— Tina
Archive for 2010
A Woman to Die For – Reviewed by Tommy Garrett – Canyon News
18
Jan
“A Woman To Die For,” A Story Worth Reading
Posted by Tommy Garrett on Jan 17, 2010 – 12:20:22 AM
SANTA MONICA —British born author Steve (aka: Ivan) Hayes first arrived in Hollywood in the late 1940s and moved here permanently in 1950. Once an actor, he helped support himself by parking cars at some of Hollywood’s most glamorous and well-known hot spots on the Sunset Strip. He became friends during that time with legends such as, Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Errol Flynn and Marilyn Monroe to name a few. In 1955 the handsome actor started writing and has now completed not only books, but movies and scripts produced and aired on TV.
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I recently had the great opportunity to enjoy his latest fictional work, “A Woman To Die For,” which was published by the esteemed publishing house Bear Manor. The book’s protagonist Mitch Holliday is a down on his luck investigator who after being framed for money laundering is quickly lowered to helping his P.I. partner, Lionel Banks to search for and find a young lady named Lila Hendricks. Mitch soon finds himself lured into even more action and troubles while on the case.
Mitch crosses paths with the rich and famous and the ordinary criminal and is tempted and after years of being in the private investigation business he is not sure where his life and career are going. All the while, Lila Hendricks remains his focus and immediately the story takes a turn once several tragedies culminate into what has become Mitch’s dysfunctional life and career.
Whenever Steve Hayes writes a book, you can expect it to move at a warp pace, but not difficult to keep up with. His stories move more like movies and television shows than the ordinary novel. Though Hayes is far from ordinary and this latest page turner entices the reader to take a chance and within a few dozen pages, you won’t be able to put the book down.
Being a part of the end of the Hollywood golden age himself, this book as well as all of Steve Hayes’s works are peppered with references to the classic noir era of films and unlike many who have to research this era, Hayes lived it, saw it first hand and witnessed some of the very things he writes so eloquently about in this book.
Next week, Canyon News tackles his novel “Viva Gringo!” Though I give this book my approval, it’s surely a very concise story filled to the brim and running over with excitement, splendor and all things Hollywood.
— David DeWitt
Director Vincent Sherman
17
Jan
Director Vincent Sherman
(July 16, 1906 – June 18, 2006)
Vincent Sherman was born Abe Orovitz in Vienna, Georgia in 1906. With the South just four decades removed from the Reconstruction period, it was an incongruous location for the son of a Jewish dry-goods salesman to grow up. Sherman later described the theoretical distance between Vienna, Georgia and Hollywood, California as considerably, more than the actual two thousand miles
After graduating from Oglethorpe University, Sherman went to New York to sell a play and then hustled to become a stage actor, got married and ended up going to Hollywood in 1933 to try the movies. He made his screen debut in Counselor at Law alongside John Barrymore, but there were no follow-on roles so he returned to stage work, directing and writing as well as acting.
After touring in the stage play “Dead End”, Sherman returned to Hollywood for good in 1937. This time he landed the ubiquitous seven-year contract with Warner Brothers under producer Bryan Foy.
During his long and successful carrier, he directed many of Hollywood’s great stars like, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth, Miriam Hopkins,Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, and Humphrey Bogart, Lee J. Cobb, Glenn Ford, Errol Flynn, Paul Newman, and most likely many others.
He was a good friend of actor Errol Flynn, whom he directed in “Adventures of Don Juan” (1949).
Vincent Sherman was married to Hedda for 53 years, who died.1984 and they had one son and one daughter.
Son: Eric Sherman
Daughter: Hedwin Naimark
Girlfriend: Francine York (companion for 9 years, until his death)
Vincent Sherman’s son is documentary film producer Eric Sherman.
Trivia:
Warner told the embryonic director: “I’m giving you this guy Bogart and for God’s sake, see if you can get him to play something besides Duke Mantee!” Bogart then a Warner Brothers contract player in his fourth year at the studio, Humphrey Bogart accepted the hokey part without complaint, and the film became a profitable if improbable success and with it a start to Bogart’s star carrier.
Mistress: Bette Davis (actress, on-set extramarital affair 1943-44)
Mistress: Rita Hayworth (actress, on-set affair, during “Affair in Trinidad” 1952)
Mistress: Joan Crawford (actress, on-set affair during 3 films)
— Tina
The Titchfield Hotel, Part III Additional photos
17
Jan
Dear Errol Fans,
Here are a few more pics for your viewing pleasure. As always, I hope you enjoy them.
John
— john
