Ponies Rainbows The Life of James Kirkwood eBook Sean Egan
Download As PDF : Ponies Rainbows The Life of James Kirkwood eBook Sean Egan 
James Kirkwood is the forgotten man of American letters In 1975, he had two shows playing on Broadway, while his latest novel Some Kind of Hero saw reviewers comparing him to Saul Bellow and Joseph Heller. One of those shows - A Chorus Line - won him a Pulitzer Prize for his co-writing contribution and went on to become the biggest stage phenomenon in history. Yet today his work is largely out of print and his name rarely mentioned. Kirkwood led a life that was as gripping as any of his novels or plays. The son of silent screen stars, he grew up in Hollywood surrounded by celebrities and opulence before his parents went broke. His childhood was littered with trauma, including finding the dead body of his mother's fiancé when he was twelve. Before writing, his professional life encompassed the coast guard, stand-up comedy and soap opera acting. His private life was equally varied, involving loving sexual relationships with both men and women. Sean Egan - author of seventeen books - took over seven years to write this definitive biography, interviewing more than sixty of Kirkwood's family, lovers, colleagues, friends and adversaries in the process. In a sweeping narrative that takes in Hollywood in the Twenties, the boom era of New York nightclubs in the Forties and the Eighties AIDS holocaust, Ponies & Rainbows both details a remarkable life and seeks to re-establish an even more remarkable talent.
Ponies Rainbows The Life of James Kirkwood eBook Sean Egan
Riveting true story of Kickwood's outrageous life, starting with his highly unusual — and in many aspects sad — childhood. Shows Kirkwood warts and all, which I suspect he would have approved. A Chorus Line of fun anecdotes and stories about theater people from stars to doormen. Other good reads include Kirkwood's own “Good Times/Bad Times” one of my favorite novels.Product details
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Ponies Rainbows The Life of James Kirkwood eBook Sean Egan Reviews
for anyone who enjoyed any of james kirkwood's works and are interested in this talented authors life - this book is for you. within 572 pages, with many photos, mr. kirkwood is under the microscope of author sean egan whose presentation of this somewhat complicated author is totally engrossing from start to finish.
kirkwood,the son of silent film stars james kirkwood sr. and lila lee (whose lives are also detailed within this book) endured a rocky, unusual childhood with incidents that stayed with him thruout his often turbulent life. all are brought forth in fine form by mr.
egan. the author leaves no stone unturned - his insights are indepth, gathered from 7 years of research and many interviews with those who knew and worked closely with the controversial writer. 'character' details from each of his novels & plays in comparison to kirkwood's own personal life are interestingly explained in detail.reviews of his works, his reactions to his critics and his opinionated letters to people he was upset with are all included.
kirkwood's own book, 'diary of a mad playwrite' tells the positive & negative happenings of his tour with his play 'legends' starring mary martin & carol channing. egan nicely details things not found in kirkwood's book.
from kirkwood's very funny sense of humor to his fits of rage - it's all here AND so much more in this long overdue biography. this is mr. egan's first biography & he justly deserves much praise and recognition for this remarkable 7 year effort. a 5 star read for those who enjoy a serious,indepth researched, well written biography. a detailed selected bibliography and index at the end adds to the books appeal.
Ponies & Rainbows The Life of James Kirkwood (Bear Manor Media, $32.95), a biography written by Sean Egan, has several things going for it. Primarily it is factual, insofar as the laws of libel and good taste demand. It's also infinitely, un-put-down-able reading (which is never a bad thing), and finally, it celebrates a man whose life should be celebrated.
(Parenthetically, there is another Kirkwood bio recently published. Purportedly by a friend of Kirkwood, it is so badly written as to be virtually impenetrable. Mercifully, I can't recall either the author or the title. That it was free on is the only excuse, and at that, it's much too expensive. It's the kind of book that makes one want to seek the author out and whack him with his word processor.)
Mr. Egan presents Kirkwood with all of his genius and foibles. A reasonably good playwright, actor, and librettist, he will be remembered as a brilliant author of light fiction, an art form which has all but disappeared, drowned in chic-lit and procedural clap-trap. Kirkwood's first book, There Must be a Pony!, is about a young boy getting a bag of horse manure for Christmas. Rather than tears, he beams, because he knows that if he got this, there must be a pony, somewhere. And this pretty must sums up Kirkwood's life---always knowing that regardless of what is happening now, happiness will, always and by necessity, follow.
Kirkwood was a celebrity who knew everyone, and who everyone loved. Despite a vicious temper that would surface like a bad storm and then just as suddenly disappear, he once walloped the be-Jesus out of his stand-up comic partner Lee Goodman. That they were in the middle of a performance made no difference to Kirkwood. He also decked Joe Papp at a very snooty and important party in NYC. Opinion is starkly divided on responsibility here, but, hey, there's got to be an award somewhere for decking a producer.
Kirkwood was a celebrity by right of birth. His father, James Kirkwood Senior, was an important stage and screen star, as was his mother, Lila Lee. He inherited his temper from his father, whose rages could be terrifying, and his sometimes odd behavior from his mother, to whom he dedicated one of his novels, To Lila, with Love and Shingles. Charles Chaplin entertained little Jimmy at parties, and a variety of household names claimed to have taken his virginity.
That he was ultimately felled by the curse of A Chorus Line, a show created and acted by young superstars on the stairway to success (and most of whom stumbled into oblivion young and fast), is possible, but since Kirkwood had had one hell of a life before the cursed musical, there may have been more ironic inevitability here than usual.
All of the great mid-century celebrities are here, and it's particularly apt Sean Egan, British by birth, is just the slightest bit put off by the outrageousness of some of the proceedings. As all great biographers do, he tries to report with as little editorializing as possible. However, when a fair amount of the book concerns the creation of A Chorus Line and a greater part concerns the futile attempt to bring to Broadway Legends, a fairly cynical play starring Carol Channing and Mary Martin and their respective entourages, a sense of Oz, Never Never Land and the West Village during the '70s takes over, a fantasy land that one looks back on with a smile and a shudder.
In the end, if you didn't know who Jimmy Kirkwood was when you pick this book up, you will love him when you finish reading it. After Kirkwood's death, it seems that all who knew him were angry because there would be no more notes, letters, novels, four a.m. phone calls and thoughtful little touches. Sean Egan brings all of these memories back.
This guy was fascinating. I liked the details and the back stories. Two of his books were classics.
Wonderful book on a fascinating man. Lots of great research and interviews. Great gossip and great reporting. Loved it. One of the best Bear Manor books of all time.
Riveting true story of Kickwood's outrageous life, starting with his highly unusual — and in many aspects sad — childhood. Shows Kirkwood warts and all, which I suspect he would have approved. A Chorus Line of fun anecdotes and stories about theater people from stars to doormen. Other good reads include Kirkwood's own “Good Times/Bad Times” one of my favorite novels.
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