Search results for ""author danforth prince""

Hefner, the Playboy of the Western World, was a visionary publisher, an empire-builder, an avatar of pleasure, and a pajama-clad pipe-smoker with a pre-coital grin. In 1953, he published his first edition of Playboy, with Marilyn Monroe on the cover and her nude calendar inside. He obtained the rights for $500 with money borrowed from his puritanical Nebraska-born mother. In addition to his role as a 'tasteful pornographer,' Hef became a cultural warrior, fighting government censorship all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Post Office refused to deliver his magazine to its subscribers. As the years and his notoriety progressed, he became an advocate of abortion, LGBT equality, and the legalization of pot. Eventually, he engaged in 'pubic wars' with Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse, which cut into Hef’s sales. During his heyday, some of the biggest male stars in Hollywood, including Warren Beatty, Sammy Davis, Jr., Mick Jagger, and Jack Nicholson, came to frolic behind Hef’s guarded walls, stripping nude in the hot tube grotto before sampling the rotating beds upstairs. This ground-breaking biography, the latest in Blood Moon’s string of outrageously unvarnished myth-busters, is the first published since Hefner’s death at the age of 91 in 2017. It is a provocative saga, rich in tantalizing, often shocking detail — definitely not for the sanctimonious or the faint of heart.

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Born to a vagabond bookie working the U.K's racetracks, Peter O'Toole became "the most notorious sailor in Her Majesty's Royal Navy" and then worked as a street vendor, a paparazzo, a newsman, and a steeplejack before drifting into the London theatre. After his spectacular success in David Lean's four-hour epic, Lawrence of Arabia, he announced, "I've arrived! Ignore me at your peril!" He then went on to be nominated for seven Oscars before emerging as the Crown Prince of the British Theatre. An orgiastic hellraiser, he starred in week-long binges and sex orgies of near Biblical proportions, bedding everyone from Elizabeth Taylor to Princess Margaret, who relentlessly pursued him. Mercurial acting talent on the screen was combined with a lethal off-screen life that "would have landed most blokes in jail" (his words).

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America's most enduring and legendary symbol of young rebellion, James Dean continues into the 21st Century to capture the imagination of the world. In recognition of his enduring appeal as Hollywood's most visible symbol of unrequited male rage, bars from California to Nigeria and Patagonia are named in his honor. Dean, a strikingly handsome heart-throb, is a study in contrasts: Tough but tender; brutal at times but remarkably sensitive; a reckless hellraiser badass who could revert to a little boy in bed. From his climb from the dusty backroads of Indiana to the most formidable boudoirs of Hollywood, his saga is electrifying. He claimed that sexually, he didn't want to go through life with one hand tied behind his back. He corroborated his identity as a rampant bisexual through sexual interludes with Marilyn Monroe, Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Natalie Wood, Shelley Winters, Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, Ursula Andress, Montgomery Clift, Pier Angeli, Tennessee Williams, Susan Strasberg, and (are you sitting down?) both Tallulah Bankhead and (as a male prostitute) FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton wanted to make him her toy boy. Tomorrow Never Comes, the newest in Blood Moon's critically acclaimed Babylon Series, is the most penetrating look at James Dean to have emerged from the wreckage of his Porsche Spyder in 1955. He flirted with Death until it caught him. Ironically, he said, "If a man can live after he dies, then maybe he's a great man." Before setting out on his last ride, he also said, "I feel life too intensely to bear living it." Tomorrow Never Comes is published in recognition of the 60th anniversary of his early death. It presents a damaged but beautiful soul, and the embarrassing and sometimes lurid compromises James Dean made on his road to "success" before his demons grabbed him.

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This hot, two-in-one biography examines the complicated co-dependencies of the greatest but most dysfunctional mother-daughter act in showbiz, Debbie Reynolds and her talented, often traumatized daughter, Carrie Fisher. After years of feuds and separations, they reunited at the end of their lives. Today, their legions of fans like to think they're each doing fine, together in some galaxy far, far away. Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher were the greatest mother-daughter act in show business. Frank Sinatra stole her virginity, but she married pop singer Eddie Fisher for the “official deflowering” (her words). Through storm and rain, Debbie battled on, hitting a high point when she starred as Tammy in 1957 and her most memorable role was in 1964, when she was cast in the rags-to riches saga of The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Each of her three marriages was a disaster, the second one to a millionaire shoe manufacturing mogul who bankrupted both of them. Impoverished after the divorce, she ended up sleeping in her car. Debbie mingled with the élite of Hollywood in the dying days of its Golden Age. Luminaries included Clark Gable (“if I were only twenty years younger….); Judy Garland (who propositioned her); Lana Turner; Bette Davis (“she was my daughter”) and Glenn Ford, who fell in love with her. A rebellious daughter, Carrie grew up to endure a life of living hell—pill popping, drug abuse, chronic anxiety, failed love affairs, bipolar disorder, and electroshock therapy. Carrie sometimes protested: “I don’t want to be the daughter of Debbie Reynolds. I battled demons that set my brain on fire.” International celebrity came in 1977, when she played Princess Leia in Star Wars as an elaborately coiffed intergalactic princess, spearheading “The Force,” and strong enough to oppose the villainy of Darth Vader.

