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Watching from the Wings: A Life With Stars and Legends
Watching from the Wings A Life With Stars and Legends Author:Jim Brochu "Watching from the Wings" is an insightful and funny new memoir by award-winning actor/playwright Jim Brochu. Spanning a fifty year career, Brochu has worked with the legendary, the famous and the near famous of show business and has collected an intimate and hilarious treasure trove of up-close and personal encounters with the greats ... more »of Film and Theatre.
Growing up in Brooklyn and wanting to be a priest a child, his life was changed forever when he was introduced to Ethel Merman (by her dad, Ed Zimmerman) after a performance of Gypsy in 1959. After that matinee, he changed lanes from the marbled aisles of gothic churches to the carpeted aisles of Broadway theatres. Merman remained a friend and mentor to the young man and years later they would work together in what proved to be a “white-knuckle” experience.
Beginning his career in 1968, working with poet/playwright Robert Lowell (lunacy personified) and most recently with Audra McDonald and Christine Baranski as Judge Vernon Windsor on The Good Fight, Brochu has watched the stars from the wings of his own life and recounts those experiences in this heartwarming new book.
What was it like to hang out with Marlene Dietrich in her dressing room as she prepared for her concert or share homemade blueberry bread with Katharine Hepburn at her Connecticut home? Or sitting with an un-made up Joan Crawford in her penthouse kitchen as she made bouillabaisse for her upcoming dinner party? How about visiting with Hal Roach in his Bel Air living room and hearing the true story of how he put together Laurel and Hardy and the Our Gang kids? Then there was the time Gary Morton threatened him when his book about his friend Lucille Ball was published. Oh yes and getting in the middle of a bitch fight between Carol Channing and Bea Arthur at an awards show. Filled with wonderful anecdotes and packed with over fifty never-before-seen photographs of the stars from his personal collection, "Watching From The Wings" belongs of the shelf of celebrity watcher.« less