographies of Arthur Penn and William Friedkin, in-depth profiles of Paul Mazursky, John Milius, and Walon Green; and TV biographies of Stan Lee, Larry King, John Belushi, Darryl F. Zanuck, and Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop. He is a playwright, college instructor, journalist, and producer who loves writing books. "Stirling Silliphant was a legendary, larger-than-life screenwriter whose brilliant, innovative scripts changed the face of television and film. Nat Segaloff's compelling biography itself feels like the plot for a movie as it chronicles Silliphant's fascinating personality, epical life, and dramatic career." - David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of First Blood and The Brotherhood of the Rose "Seeing as how The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno were the two films that first made the 10-year-old me want to pursue a career in the movies, I devoured Mr. Segaloff's wonderful book about one of our finest screenwriters; a man who brought us from the sublime (In the Heat of the Night) to the ridiculous (The Swarm), with equal parts artistry and verve." - Scott Rosenberg, screenwriter, Con Air and High Fidelity "Highly-respected film/TV writer Stirling Silliphant gets A+ treatment in this flavorful account of the prolific craftsman. Silliphant's prodigious talents and unique viewpoints shine through this fast-flowing narrative by Nat Segaloff, whose interactions with the Oscar-winning scenarist over many years, gives this detailed study an added dimension. This book is a winner and a choice read!" - James Robert Parish, author of It's Good to be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Broo
Sometimes fiction is the best way to tell the truth. In this, his first collection of short stories, Nat Segaloff (Final Cuts, Guarding Gable, Mr. Huston/Mr. North) reveals the truth behind some of Hollywood's biggest scandals, agendas, and confidences.
In his previous expos , Screen Saver: Private Stories of Public Hollywood (Bear Manor Media, 2016), former movie publicist and film critic Nat Segaloff wrote about what visiting celebrities did when they thought nobody was watching. Here, in Screen Saver Too: Hollywood Strikes Back, Nat pries the lid off of corporate show business to reveal secrets that even the biggest stars don't know. He also drops more names: Meet Max von Sydow, the Singing Exorcist Learn the twisted management style of Group W, the company that created Evening Magazine and PM Magazine Find out how the studios neutralize film critics and nosey interviewers Have a toga party with with denizens of the movie Animal House Read the only book to contain interviews with both Butterfly McQueen and Linda Lovelace About the Author: Nat Segaloff is a movie publicist who crossed the professional street to become a film critic and journalist-a move that gave him insight into the ways of Hollywood but made him an infidel to the studios he used to work for. His previous BearManor titles include Final Cuts: The Last Films of 50 Great Directors, Stirling Silliphant: The Fingers of God, and Mr. Huston/Mr. North: Life, Death, and Making John Huston's Last Film. His next project is the tell-all story of Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop.
This is the Hardback version. "Bogie always said that, if there's an impossible location, you can be sure John will find it. John's authentic. He was about something." - Lauren Bacall "He was a landmark in film history, a great friend, and I'll miss him very much." - Michael Caine "There is nothing more fascinating-and more fun-than making movies. Besides, I think I'm finally getting the hang of it." - John Huston IN THE SUMMER OF 1987, a group of the screen's most notable stars gathered in glamorous Newport, Rhode Island to make Mr. North, a charming but unpretentious film about a magical man who turns the town upside-down. They included Anthony Edwards, Anjelica Huston, Lauren Bacall, Harry Dean Stanton, Virginia Madsen, Tammy Grimes, and a host of other talents, including legendary director John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen). The filmmaker was Danny Huston, John's son. But just as the cameras turned, John fell ill and was replaced by Robert Mitchum. There were daily reports on Huston's failing health, and the world wondered whether the lion of Hollywood, after surviving so many close calls with death over the years, would finally succumb. Nat Segaloff was the only journalist-in fact, the only outsider-allowed onto the set and behind the scenes of Mr. North, and he reported on it for The Boston Herald. But only some of it. Now, after more than a quarter century, the full story can be told of the daily interactions of these famous egos struggling to finish their movie while being overshadowed by the one person who wasn't even in it.
