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Title | : | Bring on the Empty Horses |
Author | : | David Niven |
Book Format | : | Mass Market Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 352 pages |
Published | : | 1976 by Dell (first published 1975) |
Categories | : | Biography. Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. Culture. Film. Humor |
David Niven
Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 352 pages Rating: 4.1 | 2643 Users | 127 Reviews
Narration Toward Books Bring on the Empty Horses
This is the follow-up to David Niven's first memoir (The Moon's a Balloon), but this book is centered on the stories of Niven's friends and co-stars and directors. In other words, it's a wonderful recollection of the Golden Age of Hollywood but told in a gentlemanly fashion.Niven was part of the Hollywood Raj, that group of ex-pat Englishmen who played cricket at the park off Sunset Boulevard and ate roast beef on Sundays, regardless of the California heat. There are hundreds of books about the cinema during the studio system, but somehow Mr. Niven's tales are the best.
The crash of falling Selznicks was frequently heard around midnight in Hollywood high society.
His zingers are classy, not the TMZ trash currently expounded. You can tell he holds back or changes some details to be fair to his subjects, but the reading is still fun. His "Missy" revelation is startling, as it details the mental breakdown of Vivien Leigh (though he never mentions her name) and illustrates the high level of stress and expectations placed upon the studio stars of that era.
I rarely read a book more than once, but I couldn't resist picking this up again when the sun was blazing, the pool was calling, and I had just finished a long walk past some of the glorious desert abodes of the folks who had faces back then.
Book Season = Summer (find some shade)
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Original Title: | Bring on the Empty Horses |
ISBN: | 0440008247 (ISBN13: 9780440008248) |
Edition Language: | English |
Characters: | David Niven |
Setting: | California(United States) |
Rating Out Of Books Bring on the Empty Horses
Ratings: 4.1 From 2643 Users | 127 ReviewsWrite Up Out Of Books Bring on the Empty Horses
David Niven was primarily an actor,but in my opinion he was a better writer.This is one of the most interesting memoirs I have read.Niven has a great sense of humour,this is Hollywood history at its funniest.His encounters with screen legends Bogart,Flynn,Cary Grant and many others provide hours of first class entertainment.There is also the mysterious "Missie",who could possibly be Marilyn Monroe . As one reviewer put it,this book is "scintillating and uproarious."David Niven must have been a wonderful person to sit and chat with. I read this over and over again in junior and high schools.
David Niven is an often neglected actor from the Golden Age, but as a man, he was very likable. This book is proof that the talented actor was also a talented writer. He discusses many different people and scenarios in this book, the title of which is derived from an amusing incident on a film set. He writes with depth and clarity; it is obvious he has really analyzed the people he mentions. His respect for fellow stars and directors is admirable, especially the maligned ones.Here we learn that
Always an entertaining read, this book is a product of a time gone by - an era when Hollywood was a 'machine' that ate up young stars and spat them out when it was done - from the perspective of someone who entered a Hollywood studio's ownership at the bottom and somehow found himself near to the top and able to touch Hollywood royalty at various times.David Niven gives insight on how horrific life could be for those who fared well and some who didn't at a time when working hours for the 'stars'
Niven must have been the ideal guest. He was a naturally-gifted storyteller with a wonderful, often self-deprecating, sense of humour.
Niven's personal reminisces and anecdotes about the 'golden age' or Hollywood (30s through 50s). Many funny stories, but the overall impact is of a hollow, empty place. All the women were 'stunningly beautiful' and all the men were 'everyone's favourite fellow', and every story involved vast quantities of scotch or gin. Went away feeling quite sorry for them all, really. 2.5/5
Great stories of Hollywood.
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