During his three decades as a popular character actor on television, film and the stage, Paul Lynde's arch and bitchy wit snuck regular doses of the queer world into that bastion of intolerance: the American living room. Paul showed mainstream viewers that a gay man could deliver jokes, not just be the butt of them. In doing so, he helped make homosexuality more palatable to unwitting viewers who simply saw him as a stylish, funny man. Biographers Steve Wilson and Joe Florenski reveal the true story not only about Paul's life, but also his mysterious and controversial death.
This book will let you into the heart and soul of Paul Lynde. Best remembered for outrageous jokes on The Hollywood Squares, as Uncle Arthur from Bewitched, and as the frantic father in Bye Bye Birdie, Paul was never satisfied with his career - or his personal life. But even as he suffered through some of the cruelest of times, Paul continued to make us forget our troubles, and was forever gracious to his fans. This is the book those fans have been waiting for. Though he was one of the most original, hilarious, and private actor-comedians of all time, author Cathy Rudolph, his trusted friend, reveals her adventures with Paul - along with his turbulent life story. Here for the first time are interviews with his relatives, personal notes, and never-before-published photos. Also included are memories from his friends and peers including Cloris Leachman, Chita Rivera, Florence Henderson, Kaye Ballard, Peter Marshall, Les Roberts, Betty White, and many more. I've been saying for forty years that Paul Lynde could deliver a punch line better than any other comedian. I look forward to having the book on my library shelf. - Les Roberts, novelist and first producer and head writer of the original Hollywood Squares. "A Loving Tribute to a Funny Man." - Portland Book Review
Three interlaced stories filled with music, murder, fire and fraud - erratically controlled by a narrator - comprise Scrundle: A Historical Novel.In 1348, as the Black Death spreads in Europe, musicians, who play a massive instrument called the Scrundle, are caught between two feuding barons. One captures them and the other burns the instrument on the advice of a peasant, who believes it to be a symbol of pestilence and religious corruption. Two musicians escape to tell the tale in a manuscript, or MS. One baron is banished for the destruction, while the other?s widow builds Scrundle Hall in Cambridge, bequeathing the MS to the College.In 1659, Joshua Mayne, descendent of the banished baron and a Fellow of the College, plans to translate the MS, and recreate the instrument. Ejected for heretical beliefs, he murders the College librarian, steals the MS, and covers his tracks by setting fire to the College. He escapes to his family home, where his unpolished translation remains in the family library.By 2000, the last of the Mayne family has refounded the College and intends to bequeath the family library to it. A musicology Fellow steals the Scrundle MS and other valuable items prior to cataloguing. Meanwhile, a television archaeological team has been invited to excavate the College foundations. It arrives when the library is finally delivered, unearths the bones of the murdered librarian, and tries to explain the original fire, even as another is about to ignite.
