A New York journalist is pulled into the drama of Hollywood as she investigates the life and death of actor Sal Mineo in this historical fiction by Susan Braudy. In the carport of his West Hollywood apartment, American actor Sal Mineo was stabbed in the heart by a mugger who fled the scene, presumably acting under homosexual motivation. As she searches to fill in the gaps of his life and murder, Sara Martin, a New York journalist, is drawn into the glittering, highly charged homosexual milieu of Hollywood in this based-on-fact novel.
This intimate biography of actor Sal Mineo follows his career that began with an Oscar-nominated performance at 16 in "A Rebel Without a Cause" through his decline as an A-list actor, his unwillingness to deny his homosexuality, his stage and directing career and politics in his final years, and the investigation into his stabbing death in the mid 1970s. Photos.
Sal Mineo is probably most well-known for his unforgettable, Academy Award–nominated turn opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and his tragic murder at the age of thirty-seven. Finally, in this riveting new biography filled with exclusive, candid interviews with both Mineo’s closest female and male lovers and never-before-published photographs, Michael Gregg Michaud tells the full story of this remarkable young actor’s life, charting his meteoric rise to fame and turbulent career and private life. One of the hottest stars of the 1950s, Mineo grew up as the son of Sicilian immigrants in a humble Bronx flat. But by age eleven, he appeared on Broadway in Tennessee Williams’s The Rose Tattoo, and then as Prince Chulalongkorn in the original Broadway production of The King and I starring Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence. This sultry-eyed, dark-haired male ingénue of sorts appeared on the cover of every major magazine, thousands of star-struck fans attended his premieres, and millions bought his records, which included several top-ten hits. His life offstage was just as exhilarating: full of sports cars, motor boats, famous friends, and some of the most beautiful young actresses in Hollywood. But it was fourteen-year-old Jill Haworth, his costar in Exodus—the film that delivered one of the greatest acting roles of his life and earned him another Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe win—with whom he fell in love and moved to the West Coast. But by the 1960s, a series of professional missteps and an increasingly tumultuous private life reversed his fortunes. By the late sixties and early seventies, grappling with the repercussions of publicly admitting his homosexuality and struggling to reinvent himself from an aging teen idol, Mineo turned toward increasingly self-destructive behavior. Yet his creative impulses never foundered. He began directing and producing controversial off-Broadway plays that explored social and sexual taboos. He also found personal happiness in a relationship with male actor Courtney Burr. Tragically, on the cusp of turning a new page in his life, Mineo’s life was cut short in a botched robbery. Revealing a charming, mischievous, creative, and often scandalous side of Mineo few have known before now, Sal Mineo is an intimate, moving biography of a distinctive Hollywood star.
“An ingenious, intriguing, and also moving story about two losers who become friends” from the American playwright and coauthor of A Chorus Line (The Sacramento Union). It’s New Year’s Eve in New York City. Your best friend died in September, you’ve been robbed twice, your girlfriend is leaving you, you’ve lost your job . . . and the only one left to talk to is the gay burglar you’ve got tied up in the kitchen . . . P.S. your cat is dead. An instant classic upon its initial publication, P.S. Your Cat Is Dead received widespread critical acclaim and near fanatical reader devotion. The stage version of the novel was equally successful and there are still over two hundred new productions of it staged every year. Now, for the first time in a decade, James Kirkwood’s much-loved black humor comic novel of manners and escalating disaster returns to bewitch and beguile a new generation. “James Kirkwood manages to combine the most marvelous light witty dialogue with the most harrowing of events . . . absolutely fascinating—I couldn’t stop reading from the minute the first shot was fired.” —Nora Ephron “This novel is woven together with such artistic acumen that suspense never ebbs. The plot structure, characterization, dialog and style are virtually flawless.” —Chicago Sun-Times “With every page the situation gets crazier, zanier, more improbable, also funnier . . . Kirkwood’s bizarre humor comes off, thanks to his ability to throw opposites together, with a stand-up comic’s timing.” —Publishers Weekly
A remarkable portrait of “true L.A. noir” with archival photos from the Los Angeles Police Museum and text by legendary crime writer James Ellroy (Los Angeles Times). James Ellroy, the undisputed master of crime writing, has teamed up with the Los Angeles Police Museum to present a stunning text on 1953 L.A. While combing the museum’s photo archives, Ellroy discovered that the year featured a wide array of stark and unusual imagery—and to accompany the pictures, he has written text to illuminate the crimes and law enforcement of the era. Ellroy offers context along with wild detail and rich atmosphere—this is the cauldron that was police work in the city of the tarnished angels seven decades ago, revealed in more than 80 duotone photos throughout the book. “These crime images resemble the work of photographer Weegee, but, Ellroy argues, they’re superior because they resist artistry; they were taken by police officers doing their jobs.” —Chicago Tribune
To Thomas T. Noguchi, America’s most famous medical examiner, every death is a mystery—until the cause is found In his first book, the runaway bestseller Coroner, Dr. Noguchi wrote of his controversial investigations as medical examiner of Los Angeles County. In Coroner at Large, the man who has often been called the “Detective of Death” probes the mysteries surrounding the most celebrated criminal cases in recent American history. Using sophisticated techniques of modern forensic science and once again “telling it like it is,” Dr. Noguchi reveals the truth behind the headlines in the untimely deaths of show business celebrities: —The drowning of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson —The murder of Sal Mineo —The suicide of Freddie Prinze —The slaying of “Playmate of the Year” Dorothy Stratten —Elvis Presley’s fatal heart attack Forensic science, too, provides new clues to fascinating historical puzzles: the true fates of General George Custer, the Emperor Napoleon, and Adolf Hitler. In Coroner at Large, Dr. Noguchi brilliantly provides the missing links in our knowledge of these cases. Here, from his own investigations and his pioneering work in the field, we see forensic science in action, unraveling the mysteries of death—both natural and unnatural—in real-life cases that might have baffled even the great Sherlock Holmes.