For almost half a century, celebrated ventriloquist and entertainer Shari Lewis (1933–1998) delighted generations of children and adults with the help of her trusted sock puppet sidekick, Lamb Chop. For decades, the beloved pair were synonymous with children's television, educating and entrancing their young audience with their symbiotic personalities and their proclivity for song, dance, and the joy of silliness. But as iconic as their television personas are, relatively little inside knowledge has been revealed about Lewis herself and the life-changing moments that led her to the entertainment industry, and perhaps most importantly, to Lamb Chop. Renowned as a performer, Lewis was equally accomplished in business. Operating in an era when women were largely left out of the conversation, she was one of the few women to run her own television production company. Whether it was singing, dancing, conducting, writing, drawing, or ventriloquism—a skill in which she was virtually unmatched—Lewis spent the entirety of her sixty-five years in pursuit of performative perfection. Constantly innovating and adapting to the needs of her audience and the market, Lewis extended the longevity of her career decade after decade. Her contributions—particularly the creation of Lamb Chop and her puppet pals—forever changed the history of children's television. Now, long after Lewis and Lamb Chop graced television with their final performance, Lewis's daughter, Mallory, and author Nat Segaloff have set the record straight about the iconic pair in Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop: The Team That Changed Children's Television. In this seminal biography, the authors pull the veritable wool from the eyes of audiences who adore the legendary entertainer to examine the joys, sorrows, triumphs, and sheer hard work that gave Lewis and Lamb Chop their enduring star power.
Guarding Gable starts with an actual event in the life of the screen's number one star and becomes a story worthy of a Hollywood movie. It's 1942 and World War Two is just beginning. Beloved actress Carole Lombard is killed in a plane crash while returning from a bond-selling tour and her devoted husband, Clark Gable, is beyond consolation. Depressed to the point of suicide, he enlists in the U.S. Army Air Corps, telling his bosses at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that he doesn't care if he ever comes back. Naturally, MGM is apoplectic at the prospect of losing their top box office attraction. In desperation, studio head Louis B. Mayer leans on a lowly publicist, Alan Greenberg, to enlist with Gable with orders to keep him alive during World War Two. That's hard to do when Gable insists on flying combat missions over Nazi-occupied Europe. Not only that, he and Alan fall in love with the same woman -- and, if you're Alan, how do you win the girl if your competition is Clark Gable, the "King" of Hollywood? Guarding Gable is a story of love, war, and humor. It also has a little rough language but, after all, this is the Army. This title is also available as an enhanced audiobook for download from Bear Manor Audio and on CD from Blackstone Audio. Nat Segaloff covered the motion picture business for the Boston Herald, CBS Radio, and Group W. He has also been a studio publicist, college teacher, playwright, and author. In 1996 he formed the multimedia production company Alien Voices with actors Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie and produced five bestselling, fully dramatized audio plays.
