12/28/2001

Happy New Year! In this year of 2002 I can think of no better book to receive than "Love Letters: An Anthology o Passion" (Shooting Star Press) by Michelle Lovric. No she did not write these letters herself. The book has facsimiles of real letters and quotations from lovers' correspondence throughout the ages. She uses the technique from the "Griffin and Sabine" books of letters in envelopes attached to the page and the reader gets the opportunity to open someone else's mail.

Lovric adds to the technique by her choice of paintings and other quotes with her comments, such as Sarah Bernhardt wrote to Jean Richepin, a French writer, "I was born to be yours". Lovric comments, "She was, however, not born to be his exclusively, and the relationship foundered. Napoleon wasted no words when he wrote to Madame Marie Waleska, January 1st, 1807, "I have seen only you, I haveadmired only you, I desire only you". Knowing how it ended and how she wrote "Left over Life to Kill", no. 16 is Dylan Thomas to Caitlin, his wife, on March 16th, 1950. He writes, "Have you forgotten me? I am the man you used to say you loved. I used to sleep in your arms -do you remember?" He would die three years later from alcoholic abuse.

One is doubly aware that the art of letter writing is fast becoming a vanishing art. An e-mail can never replace the thrill of opening a letter with the beloved's handwriting on the other hand it is more immediate. But Abe Lincoln probably wished he could have had Samuel D Marshall press delete when he received Lincoln's letter that said, "Nothing new here, except my marriage, which to me is a matter of profound wonder".

The Los Angeles Art Museum has wonderful combination information cards on Pre-Columbian Works Of Art to color with enclosed crayons. Some of the cards are of Aztec statues found in Tlalmanco and of Polychrome Jar with a Jaguar on the cover which was created in the late classic period of the Maya culture. All these cards can be used as letters as they come with envelopes. It's a great way to get them to write thank you notes.

Another book which can intrigue young and old alike is Seymour Simon's "Icebergs And Glaciers" (Mulberry Books-Wm.Morrow $5.95) which combines breathtaking photographs with relevant information about the glacier. The thicker the glaciers the faster it moves because the greater weight of the glacier causes the crystals of ice to creep more rapidly. The photo of the cold Alaskan glaciers creep downhill at only about six inches per year. As for icebergs in the photos they are eighty to one hundred feet high and several miles long. Each is a floating island of ice and the largest iceberg ever measured was about two hundred miles long and sixty miles wide which is bigger than the state of Vermont or the country of Belgium.

After the Titanic sunk on April 14, 1912, the next year the International Ice Patrol was established and it is still in operation searching for dangerous icebergs and helping ships avoid them. So, in this coming year, may there be no icebergs in your future. Happy, healthy New Year with peace in the world!

12/21/2001

You know how you get to Carnegie Hall with the proverbial, "Practice, practice, practice" advice. But how do you get on Leno and Letterman? Rita Rudner, one of America's truly funny and literate comics, has written her first novel "Tickled Pink" (Pocket Books $25.00).

Mindy Solomon's mother has died, her father has remarried a Swedish masseuse, and Mindy, who is a dancer, leaves Miami for New York and the bright lights of Broadway. She takes a closet of a room in a "women only" hotel in New York where the average age of the residents is "close to death" except for her new best friend, Ursula Duran, a magnificent creature who will become the hot model of the year. Rita told me that she wanted to write a story about women's friendship as well as about the comedy clubs and television.

Ursula has been brought up by her mother, Eve. Eve is a "piece of work". She is German. She met Brandon Holmes, an advertising executive in Germany where after a one night affair, she became pregnant with Ursula. She followed Brandon to New York when she discovered she was pregnant. He wanted nothing to do with her and she marries someone else and moves to the Midwest. The reader knows who Brandon is, but Ursula doesn't, so when Brandon makes a pass at Ursula the reader waits to see how it will resolve.

Mindy has an accident on stage, she is dropped on stage by two dancers who were supposed to catch her. While she recuperates, she goes on a date to a comedy club, Stars of Tomorrow. Rudner captures the dialogue of the comics who claim they own a line, "The person who did it first in a club owns the line" even if it is banal as "pants on fire". Mindy goes back to her closet and begins to "steer her obsessive personality toward comedy".

Write what you know and Rita Rudner takes us through all the steps and years that go into being an overnight sensation. There are so many plots and characters that it is hard single them all out; but be assured she, with the help of Martin Bergman, her husband, have written a terrific novel.

Currently, Rita and Martin live in Las Vegas and she works six nights a week at the Cabaret at New York, New York Hotel and writes every morning. I asked her about writing and acting in another film. She said that they would look around when they did the book tour in London. If you have not seen "Peter's Friends" rent it, it was a class act film.

Books can change your life. Charles W. McCoy, Jr. has written "Why Didn't I Think Of That?" subtitled "Think the Unthinkable and Achieve Creative Greatness" (Prentice Hall Press $22.00). Combine critical thinking and proactive decision-making and you know why Charles McCoy is a judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court and a professor at Pepperdine University School of law and at Southwestern University School of Law .

The book is more than just "see", it is also "why didn't I concentrate, catch, realize, sense, appreciate, and anticipate that?" Each chapter illustrates the concept, such as "sense" or intuition, where McCoy uses the mistakes made in "The charge of the Light Brigade". He also discusses thinking based purely on conscious reasoning seldom generates the most creative solutions, it must include intuitions. While reading this chapter, I realized that I was putting up with some one who was just "too busy" to understand my request so I took Judge McCoy's advice and found another person who wasn't too busy.

