Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully Produced and Written Tribute to a Deserving Star, October 27, 2004
I've been waiting for a book like this for ages. No star on earth deserves this type of glowing tribute to a legendary career more than Liza May Minnelli.
Kudos to Scott Schechter for writing and compiling a lasting legacy of one of the most electric, most versatile, and most loving superstars who has ever graced a concert stage, Broadway boards, movie screen, recording studio, television sound stage or benefit ballroom.
If you buy this book you'll see photographs of Liza that you've never seen before, and I thought I'd seen them all, honestly. You'll finally have a complete list of Liza's films, television appearances, albums/CDs, and most remarkably -- a comprehensive (and impressive) list of Liza's concerts. And the astute author has provided complete overviews of each stage of Liza's career ... from the start w/mama at MGM to her current stint on "Arrested Development." It's all here!
What star has played Carnegie Hall, the Olympia Theatre in Paris, the Palladium and Royal Albert Hall in London, several Broadway theaters (including the Palace), Radio City Music Hall and every other major venue across our great country and most of the world? Liza ... that's who!
No personal gossip, here, thank goodness. This is a rare look into the remarkable career of an incandescent star, and this long-time fan is joyous that this work of love has been produced for Liza's adoring public.
Thank you, Mr. Schechter and everyone associated with this much-needed salute to the World's Greatest Entertainer!
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Liza Scrapbook a MUST HAVE for all Liza fans, October 29, 2004
The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook is a MUST HAVE for all Liza fans. I have been a fan since 1972 and in all those years I have not come across a book as good as this book. The book is filled with beautiful photo's from cover to cover Scott has captured every part of Liza's fantastic career.
I ordered a copy from amazon.com and received it the other day and have not put it down since. Thanks Scott for giving us a great book to read and cherish forever.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some Reviews by the Critics / Professional Reviews, May 4, 2005
Thanks to the Liza fans for all the kindness and support of the book.
Here are some of the professional reviews the book has gotten to date :
From Booksoup.com :
Liza Minnelli has mesmerized her audiences with her remarkable talent and pure joy of entertaining for decades. Her appeal is universal and timeless. For those us who have had the pleasure of closely following her career, no other performing artist can compare. "The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook" is a comprehensive pictorial history. Schechter has done an amazing job of chronicling Liza's career accompanying his research with pictures both familiar and new to the avid Liza fan. For longtime Liza fans like myself, the book is treasure of Liza remembrances and certainly the ultimate Liza "reference" book.
****
From NYTheatre.com
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/bookshop.htm
The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook
by Scott Schechter
Perfect for any fan, The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook is just that - a scrapbook of an almost five-decade career. With a fond foreword by Billy Stricth, this book chronicles Liza's life by decade. There are brief overviews of each ten-year span, and then details and at least a brief synopsis on every movie, television show, Broadway show, and recording Liza has ever done. Furthermore, as if that was not enough, there are billions of pictures - pictures with other celebrity friends, cameos from various television and movie stints, covers of playbills and recordings, etc. The book is so indubitably complete in its coverage of Liza's career that there is even a picture of Liza with Kermit the Frog from her episode on "The Muppet Show!" This is an incredible, cohesive, and all-inclusive record of Ms. Minnelli and is a must have for any fan because of its comprehensive coverage and plethora of pictures.
- Seth Bisen-Hersh
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/bookshop.htm
****
From GENRE magazine, January-February 2005 issue, "The Feed" Column : "audio / film / PAGES," Editor (and reviews by) Michael Liebermann :
"The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook" Scott Schechter, Kensington, Biography, 242 pages, $22
"If you're looking for objective criticism of Liza Minnelli's storied career in music, film and theater, or an expose of her latest missteps in love, then keep on browsing. But if you fancy a stroll down gay memory lane -- from growing up Garland through 'Cabaret'to the oft-forgotten 1980 TV spectacular 'Goldie and Liza : Together' -- you can't do much better than this true fan's scrapbook."
****
From OUT magazine, January 2004 issue; "OutFront" Reviews : "What's New and Hot" : "ETC" (Page 27) :
"A must-have for Liza fans, Scott Schechter brings us 'The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook' (Citadel, $21.95), a vibrant volume about her career, with over 200 rare and never-before-seen photographs."
****
Featured on November CNN "American Morning" Show
****
GREAT write-up on the InSightOUT Book Club's webpage :
CLUB REVIEW
From Cabaret to her recent stint on "Arrested Development," Liza Minnelli has never let the scandal that seems to run in her family's blood taint her dazzling career. And her life in showbiz, which spans five decades, is celebrated with this scrapbook of photos, facts, and diva pride!
