Name: The Kid Stays in the Picture
Rating: 4.5 (6 reviews)
ISBN: 9780571219315

Robert Evans

"'It's the wildest, most profane, most ridiculously riveting movie memoir ever!' - Newsweek"

The Kid Stays in the Picture

rumbledethumps

"There are three sides to every story: yours... mine... and the truth. No one is lying."

This is from the first line of the preface to this book, and it is completely appropriate. Evans recalls his 35 years in Hollywood, and definitely only tells his side.

There were times when I hated this guy, and times when I loved him. But that is true of any honest memoir, and this is unlike any memoir I've ever read. There is no self-reflection-leading-to-redemption. It is all about him never changing who he is, and acknowledging that he is not always a decent person, but damned if he's going to change. He owns up to his mistakes, but refuses to change in order to avoid them in the future.

There are times when he could have used a better editor to make a better overall narrative, and not just strung along one story after another, but his audacity and his insight into Hollywood alone make this book worth the read.

Robert Evans's The Kid Stays in the Picture is universally recognized as the greatest, most outrageous, most unforgettable show business memoir ever written. The basis of a groundbreaking, award-winning documentary film, it remains the gold standard of Hollywood storytelling. The only actor ever to run a Hollywood studio, Evans emerged from near-obscurity in the mid-1960s to rescue Paramount, one of the great studios of the Golden Age, from near-bankruptcy. A self-confessed "half-assed actor," Evans proved a genius producer and studio chief, drawing on his irresistible combination of instinct, smarts, showmanship, and bravado to take Paramount from the basement to the penthouse with such films as The Odd Couple, Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, The Godfather, and Chinatown. He lived a swashbuckling life, partying with lifetime friends like Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, and Dustin Hoffman, consulting with power players like Henry Kissinger, and squiring a host of dazzling women including his wives Ali McGraw, Catherine Oxenberg, and Phyllis George. After a decade of triumph, he lost everything in a spectacular flameout of cocaine and bad business decisions, yet survived it all—and lived to tell the tale. An extraordinary raconteur, Evans spares no one, least of all himself. Filled with starring roles for everyone from Ava Gardner to Marlon Brando to Sharon Stone, The Kid Stays in the Picture is sharp, witty, and self-aggrandizing and self-lacerating in equal measure. This new It Books edition, the first in more than a decade, will feature a new foreword by the author. And simultaneous with this edition will come a first-ever ebook rollout—including both a regular edition and an enhanced ebook with clips from Evans's celebrated, Grammy-nominated audiobook and the famous 2002 documentary.

A Notorious Life

Andrew Molina

How does someone live a life like this? Fascinating to read. The entire time, there was a tiny voice in my head whispering, "50% of this has gotta be bullshit." Even so, the other 50 would still be insane! And both are written in a unique and riveting voice. Hard to our down, just for the sheer shock of it.

The motion picture producer describes his early career as an actor, liasons with actresses, rise to powerful studio executive, time in a mental institution, drug use, loss of status in Hollywood, and rise back to power.

The Kid Stays in the Picture

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