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After Betty Grable, but before there was Marilyn, America's penchant for popcorn blondes focused on LANA, the "ultimate movie star." She had it all: Looks to die for, money to burn, the romantic adulation of the world, and lovers who included the world's most desirable men. In her 1937 film, They Won't Forget, a 16-year-old Lana, without wearing a brassiere, walked down the street with her boobs bouncing. Censors protested, but when it was shown, America cheered and nicknamed her The Sweater Girl." From there, Lana competed with Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth as the pre-eminent pinup girl (so many men, so little time") of World War II. Horny GIs referred to her as the Girl We'd Like to Find in Every Port." From the start, her private life was marked with scandal: She aborted Mickey Rooney's baby; seduced a young John F. Kennedy; and fell for Frank Sinatra, who later caught her in bed with another love goddess, Ava Gardner. In the early 1940s, after a nationwide campaign promoting the sale of War Bonds, Carole Lombard frantically boarded a small plane headed back to Hollywood, suffering a fiery death when it crashed within 13 minutes of takeoff. The risk she took during that thunderstorm was motivated, it was said, by her obsession with rescuing her husband, Clark Gable, from the amorous clutches of Lana Turner. Tyrone Powertall, dark, photogenic, and famouseventually evolved into the greatest love of her life until the Aviator, Howard Hughes, arguably the most psychotic billionaire in the history of Hollywood, flew in to seduce both of them. Lana (aka The Ziegfeld Girl") didn't hear The Postman Always Rings Twice because she was in bed with John Garfield. Later, in search of love, she spent a Weekend at the Waldorf before moving to Green Dolphin Street and later to the notorious Peyton Place, she found it during an experiment with an Imitation of Life. Gable took her to a Honky Tonk and vowed, Somewhere I'll Find You," before their Homecoming reunion. With Ray Milland, she found A Life of Her Own before dancing to The Merry Widow waltz with sexy Fernando Lamas. Many notoriously hot menmany of them her filmmaking co-starslay in her future: Richard Burton, Sean Connery, and Errol in like Flynn." Samson (Victor Mature) was said to be Lana's Biggest Thrill." Lana rescued Peter Lawford from Elizabeth Taylor; Ricky Ricardo from Lucy; and, when not singing amore with Dean Martin, Kirk Douglas learned that she was Bad and Beautiful both on and off the screen. "The bombshell" once said, I wanted one husband and seven babies, but I got the reverseseven husbands and an only child!" She married Tarzan (Lex Barker) after his designation as The Sexiest Man in the World," but the union ended when she caught him seducing her teenaged daughter. Opinions about Lana were as varied as her changing looks. She was amoral," said MGM's CEO, Louis B. Mayer. Robert Taylor commented: She was the type of woman a guy would risk five years in jail for rape." Gloria Swanson sniffed, She wasn't even an actress...only a trollop." And Ronald Reagan--a man who later became U.S. president--asked, In what cathouse did she learn those tricks?" And then there was that embarrassing murder: Did Lana fatally stab her gangster lover, Johnny Stompanato, known for his links to the Mob? Or was the heinous act committed by her daughter, a traumatized teenager who, after time in reform school, officially outed herself as a lesbian? How did these whirlwinds of scandal affect the gal who had it all? According to Lana, I'd like to think that in some small way, I've helped to preserve the glamour and beauty and mystery of the movie industry." Never before has there been, until now, a definitive, uncensored, and comprehensive biography of "the Ultimate Movie Star," LANA TURNER. Until now.