McCoy has not just written a self-help book, he has written a comprehensive book that includes exercises and mental aerobics to make you stretch those areas in your brain. I liked the one entitled "Invent a New Internet Business" and "the Inheritance" where you are the lawyer advising a rich old lady whose children never call. Do these games at a family dinner and you may come up with interesting revelations.

As for perception, McCoy told me about the a case he had where he assumed that the documents were accurate, until his secretary pointed out that there were marks from a staple and replacement of testimony. He credits his wife with teaching him how to think with his heart. This is a very valuable book.

In connection with things that went wrong when someone didn't concentrate and didn't see that, Don Massey and Rick Davey have written "A Matter of Degree- The Hartford Circus Fire and The Mystery of Little Miss 1565" (Willow Brook Press). July 6, 1944 the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus tent with 8,000 persons in the audience caught fire. Since the circus had been coming to town for years, no one questioned signing off on the fire safety that day.

But, there were no fire extinguishers under the stands as required and the circuses hoses did not fit the water hydrants openings, and never had. No one had ever checked them.

Due to the war, the circus was short of man power so that strong locals were hired to help put up the tent and run the circus. No one questioned the qualities of a young boy named Robert Dale Segee. Segee was a classic case of child abuse who turns to lighting fires and in this case was the cause of 160 deaths. Including an eight year old girl, Eleanor Emily Cook, known as "Honey" to her family but, in death became "Little Miss 1565", the "Unknown soldier" of the Hartford Fire. Unknown until Rick Davey, a fire fighter born in 1948 in Hartford, who became obsessed with the unanswered questions in the circus fire, started to investigate all the known information from Segee's confession and Mildred Cook's children's death.

Without meeting in person, Dan and Rick made a deal over the phone nine years ago to write this story. They have worked together to write a book that incorporates the story of the Cook dysfunctional family, the mistakes that can result in a catastrophic fire, the trial of the circus executives which ended with jail sentences, and the story of a psychotic boy who heard the "red man" telling him to set the fires. According to a psychiatrist, Segee was considered sane!

12/14/2001

For many years I would think of Peter Gethers, and always attached to his name was, "and Norton". After all Peter had taken Norton and written, "The Cat Who Went To Paris". In his day job Peter Gethers was and is an editor at Random House but he is also an inveterate traveler. And with him was Norton. When he would do a book tour there was Norton, an independent Scottish Fold cat, sitting in his lap. Their last book was "A Cat Abroad" and Norton seemed to enjoy the lights and being interviewed.

But Norton is no longer with us and Peter Gethers has written, "The Cat Who'll Live Forever" (Broadway Books $22.95). Gethers has written a heartfelt love story. There are those who will laugh and poo-poo his emotions, but anyone who has loved and lost an animal will empathize with his sentiments. He writes that he debated how to begin the book. "My first instinct was to begin like this: One of the reasons I became a writer is because using words the way I do is as close as I can get to putting some kind of order to this rather crazy world of ours." The other possibility was, "On the day I moved into my dream apartment, I found out that my cat had cancer".

In the first part of the book, Peter recounts the good times they shared and how the whole affair with Norton took off in the public's attention. He recounts the trip to Sicily with Norton and Janis, his non-live-in girl friend. They went to the restaurant, Gangivecchio, and the owners, Wanda and Giovanna, trusted Peter when he gave them a book contract to write a cook book. Why? Because of Norton. The book won the James Beard Award as 1997's Best Italian Cookbook.

Age was creeping up on Norton and he was having problems with his kidneys. The vet prescribes a subcutaneous drip which Peter, at that point in time, is unable to perform. Like anyone with an ailing relative, he seeks out other opinions. Some vets treat Norton, like a cat. Others like Dr. Marty Goldstein, an holistic vet, changes Norton's diet and gives Peter hope. Norton returns to a fairly full life for awhile. He writes the "Fe-liner Notes" for a record called, "Classical Cats: Music For Your Cat" and he is elected to the Feline Hall of Fame.

During this period, Peter's mother, Judy Gethers, who lived in Beverly Hills and who wrote Wolfgang Puck's cooking books, moved to New York. Her sister, Belle, dies and Peter matures as he philosophizes on family and death.

Norton had not been acting like a healthy cat and the diagnosis came back that he had developed a slow-growing, low-grade lymphoma in his liver. As it progresses Norton does become dependent on drugs and Peter Gethers faces the fact of delivering the drugs and shots himself. He told me when wee taped that those were the times he and Norton bonded as they never had before. Norton expires and Gethers has to face a life without Norton. Norton's ashes are buried at his home in Sag Harbor.

As for asking about another cat? I was reminded of a small book by Lynn Kelly, "Don't Ask For The Dead Man's Golf Clubs" "What To Do and Say(and What Not to) When a Friend Loses a Loved One" (Workman Publishing $6.95). For those of us who may feel tongue-tied at such times, this book is a jewel.

A great book for the gift giving season is Penny Proddow and Marion Fasel's book "Bejeweled: Great Designers, Celebrity Style" (Abrams $35.00). From historical designs of Cartier, Harry Winston and Bulgari, to Alexander Calder and Salvador Dali. There are designs of Dali's Etoile de Mer and photos of Rebecca Harkness wearing the pin, but Dali's greatest was a ruby heart with a pulse beat I once saw on display in Milan. The art of the jewels in this book make big diamonds look very nouveau riche.

