Hey, let me tell you about Michael Hoey. Michael Hoey is one of those people who've done just about everything a person can do in show business. His father, Dennis Hoey, was a great character actor best known for his recurring role in the Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone. Michael grew up in the entertainment industry and had a special vantage point to understand Hollywood and how it has changed over the years. He especially has wise perceptions and great anecdotes about powerful folks including Jack L. Warner, Darryl Zanuck, Walt Disney, George Cukor, Elvis Presley, John Ford, Mel Brooks, Charlton Heston, Jimmy Cagney, Angela Lansbury and Robert Blake. In high school, he had a band with Mr. Blake.
Michael has written an engrossing memoir that chronicles his life and career, his interactions and observations with folks like the above, and his stormy (at times) relationship with his father. He recently gave me a copy and I expected to like it because I've always enjoyed talking with him, but I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. The man has worked as a film editor, a director, a producer and a writer. (In the photo above, Michael's the guy on the left, going over the script he wrote for Live a Little, Love a Little with its star, Elvis Presley. Hoey worked on a half-dozen Elvis movies and the behind-the-camera stories from those jobs are worth the price of admission, all by themselves.)
What really impressed me about the book was the same thing that always impressed me about Michael. He's a very smart man with a grounded-in-reality outlook on a field that often veers wildly from sanity and realism. He writes about Elvis, for instance, with a passionate but rational perspective that one does not see in much writing about the man. He writes about everything that way.
The book is called Elvis, Sherlock and Me (How I Survived Growing Up In Hollywood), and you can order a copy from this page. I suggest you do this.