My Meeting With A Hollywood Legend
I got to sit down to do a one-on-one interview with Hollywood legend, Carl Reiner.
Most of you will remember him as 'the old guy who fakes the heart attack in Ocean's 11,' as my friend said, or you might know that he is Rob Reiner's dad.
Believe me, there's A LOT more to Carl Reiner than Ocean's 11, 12, & 13. He's been in Hollywood since it's beginning, so you can imagine he had some amazing stories to tell.
- He saw the transformation of Broadway from being where it's at to movies taking the star spotlight. He said no one wanted to do movies at first. Why would they when you had to wait so long to receive your reviews? Everyone much preferred the instant gratification of Broadway--live performances and live audiences.
- Carl's proud to have voted for both Roosevelt and Obama--and couldn't imagine not taking part in such Historical elections.
- He drove a Hybrid car before Hybrids were hip. In fact, back in the day, he said he traded in his Lincoln to drive a Honda. All of Hollywood would laugh at him and ask him why he drives around in that little car and he'd let'em know he was helping to save our air quality.
Anyhow, not only did I get to interview Mr. Reiner, I got to call up my grandmother and brag about it afterward:'Guess who I interviewed today? ... Carl Reiner...'
My grandmother's reply: "You've got to be kidding me!"
So, bragging and pride in impressing my grandmother aside, I did meet Carl Reiner for a reason.
He was recently approached by Michael Viner of Phoenix Books about his bio-novel, Enter Laughing--Viner wanted Carl himself to read Enter Laughing for an audio-book version of his now 51 year old bio-novel.
This comedic, semi-autobiographical novel, based on Carl's entrance into Hollywood at the age of 17, has had almost as long of a life as it's author. The 86 year old award winning actor/producer/director/writer wrote this book in his 30s and he said he never thought he'd be reading it 50 years later!
And what an amazing 50 year run this bio-novel has had!
A few years after it's publication in the late 50s, it was adapted into a Broadway play and ran for 419 performances (and earned Alan Arkin a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor); in the late 60s it was adapted into a screenplay and became a movie; then it was also used as the basis for a musical; and now in 2008, it's been adapted into an off-Broadway musical, again, and the New York Times is praising the musical as "hilarious."
The interesting part about this novel's huge success is that Carl said it was the first novel he ever wrote. He was not a writer. In fact, the only reason the novel came about was because he just wanted to see if he could still type!
He said that he was a teletypist in World War II and he was just curious as to whether he still remembered the skill. So, he got out his typewriter and typed up a few short stories. He then showed these stories to a friend. (I think he said the friend just so happened to be the head of Simon & Schuster. )
Well, the friend thought his stories were pretty good and told him he should write a novel. He was surprised and said he'd never written a novel before. The friend said, "Just pick one of these short stories and make it longer." Carl told him that he'd need a deadline because he worked better under pressure. He was given 3 months and wha-la! Enter Laughing is finished and becomes a huge success! First novel ever and he writes it in 3 months--amazing.
Pretty inspiring, huh? Makes you wanna just go out and DO SOMETHING... maybe follow that little inspirational thought in the back of your head because you just never know when little sparks will turn into momentous successes.
Carl's audio version is set to launch in January of 2009. If you can't wait for that, then you can always read the old fashioned way by buying the actual novel. (So 1990s, I know.) You can also rent the 1960s movie adaptation. And, also in January of 2009, the musical will be re-debuting. Myself? I'm hoping for an audio release on iTunes in January!
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