"The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook" takes you back to the beginning of the dynamic performer's life as the daughter of Judy Garland-and her first public appearance at age 2 1/2! From there, she launched a career that garnered her Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards, and it's all covered here! Along with page after page of fantastic photos, the scrapbook looks at Liza's illustrious career: New York, New York, Flora the Red Menace, Liza at the Wintergarden, and The Act. There are essays about every major performance she's ever given, including her sold out appearance in Victor/Victoria. Plus, you get all the trivia and facts you could desire-and need! Everything Liza, including discography, videography, lists of awards and much more. Photos throughout. 242 pages, 8 1/2" x 11", softcover.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER -- Tuesday, November 16th, 2004
Reuters via Yahoo! News, Mon, 15 Nov 2004 4:13 PM PST
'SCRAPBOOK' DELIVERS THE GOODS (Headline)
By Robert Osborne NEW YORK
Liza Minnelli has certainly had her share of publicized woes of late, but something's on the horizon that should cheer her considerably.
Scott Schechter has compiled a magnificent book on the one aspect of L. M. that always seems to get short shrift or is altogether ignored these days, i. e.,her years of delivering the goods in front of cameras and on stages throughout the world. That work has won her, to date, an Oscar (1972), three Tonys (1965, '74, '78), an Emmy (1973), a Grammy (1989), two Golden Globes (1973, '86) and an ever-loyal fan base, something Schechter covers in monumental detail in "The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook," in bookstores this month via Citadel Press, with a foreword by Billy Stritch.
No stone is left unturned in looking at the career of Minnelli and, for a refreshing change, no stone is hurled at her, either; here, it's strictly Liza's professional life and accomplishments that the author is emphasizing. And nothing goes unrecorded, be it a TV "Match Game" appearance on NBC in 1967, a 1987 concert in Stockholm, Sweden, or, this year, singing "Oscar" and "God Bless the Child" at a private party at the Ars Nova Theatre in New York. Besides being a dandy reference guide for anyone hunting for a Minnelli fact,"Scrapbook" also includes plenty of interesting info on
Minnelli projects that came close to happening but didn't. She was announced, for instance, in 1975, and again in '77 and '79, to star in the film version of "Chicago," playing Velma to Goldie Hawn s Roxie Hart (with, at one point, Allan Carr producing, Frank Sinatra playing the lawyer, Nancy
Walker as the prison matron and Carol Channing and Ann Miller as competing newspaper reporters); later, in 1992, it was rescheduled but with a
difference: Lewis Gilbert was to direct, with Liza switched to the role of Roxie and Goldie as Velma.
We all know how that turned out. In 1982, Liza tested for what was to be an "Evita" directed by Ken Russell; she sang "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," causing Russell to publicly comment, "We had found our Evita"; the entire venture, however, was KO'd until it was finally made 14 years later with a different leading lady. Schechter also lists dozens of other projects that
almost happened ("Sunset Boulevard," "The Carmen Miranda Story") and, carrying out the "scrapbook" motif, there are miscellaneous color photographs, candids and reproductions of Playbill and album covers and Liza-related ads. One thing comes through loud and clear: The lady may like
to play, but she has also worked.
****
The NY POST -- "PAGE SIX" -- Sunday, November 14th, 2004 :
HITS THE SPOT :
IT'S not all bad news about Liza Minnelli, who was just hit with a lawsuit by her former chauffeur. At the book party for Scott Schechter's "Liza Minnelli Scrapbook" tribute tome, the author announced Minnelli's first theatrical movie since "Stepping Out" in 1991. Liza will play an offbeat self-help seminar leader who helps Parker Posey on her quest to find her G-spot, in "The Oh in Ohio." It co-stars Danny DeVito and Mischa Barton.
****
The SECOND Review of "The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook" this one by Phill Hall of Boston's EDGE and also to appear in the NY RESIDENT paper in a few weeks :
"The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook" by Scott Schechter
Grade: A+
by Phil Hall
EDGE Literature Critic
Monday Nov 1, 2004
Just from the title alone, "The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook" seems predestined to find a place on the coffee table of many gay homes. But forget the stereotypical gay worship of this show biz icon and zoom in on the rich contents. Scott Schechter's extraordinary tribute to Liza with a "Z" is brilliantly researched, lavishly illustrated and endlessly entertaining. It is impossible to come away from this book without possessing a deeper love and respect for Minnelli.
Schechter breaks down Minnelli's career in a neat manner: a decade-by-decade career-based mini-biography (all scandals are removed from print), followed by a chronological appreciation of Minnelli's theater, film, television, recording and concert careers. Schechter uncovers a wealth of long-forgotten facts and photographs which will delight Minnelli's fans: Minnelli dancing on stage with then-unknown Elliott Gould in a touring company of "The Fantasticks," her simultaneous Time and Newsweek covers for "Cabaret" (and you thought Bruce Springsteen was the only entertainer to accomplish that?)
The book is also rich with Minnelli trivia, including unlikely appearances such as a concert for the inmates of a Chicago jail (two months after she won the "Cabaret" Oscar). There is also an unexpectedly large amount of little-known data on projects which Minnelli either turned down (including the role of Daisy in "The Great Gatsby" opposite Robert Redford) or which fell apart before production began (including the film version of "Evita" under Ken Russell's direction).
Schechter is uncommonly generous to Minnelli, to the point of presenting the most glamorous and flattering photographs available; later-life tabloid photographs which show Minnelli's problems with weight control are conspicuously absent. Yes, "The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook" is a love letter to the great star. And honestly,...
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