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In the 1970s and '80s, Burt Reynolds represented a new breed of movie star: Charming and relentlessly macho, he was a good ol' Southern boy who made hearts throb and audiences laugh. He was Burt Reynolds, a football hero and a guy you might have shared some jokes with in a redneck bar.After an impressive but tormented career, rivers of negative publicity, a self-admitted history of bad choices, and a spectacular fall from Hollywood grace, he died in Jupiter, Florida, at the age of 82 in September of 2018. Once, he posed nude for a woman's magazine. Even though, by his admission, it ultimately hurt his career, fan mail from horny females poured in from across the nation. For five years, both in terms of earnings and popularity, he was the number one box office star in the world. Smokey and the Bandit (1977) became the biggest-grossing car-chase film of all time. As he put it, perhaps as a means of bolstering his image, 'I like nothing better than making love to some of the most beautiful women in the world.' Men liked him too: He played poker with Frank Sinatra; shared boozy nights with John Wayne; intercepted a 'pass' from closeted Spencer Tracy; talked 'penis size' with Mark Wahlberg; and threatened to kill Marlon Brando, to whom his appearance was often compared. His least happy (some said 'most poisonous') marriage — to Loni Anderson — was rife with dramas played out more in the tabloids than in the boudoir. According to Reynolds, 'She's vain, she's a rotten mother, she sleeps around, and she spent all my money.' This biography — the first comprehensive overview of the 'redneck icon' ever published — reveals the joys and sorrows of a movie star who thrived in, but who was then almost buried by the pressures and insecurities of the New Hollywood. A tribute to 'truck stop' America, it's about the accelerated life of a courageous spirit who 'Put His Pedal to the Metal' with humour, high jinx, and pizzazz. He predicted his own death: 'Soon, I'll be racing a hotrod in Valhalla in my cowboy hat and a pair of aviators.' On his tombstone, he wanted it writ: 'He was not the best actor in the world, but he was the best Burt Reynolds in the world.' Publicity from tabloids and mainstream media will accompany the release of this book, along with radio interviews targeted to Nashville and other country-western markets and videotaped book trailers illustrating the ironies of his rags-to-riches-to-rags saga.

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On the campus of Yale University, in 1970, an "odd couple," Hillary Rodham and Bill ("Bubba") Clinton, came together at a Mark Rothko exhibit at the Yale Art Museum. Before the end of that rainy afternoon, they had formed an unbreakable bond forged while they rested on the seat of a Henry Moore sculpture. They were from completely different worlds-he, a populist from a poverty-stricken background in Arkansas; she, a former "Goldwater Girl" and conservative Republican gradually moving into the liberal camp. As he sat beside her, holding her hand, she gazed into the eyes of this 210-pound, orange-bearded "Viking," tall and scruffy looking, with an Elvis drawl. He'd later jokingly claim, "I identified with Elvis since both of us had hillbilly peckers." Freshly emerged from Wellesley College, with its "coven of lesbians," she was a budding feminist-pimply faced, wearing no makeup but with Mr. Magoo eyeglasses, and walking around on chubby legs. He had all the pretty women he wanted. What he was looking for was a woman with a "sense of strength and self-possession-all in all, that afternoon, I knew I'd found my Evita." He confided to her that since the age of seven, he had only one abiding ambition-and that was to be the President of the United States. He promised her, "If elected, I will pave the way for you to become the first woman president. You can follow after my administration." He held out the prospect of making her the most powerful woman on the planet. As she recalled, "I was giddy with emotion." It took a while, but he finally lured her to Arkansas, which she interpreted as "on the other side of the moon." Crossing the welcome mat at his Scully Street house, she came face to face with her future mother-in-law, Virginia Cassidy Blyth, Clinton, Dwire, Kelley. She stood in the kitchen in her stiletto heels evocative of a drag revue, wearing garish lipstick-"the brighter the better"-and a tight "Dinah Dors" sweater. As Virginia recalled, "It was an immovable object colliding with an irresistible force. I extended my hand to this Chicago carpetbagger with coke bottle glasses." "I'm going to marry this gal," Bubba announced. "She's going to become the First Lady of Arkansas." In the days ahead, Hillary was introduced to other members of this "white trash family" known for its divorces, violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, adultery, and promiscuity. He told her, "I'm a bastard. My father, William Jefferson Blythe, III, had not divorced his wife when he married mama. I took the last name of another husband, Roger Clinton." Before the end of the first day of her inaugural meeting with Hillary, Virginia warned her, "Put a lock on your lingerie. Otherwise, you'll find Bill dressing up in your finery after midnight." Their trail to the White House began in Arkansas, with Hillary helping direct her sex-crazed Bubba into the governor's seat. "With my back-up, he pursued his dream while I was also chasing a dream of my own. Women can dream harder than any man-in fact, being what they are, I don't understand why women don't turn lesbian." Through the tides of the wars to come, both Hillary and Bill learned that love was a creature of many faces, with ever-changing rules and compromises on the road to their horizon. Often threatening divorce, she remained at his side, interpreting his affairs as minor annoyances. On their stormy seas, they sailed through triumph and tragedy, setbacks and comebacks, the good years and the bad ones, bimbo eruptions, serial infidelities, near bankruptcy with crippling legal bills, impeachment, the stockpiling of post-Presidential millions, and surviving vitriolic scorn that rivaled that of Dr. Goebbels against the Jews. They faced maddening failures and stunning achievements, their love and loyalty enduring through hurricane winds. She was at his side as the sex-crazed Arkansas Bubba became the notorious "Slick Willie," eventually morphing into "The 21st Century's Greatest Living Elder Statesman." Hillary herself began her own road to the White House (actually, she had already been there for eight years as First Lady), with stints as a Senator from New York, a failed presidential candidate, and a globe-trotting Secretary of State. She also became one of the country's leading Democratic visionaries, admired by millions. Of course, that provoked Apocalyptic attacks from her enemies, Senator Mitch McConnell, Senior Republican Senator from Kentucky, trumpeting, "If given power in 2016, she'll lead us to the Gates of Hell." One night on Martha's Vineyard, Hillary had a candid talk with a former First Lady, Jackie Kennedy Onassis. "Bill is a charismatic politician, but also deeply flawed. He has such charm you can always forgive him." "I know of such men," Jackie said, no doubt recalling her own years with another charismatic president. "You had Marilyn Monroe to compete with. I have a lesser light-Sharon Stone. Bill was hopelessly gone when she crossed her legs in Basic Instinct." ***Hundreds of tantalizing anecdotes fill this book from a writing team already famous for its exposes of both the Kennedys and the Reagans. As Hillary stares into her uncertain future, she claims, "Before the arrival of the Grim Reaper, Bill and I will change history...for the better, of course." So This Is That Thing Called Love is not a treatise about politics. It's a love story probing the boundaries of a relationship between two people who are committed to each other despite the vagaries of life, come what may. What a ride it's already been, with more "Second Coming Headlines" looming in the years ahead. There will definitely be a second act for this pair. As a critic who despises Hillary, but only in private, First Lady Michelle Obama said, "Hillary's story won't be over until the Fat Lady sings."

