AS I REMEMBER IT: MY 50 YEAR CAREER AS AN AWARD WINNING WRITER, PRODUCER, AND STUDIO EXECUTIVE (paperback)
Film producers and studio executives know the nitty-gritty behind the scenes. Award-winning writer/producer/executive Ken Rotcop now tells all about the comical, dramatic, and tragic celebrities he befriended.
Look through the mirror on the wall to see the stars as they were without their masks, including Marilyn Monroe, Peter O’Toole, Mel Brooks, Peter Faulk, Monty Hall, Regis Philbin, Mickey Mantel, John Barrymore, Jr., Baron Hilton, and Jack Klugman.
Discover:
-Who killed Marilyn Monroe
-Why Regis Philbin never talked about his son
-Why a screenwriter committed suicide just before Barbara Streisand and Burt Reynolds agreed to star in her screenplay
-The nun and her Jewish boyfriend who were closer than rosary beads
-The space shuttle worker who believed that we never went to the moon
-The midget who stretched her body fourteen inches
-What killed Allison Hayes, star of The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
-Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury’s poem to Ken
-Why John Barrymore, Jr. tried to throw Ken from a 12th-floor window
-Facts behind the fiction on The Mitch Miller Show, Some Like It Hot, Blazing Saddles, Murder Inc., Columbo, Let’s Make a Deal, Regis and Kelly, Spiderman, Charlotte’s Web, Lawerence of Arabia, Martian Chronicles, We Never Went To The Moon, Quincy, Hollywood Hot Tubs, Roots, and Funny Girl.
Illustrated.
About the author: writer/producer Ken Rotcop is the author of The Perfect Pitch: How To Sell Yourself And Your Idea To Hollywood series, and he has received a Writer’s Guild Award, an Image Award, and a Neil Simon Award for writing and producing For Us, The Living: The Story Of Medgar Evers (1983).
“Before you can get someone to read your screenplay, you have to know how to write it. Ken Rotcop is the master at teaching writers how to tell a story.” -Oprah Winfrey
“Forget about snappy dialogue, characterization, and plot. It’s the pitch that gets a script read and a movie deal done. If it were not for Ken Rotcop, most new writers would be out of the loop.” –John Lippman, Wallstreet Journal
“Two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with water and the other third is covered with people who have fabulous ideas for shows if only a producer would give them an opportunity. Ken Rotcop, an award-winning writer and producer, provides a guiding light to this group.” -Robert Siegel, NPR
“. . . the single most influential person I’d met in the early years of my career. He gave me the courage to go after my dream. He is an industry legend.”-Andrea Leigh Wolf, Sell Your Screenplay
“I first met Ken Rotcop years ago when I was a panelist on a game show and he was the writer. His books are filled with terrific stories and funny anecdotes. The boy can write! -Rose Marie, The Dick Van Dyke Show
“Having toured the country and lectured with him, I can honestly say no one can captivate an audience as Ken Rotcop. His stories and his humor keep the audiences clamoring for more.” -Doug Schwartz, Baywatch
“Hollywood veteran Ken Rotcop is the Master Pitchmeister. His sometimes dramatic, sometimes hilarious collection of personal anecdotes will lead you through all aspects of a life well-lived.” -Marlene McGarry, Living the Blues: The Story of Canned Heat