Böcker av Danforth Prince

From 1951 through 1956, I Love Lucy was the most-watched show in television. Its launch was as rocky as the marriage of the real-life show-biz pros who crafted it. After their divorce in 1960, Lucille Ball appraised Desi Arnaz, her former husband: "He's like Jekyll and Hyde. He drinks and gambles, he's awash in broads and booze, and that gay actor, Cesar Romero, is his devoted slave. Love?" she asked. "I was always falling in love with the wrong man. Including Desi." Arnaz summed up his marriage to Lucille: "We were anything but Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. They had nothing to do with us. We dreamed of success, fame, and fortune. And guess what? It all led to hell." Their early struggles were epic. As a girl, Lucy at times was literally chained to her backyard in Jamestown, New York. As a teenager, she broke away and earned a reputation as "The Jamestown Hussy," riding around with Johnny DaVita, a local hoodlum. Later, she broke into show business, hustling "sugar daddies" and stage-door Johnnies who gave her money and gifts. When she was desperate, she worked as a nude model. In the 1930s, she migrated to Hollywood and made films for RKO. Desi, however, was born to wealth and privilege in Cuba. At the age of twelve, as an incentive to helping him lose his virginity, he was escorted to a local bordello by his father. Having lost most of their assets in the Cuban Revolution, his family fled. In Miami, Desi got a job as a janitor cleaning out canary cages. Later, in Manhattan, he accepted whatever gigs he could get. He became the "kept boy" of the gay composer Lorenz Hart, sustaining an affair with superstar Ginger Rogers on the side. That included the task of escorting her into Canada for an abortion. He was eventually hired by bandleader Xavier Cugat to "beat hell out of those Afro-Cuban drums." After drifting to Hollywood, he spotted Lucy on a sound stage "dressed like a two-dollar whore who had been badly beaten by her pimp." [That was, indeed, the character she developed for her role in Dance Girl Dance (1940). During its filming, she "more or less politely" resisted the lesbian advances of her director, Dorothy Arzner. Desi succeeded where Arzner failed, marrying Lucy that same year.] Characterized by violent fights and long separations, their stormy marriage staggered along for two traumatic decades. Desi's obsession with sex became legendary. He seduced every prostitute in Polly Adler's infamous NYC whorehouse. In Hollywood, Lana Turner and Betty Grable came and went from his life, along with countless showgirls and hometown gals attending his on-the-road band shows. Meanwhile, Lucy waited for his return, occupying her nights with the son (Elliott Roosevelt) of the U.S. president; actor/mobster George ("Black Snake") Raft; and George Sanders, Zsa Zsa Gabor's suicidal husband. Coming and going from her boudoir were-among many others-William Holden, Milton Berle, Henry Fonda, Orson Welles, and Robert Mitchum. By the early 1950s, the careers of both Lucy and Desi had run out of gas. TV executives objected to his Cuban accent. But I Love Lucy was launched nevertheless and shot up in the ratings, morphing into the most successful sitcom in TV history. "With gold arriving in wheelbarrows" (Desi's words), Lucy and Desi bought RKO Studios and launched Desilu Productions. It became the largest motion picture and television studio in the world. This first-of-a-kind biography of TV's wackiest and most eccentric couple is generously stuffed with ironic facts and blunt assessments from their frenemies. It radically changes the premises of the American Dream that helped fuel its success.