Another magnificent book that combine history and beauty is "Gifts To The Tsars 1500-1700 Treasures From The Kremlin" (Abrams $65.00). Even as thee and me those Tsars loved getting diplomatic gifts. It was even part of their entertainment when Peter the Great moved the capital to St. Petersberg. It was their way of playing, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" friend of the Tsar.? It's interesting to note that the throne in the Kremlin of Tsar Alexei was built in Persia with whom they were in direct contact. The book is in chapters that delineate specific area gifts, such as those from the Ottoman Empire, and those from Poland and Lithuania. Both countries had interesting histories of alliances made and broken with Russia. Many of the gifts are decorative objects which enhance the art history in the book.

If you are staying home for the holidays, "Paris Sketchbook" (St. Martin's Press $30.00)with illustrations by Fabrice Moireau and text by Mary Kelly will make you remember how you love Paris in the springtime, etc. I loved the sketches of The Centre Georges Pompidou and, of course, the book ends with the water color of the Arc de Triomphe in all its glory.

For the younger people in the family, an excellent book is "Clem's Chances" by Sonia Levitin(Orchard Books$17.95). America in the 1860's when the Gold Rush is dividing families, Clem Fontayne at twelve, is left alone in Missouri when his mother and baby sister die from the fever. His father has left for California and no mail has arrived from him. Clem takes his chances and joins a wagon west with a family of Mormons. Clem has to learn to be tolerant of other religions and family structures when he meets a young woman who is the third wife of a Mormon leader. Eventually, Clem does get to San Francisco and discovers that his father, now a newspaper publisher, had literally started a new life without a look backward.

12/07/2001

No greater love hath any son-in-law than to spend time with his in-laws interviewing them about their lives. To Petru Popescu, this was not a chore, not when he can write of them in the acknowledgements, "Mirek, a role model whose strength of character I honor, and, Blanka, who in many ways is my twin soul." Petru has written "The Oasis", "A Memoir of Love and Survival in a Concentration Camp" (St.Martin's Press $24.95)

In September 1944, Blanka Davidovich was being transferred from Auschwitz to Muhldorf, Bavaria which was also known as Dachau 3b, with other young women who were deemed still strong enough to work and build walls for the Naziis. The only problem was that she had switched identity cards with a girl named, Dora Weiss in order to be near her cousins. This was punishable by death if it was found out. So when Blank is asked her name at Muhldorf she answers, "Blanka Davidovich", The Kommandant Eberle thought she was crying for lack of water. It was fear of being sent back and the threats from a female Nazi Hulda Braun who continually beats and tortures Blanka.

As they were marching back to the women's block, there is a handsome young man with hair, a leather jacket with a red triangle on it that meant he was a political prisoner, not a Jew. The man was Mirek, who was an expert in electricity and in defusing any of the allies ' bombs that did not explode which made him valuable to the Naziis. He had been with the partisans when he was captured. He had hidden the fact that he was Jewish in order to survive, as the Naziis were less severe to Political Prisoners. They are attracted to each other and, in the midst of this Hell, they are able to sneak some time together. Mirek, even, leaves a fake flower on her bunk, that is the most precious item to Blanka.

Eventually, as the war turns against the Naziis, Mirek escapes with two captured American soldiers. He tells Blanka that he will meet her again when the war is over in Prague at the only statue of Christ with Hebrew writing around the statue. Blanka keeps looking for Mirek and one day he is there. I told Petru when we taped that he has to write a sequel on how they managed to come to America, how they came to California and, currently, live in Beverly Hills, and how they raised their daughter, Iris, Petru's wife. Petru has written of his own experiences with the Communists in Romania and his escape to America. Petru was not born Jewish but he told me that his daughter was getting ready for her Bas Mitzvah. He said that his son was astounded to read what his grandparents had survived.

Many people may write their experiences, but Petru Popescu has written a true love story with the writer's art. He told me that he had just returned from the Miami Book Fair where five of the people in the book came up to him to thank him for telling their story. Petru and his wife, Iris, live in Beverly Hills, two blocks away from Blanka and Mirek Friedman. Only in America!

A writer, whose work I discovered ten years ago, keeps growing and getting better and will turn out to be one of America's finest writers, is Gina B. Nahai. I first met Gina when she wrote "Cry of the Peacock", then a few years later she wrote "Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith". Both books were heavily involved with Iran Jews and their history in Iran, and then their immigration to the United States and the adaptation to a new culture. What they kept and what they lost. Gina had a mesmerizing style of writing. She has not lost her power to hold the reader; but now she has expanded as a writer and turned her attention to the United States.

Her new book is "Sunday's Silence" (Harcourt $24.00) about the Holy Rollers and snake handlers in Knoxville, Tenn. Adam Watkins has learned that Little Sam Jenkins has died and been possibly murdered by a woman, named Blue. Adam is a foreign reporter for a Chicago newspaper. He is the illegitimate son of Little Sam who had been married to Rose Watkins, his grandmother, one of his four wives, but Sam was mutually seduced by Clare, her daughter and Adam's mother. Little Sam has never acknowledged Adam as his son. There is a strong undercurrent of theme of Greek Tragedy of "Who is my father?"

