Gift books with star quality

REVIEWS BY PAT BROESKE

With the holidays looming, 'tis the season to stargaze. An array of new titles about the entertainment world takes the reader up close and personal, and provides gift-giving possibilities. So, deck the bookshelves and consider the starry, starry fare that follows.

The man behind the music

The intimidating Frank Sinatra has been the subject of several biographies, most famously Kitty Kelley's 1986 hatchet job. But to really understand Ol' Blue Eyes is to follow his musical journey. The Sinatra Treasures is the perfect guide.

The book's (all lowercase) subtitle reads: intimate photos, mementos, and music from the sinatra family collection. Special "pocket" pages contain the mementos, including a newsletter from an early fan club (the Sighing Society of Sinatra Swooners); a mini-poster for Oceans 11 (the original film, not the throwaway remake); and reproductions of tickets to concerts in Rio and Japan. Neat, but the real highlights are the recollections and observations of friends, family and musical associates, interwoven with Sinatra's own words, about his work on radio, in the recording studio, nightclubs and more.

Terrific photographs, especially those with enduring pals (Sammy, Dino, Quincy Jones and others) further flesh out the subject—as does a 12-track CD, which gives us Sinatra in song, interview and monologue. All that's missing is the martini.


Hollywood nights

Alas, Vanity Fair's annual Oscar night bash is "by invitation only." But we mere mortals can party-crash with Oscar Night: 75 Years of Oscar Parties, From the Editors of Vanity Fai. Along with VF's Oscar night pics, this monumental tome (measuring 11-by-14 inches) raids the to-die-for archives of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the folks behind the Oscars. With captions featuring trivia and gossipy dish, it's the definitive look at Oscar-night partying over the decades.

Kicking off with the first-ever 1929 Oscar gala, held at the Roosevelt Hotel, the book takes us to the various ceremony venues, after-show hot spots like the Bistro and Spago, and into the living rooms of notable notables. The guest lists are a "Who's Hot, Who's Not" panorama, depicting changing fashions, hairstyles and attitudes. Take a look: there's Madonna with bad hair and Pamela Anderson in a denim miniskirt with a blouse she forgot to button. They're no match for the elegantly coifed, dazzlingly bling-blinged Liz Taylor. Now she's someone we want to party with.

Cary Grant was the embodiment of grace and perfection. And, my, but he looked good. But beneath the suave demeanor was a man of darkly troubled complexities. As Cary Grant: The Biography details, the former Archibald Leach was forever haunted by his English childhood and his relationship with the mother who wound up in an asylum.

Marc Eliot, who previously penned the musical sagas of Bruce Springsteen and the Eagles, relies largely on previously published books and articles for source material. He makes good use of Grant's own interviews and the memories he shared on the lecture circuit. And Dyan Cannon's divorce testimony is an eye-opener. Wife number four, Cannon was 35 years younger than Grant—who ruled the roost as if he were, well, her daddy. (He once locked her in her room to keep her from wearing a short skirt in public.) Less convincing, but no less entertaining, are recycled accounts of Grant's alleged relationship with western star Randolph Scott. If this really happened, Grant truly should have won the Oscar he craved.


Something completely different

Now available in paperback, The Pythons: Autobiography by the Pythons is actually a fairly serious look at Britain's subversive loonies, Monty Python. Members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam (the group's only American), Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin are Oxbridge-educated, and far more erudite than one would expect—considering their penchant for gags involving dead parrots, killer sheep and cross-dressing barristers. Based on diaries and interviews, this illustrated autobiography, written by the BBC's Bob McCabe, underscores the diligence and creative chemistry behind the lunacy.


Pat H. Broeske is the co-author of Howard Hughes: The Untold Story, which would also make a terrific holiday gift.

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