Customer Reviews

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: Moviemaking, Con Games, and Murder in Glitter City

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Research how many celebrities Rod Lurie has nearly ruined with his no-talent bottom-feeder, BORING work and flops they innocently got involved with him on. Why did the Douglas's fight this guy in court not to publish this for years? Why have others sued him for his lies? What is the first sentence in this book--"To hell with the truth!" Do the math--who is the fraud here? Suggs was a mentally ill maniac who killed five people, which includes himself, women, children and he destroyed so many other innocent lives and valid careers in the wake of his twisted destruction of greed and delusion. Dare I mention all of the other innocent family members of the people in and out of this book who suffered severely for over a year while they thought Suggs was still out there hunting them, and them became persona non-grata from fear that anyone who Suggs might be after or those people knew was also a target.

Lurie COMPLETELY missed this point altogether that the detective and Renee Emr conspired to keep the fact Suggs was an "at large" suspect, not telling anyone they suspected him, while they suffered in terror and pain at the loss of family and friends not knowing who did it for DAYS! AND then had to stay in hiding because Suggs wasn't found until over a year later! Everyone in Hollywood, Scottsdale, Culver City, Malibu, etc. lived in fear for YEARS! And what does Lurie do, capitalize on it!

Don't you wonder if this was such a GREAT story, why any of the legitimate people in the industry didn't jump on it? Think about that one long and hard.

All Lurie did was add to all that misery. There was a contract on The Last POW that was intially a documentary and later a TV Movie of the week (which Renee and Jon Emr stole, yet again from his brother Art), which Suggs was a bodyguard for in Florida, and a "real" contract in place for the James Dean story. This was eventually done, but not by R. Jon Emr --but, badly, even after Roland (Jon's) death.

The real culprit and architect of this story was still alive and in Scottsdale, AZ (other than Suggs or his cohorts) until recently--Renee (Josset) Emr. She nearly starved her husband to death and essentially got him murdered. These families, the Douglas's and Emr's are legitimate, successful families in the industry who had rouge, members. They are not their brother's keepers. J. Roland Emr and his mother were responsible for their own actions, disgraceful cling-on's to those who earned their stripes, degrees, friends and colleagues--and yes awards for it and in the industry.

It does take money to make money, but it also takes talent. Lurie has proven that by shinning the light on his lack of it and padding his book with information and meaningless tripe no one cares about, is not true, racist, bias and in outright bad taste gore. At what point does a corner think it is exciting to cut open an old man's head during an autopsy when he knows what killed the man? Seriously. All of Hollywood was scared out of its wits this guy was running around free and going to strike next, and this is it?

On that point, the other guy convicted in this crime went to Disneyland the next day, never warning anyone that Suggs was coming to California to kill more people--and is now out of prison and free to do it again to someone else after only 7 years! If you are calling the innocent people, like the senior Mr. Emr (an old builder/grandfather from NJ who had nothing to do with film industry--e.g., likely his name had been forged as had Kirk Douglas's) in this story con's take a lonnnngggg look at the writer first--but before you waste your time and money on this out-of-print piece of junk. If you like gore, lies and bad research, enjoy this read.

"A Chance to Live" was made into a movie of the week called the Last POW with Sheen and others! You want a really interesting back-story to this, research the Bobby Garwood real story. Judge for yourself who gets the last laugh and con. And the James Dean story was made into a movie, albeit bad, it was legit. For all the things he did do, nonetheless, Jon Emr did attend college back east in Chicago and classes with Jack Garfein (now in France), even if he was an ass. At LEAST Lurie gives Douglas's and Emr's other family members credit for being legitimate. Identity theft and blacksheep are a common problem then and now. Hell, look at LL on the news every other day. We just hear about it more with today's media.