Gina Nahai has researched the American tragedy of the coal mines and the betrayal of the workers by the big companies. They paid them in scrip that could only be used in their stores; so that the workers could never save any money to get out. Clare gives her son, Adam, to an orphanage run by a former army officer who beats the boys but gives them the education which will be their ticket to a better life.

Blue, the woman, thought to be the murderer is another wonderful plot line. She was brought up in a Kurdish village. She remembers her mother, who was brought there from a Jewish family, has gone mad with fear of snakes and is tied to a stake in the front yard. Blue is married to "the Professor" of linguistics, who had bought Blue from her father in this Kurdish village when she was fourteen. Blue had become proficient with snakes and rattlers.

This is the mystical world that Nahai paints of the lost world of the Appalachian mountains. She told me that she researched the book around Knoxville and that churches there still maintain snake handlers who hold these creatures up in church to show their devotion to God. They also look with great disfavor on strangers. Gina Nahai is now teaching a graduate course in creative writing at the University of Southern California.

A lovely book for children of all ages is Karen Winnick's "A Year Goes Round" "Poems for the Months" (Wordsong-Boyds Mill Press $15.95). Not only are the poems a joy, but Winnick painted the joyous paintings that illustrate the poems. From the fears of tryouts to the splashing in the rain to the unforgotten fun of rolling in the snow, she has painted those moments in this book. Karen Winnick has dedicated the book to the loving memory of Myra Cohn Livingston who inspired many of the writers and poets who live here.

For the person who reads non-fiction, Richard Reeves has written about Jack Kennedy, but now he turns his historian's eye on "President Nixon" "Alone in the White House" (Simon & Schuster $35.00). It is a portrait of a man who hungered for power but did not deem himself worthy and was thus doomed to self-destruct. Reeves follows the president practically day by day. It is horrifying to see how the decisions were made and how shallow some of the players in this drama were.

11/30/2001

A monsoon in the China Sea is like an 8.8 earthquake for 30 hours that never lets up with waves crashing and reaching up to the tenth deck to break. So after thinking of Job, Jonah and Noah while waiting for the loud speaker to announce "Abandon Ship!" I reached for "Bruce! My Adventures In The Skin Trade And Other Essays" by Bruce Vilanch (Tarcher/Putnam $18.95). If I was going down, I was going down laughing. Many of the essays have appeared in The Advocate which I had not read so it was all new to me.

If you don't know who Bruce Vilanch is, you probably think that the Academy Awards are not scripted and that the Hollywood Squares relates to the personality of the participants. Wrong on both counts. Bruce writes the show with other comedy writers who blanch as they hear that "clever" star say, "Could you move that card up?" or "Gosh, I can't see a thing without my glasses". As for the Hollywood Squares he and Whoopi Goldberg have brought the show back to life. He quotes from the show that when asked ,"You are the most popular fruit in the United States. What are you?" "I replied, 'Humble.'" Bruce is never afraid to push the envelope as witness his appearance at the Kennedy Center last week in a black bustier and introducing himself as Linda Tripp!

There is a wonderful essay on walking through San Francisco with Robin Williams that is a classic, as well as his reminiscences of working with Bette Midler. Actually, it's hard to select the winner although the Beneficial Benefits comes close as Bruce talks about coming home from his 435th gay/lesbian/AIDS/political/humanitarian/transgendered/joyfully empowered/ fundraising/ consciousness-raising/ awareness-raising/ barn-raising/toe-tapping/ chicken-chomping benefit this year." To me Bruce is the epitome of the friendly, gay lion who speaks truth to power with a wicked wit that sure helped while I pondered what to take in that emergency fanny pack.

Definitely better late than never, Terry Stanfill who has been known as a philanthropist and the mother of Francesca, who is a writer, and the wife of Dennis Stanfill, former president of Twentieth Century Fox, can now be known as a writer and author of an excellent modern/historical novel, "The Blood Remembers" (Elton-Wolf Publishing). The story begins in 1234AD in Apulia, Italy as the wizard Michael Scot brews a potion so that the Emperor Frederick will know what will happen in 1994 traveling in time and seeking the answer to "Who is my father?" In April 1994 Rose Kirkland has arrived at Oxford University in England, driven by the need to know why she keeps hearing a voice in her dreams that says, "Tomorrow I must leave my home forever".

Rose, who is a gemologist, has been married for many years to Matt. She has been trying to get pregnant without success and Matt is trying to convince her to use a surrogate. Their marriage is at an impasse, but she knows that she will find the answer to the voice in the library at Oxford. Terry told me that She and Dennis had lived there in the first years of their marriage so that the structure of the book rings true from the inns to getting permission to read in the Bodleian Library.

At Oxford Rose meets Professor Brian Lambert who is an expert on Emperor Frederick II as well as black magic. He defines for Rose what synchronicity is as a seemingly accidental occurrence of a coincidental event which appears both highly improbable and yet highly significant. Rose is sure she is experiencing out of body events.

Meanwhile back in 1234AD there is a Rosamonde de Roland who is leaving her home to make what she thinks is an arranged marriage. She will be blindfolded and seduced by King William so that his Queen Joanna can claim Rosamonde's child as her own. In present time, Rose goes to Apulia, where her father was from and the unresolved spirit in the family will capitulate in her having an affair with her cousin, Giovanni. I did question Terry about how she let a supposedly smart woman like Rose confess to her husband that she had been unfaithful with the explanation that it was to resolve the family unrest. Don't ask too many questions, just go with the romantic flow and the historical accuracy and you'll have a grand time in front of the fire.

