Gavin Lambert

Goodby People

First published in 1971, The Goodby People is perhaps the greatest novel ever written about post-Manson, pre-Disney Los Angeles. "His elegant, stripped-down prose caught the last gasp of Old Hollywood in a way that has yet to be rivalled." (Armistead Maupin) "The bisexual draft dodger living on the skids, the glamorous young widow in search of enlightenment, the skinny gamine from out of town who wants to make it in the movies . . ."* These are the people who inhabit Gavin Lambert's mordant portrait of Southern California at the end of the 1960s: forever swapping addresses, lovers, and dreams. They live in extraordinary, suffocating wealth; or else flirting with a Mansonesque cult; or else in a fantasy where golden-age actresses make ghostly visitations to comment on their daily life. All that binds them together is their common sense of aimlessness--and the clear, judgment-free eye of a British author trying his best to be a friend to each. Cool, incisive, yet essentially kind, and very much ahead of its time, The Goodby People unfolds "in the yawning chasm between real life in Los Angeles and the fantasies manufactured by its dominant business" (*Gary Indiana), and stands as Gavin Lambert's masterpiece.

The Goodby People

Long before the term Generation X was coined, Gavin Lambert captured the seedy landscape of Los Angeles in absolute moral and physical decay. The Goodbye People is a danse macabre, with a group of ill-assorted people who are ?always changing their addresses and phone numbers as well as their lives?. In an atmosphere of self-indulgence, blight and emptiness, they revolve around one another weaving together their dreams and nightmares to create a complex pattern of despair. The beautiful people who populate Lambert's novel are both the very rich and the very poor: what intrinsically links them is an all-pervading sense of aimlessness. First published in 1971, The Goodbye People is an enduring classic, and one of the most incisive takes on Hollywood ever written. With The Slide Area, Inside Daisy Clover and Running Time, The Goodbye People forms a revelatory ?Hollywood Quartet? of lives in one of the most extraordinary cities in the world.

The Goodbye People

Draws on the author's twenty-year friendship with the acclaimed actress, as well as interviews with family and intimates, to chronicle her life, from child actress to her tragic drowning death at the age of forty-three.

A Life

Natalie Wood

America watched Natalie Wood grow up on the silver screen. Her childhood is still there to see in Miracle on 34th Street. Her adolescence in Rebel Without a Cause. Her coming of age? Still playing in Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story and countless other timeless movies. From the moment Natalie Wood made her cinematic debut in 1946 in Tomorrow Is Forever, to her shocking, untimely death in 1981, the decades of her life are punctuated by movies that even today, reside in the hearts and imagination of the American public. Acclaimed novelist, biographer, critic and screenwriter Gavin Lambert, whose twenty-year friendship with Natalie Wood began when she starred in the movie adaptation of his novel Inside Daisy Clover, recounts her extraordinary story. He relays to us details about her personal life, from her love affairs to her suicide attempt at twenty-six, the birth of her children to her friendships, her struggles as an actress to finally, her tragic and mysterious death at the age of forty-three. For the first time, everyone who was close to Natalie Wood speaks freely -- including her husbands, Robert Wagner and Richard Gregson, famously private people like Warren Beatty, intimate friends such as playwright Mart Crowley, directors Robert Mulligan and Paul Mazursky, and Leslie Caron, each of whom told the author stories about this remarkable woman who was so full of life but always on the brink of despair.

Drawing on the reminiscences of friends and colleagues, as well as on private archives, this evocative portrait of the great Hollywood star captures the triumphant film career and tragic private life of Norma Shearer

Norma Shearer

The Dangerous Edge

In the Night All Cats are Grey

She spent her life in the movies. Her childhood is still there to see in Miracle on 34th Street. Her adolescence in Rebel Without a Cause. Her coming of age? Still playing in Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story and countless other hit movies. From the moment Natalie Wood made her debut in 1946, playing Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles's ward in Tomorrow Is Forever at the age of seven, to her shocking, untimely death in 1981, the decades of her life are marked by movies thatfor their momentssummed up America's dreams. Now the acclaimed novelist, biographer, critic and screenwriter Gavin Lambert, whose twenty-year friendship with Natalie Wood began when she wanted to star in the movie adaptation of his novel Inside Daisy Clover, tells her extraordinary story. He writes about her parents, uncovering secrets that Natalie either didn't know or kept hidden from those closest to her. Here is the young Natalie, from her years as a child actress at the mercy of a driven, controlling stage mother ("Make Mr. Pichel love you," she whispered to the five-year-old Natalie before depositing her unexpectedly on the director's lap), to her awkward adolescence when, suddenly too old for kiddie roles, she was shunted aside, just another freshman at Van Nuys High. Lambert shows us the glamorous movie star in her twentiesAll the Fine Young Cannibals, Gypsy and Love with the Proper Stranger. He writes about her marriages, her divorces, her love affairs, her suicide attempt at twenty-six, the birth of her children, her friendships, her struggles as an actress and her tragic death by drowning (she was always terrified of water) at forty-three. For the first time, everyone who knew Natalie Wood speaks freelyincluding her husbands Robert Wagner and Richard Gregson, famously private people like Warren Beatty, intimate friends such as playwright Mart Crowley, directors Robert Mulligan and Paul Mazursky, and Leslie Caron, each of whom told the author stories about this remarkable woman who was both life-loving and filled with despair. What we couldn't knowhave never been told beforeLambert perceptively uncovers. His book provides the richest portrait we have had of Natalie Wood.

