What are you reading?

[Moraldo Rubini]

Over the holidays I was fortunate enough to read Betsy Blair's "The Memory of All That". Some very fascinating insights to Gene Kelly, Betsy Blair and many others.

Also, very much enjoyed Arthur Larentz's "Original Story"..

Especially liked his take on writing The Way We Were and what happened to the film's blacklist story line. Luckily we have the special edition DVD and in the documentary, there are the missing scenes. (A special thanks to Barbra S. for saving those gems) The missing scenes certainly hurt the story. Don't know what the heck Sidney Pollack was thinking. Also loved Laurentz talking about writing Gypsy and West Side Story and working with Jerome Robbins, Lenny B and Steve (do people really call him Steve?!) Sondheim.

I enjoyed Laurentz' book too. As I recall, he had his own view into Gene Kelly and Betsy Blair's life...

[mrsl]

lzcutter:

I wish you would give us a quick rundown on the missing scenes in The Way We Were. Since that period has always fascinated me, it bothers me that the story line was cut. I have a copy of the movie in VHS, so I hate to purchase a DVD of it. Did the missing scenes finish out the storyline?

Anne

[Lzcutter]

Anne,

There is were three scenes that went to the cutting room floor. One fairly inconsequential and two pivotal scenes.

The first pivotal scene we see Katie driving around UCLA (really USC) and she stops to listen to a young girl talk about why it is important to stand up for those being blacklisted. This young girl, of course, reminds Katie of herself and how far afield she has traveled.

The other pivotal scene:

The confrontation between Hubbel and Katie towards the end of the movie. The way the movie plays they break up over Hubbel's affair with JJ's ex-wife, played by Lois Childes.

In the deleted scene, we discover that Katie's college friend, Frankie (played by James Woods who we see with Katie in the first part of the film and always seemed to have a crush on her while she only had eyes for Hubbel) has given Katie's name to HUAC (House of Un-American Activities).

This puts Hubbel's own career as a studio screenwriter in jeopardy. Unless Katie goes in front of HUAC and names names, Hubbel will be blacklisted as well.

Hubbel knows that Katie won't inform no matter how much they argue because as Katie had told him in one of the previous scenes at the train station "People are their principals". (A scene that Barbra had to fight Sidney Pollack very hard to keep in the movie- go figure).

They agree to stay together until the baby comes and to let their friends think they are breaking up because of Hubbel's affair.

This deleted scene explains why years later when they meet in New York (the late 1950s and the blacklist still in affect due to McCarthyism now) and Hubbel asks about their daughter why he hasn't seen her or been a part of her life. In order to save his own career he had to break all ties with Katie.

As the movie plays without that deleted scene, Hubbel asks about his daughter and the audience is left to wonder why the man has no contact with her.

According to screenwriter Arthur Larentz, who fought very hard for the deleted scene along with Barbra, Pollack was afraid of Redford looking weak on screen.

I guess Pollack thought it better for Hubbel to be a disengaged father than a father who sacrificed his family for his career.

[MissGoddess]

I recently finished Scott Eyman's The Speed of Sound (good) and am now on to Sinclair Lewis' Ann Vickers (so-so).

[ChiO]

Shortly before Christmas, I finished Scott Eyman's Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford. Immediately started On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder (Sikov), but at about the one-third mark, I received Jonathan Rosenbaum's Discovering Orson Welles as a present. When I've finished discovering Welles, I'll return to Wilder.

[MikeBSG]

I'm currently reading "Born Standing Up," by Steve Martin. It details his effort to become a comedian from his early days selling programs at Disneyland to when he gave up stand-up comedy. it is a very interesting, very readable book.

I enjoyed both "Discovering Orson Welles" and "On Sunset Boulevard" by the way. Although "Sunset" doesn't really take off until Wilder becomes a director.

[markfp]

I usually have at least two going at the same time. In the movie line, I just finished rereading "Up in the Clouds, Gentlemen Please" the autobiography of one of my favorite British actors John Mills. It begins with his childhood and goes up to his knighthood in 1976. Published in 1981, it's long out of print, but you might find it in the library or pick up a used copy online. It's a delightful an interesting read. My next movie book will be "Dark Victory, The Life of Bette Davis" by Ed Sikov, which I got as a Christmas gift.

