#judygarland

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Jim Mahoney, Renowned Hollywood Press Agent

About Harvey's guest:

If you’re a fan of the golden age of Hollywood, this episode of our show is most definitely for you.  For over 30 years our guest, Jim Mahoney, was one of Hollywood’s most successful, respected and sought after press agents in show business history.  

At the age of 19, he was hired by Howard Strickling, head of publicity at MGM studios, and was assigned to the legendary Clark Gable.   In those final years of MGM’s heyday, he also handled publicity for other stars including Debbie Reynolds, Ann Blyth, Howard Keele and Roger Moore.  

Then, after a stint with the iconic syndicated newspaper columnist, Harrison Carroll, at the Los Angeles Herald Express, he became a publicist at the prestigious firm of Rogers and Cowan in Hollywood.  And after 3 years, he opened his own immensely successful entertainment public relations business, where he acquired the most prestigious list of legendary clients in show business history, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Wagner, Peggy Lee, Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott, Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, Johnny Carson – and believe me, I’m just scratching the surface.  

And when business partner Paul Wasserman joined the firm, they became THE premiere representatives for the greatest music acts of all time, including The Rolling Stones, U2, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Glen Campbell and dozens more.  Over the years he developed close friendships with many of his superstar clients, and he worked night and day managing their mercurial and fragile egos, keeping their secrets, suppressing their outrageous and scandalous behaviours, and pulling out all the stops to preserve their all-important public image.  

He quickly became an expert not only in communications and media relations, but crisis management.  

And NOW he’s written a highly compelling, entertaining and incredibly eye-opening book entitled “Get Mahoney:  A Hollywood Insider’s Memoir”, in which he FINALLY tells many of the stories that he’s kept close to the vest all these years.   The book provides a unique perspective on the history of Hollywood, and some of its most notorious characters and events.  I absolutely loved this book and could not put down until the very last page.  

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

To see more about Jim Mahoney, go to:

https://getmahoney.com/

https://www.facebook.com/people/Get-Mahoney/

https://www.instagram.com/jimmahoneypr

#JimMahoney   #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with David Fantle & Tom Johnson, Authors, “C’mon, Get Happy: The Making of Summer Stock”

About Harvey's guest:

Today’s guests,  David Fantle & Tom Johnson, are co-authors who last appeared on our show to discuss their landmark book entitled, “Hollywood Heyday: 75 Candid Interviews with Golden Age Legends”.   The interviews contained in that book were conducted when our guests were mere teenagers living in Minnesota, visiting Hollywood in the hopes of meeting movie stars.  And boy, did they ever!  

Since then, our guests have gone on to have distinguished careers.   David Fantle has been interviewing, writing, and speaking about Hollywood’s Golden Age stars for 45 years, and he’s an adjunct professor of film at Marquette University.  Tom Johnson is a former senior editor at Netflix, and he’s written movie reviews and features for many publications including E! Online, Movie-phone, and People magazine. His writing has been recognized with a Minnesota Newspaper Association achievement award and a National Hearst Foundation award.  

They’re here today to discuss their brand new book entitled, “C’mon, Get Happy: The Making of Summer Stock”.   This well-researched and illuminating book chronicles how Judy Garland’s last MGM movie, and her 3rd and final film with co-star Gene Kelly, was conceived, cast and filmed, despite the troubled atmosphere of drama and heartache, and the sometimes overwhelming obstacles and challenges surrounding the production.  

The book is jam-packed with little-known and newly uncovered details about the people in front of and behind the cameras, and it examines the enduring legacy of the movie, including some fascinating insights provided by Judy Garland’s daughter Lorna Luft, Gene Kelly’s daughter Kerry Kelly Novick, and other celebrities including Savion Glover, Ben Vereen, Tommy Tune and Michael Finestine.   

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

To see more about David Fantle and Tom Johnson, go to:

https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/C/C-mon-Get-Happy

#DavidFantle  #TomJohnson #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with George Schlatter, Legendary Television Producer, Director And Writer 

About Harvey's guest: 

Today’s special guest, George Schlatter, is a legendary television producer, director and writer whose body of work is nothing short of jaw-dropping.    