As we get into the gift giving season, there is a beautiful book called :Friedl Dicker-Brandeis Vienna 1898 - Auschwitz 1944" (Tallfellow $35.00). Friedl was the art teacher for the children at Terezin whom I had learned about in Susan Goldman Rubin's book for young adults, "Fireflies In The Dark". Now in an adult art and history book that will accompany the first retrospective of her art and history assembled by noted historian, Elena Makarova, and others, one can see her in 1920 photographs with Paul Klee and the students at the Bauhaus. Friedl was a founder of "Workshops of Visual Arts" in Berlin, she created sets for Berthold Viertel's theatre. It was the blooming years of German art and theatre with Kurt Weill, Brecht, etc.

In 1933 Hitler came to power and branded The Bauhaus as a "breeding ground for Jews and Bolsheviks". There were those who left the country, but to Friedl flight was repugnant and shameful until she was arrested. Her studio was searched and forged passports were found. When she was released she fled to Prague. In Prague she married Pavel Brandeis. In 1942 she received her deportation papers and became number 549 at Theresienstadt. She did not survive the war. But Pavel did and after his death in 1971 a portion of the Therestenstadt works became part of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles who have published the book in association with Tallfellow/Every Picture Press.

The major part of the book are her paintings and the art work of the children. Truly a magnificent book and again, the words, "Lest we forget."

11/23/2001

hat do you read on a fifteen-hour plane ride to Norita, Japan? I went to my "round -to-it" shelf with soft back reader's copies and picked out Judith Krantz's autobiography, "Sex And Shopping: The Confessions of a Nice Jewish Girl" (St. Martin's Press $25.95)

Turning seventy, which she doesn't look, Krantz realized that her own examined life had as much character and drama as the novels she had been creating. She interposes scenes from her novels with actual events from her own experiences. i.e. "Mistral's Daughter" one of my favorites.

But, in the beginning, were her parents. Her mother, Mickey Tarcher, the upwardly mobile, education hungry woman, whom Krantz refers to as "tragically miscast" as a mother, and who never tried to hide the fact from Krantz's sister, Mimi, or her brother, Jeremy Tarcher, that Judith, who looked like her, was her undisputed favorite. This did not mean that she gave verbal or physical love to Judith. Her favorite mode of dialogue was based on criticism. Her father, J.D. Tarcher was a man who sparked to women as long as they weren't his wife or his daughters whom he loved in an inarticulate way, which belied the fact that he was a success in advertising with his own firm.

Since the first word in the title is "Sex", it obviously played a large role in Judith krantz's life. The late 40's and 50's were decades of the devil "double standards". Heaven help the "nice Jewish girl". If sex was her drug of choice, than virginity was the pearl of choice.

Judith attended the Birch Wathen School in New York city where the family lived in the large apartment on the west side and had he country house for weekends. Her mother did not discourage fifteen-year-old Judy from spending weekends with a well-to-do Jewish boy at Annapolis whom she calls "Joe" and who became the prototype for the villains in her books.

She was accepted at Wellesley College, class of '48, which she calls some of the happiest years of her life. As a graduation gift, her father took the family to Europe on the Queen Mary ending in Paris. Paris is where Krantz's life as an adult began. Enter a man named Harrison and the fodder that would become, "Princess Daisy" in years to come. Harrison wanted to marry her; she did and didn't want to be his wife. Lover, yes, wife, no. Her father came to Paris and Krantz write of their weekend with Harrison and her father's "supposedly family friend" female that rivals any Colette novel.

Judith returns to New York and starts to build her career in magazine writing and editing for Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan. She comments that the hardest part of writing was being paid what she was worth. Her social life included Harry Salzman during his "broke period" pre-"007" whom her father really liked. But it was thanks to Barbara Walters and Selig Alkon that she met Steve Krantz, who at that time was Program Director for WNBT, later he would earn world fame for "Fritz The Cat".

They are married, move to Canada, move to Los Angeles and they both go into analysis. Judith goes into certain events in her life that must have taken great courage to expose and even greater courage, at the time, to tell Steve.

It was Steve who convinced Judith to leave non-fiction and turn her talent to novel writing. The result was "Scruples". Krantz could write a primer on how to promote a book as well as how to get the book to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list.

The book is 386 pages long, so to paraphrase Judith Krantz's style in the book, "Dear reader" guess my surprise when I reached page 339 and to my surprise, saw a reference to me in regard to her book "I'll Take Manhattan". "And indeed, no one ever spotted the stolen "straight-from-Hamlet plot, except for one well read television book reviewer, Connie Martinson- a Wellesley graduate, I'm happy to say."

Since I hadn't taped an interview with Judy Krantz on this book, I hadn't red it till now which explains the strange looks people gave me after they asked if I had read the book. In it or not, I couldn't put it down and I couldn't stop reading for the honesty of a life well lived and well examined. It serves as a sociological reference as well.

A cautionary note, be careful of what you want. A home in Paris may not be all it's cracked up to be for a foreigner, especially when you don't know "their nursery rhymes". Welcome home, Judith Krantz.