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Of all the male stars of Golden Age Hollywood, Kirk Douglas became the final survivor, the last icon of a fabled era that the world will never see again. When he celebrated his birthday in 2016, a headline read — 'Legendary Hollywood horndog turns 100.' He was both a charismatic actor and a man of uncommon force and vigour. His restless and volcanic spirit is reflected both in his films and through his many sexual conquests. Douglas was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, his father a ragman. Conquering Tinseltown, he became the personification of the American dream, moving from obscurity and (literally) rags to riches and major-league fame. The Who’s Who cast of characters roaring through his life featured not only a daunting list of Hollywood goddesses, but the town’s most colossal male talents and egos, too. They included his kindred hellraiser and best buddy Burt Lancaster, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Billy Wilder, Laurence Olivier, Rock Hudson, and a future U.S. President, Ronald Reagan. Douglas began his conquests in New York, stealing the virginity of model Betty Bacall before she moved to Hollywood, changed her name to Lauren, and married Humphrey Bogart. Later, both Marilyn Monroe and Lana Turner pursued him for boudoir duty. 'I had them all…well, almost,' he boasted. All of this is brought out, with photos, in this remarkable testimonial to the last hero of Hollywood’s cinematic and swashbuckling Golden Age, an inspiring testimonial to the values and core beliefs of an America that’s Gone with the Wind, yet lovingly remembered as a time when it, in many ways, was truly great.

