Showing results by author "Nat Segaloff" in All Categories

Packed with behind-the-scenes anecdotes, cultural insights, and debates about violence in the media, this is an explosive no-holds-barred report from the front lines of Hollywood mythmaking. A must-listen for Rambo fans, movies buffs, and anyone interested in American culture.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s rollicking adventure tale follows a scientific expedition deep into the Amazon jungle – right back into the time of dinosaurs and cave men. Before Jurassic Park, before Indiana Jones - there was The Lost World! An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Josh Clark, Kyle Colerider-Krugh, Peter Paige, Kirsten Potter, Kate Steele, Tom Virtue, Kenneth Alan Williams.

On December 26, 1973, The Exorcist was released. Within days it had become legend. Moviegoers braved hours-long lines in winter weather to see it. Some audience members famously fainted or vomited. Half a century later, the movie that both inspired and transcends the modern horror genre has lost none of its power to terrify and unsettle. The Exorcist Legacy reveals the complete story of this cultural phenomenon, from the real-life exorcism in 1949 Maryland that inspired William Peter Blatty's bestselling novel on which the movie is based, to its many sequels, prequels, TV series, and homages.

The Towering Inferno (1974) was the crowning achievement of über-producer Irwin Allen, the self-proclaimed “Master of disaster.” Crafted from two best-selling books and with a budget-busting cast headed by two mega-stars, it took two studios to bring it to the screen. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Towering Inferno, biographer-historian Nat Segaloff (who was a member of the film’s special publicity unit) writes about the production, its innovative marketing campaign, and the goings-on before, during, and after its box office success.

When Brian DePalma's operatically violent and profane Scarface debuted in 1983, the film drew almost as much fire as the relentless gunfire in the film itself. The movie was a remake of 1932's Scarface—revamped for a new era of drugs, sex, and graphic violence. Attacked as both a celebration of cocaine-fueled excess and a condemnation of it, the film's reputation only grew as the years went by. But the real story of its success started nearly a century ago—when Hollywood first fell in love with the American gangster....

Critic-producer Nat Segaloff was granted access to private papers, production records, never-before-published interviews, and specialized archives in reconstructing the colorful, touching, and sometimes scandalous stories behind the making of the last films of some of Hollywood's top directors.

Between 1934 and 1968, no Hollywood studio could make a movie without the permission of, and a seal of approval from, the Production Code Administration. Formed in 1930 but not enforced until 1934, the Production Code was Hollywood’s official censorship system. Screenplays, books, plays, costumes, and even story ideas and song lyrics had to be cleared by the Code before they could be filmed, and Code staffers watched at every stage of the production process to ensure compliance.

On November 24, 1947, the most powerful men in American film met in New York’s plush Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to decide how to address the Communist witch-hunt being carried out by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Twenty-four hours later, they emerged having created the Hollywood Blacklist. The Waldorf Conference dramatically speculates on what went on in that room.

Sometimes fiction is the best way to tell the truth. In this, his first collection of short stories, Nat Segaloff (Final Cuts, Guarding Gable, Mr. Huston/Mr. North) reveals the truth behind some of Hollywood’s biggest scandals, agendas, and confidences. First published by reporter/columnist Nikki Finke on her acclaimed website HollywoodDementia.com, these romans-à-clef expose long-hidden secrets about the Blacklist, the Oscars, publicity stunts, studio follies, ageism, celebrity weirdness, and other gambits that, even today, are barely whispered.

Guarding Gable - an original audio novel by Nat Segaloff - starts with an actual event in the life of the screen's number one star and becomes a story worthy of a Hollywood movie. It's 1942 and World War II is just beginning. Beloved actress Carole Lombard is killed in a plane crash while returning from a bond-selling tour and her husband, Clark Gable, is beyond consolation. Depressed to the point of suicide, he enlists in the US Army Air Corps, telling his bosses at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that he doesn't care if he ever comes back.

In the summer of 1987, a group of the screen's most notable stars gathered in glamorous Newport, Rhode Island, to make Mr. North, a charming but unpretentious film about a magical man who turns the town upside down. They included Anthony Edwards, Anjelica Huston, Lauren Bacall, Harry Dean Stanton, Virginia Madsen, Tammy Grimes, and a host of other talents, including legendary director John Huston. The filmmaker was Danny Huston, John's son.

For over forty years, ventriloquist Shari Lewis and her sassy hand puppet Lamb Chop were the most beloved team in children's television. Together with her other puppets Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy, Shari raised three generations of kids and struggled to stay relevant in an industry that was constantly changing. In this audiobook, cowritten and recorded by Shari's daughter Mallory Lewis (who now performs with Lamb Chop) and producer-biographer Nat Segaloff, you'll hear how Shari survived using sheer will and talent.

How do the most glamorous people in Hollywood behave when they're not in Hollywood? They run the gamut, and Nat Segaloff followed them for 25 years. He started in the staid and stuffy - but also politically tinged and rapidly evolving - city of Boston, then picked up the trail in Los Angeles. In Screen Saver: Private Stories of Public Hollywood, he writes about the celebrities he worked with when they thought they were out of the public eye. These are the scoops about the bad, the beautiful, the boring, and the blessed.