James Bawden: Seeing the way people behave when they're around you, is it still fun being Cary Grant?
Cary Grant: I don't like to disappoint people. Because he's a completely made-up character and I'm playing a part. It's a part I've been playing a long time, but no way am I really Cary Grant. A friend told me once, "I always wanted to be Cary Grant." And I said, "So did I."—from the book
In Conversations with Classic Film Stars, retired journalists James Bawden and Ron Miller present an astonishing collection of rare interviews with the greatest celebrities of Hollywood's golden age. Conducted over the course of more than fifty years, they recount intimate conversations with some of the most famous leading men and women of the era, including Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joseph Cotten, Cary Grant, Gloria Swanson, Joan Fontaine, Loretta Young, Kirk Douglas, and many more.
Each interview takes readers behind the scenes with some of cinema's most iconic stars. The actors convey unforgettable stories, from Maureen O'Hara discussing Charles Laughton's request that she change her last name, to Bob Hope candidly commenting on the presidential honors bestowed upon him. Humorous, enlightening, and poignant, Conversations with Classic Film Stars is essential reading for anyone who loves classic movies.
James Bawden, former TV columnist for the Toronto Star, is renowned for his distinguished profiles of movie stars and directors. He has written for Films in Review and numerous cinema magazines. Ron Miller was TV editor of the San Jose Mercury News from 1977–1999 and a syndicated columnist for the Knight Ridder News Service. A former national president of the Television Critics Association and a recipient of the National Headliner Award, he is currently an instructor at the Academy for Lifelong Learning at Western Washington University.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1. The Silent Era 2. The Leading Men 3. The Leading Ladies 4. The Queens of the Bs 5. The Singing Cowboys 6. A Giant of Comedy 7. Four Very Special Stars Acknowledgments About the Authors Index
What People are Saying About This
James Robert Parish
"Bawden and Miller offer a lively, informative set of interviews that they conducted originally over the years with an intriguing assortment of stars and leading (character) players from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Their interviews capture the flavor of the subjects and provide a sizable amount of useful information about the personalities themselves, their filmmaking, and life in Tinseltown."
