Maurice Chevalier

Michael Freedland

Arthur Barker

At the age of 63, Sean Connery is today more bankable at the box office than he was as the 30-year-old James Bond. But the man himself remains something of a mystery: devastatingly attractive, intensely private, and, according to many, unforgiving. Michael Freedland's biography is a detailed search for the man behind the brogue and the bravado. Drawing on interviews with over 100 people who have known and worked with Connery, Michael Freedland shows the reader his childhood in Edinburgh, his earliest working days in a steel mill, his first acting experiences in the chorus of South Pacific, and his tentative steps into films. What emerges is his phenomenal drive: practically inexhaustible, and typical of so many born in the slums who have only one way to go - up. Though one of the top sex symbols of today, Connery has never been an easy man to be married to. And neither is he easy to work with, never content simply to follow his directors' orders if he has better ideas himself. Freedland gives an insight into his unusual intelligence and commitment to social causes: his devoted support for Scottish Rome Rule, and the hours he spends alone in his trailer writing poetry that no one ever sees.

Sean Connery

Biographies & Memoirs

Weidenfeld&Nicolson

Born in Brooklyn as David Daniel Kaminsky, Danny Kaye was the son of Ukrainian immigrants who came to America looking for the goldena medina -- the golden land. They had high hopes for their son, a gangly young boy with an outlandish shock of bright red hair. The redhead wanted to go into entertainment, but it would not be until Danny survived ingnominious stints as a soda jerk and a dental assistant that he would get his chance. In his twenties, Kaye hit the borscht belt circuit in the Catskills as part of the vaudeville team of Red and Black. An outstanding mimic gifted with a marvelous sense of nonsense, Kaye enthralled his audiences with hysterical dialogues and inspired renditions of "Minnie the Moocher". He soon graduated from this small circuit to the stage in Let's Face It, and before long he came to the attention of Hollywood's moviemakers. He starred in such unforgettable films as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Hans Christian Andersen. In 1950 Danny Kaye was proclaimed to be the world's greatest entertainer. Even three decades later, the genius of Kaye was still recognized. When he took part in the Royal Command Performance there was no question he would get top billing -- in a cast that included Sammy Davis Jr. and Larry Hagman. But did Danny Kaye ever reach his full potential? In this fascinating biography Michael Freedland argues that like a real-life Walter Mitty, Kaye never pushed himself to the limits of his talents. Freedland delineates the pains, frustrations, and eccentricities that kept Danny Kaye, as great an entertainer as he was, from being as great as he could have been.

The Secret Life of Danny Kaye (1985) (Signed)

St.Martin's Press

Gregory Peck: A Biography (Coronet Books)

Arts & Literature

Hodder&Stoughton Ltd

Dino: The Dean Martin Story

The secret life of Danny Kaye

W.H.Allen

Avec 27 illustration en blanc et noir . 8vo pp. 300 Brossura (wrappers) Molto Buono (Very Good)

The Two Lives of Errol Flynn

BANTAM BOOKS

Shirley MacLaine [Hardcover] Michael Freedland (Author)

Shirley MacLaine

Business & Money

Economics

Salem House Publishing

This is the true story of how J. Parnell Thomas, chairman of the UnAmerican Activities Committee made a national name for himself by ruining the lives of hundreds of people in the movie industry. Two years later, Thomas would be jailed for embezzling government money, but in August 1953 he was riding high. Hollywood on Trial relates the story of the victims of this witchhunt. Through the Committee many of Hollywood's leading lights were denied the right to work. Stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Paul Robeson were denied the passports that would have allowed them to leave America, Oscar-winning writers were forced to give their scripts to others to offer in their own names and then share the proceeds. Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye, and John Huston went to Washington in defense of the "Hollywood Ten", the first writers to be blacklisted, yet when Bogart and Bacall were questioned, they too buckled. The humiliations continued until the end of the 1950s. The scars, however, have remained to this day.

Hollywood on Trial: McCarthyism's War Against the Movies

Industries

Anova Books

This is the story of how the politicians took Tinseltown to task in the late 1940s and 1950s. As the Cold War with the Soviet Union began in earnest, the search for 'Reds under the bed', later led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, was felt most keenly in Hollywood where the investigations were carried out under the full glare of the flashlights. Painstakingly researched and drawing on numerous exclusive interviews, the book charts the generation of actors who found their livelihood ruined by being 'blacklisted' and the writers forced to hire 'fronts' to continue to work; it reveals how Arthur Miller was offered the chance to have his hearing dropped in return for a photo-opportunity with Marilyn Monroe; and how Kirk Douglas's naming of Dalton Trumbo as the writer of Spartacus signalled the end of this extraordinary era. Witch Hunt in Hollywood is the definitive account of how political paranoia shaped cinema for a decade. Michael Freedland is an author, journalist and broadcaster. He has written over 40 books, many of them telling the stories of the Hollywood greats, from Frank Sinatra to Al Jolson. He is also a BBC broadcaster and writes regularly for national newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Witch Hunt in Hollywood: McCarthyism's War on Tinseltown

Jr Books Ltd

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Books by Michael Freedland