On Cukor

In 1919, a young widow from Chicago arrives in Hollywood with almost no money but unlimited ambition. She?s determined to make her seven year-old daughter the greatest movie star of them all. From child starlet to screen goddess, this is the story of the meteoric rise of Baby Jewel. Propelled through the star system by her glamorous, calculating mother Elva, Baby?s life unrolls in spools of celluloid. Running Time blends fictional characters with a historical cast of thousands, including DW Griffith, Theda Bara, Louis B Mayer, Bugsy Siegel, Howard Hughes, Errol Flynn, Hedda Hopper, WR Hearst and Marion Davies.

Running Time

The land along Pacific Palisades is apt to slip away without warning, hence the road-side signs - SLIDE AREA. Narrated by a script-writer, Lambert's widely-acclaimed 1959 Hollywood classic of lonely souls marooned on a glittering wasteland is a perceptive and sensitive study of human emotion.

Scenes of Hollywood Life

The Slide Area

Ook aanwezig: Repr.- Harmondsworth : Penguin Books [etc.], 1963. - 232 p. ; 18 cm.

She spent her life in the movies. Her childhood is still there to see in Miracle on 34th Street. Her adolescence in Rebel Without a Cause. Her coming of age? Still playing in Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story and countless other hit movies. From the moment Natalie Wood made her debut in 1946, playing Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles’s ward in Tomorrow Is Forever at the age of seven, to her shocking, untimely death in 1981, the decades of her life are marked by movies that–for their moments–summed up America’s dreams. Now the acclaimed novelist, biographer, critic and screenwriter Gavin Lambert, whose twenty-year friendship with Natalie Wood began when she wanted to star in the movie adaptation of his novel Inside Daisy Clover, tells her extraordinary story. He writes about her parents, uncovering secrets that Natalie either didn’t know or kept hidden from those closest to her. Here is the young Natalie, from her years as a child actress at the mercy of a driven, controlling stage mother (“Make Mr. Pichel love you,” she whispered to the five-year-old Natalie before depositing her unexpectedly on the director’s lap), to her awkward adolescence when, suddenly too old for kiddie roles, she was shunted aside, just another freshman at Van Nuys High. Lambert shows us the glamorous movie star in her twenties—All the Fine Young Cannibals, Gypsy and Love with the Proper Stranger. He writes about her marriages, her divorces, her love affairs, her suicide attempt at twenty-six, the birth of her children, her friendships, her struggles as an actress and her tragic death by drowning (she was always terrified of water) at forty-three. For the first time, everyone who knew Natalie Wood speaks freely–including her husbands Robert Wagner and Richard Gregson, famously private people like Warren Beatty, intimate friends such as playwright Mart Crowley, directors Robert Mulligan and Paul Mazursky, and Leslie Caron, each of whom told the author stories about this remarkable woman who was both life-loving and filled with despair. What we couldn’t know–have never been told before–Lambert perceptively uncovers. His book provides the richest portrait we have had of Natalie Wood.

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden: Screenplay

Lewis John Carlino

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

The Hollywood camp classic which re-launches the work of Gavin Lambert with Midnight Classics.

Inside Daisy Clover

Paul Starr

Linda Wells

One of the world's most sought-after makeup artists combines original and revealing interviews with stunning photographs of his makeup creations on thirty of today's most distinctive sirens, providing a separate how-to section with step-by-step instructions to achieve the featured looks. 100,000 first printing. $125,000 ad/promo.

Conversations with Thirty Celebrated Women

Paul Starr on Beauty

Presents a close-up portrait of British filmmaker and theatrical director Lindsay Anderson, based on the author's half-century friendship, set against the backdrop of postwar filmmaking on both sides of the Atlantic. 12,500 first printing.

Gavin Lambert

About

Books

Join the club