For over 5 decades, he’s brought us some of the greatest television variety series and specials ever made.  He produced the Judy Garland Show, the Dinah Shore Chevy Show, the Cher show, and of course, his groundbreaking TV series, “Laugh-In”, which won him 3 Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe nomination.  AND he gave us television’s first reality show, “Real People”.   

He produced the first 5 years of the Grammy Awards, and dozens of TV specials with the greatest stars, including Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Lucille Ball, Elton John, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Shirley MacLaine, Diana Ross, and scores of others.   He won his 3rd Emmy award for producing Sammy Davis Jr’s 60th Anniversary Celebration.  In 1987 he created – and for 15 years he produced – the American Comedy Awards.   

He’s received every honour imaginable, including 25 Emmy Award nominations, 3 Emmys, 3 Image Awards, the Television Critics Award, the Directors Guild Award, the Producers Guild “Man of The Year,” an honourary doctorate from Pepperdine University - and believe me, I’m just scratching the surface. On its 25th Anniversary, the Television Academy honored him for his outstanding contribution to television.  And in 1989, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.   

And later this year he’ll be releasing his highly anticipated book entitled, “Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy From the Creator of Laugh-in”.  And a documentary feature film about his life and career is being produced as we speak. 

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/ 

https://www.georgeschlatter.com/
http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.georgeschlatter.com%2F
http://twitter.com/intent/tweet/?text=Welcome+to+the+George+Schlatter+Official+Website&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.georgeschlatter.com%2F

#GeorgeSchlatter  #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Rich Little, Legendary Impressionist, “The Man of a Thousand Voices” 

About Harvey's guest: 

Today’s special guest, Rich Little, is an iconic star who’s been entertaining us for over 60 years with his incredibly accurate impersonations of celebrities and politicians.   He’s dazzled us with his uncanny ability to channel everyone from Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne to Cary Grant, Jack Nicholson, Truman Capote, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, and dozens more - even Dr. Ruth, Carol Channing, Julia Child and Kermit the Frog.   

He’s perfected the voices of every US president since President Kennedy, and last year, he got rave reviews for his astounding portrayal on the New York stage of Richard Nixon, in George Bugatti’s brilliant play, “Trial on the Potomac — The Impeachment of Richard Nixon”.    

Our guest has appeared on hundreds of TV shows including Jackie Gleason, Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, Laugh-in, The Lucy Show, The Tonight Show, Hollywood Squares, and dozens more.   He’s recorded 9 comedy albums.  He had his own TV variety show, and was the star of “KopyKats”, AND he’s starred in 3 HBO specials.   

And who can ever forget the Emmy-award winning special, “Rich Little’s Christmas Carol”, which was a tour-de-force one-man show, with our guest portraying W.C. Fields as Scrooge, Humphrey Bogart as one of the ghosts, and Paul Lynde as Bob Cratchit.   

This year he released a newly updated version of his fabulous book, entitled, “Rich Little:  People I’ve Known and Been”, with all proceeds going to benefit veterans, through the Gary Sinise Foundation.   

He’s won too many awards to mention, and he’s the only celebrity to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Palm Springs Walk of Fame, the Las Vegas Walk of Fame, and the Canadian Walk of Fame in Toronto.    

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/ 

https://therichlittle.com/

https://www.facebook.com/therichlittle

https://twitter.com/the_rich_little

https://www.yelp.com/biz/rich-little-productions-las-vegas

http://therichlittle.com/rlstore/product-category/books/ 

#RichLittle   #TheRichLittle   #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Mel Tormé’s Son, Steve March-Tormé, Singer / Songwriter

About Harvey's guest:

