Our Lady of Dreams: A Prophecy for the New Age

I read it over a period of two days and found it very hard to put down. The essays on each star were fairly short, but they gave an insight into their lives off the movie screen and out of the pages of the fan magazines. More of a "where are they now..." kind of book. I have a touch of envy too. I would have loved to have done what David & Tom did - travelling to Hollywood in the summer to interview stars of the Hollywood golden age. I have a keen interest of what went on behind the scenes & afterwards, almost as much as the finished products themselves.

Reel To Real is an anthology of celebrity interviews featuring big names in entertainment from vaudeville to movies and TV. Various interviews take place in different years, spanning 25 years total. The Featured individuals include Harry Delmar, Fred Astaire, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, George Burns, William Shatner, Mel Blanc, Mel Brooks, and many more. Each interview has a down-to-earth tone and offers plain-terms insight into the business of bright lights and mass-media, from celebrities' reactions to government cutting of arts funding to the simple trials and tribulations of growing up and striving to make it big. An inset collection of black-and-white photographs of the interviewees rounds out this engaging slice of the stage and silver screen life.

Reel to Real is a history of 20th century entertainment. If you're a film buff and appreciate the "Golden Age" of Hollywood, the interviews in this book are for you. The Frank Capra chapter is funny and informative. Spencer Tracy's story about Hemingway is amazing. And Milton Berle talking about dressing in drag for the first time is a real hoot. I couldn't put this down!

For anyone who loves candid, facinating anecdotes about the way Hollywood used to be....from the stars and directors who were there and made history, this book puts it up front. It contains tons of information that I have never heard about before. For instance, I never knew Frank Capra gave Irving Berlin the idea for the musical "Holiday Inn" staring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. I always thought that Berlin came up with the idea himself. The Lucille Ball interview was also very cool as were many others.The pictures really rock. I especially loved the Milton Berle gag photo where he poses with a cigar sticking out like a bucktooth beaver......and what's with songwriter Sammy Cahn posing sans shirt? Bizarre!The interviews are often very funny and sometimes border on the irreverent, so this isn't some kitchy Hollywood cream-puff book. Yet, though it all, you can tell that Fantle and Johnson have deep admiration and respect for the clasic stars they interview.

The year was 1974 and "That's Entertainment," the compilation film of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio's most wondrous musical moments had just opened wide at theaters nationwide. For David Fantle and Tom Johnson, two St. Paul, Minnesota teenagers, it was a galvanizing experience. When "That's Entertainment" opened, their interest in the movies and the stars that were in them was piqued. Not only did they become film buffs, but in 1978, just liberated from high school, they made their first trip to Los Angeles to interview Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and George Burns. The celebrity floodgates opened. The pair began publishing their interviews in the Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota newspaper and have interviewed more than 200 celebrities the past 25 years for publications throughout the world. Reel to Real: 25 years of celebrity profiles from vaudeville to movies to TV represents the authors 60 "best" interviews with such legendary names as Astaire, Kelly, Burns, James Cagney, Lucille Ball, Gregory Peck, Bob Hope, Charlton Heston and Frank Capra. The book also features forewords by Cyd Charisse and Shirley Jones and 24-pages of rare and candid celebrity shots, most taken by the authors.