From Norita to Bangkok, Bill Robinson and Ceridwen Morris have written a hilarious and perceptive how-to book "It's All Your Fault" (How to Make It As A Hollywood Assistant" (Simon & Schuster $12.00). Both of them began as assistants for minor pay, Ceridwen began as Bill's assistant at the time he was a producer and she wanted to write a screenplay. They give advice and incidents to embellish the advice and what to expect as an assistant to a writer, an actor or a producer. One of the best books for what it's really like.

If you're going to Asia, be sure and get Kristen Kelly's "The extraordinary Museums of Southeast Asia (Abrams $19.95) what to see and where to see it.

11/16/2001

It's hard to imagine anyone meeting Malachy McCourt and not having a good time, that is if you are not married to him. Malachy writes in his new book, "Singing My Him Song" (Harper Perennial $14.00) that these were the years when he gave "good intentions a bad name". This book covers the years left off in "A Monk Swimming". His wife, Linda, has left him, taking the kids with her to Mexico.. Too much drinking and not coming home and as Malachy admits, he was not ready to be married.

He is out on Fire Island where he meets Diana, who will become his second wife. She has a daughter Nina, who is handicapped which is part of this book. Malachy writes of the hell parents go through looking for a place that will take care of the child. They did send her to Willowbrook which became an in depth exposure on ABC.

Mean while Malachy was working the "talk show" circuit. He says, "I, of course, was the ideal guest, replete with the story, the jest, the bon mot, or so it seemed to me. " He was also running the bar, Himself, with guest bartenders, such as Richard Harris, who poured freely and forgot to charge. But Harris also enjoyed having Malachy on location with him on "The Molly Maguires". At that time Malachy was asked to host a talk show of his own. I admitted that I had never seen it though he told me that he had greeted Muhammad Ali like a long lost Irish man, seems Ali had an Irish grandmother named O'Grady.

The TV talk show was followed by a talk show on WMCA in New York which was owned by R. Peter Straus who is now married to Marcia Lewis. Malachy is not shy with his opinions and often found himself on Mondays getting reprimanded by the top brass. He even found himself being threatened by the INS that they would send him back to where he came from. He responded that he hoped they would arrest him as it would be a rare case for a man born in Brooklyn, USA, to be designated an alien. He acted in many of the soap operas shot in New York,

He writes about his mother, Angela, and her death soon after she attended Malachy' s fiftieth birthday party. He is funny as he writes about her funeral and her wake. "An old bean can filled with her ashes was subsequently sent to the funeral home, where it was picked up by Frank, who subsequently gave them some thought." I mentioned to Malachy that I thought the show he and Frank put on in Maui was hilarious. He said so why didn't they ask them back? I had no answer, but he did some of the songs for me on the show we taped.

After some rocky years, he and his wife Diana are still married. Malachy is now dry five years. And he has survived a bout with prostate cancer. He told me how helpful Michael Korda was with his advice. He told me that he was surprised that Michael picked up the phone and took his call the first time he rang him up and was so hospitable to him. He is a man who has come to terms with himself and in doing it has written a sensitive and funny book with the lilt of Irish laughter.

Jonathan Kirsch makes the Bible come alive. He does it again in "The Woman who Laughed at God - The Untold History of the Jewish People" (Viking $24.95). Although Kirsch delves into the story of Sarah, who overheard God and the two angels talking to Abraham about how she at ninety would give birth the following year, and she laughed. Who could blame her? This is the dinner where God is served meat and dairy products at the same meal. To Kirsch, Sarah epitomizes the Yiddish word, "Chutzpah", the audacity to laugh at power.

Jonathan Kirsch stresses that most of the crucial events that happen in the Bible are wholly absent from the archives and inscriptions that have survived from distant antiquity. As for David and Solomon, one theory of Bible authorship is that the story is told by a Court Historian who actually lived at that time, but aside from the stela that was discovered at Tel Dan, no written source outside the Bible mentions David or Solomon. It was Cyrus, emperor of Persia. who conquered the Babylonians and brings the Exile of the Jews to an end in 538 B.C. E. and sends the former captives back to Judah to rebuild the Temple.

There were vestiges of pagan rituals in the mention of Deborah beneath a living palm tree. Kirsch suggests that the Israelites yearned for a mother-goddess as well as a father-god, he questions the role of Miriam who watches over the Israelites in their wanderings. As for Lilith, she is the first woman, who refuses to return to Adam, so God replaces her with the dutiful Eve, I did not know that it was Judith Kaplan, daughter of Mordecai Kaplan,the founder of the Reconstructionist movement, who was first Bat Mitvah in 1922 .

Judah Maccabee would turn over in his grave if he ever thought what Hanukah would become. The Maccabees would have more in common with the Fundamentalists today. They found the Hellenistic society despicable. Pious Jews were outraged with young Jews competing in Olympic style contests in the nude and fraternizing with female dancers and singers. This was too much of a distraction from their studies. Enter Judah the religious zealot, who gave the land of the Jews sovereignty for the first time in four hundred years.

Nor did I know that it was the Romans who changed the name of Judea to Palestina. Kirsch discusses the different emotions set off by the two different museums, one that honors the Diaspora and the other the Holocaust. He covers the place of Napoleon in Jewish history, he really should be far more honored as a Jewish liberator.