Steve was born in New York City to the multi-talented Mel Tormé and the former model/actress, Candy Tockstein. They were divorced when Steve was young, and Candy married Hal March, an actor/comedian best known as the host of NBC-TV’s The $64,000 Question Show, but who also starred on Broadway in Neil Simon’s Come Blow Your Horn. An avid baseball player and fan growing up in Westchester County, N.Y., Steve's dream was to play for the Yankees. He was a devoted fan who listened to games on the radio in the basement of his family home. Following every game, he’d switch to the Top 40 music stations and sing along with such artists as The Four Seasons, Nat King Cole, The Temptations, Ricky Nelson, and Gene Pitney. With his natural ear for harmonies, his favorite quickly became and remains The Beatles. By the age of 12, he knew that he wanted to be a performer, and at 13 he earned his first paycheck fronting his own band. After his family moved to Beverly Hills, he continued to develop as a musician and his influences grew to include Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Todd Rundgren, and Steely Dan.

Steve recorded his first LP, Lucky, for United Artists Records, supporting it with a 20-city, national concert tour. Upon returning to California, he produced and sang on Liza Minnelli’s Columbia Records release Tropical Nights, which became a favorite of New York dance clubs.

He spent three years as the featured vocalist on ABC-TV’s $100,000 Name That Tune and also hosted two Los Angeles-based television shows, Video 22 (a precursor to MTV) and Box Office America.

Steve’s first solo project after Full Swing was his CD Swingin’ at the Blue Moon Bar & Grille, recorded with a crackerjack big band. It also features a duet between Steve and Mel (“Straighten Up and Fly Right”) and showcases an improvised scat lesson between father and son. That disc was followed up by The Night I Fell For You, featuring an alluring arrangement of the Lerner & Loewe classic “On the Street Where You Live,” and a number of Steve’s original tunes, many penned with longtime collaborator, pianist and musical conductor Steve Rawlins. Those two releases were followed up by The Essence of Love, a collection of some of the most romantic, well-crafted standards ever written, including “Blue Skies,” “Stardust,” “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” and a playful duet with jazz icon Diane Schuur on “The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else.” His current jazz CD, So Far (on iTunes, cdbaby.com, and amazon.com), combines the most popular material from his first three CDs into one “best of” recording.

Steve’s latest CD, Inside/Out, goes back to his roots as a singer/songwriter, words and music written by Steve, on which he not only sings but plays keyboards and guitar. 

Because a natural interest exists in hearing Steve sing the songs his dad was known for, he did a 28-city cross-country tour for Columbia Artists Mgt. Inc. (CAMI) entitled Tormé Sings Tormé. Steve is proud to have had the opportunity to pay tribute to his father in a show featuring a ten-piece band playing the extraordinary arrangements penned by Marty Paich exclusively for Mel and including a multimedia presentation of photos and video clips. 

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

https://www.stevemarchtorme.com/
https://facebook.com/stevemarchtorme
https://twitter.com/stevemarchtorme
https://instagram.com/stevemarchtorme

#SteveMarchTorme  #MelTorme  #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Ray Klausen, Legendary, Emmy Award Winning Hollywood Production Designer & Art Director & Author of “Behind the Scenes: Hollywood to Broadway”.

About Harvey's guest:

Ray Klausen is one of the most renowned and respected men behind the scenes in Hollywood and on Broadway.  His sparkling career as a production designer and art director spanned over half a century.  He worked on over 400 television shows, including the most iconic shows of our generation, with the biggest stars including everyone from Bing Crosby to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Elvis, Cher, Madonna and countless others.  He designed 10 Academy Awards shows, 27 American Music Awards, 10 American Film Institute tribute shows, and 7 Miss America Pageants, earning 3 Emmy awards and 8 Emmy nominations.  He designed the sets for 9 Broadway shows featuring legends like Bea Arthur, James Earl Jones, Lauren Bacall and Liza Minnelli.  He’s here to discuss his fascinating new book, entitled “Behind the Scenes: Hollywood to Broadway”. 

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

http://rayklausen.com/

https://www.emmys.com/bios/ray-klausen

#RayKlausen  #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth Interview with Author and Judy Garland Expert John Fricke.  An absolute MUST for every Judy Garland fan!
 For more interviews and podcasts go to https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com