Manhattan Diary: A conversation with the stars of yesterday

Book Reviewed: Manhattan Diary, by Richard Lamparski

The author gives an interesting account of his interactions with many Hollywood stars of golden era, and classic era. His interviews include such stars as; Gloria Swanson, Tallulah Bankhead, Fred Astaire, Dorothy Parker, Bette Davis, Sammy Kaye, Ruby Keeler, and others. There are some juicy stories to read, but he does not narrate the interviews in detail. The book provides some highlights of his conversations either in Manhattan or in Hollywood. Some of the personalities also include men and women from stage, radio and vaudeville, besides the Hollywood elite. The author also worked partly as a "walker," a term used to describe a single gay man who escorts wealthy women or celebrities for high-end estate auctions, during entering and exiting opera houses, dinner at high-end restaurants and during their visits to Manhattan from California. This practice existed for decades, and the author has some insight from these experiences.

A brief description of his book is as follows: Actress Dorothy Parker was an extreme political lefty and had strong contempt for dictators and despots. She went to Spain and observed the conflicts in the Spanish civil war of the 1930s and returned to United Sates and spoke publicly against Falangists and their extreme right wing backers. Parker like many historians believed that the victory of fascist Francis Franco in Spain made WWII inevitable. Parker also had been knocking publicly another conservative right wing politician, Clare Booth Luce. Parker was also a woman of sophistication who lived in the apartment buildings of Manhattan that inhabited largely gay men, for decades, and still saw the author (gay himself) as a potential sex partner; this, after experiencing disappointments, time after time. The modus operandi was that if the man and the woman (who is 30 years his senior) get drunk, they end up in bed and something sexually satisfying will happen; this was the expectation. She starred in "A star is born" and "Sweethearts" with her husband Alan Campbell, but his name was unknown to many. In one encounter she tells the author that "Allan would have like you." The author retorts, "You mean because we are both fairies?"

The book narrates an interesting conversation with Gloria Swanson, and remembers her admiration for the author's celebrity status among Hollywood and stage performers. Gloria Swanson had a lengthy conversation about the futility of marrying Hollywood actors until the author reminds her that she was once married to actor Wallace Beery which she had forgotten. She was preoccupied with "looking young" and strongly instructed cameramen, whenever she was on television, that they control the light and camera angles to make her look young. Part of Norma Desmond of "Sunset Blvd" was in fact the real Gloria Swanson.

Parker and Swanson conversations are the longest in the book and make an interesting reading. Swanson is known to be bisexual and some authors have said that she frequented gay hotels/gay bars during her visits, in 1940s-50s, to Palm Springs California, but the author of this book does not make any mention of that.

The author also observes that Fred Astaire was ill-at-ease and self-conscious during the whole interview. So was actress Ilka Chase, the wife distinguished actor Louis Calhern. Her very brief marriage ended quickly, and he wasted no time to marry actress Julia Hoyt. Still bitter at the way things turned out for her, she wittingly sent the new bride a box full of cards that said "Mrs. Louis Calhern," She added a note that said, "Dear Julia, I do hope these reach you in time."

Sammy Kaye is another interviewee who did not like the conversation with the author. In one of the parties that served Strawberries Romanoff for dessert, the gossip columnist Rona Barrett quipped, "This tastes like cum. Mmmm....."

The interview with Tallulah Bankhead was a pleasant one, says the author. She was also inebriated and expected him to make her look good. In another instance, late one night, she calls him to give "her company," but the author says he quietly hung up on her. Throughout her life, she was an exhibitionist who exposed herself in social situations, dressing rooms, swimming pools, or even on dentist's chair. When she met Joel McCrea and his wife Frances Dee, she said, "Oh my God! I don't know which one I want first." In another situation she said, "I am living proof that narcotics are not habit forming, I have given them up countless of times."

Ruby Keeler is another friend of the author whom he calls as an independent woman who walked out of her marriage to wealthy Al Jolson waiving alimony. At one time she was associated with mobster Johnny "Irish" Costello and had romantic relationship; but on the stage, she was on the level with the crew, co-workers and the media. Conversation with the first celebrity transsexual, Christine Jorgensen and her lover, and Brenda Lana Smith is discussed in an interesting fashion.

The book has many interesting features, but it also focus on the author's life itself. If you are interested in reading juicy stories, then this is not the book.