Joanathan Kirsch is remarkable in his font of knowledge. He writes with the sophistication of the sages and with elegance and humor. Currently, he is president of PEN Center USA-West and a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

11/09/2001

Born in Joplin, Missouri, Dennis Weaver, in his book, "All The World's A Stage" (Hampton Roads $22.95), remembers the worried looks and discussions of his parents during the Depression. They lived on a farm while his father worked for the Empire District Electric Company. Summers were spent with his mother, blest with her pioneer spirit, climbing into a jalopy that would barely make it to Oregon in order to make some money picking strawberries. When he was fourteen, he took the trip with some friends, their car broke down and they ran out of money; but Dennis reaped the benefit of the kindness of strangers, which he never forgot.

His parents divorced when Dennis was in preflight training for the Naval Air Corps. It was a pivotal time for him and it caused a rift with his father that lasted from Christmas, 1943 to 1957 when he was filming his third season as "Chester" on "Gunsmoke" and he heard those magic words from Ralph Edwards, "Dennis Weaver, This Is Your Life". There were his sister and brothers, his mother and Dad! Later they would become good friends. His father's last words to Dennis were, "It all goes by so fast" .

After the war, Dennis went back to Joplin where he eloped with his wife of fifty-six years, Gerry. They moved to the University of Oklahoma where he majored in drama. His friend, Lonny Chapman, had moved on to New York City and he offered Dennis a place to stay while he was looking for acting jobs. He helped Dennis to become his understudy in "Come Back Little Sheba: and when Gerry's parents visited, Lonny even felt ill so that they could say that they saw their son-in-law on Broadway. That's a friend!

Dennis joined The Actors' Studio and credits it with his training and much of his success. He was brought out to Hollywood by Universal, and after parts in fourteen films his contract was dropped. This led to two terrible years of door to door selling, delivering flowers and all the odd jobs actors find to keep going.

A friend told him that Charles Marcus "Bill" Warren was casting a new series called "Gunsmoke" at CBS. The rest is history except that it was Dennis who came up with the gimp leg when Warren said that no side kick was strong and able, what could Dennis think of to give "Chester" a handicap. After nine years Dennis quit the show. Meanwhile he had been doing TV films in his off time. One of them is the unforgettable "Duel" with the young Steven Spielberg.

When Dennis and I talked he told me about his work as President of SAG and how, under his term, residuals became in perpetuity. He also told me of the joy of doing "McCloud" and how they got that shot of him on horseback down Sixth Avenue and later in Australia on the Sidney Bridge. But his great passion is ecology and feeding the hungry. He, truly, is a man who believes everyone can make a difference. Some of his concerns are the ozone layer, rain forests, gas emission, and population growth. He calls it "Ecolonomics" and education is the way to change the world.

I did tease Dennis about his home in Colorado which he calls "Earthship" and which contains 10,000 square feet for just two people and seemed inconsistent with ecological concerns. He did blush as he explained that his kids and grandkids wanted a place to come to and much of it was added on while he was on location. The book which is based on his dialogue with Dee Silverstein asking questions and Dennis filling in the answers, also delves in great detail in his philosophy on religion and God.

We closed the program with Dennis reading the dedication to his beloved Gerry, who sat in the Green Room with tears in her eyes. He read," There's a line in a song I wrote for you once that I'ld like to remind you of, for it's just as true today if not more so, than it was when it originally sprang from my heart. 'Like slippers and wine, and this feeling of mine, you get better with time'. You're simply the best. You are precious to me, and I love you always. - Rupe, 4/14/00".

If you remember the joys of "comfort food" and you feel the need at this time, Milton Weiss has written "Star Grazing In Hollywood" (iUniverse.com $15.95). Milton's mother was the fabulous Mama Weiss who, in the depression era, turned the ground floor of her home on Rodeo Drive into a restaurant serving Hungarian goulashes and Mitell-European foods. Everyone from Marilyn Monroe, Jack Benny ,Charlie Chaplin, Edward G. Robinson to Ray Bradbury, who came into the studio after Milton and still remembers the food, all of whom have pictures in the book that they had autographed for Mama Weiss.

Her chicken soup was named for Abe Lastfogel of William Morris Agency. The recipe is in the book along with a wonderful one for stuffed cabbage. Not to mention the ones for Giblet Bean Barley Soup, Sauerbraten and, a long forgotten dish, Roast Tongue-Raisin Sauce.". The restaurant closed in 1953 but in 1992 Milton resurrected the food in the restaurant "The Players" on Little Santa Monica in Beverly Hills. It lasted until 1997 when Milton retired. We laughed about the rent at 309 Rodeo Drive, which was $50.00 in the 1930's. Those days are long gone but the food and recipes are still here.

11/02/2001

Loraine Despres has returned to her roots as a Southern belle to write a funny and poignant novel called "The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc" (Morrow $24.00). Sissy has had a few scandalous summers, the first one was when she was sixteen in Gentry, Louisiana.

The story begins in present time with an aged Sissy getting off the plane and being met by her daughter, Marilee, who rushes her to get to the presentation where the senator is speaking. The senator is not named, nor will I name the senator and spoil the author's surprise.

The story reverts to 1954 when Sissy is a married woman with three children and a husband, named Peewee LeBlanc. Parker Davidson has returned to Gentry after many years. He had been Sissy's football hero and boyfriend; but he was Jewish and one of two Jewish families in an Evangelic Christian town. His mother had constantly cautioned him ,"Sugar, you just can't embarrass us like this in front of the gentiles". And Sissy's family had felt the same about her marrying a "Jew boy".