The complete story behind the groundbreaking film Rebel Without a Cause is vividly revealed in this fascinating book as provocative as the film itself. The revolutionary film Rebel Without a Cause has had a profound impact on both moviemaking and youth culture since its 1955 release, virtually giving birth to our concept of the American teenager. And the making of the movie was just as explosive for those involved. Against a backdrop of the Atomic Age and an old Hollywood studio system on the verge of collapse, four of Hollywood's most passionate artists had a cataclysmic and immensely influential meeting. James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, and director Nicholas Ray were each at a crucial point in their careers. The young actors were grappling with their fame, burgeoning sexuality, and increasingly reckless behavior, and their on- and off-set relationships ignited as they engaged in Ray’s vision of physical melees and psychosexual seductions of startling intensity. Through interviews with the surviving members of the cast and crew and firsthand access to both personal and studio archives, the authors reveal Rebel's true drama: the director’s affair with sixteen-year-old Wood, his tempestuous “spiritual marriage” with Dean, and his role in awakening the latent sexuality of Mineo, who would become the first gay teenager to appear on film. This searing account of the upheaval the four artists experienced in the wake of Rebel is complete with thirty photographs, including ten never-before-seen photos by famed Dean photographer Dennis Stock.
The very strange but nevertheless true story of the dark underbelly of a 1960s hippie utopia. Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and early 1970s was a magical place where a dizzying array of musical artists congregated to create much of the music that provided the soundtrack to those turbulent times. Members of bands like the Byrds, the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, the Monkees, the Beach Boys, the Turtles, the Eagles, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Steppenwolf, CSN, Three Dog Night and Love, along with such singer/songwriters as Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, James Taylor and Carole King, lived together and jammed together in the bucolic community nestled in the Hollywood Hills. But there was a dark side to that scene as well. Many didn’t make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery to this day. Far more integrated into the scene than most would like to admit was a guy by the name of Charles Manson, along with his murderous entourage. Also floating about the periphery were various political operatives, up-and-coming politicians and intelligence personnel – the same sort of people who gave birth to many of the rock stars populating the canyon. And all the canyon’s colorful characters – rock stars, hippies, murderers and politicos – happily coexisted alongside a covert military installation.
When Kathy Boudin was arrested in 1981 after a botched armed robbery and shootout that left a Brinks guard and two policemen dead, she ended a decade living underground as part of the radical Weathermen underground; she would spend the next 22 years in Bedford Hills prison. In Family Circle, Boudin’s former classmate Susan Braudy vividly re-creates the radicalization of this intelligent, privileged young woman who came from one of the most prominent liberal intellectual families in America. She illuminates Boudin’s relationship with her parents --and particularly with her father Leonard, a famous leftist lawyer--and shows how Kathy, swept up in the ferment of the late 1960s, moved further and further from the Old Left ideals they embodied. Based on extensive interviews, court documents, and Boudin family papers,Family Circle is both a rich biography of a family and a intimate window into a turbulent and fascinating time.
When Columbo hit the airwaves in 1971, in quickly became the hottest TV detective series of the decade. Series creators Richard Levinson and William Link received an Emmy Award for their work; Peter Falk received three. The Columbo Phile offers fascinating behind-the-scenes information about the creation of the character, the writing of the devious mystery plots, and the altercations between perfectionist Peter Falk and the bottom-line concerns of Universal Studios. Originally published in 1989 and long out-of-print, this 30th Anniversary Edition of the essential Columbo book features a new preface by author Mark Dawidziak, an overview of post-1989 Columbo developments, including the twenty-four new ABC mysteries, and a personal remembrance of Peter Falk. It remains today the definitive guide to the rumpled Lieutenant Columbo and his career.