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Rock Hudson reigned in the late 1950s and early '60s as Hollywood's greatest ambisexual swordsman," seducing icons who included Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Joan Crawford, and Lauren Bacall, as well as hundreds of other lesser-known players willing to share some Pillow Talk." Mamie Van Doren, one of Hollywood's bustiest, most provocative, and most promiscuous bombshells, asserted loudly that the boulder that Rock's agent named him after was a big one." Just released from the Navy, the muscled, 6'4" hunk, then known as Roy Fitzgerald, arrived in Hollywood with a clear understanding of what he wanted: I don't want to be an actor...I want to be a movie star! And I don't give a damn how many casting couches I have to lie on!" To that end, between gigs as a truck driver, he donned very tight, faded jeans and seductively stationed himself near the entrances of such studios as Warners and Universal. Eventually, he was discovered." Eventually, he was assigned roles in a string of B-pictures, playing handsome Apaches, easy-on-the-eyes sea captains, and drop-dead gorgeous Ordinary Joes" whose charm moviegoers remembered way beyond the limited scale of his roles. Meanwhile, power players in Hollywood clamored for him up close and personal, too. According to Yvonne de Carlo, Rock was predatory after midnight." Stardom finally arrived based on a performance opposite Jane Wyman (she had divorced Ronald Reagan) in that tear-jerking melodrama, Magnificent Obsession (1954). Replicating her passion offscreen, she demanded (unsuccessfully) that he marry her. Hudson had already been defined as the sexiest man alive" when he was assigned the role of a Texas cattle rancher in Giant (1956). During its filming in the dusty hamlet of Marfa, Texas, he sustained affairs with both Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. Three eventful years later, his status as one of the most popular (and most consistently profitable) actors in Hollywood was reinforced, based on his co-starring performance opposite Doris Day in the spectacularly successful Pillow Talk (1959). Together, as a captivating duo, they went on to appear together in other artfully campy" battles of the sexes. Compiled as a memorial for the 30th anniversary of his death, Rock Hudson Erotic Fire is based on dozens of face-to-face interviews with Rock Hudson's friends, co-conspirators, and enemies. Researched over a period of a half century by Hollywood insider Darwin Porter, it reveals the secretive actor's complete, never-before-told story within a context of scandal-soaked and historic ironies, many of which have never been fully exploreduntil now. Although maligned by the media because of the stigmas associated with his AIDS-related death, Rock showed inner courage and manly grace as he lay dying. This is my shining hour," he told his closest friends, as the media rushed to Out" him as a celebrity bisexual" who'd been stricken by the then-stigmatizing scourge. Today, beloved by hordes of cultish fans and film buffs around the world, Rock Hudson is the often misunderstood (until now) Golden Icon of a glamorous bygone era.

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Most of the world remembers Ronald Reagan and Nancy (Davis) Reagan as geriatric figures in the White House in the 1980s. And it remembers Jane Wyman as the fierce empress, Angela Channing, in the decade's hit TV series, Falcon Crest. But long before that, two young wannabee stars, Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, had arrived as untested hopefuls in Hollywood. Each of them separately stormed Warner Brothers, looking for movie stardom and loveand finding both beyond their wildest dreams. They were followed, in time, by Nancy Davis, who began her career posing for cheesecake in a failed attempt by the studio to turn her into a sex symbol. In their memoirs, Ronald and Nancy (Jane didn't write one) paid scant attention to their wild and wonderful years" in Hollywood. To provide that missing link in their lives, Blood Moon's Love Triangle explores in depth the trio's passions, fury, betrayal, loves won and lost, and the conflicts and rivalries they generated. A liberal New Deal Democrat, Reagan quickly became a handsome leading man in B" pictures and a babe magnet," as studio mogul Jack Warner defined him, a swordsman like our resident Don Juan, Errol Flynn." Reagan himself admitted he developed Leading Lady-itis" even for stars he didn't appear with. He launched a bevy of affairs with such glamorous icons as Lana Turner, Betty Grable and Susan Hayward, even a too young Elizabeth Taylor." He eventually married Jane, but he was not faithful to her, enjoying back alley affairs with the likes of The Oomph Girl," Ann Sheridan. Jane, too, had her affairs on the side, notably with Lew Ayres (Ginger Rogers' ex) while filming her Oscar-winning Johnny Belinda. After dumping Reagan, Jane launched a series of affairs herself, battling Joan Crawford (for Hollywood's most studly and newsworthy attorney, Greg Bautzer), and Marilyn Monroe (for bandleader Fred Karger, divorcing him, marrying him again, and finally divorcing him for good.) Reagan's oldest son, Michael (adopted), later said, If Nancy knew that one day she would be First Lady, she would have cleaned up her act." He was referring to her notorious days as a starlet in the late 1940s and early 50s, when the grapevine had it that: her phone number was passed around a lot." The list of her intimate involvements is long, including Clark Gable, whom she wanted to marry; Spencer Tracy; Yul Brynner; Frank Sinatra; Marlon Brando; Milton Berle; Peter Lawford; Robert Walker; et al. Love Triangle, a proud and presidential addition to Blood Moon's Babylon series, digs deep into what these three young movie stars were up to decades before two of them took over the Free World. In 2015, this one-of-a-kind triple biography was designated Runner-up to BEST BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR at the 2015 Hollywood Book Festival

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