A self-defined "seductress of beautiful women" and the by-product of an immense fortune, lesbian activist Mercedes de Acosta (born in 1892) was descended from Spain''s Dukes of Alba and a beneficiary of the best education and best social skills that her parents'' Gilded Age fortune could buy. From her perch within the aristocracy of the Belle ├ëpoque, and continuing as an arts-industry "swinger" until her death in 1968, she  became notorious for seducing-and describing to socialites on both sides of the Atlantic-at least a dozen women who fast-evolved into the most widely publicized and romantically "unattainable" celebrities in the world. During her heyday-the sexually permissive "Pre-Code" free-for-all of the Silent Screen and Hollywood''s early talkies-her lovers included the self-enchanted silent screen mogul, Nazimova; the "live fast and die young" tragedienne Jeanne Eagels; the blue-blooded aristocrat of the Jazz Age Broadway stage, Katharine Cornell; the most famous film goddess of the 30s and early 40s (Greta Garbo); and at least a dozen others. Within the deeply entrenched, phobically closeted lesbian circles of America''s mid-century, Mercedes become quirkily famous as "Hollywood''s Greatest Lover."         One of her paramours, the German-born bisexual Marlene Dietrich, put Mercedes'' promiscuous indiscretions into context: "During Germany''s Weimar Republic (1919-1933), in Paris, London, Berlin, and in the dives and cabarets of Hollywood and New York,  promiscuity was rampant and without any particular preference for any specific gender."     In 1960, Mercedes published a "watered down" memoir (Here Lies the Heart) that instantly became notorious. In it, she "outed" many of her same-sex partners. A few years later-aging, crippled, blind in one eye, and desperately in need of money, she sold, for publication, some of the love letters addressed to her decades ago from, among others, Greta Garbo. And near the end of her life, within his home (historic Magnolia House on Staten Island), she was frank, unvarnished, and unapologetic during extensive interviews with film historian Darwin Porter, the co-author of this book.      Suspecting that one day he might pass on some of the secrets she revealed, she cautioned him, "Don''t be vulgar, dear, and promise me that you won''t publish anything while my friends are still alive."     Porter honored her request by waiting until 2020 to release this astonishing insight into the underground lesbian contexts of the stage, screen, and publishing scenes of the first half of "The American Century."   No other book has ever interconnected so many dots. No one, until now, has ever had the courage.  

Built in stages between 1830 and 1875, Magnolia House is a historic landmark on Staten Island, the least-visited Outer Borough of New York City. Set within a 10-minute walk from the (free) Staten Island ferry that accesses Manhattan, it's the headquarters of the widely distributed independent press, BLOOD MOON PRODUCTIONS, a feisty wordsmith noted for celebrity biographies that have been reviewed in THE DAILY MAIL, the New York DAILY NEWS, show-biz news reports, and literary journals across the country.Some visitors liken Magnolia House to a grande dame with a centuries-old knack for nourishing high-functioning eccentrics. Many of them have lived or been entertained here since New Yorks State Senator Howard Bayne, a transplanted Southerner, moved in with his wife, the daughter of the Surgeon General of the Confederate States of America, in the aftermath of that bloodiest of wars on North American soil, the War Between the American States.Since then, many dozens of celebritiessome of them notorioushave whispered their secrets and rehearsed their ambitions within its walls. Theyve included movie vamps from the silent screen, MIDNIGHT COWBOYS, dancers from the dance, BUTTERFLIES IN HEAT, a heavyweight boxing champ, writers from every hue, faded film goddesses, playwrights who crafted blockbusters for both Marilyn (Monroe) and Elizabeth (Taylor), ultra-avant-garde diarists, every known variety of prima donna and diva, including some from the world of opera, and a world-class Olympic athlete.Theyve also included Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince, who spent decades here renovating it and producing a stream of FROMMERTRAVELGUIDES and award-winning celebrity biographies.This book illuminates Magnolia House's contribution to the American Century, when dozens of individual movers and shakerssome of them sane and emotionally stable, others notvisited Magnolia House.This book reveals what they did and what they revealed.

For millions of fans, Judy Garland will forever remain a relentlessly cheerful adolescent (Dorothy) skipping along a yellow brick road toward the other side of the rainbow. Liza followed her down that hallucinogenic path, searching for the childhood, the security, and the love that eluded her. Ferociously loyal but fiercely competitive, they live, laugh, and weep again in the tear-soaked pages of this remarkable biography from the entertainment industry's most prolific archivists, Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince.

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.¿ He was referring to his sexual involvements with Catherine Deneuve, Farrah Fawcett, Dolly Parton, Cybill Shepherd, Tammy Wynette, Lucie Arnaz, Kim Basinger, Candice Bergen, Lauren Hutton, Lorna Luft, Sarah Miles, Angie Dickinson, Elizabeth Taylor, or Marilyn Monroe, whom he once picked up on his way to the Actors Studio in New York City. He also hung out with Bette Davis. (¿I always had a thing for her.") Love with another VIP came in the form of that ¿Sweetheart of the G.I.s,¿ Dinah Shore. Their May-September affair sparked endless chatter. ¿I appreciate older women,¿ he once said in a moment of self-revelation. He entered another much-publicized romance with actress Sally Field, the ¿second love of my life.¿ After his death, The Flying Nun said, ¿Burt still lives in my heart,¿ but then expressed relief that, because of his recent death, he'd never read what she'd said about him in her memoir. 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; went ¿wench-hunting¿ with Johnny Carson; 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 humor, 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.

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 Marthäs 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 exposés 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."

Born to a vagabond bookie working the U.K's racetracks, the author became the 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.