That summer of 1941, Sissy's brother had died by drowning and she found herself visiting his grave after school and lying in the grass near the cemetery. Hunting nearby was Bourree LeBlanc, a handsome forty year old Cajun, who offers her a drink, teaches her to shoot a gun and seduces her. Sissy meets him every day after school, until one day she discovers that she is pregnant. Bourree arranges for her to have an abortion but Sissy runs from the dirty shack in the woods. Bourree wants nothing to do with her and Sissy is drugged with wanting him. When he totally rejects her, she decides to get even and to not only seduce his son, Peewee, but to marry him.

Return to 1954 and Sissy and Parker are flirting with trouble and her eldest son, Chip, sees them kissing in the kitchen and blackmails Sissy. Sissy's uncle, a White supremacist, turns out that he has another life in the dark side of town and has a daughter, Clara, who has been accepted at the University of Chicago if she can raise enough money for the tuition. Clara looks like a young darker edition of Sissy. After a night with Parker, there is no going back to Peewee for Sissy.

Sissy has an unwritten rule book in her head for how Southern belles can get their way in a man's world. Rule Thirty-seven is "Marriage is the root of all suffering", but her new Rule Thirty-seven is "Marriage can be the root of great happiness, when you marry the right man". Dissolve and in the present, the reader finds out who got shot and who got married and who became the senator. Laraine Despres is the screenwriter who wrote, "Who Killed J.R.?" with this book, you don't have to wait all summer to find the answer.

I was so happy to have Ray Bradbury come to the studio last week to talk about, "From The dust Returned" (Morrow $23.00). It's a perfect book for celebrating Halloween and the memory of family. One learns what life was like for young Ray in the character of Timothy who can go flying at night with his Uncle Einar as they skim the roofs, "peered into attic dunes where Cecy dreamed, seized an October wind that soared them to the clouds, and plummeted down, gently, to land upon the porch where two dozen shadows with mist for eyes welcomed them with a proper tumult and rainfall applause". This is a book that should supplant Harry Potter. Along with this book, Ray's "Fahrenheit 451" has been reissued with him reading in an unabridged version.(Harper $25.95). He promised me to be back in the spring when he has two novels and abook of poetry coming out. I'll hold him to that and wish him to be well until then.

Susan Goldman Rubin has done an extraordinary job in her book "Steven Spielberg(Abrams $19.95). It's a book for all generations. The book combines the research Susan did on Spielberg's life with the help and information from his mother, Leah Adler and his three sisters. They provided her with the childhood stories that led his fertile imagination to produce films such as "E.T." and "Jaws", and "Schindler's List". It was in Saratoga, California, where he went to high school that he first came against anti-Semitism. Something he never forgot.

Because of his grades, he was turned down by both UCLA and USC, so he went to California State College at Long Beach, that is until thanks to his friend, Chuck Silvers at Universal, he got a pass to the studio. On weekends he shot experimental films. By 1967 he was ready to make his "calling card " film. The first one on bicycle racing had problems, the second called "Amblin'" worked and he found another mentor in Sidney J. Sheinberg. And then, there was "Jaws". Incredible that a kid who didn't like to study learned to read scripts and books and spot the winners.

What's more amazing on a personal note, was when Steven met Leslie Martinson, he told him that the first set he was ever on was the stage at Warners where Leslie was directing "P.T. 109", that he met his friend, Tony Bill on "Run For Your Life" that Leslie was directing, and Steven gave a perfect imitation of Mickey Rooney in a scene from Leslie's film "The Atomic Kid" where Mickey comes out of an atomic blast speaking in 78 rpm speed.

The photographs that the family gave Susan are wonderful. This book is called for "young adults" I think adults of any age will love this book if they love films.

Susan Goldman Rubin has written another book that stirs the heart, called "Fireflies In The Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker Brandeis and the Children of Terezin" (Holiday House $8.95). Here are the paintings the children did at Terezin. There is a painting of a Seder Dinner that Eva Meitnerova (May 1, 1931-October 28,1944) painted when they were assigned to draw memories of home. One remembers that in April 1944 the International Red Cross came to see the camp and that the Nazis escorted the three representatives on a carefully planned tour. Later the Nazis even made a film about Theresienstadt using the the sets they had put up just for the Red Cross. Of the 15,000 children who passed through Terezin, only 100 survived.

Another Pop-up book that incorporates art, the history of California and fun is "The California Pop-Up Book" (Universe Publishing $45.00). It is worth every cent. There are articles written by L. Thomas Frye on early California and on the same page an article by Richard Rodrigues and in the center of the page popping up is a replica of the Exposition in Balboa Park in San Diego. Keep going and there is Hollywood with the Egyptian theatre in all its glory and an article by Cari Beauchamp on Women In Film and a little booklet on glamour with Marlene Dietrich. The epitome of pop-up art at its best is the center of the book which, when extended, reveals the Golden Gate Bridge and a wonderful article by Kevin Starr and a little booklet from Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club". Under the LA Art Scene, Dennis Hopper has written an essay and where have you ever seen David Hockney's Mulholland Drive or Frank Gehry's Disney Hall come alive? This is living art to cherish, kids keep your hands off. Look but don't touch.