Critic-producer Nat Segaloff was granted access to private papers, production records, never-before-published interviews, and specialized archives in reconstructing the colorful, touching, and sometimes scandalous stories behind the making of the last films of some of Hollywood's top directors. Winningly readable and yet meticulously researched, its substantial entries range from Robert Aldrich and Robert Altman to Peter Yates and Fred Zinnemann, and John Ford and Howard Hawks to Otto Preminger and Richard Brooks. Certain to attract controversy because of whom it ignores as well as whom it includes, Final Cuts presents fifty widely varied chronicles of success and failure, inspiration and ennui, elation and heartache, and every other emotion enjoyed or endured by the greatest filmmakers that Hollywood ever knew. About the Author Nat Segaloff always wanted to write and produce, but it took him several careers before he learned how to get paid for it. He was a journalist for The Boston Herald covering the motion picture business, but has also variously been a studio publicist (Fox, UA, Columbia), college teacher (Boston University, Boston College), on-air TV talent (Group W), entertainment critic (CBS radio) and author (nine books including Hurricane Billy: The Stormy Life and Films of William Friedkin and, as co-author, Love Stories: Hollywood's Most Romantic Movies). He has contributed career monographs on screenwriters Stirling Silliphant, Walon Green, Paul Mazursky and John Milius to the University of California Press's acclaimed Backstory series, and his writing has appeared in such varied periodicals as Film Comment, Written By, International Documentary, Animation Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Time Out (US), MacWorld, and American Movie Classics Magazine. He was also senior reviewer for AudiobookCafe.com. His The Everything(R) Etiquette Book and The Everything Trivia Book and The Everything(R) Tall Tales, Legends and Outrageous Lies Book are in multiple printings for Adams Media Corp. As a TV writer-producer, Segaloff helped perfect the format and create episodes for A&E's flagship "Biography" series. His distinctive productions include John Belushi: Funny You Should Ask; Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop; Larry King: Talk of Fame; Darryl F. Zanuck: Twentieth Century-Filmmaker and Stan Lee: The ComiX-MAN! He has written and co-produced the Rock 'n' Roll Moments music documentaries for The Learning Channel/Malcolm Leo Productions, and has written and/or produced programming for New World, Disney, Turner and USA Networks. He is co-creator/co-producer of Judgment Day with Grosso-Jacobson Communications Corp. for HBO. His extraterrestrial endeavors include the cheeky sequel to the Orson Welles "Invasion From Mars" radio hoax, When Welles Collide, which featured a "Star Trek"(R) cast. It was produced by L.A. Theatre Works and has become a Halloween tradition on National Public Radio. In 1996 he formed the multi-media production company Alien Voices(R) with actors Leonard Nimoy and actor John de Lancie and produced five best-selling, fully dramatized audio plays for Simon & Schuster: The Time Machine, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Lost World, The Invisible Man and The First Men in the Moon, all of which feature "Star Trek"(R) casts. Additionally, his teleplay for The First Men in the Moon was the first-ever TV/Internet simulcast and was presented live by The Sci-Fi Channel. He has also written narrative concerts for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, celebrity events, is a script consultant, and was a contributing writer to Moving Pictures magazine.
The Everything Trivia Book is jammed with tons of bizarre facts, little-known secrets, ratings, behind-the-scenes information, plus everything else you could possibly think of that defines our culture.
Critic-producer Nat Segaloff was granted access to private papers, production records, never-before-published interviews, and specialized archives in reconstructing the colorful, touching, and sometimes scandalous stories behind the making of the last films of some of Hollywood's top directors.
Ted Healy had a successful, if mysterious life. Starting from the lowest rung of show business, he soon conquered the stages of vaudeville, Broadway and the silver screen. Healy's biography also serves as the backstory to the rise of what became The Three Stooges act. He had an eagle eye in spotting and cultivating the talents of Shemp, Moe, Larry and Curly, who served their apprenticeship in his act off and on from 1923 to 1934. As "father" of the act, he took his stooges to Broadway and Hollywood. Healy is the tree around which some mighty acorns fell. Healy died at age 41, four days after his only child was born in 1937. His passing quickly became one of the most notorious of Hollywood's celebrity death scandals. Was it foul play or natural causes? Author Bill Cassara, a retired law enforcement professional, explores all the possibilities.
Based on our bestselling Everything "RM" Books, these great little books are heavily illustrated throughout -- and are a terrific value! Each book has 192 pages packed with the very best information and advice Everything "RM" has to offer.
Guiding Royalty: My Adventure with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton is an intimate look at two ultra-famous people at a time when their fame was at a low ebb. Set in the Holy Land and featuring places and personalities who shaped the history of their times, here is an untold and richly human story.
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