THE MANS NAME IS ROLAND EMR AND NOT JON AND IS SLANDEROUS TO ALL THE JON EMRS IN THE US. ALSO, HE HAD A VALID CONTRACT WITH NBC AND FRIES ENTERTAINMENT THAT WAS NO CON AT ALL. AND SUGGS WAS NOT A BODYGUARD A FRIEND OF HIS GIRLFRIENDS GIRLFRIEND.
ROD LURIE HAS BEEN SUED BEFORE AND WROTE SLANDER ABOUT CLINTON AS WELL. HE MAY WELL FIND HIMSELF BACK IN COURT AGAIN.

A serious disappointment. Not worth even the few dollars it costs to obtain a copy of this now out of print novel. The con game is Mr. Lurie attempting to cash in on the life of a valuable man who is no longer living and who's life ended in tragedy. He seems to attempt to convince the reader that the information told in the pathetic work of fiction comes from reliable sources, I think not. Who's the real fraud?

As one of the "characters" in this book, I want to applaud Rod Lurie for his integrity and seeking, finding and writing the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about a real life mystery and true tragedy. Jon Emr could have been one of the biggest wheeler dealers in Hollywood history, but the paradigm that was instilled in him with his mother's milk was deceit, larceny and the pure joy of putting something over on someone, led him to what hindsight now tells me was his only possible end. Hurrah for Rod Lurie and the publishers for having the courage to tell this story when just about everyone else wanted to sweep it under the rug. I understand the film rights have been sold, but don't hold your breath waiting for the movie! No one in Tinsel Town wants this true story to become common knowledge.

I first met Rod Lurie in late 89, he was homeless so he tells me living in his car, he was kicked out of the Army for cause due to what the DOD say's was his LIES, he came to me to write this book on the EMR con's and scam's of the James Dean story and how EMR was a known Con man, well Rod wrote his book and many articles on the subject hoping to get his own movie deal another con, only problem is through out the book he continues to make up lies and fails to tell the truth I guess that is why it is called "Fiction" the book story would have been better had he chose to be truthfull but after all Rod makes his living on LIES,, a Poor book at best-good for the fire place starter.

As one of the "subjects" of this book, I want to compliment Rod Lurie on a fantastic job of investigative reporting. I also want to thank him for honoring our agreement to not misquote me and to not quote me out of context. His reportage of my involvement in the life of Jon Emr was fairly and accurately portrayed from our interviews. This story should be made into a major motion picture. I suspect however that the Douglas family has already taken steps to secure the story rights, or other control, to see to it that this story isn't told to a wide audience to spare them embarrassment. I believe, for the most part, the Douglas family was as much a victim as the rest of us.

This is a story about conflict. In fact, it starts with the murders of a con man, Roland Jon Emr, and his son Roger (by a disgruntled employee, Robert Suggs) as they drove down Slauson Blvd. in Culver City, California. It shows the sordidness of behind-the-scenes and drugs in the movie industry.

This is a true story based on facts (court records, police reports, personal interviews of more than one hundred possibly involved individuals). The author is a grad of West Point, a talk show host on KMPC radio station in Los Angeles, and the film critic for 'Los Angeles Magazine.'

He admits to putting words in the mouths of some of the characters, and yet maintains "No scenes have been created from my imagination in order to achieve a novelistic effect." He tried to use personal accounts and tape recordings but used "...my own common sense before coming to my own 'educated' conclusion about the truth." Truth is a fallacy, as people see things differently but always think they are telling the truth. There are many variations on the truth of any situation. Most times, it is just opinion. Talk show hosts invariably feel that their opinions are facts, the infinite truth.

Rumor was that the Emurs were killed over their production plans of a film about James Dean. They were originally from New Jersey but found the con business more lucrative in Hollywood. He aspired to be the next Sam Goldwyn in the movie business.

He felt that "once you control a man's dream, his soul would soon be yours." His death represented the "logical resolution to a life of deception and manipulation." Most of all, it represented "the lie of the pipe dream."

A year and a half later, Suggs' remains were found out in the desert. He'd been murdered by persons unknown.

Jon Emr, the con man, had "sullied the image of James Dean. The image of Hollywood." Hollywood is not a real glitter city. It's all "image." Los Angeles, on the other hand, is thriving in the movie business, but their air pollution is as bad as ours here at the foot of the real Smoky Mountains.