MADreads

No business like show business

December 17th, 2007 Sarah - Alicia Ashman

The other night on PBS there was a biography special on about comedian Carol Burnett, and although I didn’t mean to watch it, I made the mistake of leaving it on for a few minutes, and then I was hooked.

Perhaps I should explain.  When I was little I read a lot of adult books, because that’s pretty much what was in our house.  In addition to reading a few things that were probably a little “old” for me, I remember reading and re-reading Carol Burnett’s rollicking autobiography, One More Time, and enjoying it immensely.  Raised by her grandmother in Hollywood, enduring poverty and alcoholic parents, making her way out to New York…it was a fascinating story.  So watching the PBS special was not only interesting, it brought back great memories of lingering over that book time and time again.

But then I started thinking about other entertainers, and I’d have to say that the past few years have seen a lot of great books about show business lives published.  There’s Alan Alda’s Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I’ve Learned (as well as the sequel Things I Overheard While Talking To Myself), James Robert Parish’s It’s Good To Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks, Bob Newhart’s I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This!, and Don Rickles’s Rickles’ Book (among others). 

Or, then again, I might just read One More Time, well, one more time.

Entry Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Nonfiction