On the more general side, I just started Dean Koontz's newest book "The Darkest Evening of the Year".

[MissGoddess]

I just finished Sinclair Lewis' Ann Vickers and now am on to Lee Server's biography of Ava Gardner (in anticipation of next month's guest star!)

[ChiO]

Given next month's Guest, I've postponed my return to On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder in favor of Lee Server's Sam Fuller: Film Is a Battleground.

[CharlieT]

Just finished The Dirty Dozen. Figure I'll start on the A Family Christmas compiled by Caroline Kennedy that I got for Christmas.

[CharlieT]

Finished A Family Christmas and now am reading The Man Who Made The Beatles, a biography about Brian Epstein.

[moira finnie]

Hey CharlieT,
It's great to see you around. I hope that you'll let me know how the Epstein book is. Do you think he had any inkling that he was helping marketing them into the worldwide phenoms they became?

I like to read alot of different books at once: Right now I've just begun reading "Up In the Clouds" by John Mills based on a member's recommendation here, a beautiful book called "Soldier's Heart" by civilian Elizabeth Samet, based on her experiences teaching English to soldiers in training at West Point since Sept. 11th, "Atonement" by Ian McEwan, (don't want to see the movie until I've read this one), and "Write It When I'm Gone", a memoir about off the record comments made by Gerry Ford to reporter Thomas DeFrank, (some of which are pretty amusing and revelatory).

I think that I'll have to make myself stop reading the Samet book to concentrate on work for awhile and to savor what she shares about teaching and learning from her students as she introduces them to everything from "Morte d'Arthur" & "The Iliad" to Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" & "For Whom the Bell Tolls". It's very well written and quite moving, since many of her students still write to her from war zones around the world about these and other books.

[jdb1]

Finished A Family Christmas and now am reading The Man Who Made The Beatles, a biography about Brian Epstein.

How do you like it? I recently finished Pattie Harrison's memoirs You Look Wonderful Tonight -- she speaks extensively of Epstein, and I thought I'd like to read more about him.

[movieman1957]

Did you like Harrison's book? Last fall I read Geoff Emerick's book. He was their recording engineer. Not much about Epstein as he wasn't involved in the recording but interesting book on the process and each of the Beatles' work styles.

[jdb1]

Did you like Harrison's book? Last fall I read Geoff Emerick's book. He was their recording engineer. Not much about Epstein as he wasn't involved in the recording but interesting book on the process and each of the Beatles' work styles.

I didn't dislike it. The first part, about her childhood, was particularly interesting to a working-class child such as myself. She came from one of those upper middle class families that pays as little attention as possible to the children. Because of her father's failing fortunes, she and her three siblings were moved all over the place, spending a large part of their childhood in Kenya. As the oldest, she was the first sent away to school in England. She has contradictory things to say about the experience. First she'll say it was awful and lonely, then go on to talk about the wonderful friends she made in school. Returning home on one school vacation, her mother presented her with a new daddy. She and her siblings (who were sent to separate schools) weren't even aware their parents had divorced, although the parents did live apart.

But as she relates her history as a young adult, I felt that the book became the usual celebrity rationalizations and justifications for irresponsible behavior. Her version of her life with Harrison and her affair with Eric Clapton differs a lot from other accounts I have read. She admits frankly that she was drinking heavily, as well as using drugs, during this period, so I wonder just how reliable her memories are. Her descriptions of Clapton and her feelings toward him are very contradictory. Not unusual in real life, I suppose, but a better editor could have made more sense out of the story.

Among the things she said about Brian Epstein were a generally favorable feeling toward him, which she says was shared by all the Beatles and their various women and spouses. She mentioned that he did everything for the band - they didn't really know how to do anything business-related for themselves, since they were so young when Epstein took over their management. He would arrange their holidays, and he always sent George and John and company off together, and Paul and Ringo and friends somewhere else. Pattie says this was because although John and Paul worked well together, they began to clash if they spent too much personal time together, so Epstein kept them apart as much as possible in personal situations.

So, it's an interesting book, but I think one has to be conversant with the names of the movers and shakers of the period - she doesn't explain who they are - and one must probably also take her recollections of the story with several grains of salt. By the way, she has reverted to Pattie Boyd, her own name.