Customer Reviews

Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book would have better been suited to a magazine article as it dwells on just a couple key events in Carr's life, rather than a more complete tale of the times. If you call Grease and Grease 2 Rock N Roll, than this book is for you.

Lots of long drawn-out depictions of production details of TV shows and a couple flop movies is all you get. Save your money on this one unless you were there and want to rehash the events.

This bio is a lot of fun and reads like a novel, but is also well-researched. It seems Hofler talked to everyone whoever knew Allan Carr. "Party Animals" is an effective followup to the author's previous biography, "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson," about agent Henry Willson. "Party Animals" is about another marginal life in Hollywood, but one with real significance. Carr was at the center of Hollywood's party scene for over a decade, and then paid the price when he produced an Oscars telecast that did not meet with the establishment approval. Carr, however, was the one that created the red carpet hoopla that epitomizes today's awards shows. He deserves to be remembered.

I gave this two stars because it eventually became interesting for me, but it took a long time to get there. I was glad to be done with this book and I didn't have any affection for the main character Alan Carr. That made it a tough read.

If you like Hollywood stories this may be a good book for you. Alan Carr, the proverbial fat kid, rises to the heights of Hollywood by bringing a Mexican movie on the Andes "Cannibalism" plane crash incident to America with Robert Stigwood. This non-hit money maker (it's all about the costs) allows Carr to leverage this success into the at that time unwanted movie depiction of the Broadway Play "Grease". I remember this show well and it was quite a hit with Travolta following Saturday Night Live and Olivia Newton John crossing over from Pop/Country music. When you have two successes in a row you have power and suddenly the façade Carr was running was real and he was at the center of Hollywood in the 70s.

The book centers on Carr's home, Hillhaven, with a great starting set-up of Brett Ratner viewing the home which he later buys, somewhat because of the houses history. After the typical background info of young Alan Carr, you are thrown right into 70s Hollywood and party central at Hillhaven. Or should I say the Gay 70s party scene. Actually, these parties may have been the West Coast version of Studio 54 which was a heavy gay crowd mixed with celebrities and oddballs.

Just as a run of successes puts Hollywood at your feet, a run of failures takes it away and Carr's fall was particularly fast and hard. Grease was the zenith and the success of the Broadway play "La Cage Aux Follies" which he produced made him a player. But the awful disco movie "Can't Stop the Music" and "Grease 2" took the bloom off the Rose until Carr was picked to spice up the Oscars by producing the 1989 show.

The infamous 1989 Oscar show and particularly the 12 minute introduction with Snow White and Rob Lowe sealed Carr's fate and infamy. I took the time to rewatch this and frankly don't find it as bad as the backlash warranted at that time. But they get you when you are down so Carr was persona non grata. Ironically, a lot of his ideas such as presention and the wording of the Oscar winners have lived to this day and are a great improvement.

Overall an interesting story but a long Vanity Fair article would have been better than the book as it is a little more info than you need. I wish sometimes an author wouldn't find the need to lengthen a book. If 180 pages do it, stop. The additions kill the enjoyment, or at least it does for someone like me who tries to read a lot of books and is always behind. Read at your own risk. Informative, worthwhile, but not a masterpiece.

I enjoyed Robert Hofler's Henry Willson biography and snatched this book up as soon as I saw it. I know that Hofler, a senior editor at Variety, is plugged into the Hollywood zeitgeist he chronicles so deftly. Allan Carr actually has much in common with Henry Willson, the overweight, homely producer who had the power to make any chorus boy's dream come true.

Carr goes through a lot of chorus boys and sees a lot of things at the decadent parties he throws at his home, Hillhaven Lodge. But, because many of the people who attended those parties are still with us, and because Allan was considered toxic after the 1989 Oscars he produced, we perhaps don't get the showstopper quotes that might have fleshed this biography out even more (pun intended). We do get excellent dish on the late Nuryev though. I would haved loved to know what was on those party tapes at Hillhaven Lodge. And what they were doing. But I'm nosy that way.

Five stars. Great read!

It's the second best worst movie ever made. Valley of the Dolls is No. 1 . . . Can't Stop the Music follows. The 1980 musical epic was the first(and only) time The Village People starred in a film, proofing it takes a Village to (almost) stop a Carr in his tracks. At least the flick is credited with the death of disco. The '70s were the pinnacle of Hollywood's hedonistic age--sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll. And no one embraced and cultivated the on-the-edge lifestyle more than the flamboyant, obese, caftan-wearing Allan Carr. Having made his reputation producing and promoting such major movie hits as Grease and Tommy and the cross-dressing Broadway smash La Cage aux Folles, Carr anointed himself Hollywood's premier social patriarch, hosting exclusive and extravagant parties with guest lists that included legends as well as rising stars--everyone from Roman Polanski to Sidney Poitier, Diana Ross and Mick Jagger. Invitations to gatherings at his opulent home--with its bars, disco, and private rooms where guests could indulge their cocaine habits or sexual exploits--were highly coveted. But Carr's fall from grace was as dramatic as his rise to the top. He was banned from the Academy Awards after producing what is remembered as the worst-ever Oscars (yes you remember . . .the one where Rob Lowe "sang" with Snow White) His health failing, he became a personal and professional pariah. And let us not forget Grease II. Now Carr is steering for a comeback. At least on paper. In Party Animals, Robert Hofler examines the glittery life and drug-riddled excesses of the overtly gay Carr in delightfully delicious, almost sinful, detail. Grease may have been the word, but nothing greased Carr's wheels better than a pretty times, pretty caftans, pretty drugs and pretty boys. Hofler takes us behind-the-scenes, exposing scandal, sex and decadent sordid lives so sizzling and sordid you might want to reach for asbestos gloves. Ouch!

It's impossible to stop reading this wonderful evocation of the lost era of the 70s and the incredible story of Allan Carr. Filled with great gossip and almost unbelievable tales, but never nasty or snarky. As the previous reviewer said, it would make a terrific movie--or better, mini-series--but don't wait for that--read the book now!

This book is a very interesting look at the very flamboyant life of the very flamboyant Allan Carr. I especially enjoyed reading about the behind-the-scenes creation of Carr's "Can't Stop The Music" film bomb and his disastrous Academy Awards show.

However, this book has a rather strange error.

The author states that there was a press room for the Internet media at the 1989 Academy Awards. He also states that, after the Oscars, some involved with the show hurried home to check the first reviews posted online. But the Internet did not come into popular usage until 1995. There was no publicly-available Internet in 1989 and there were no online reviews in 1989. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.)

A perfectly entertaining book about the eccentric Mr Allan Carr and his successes and otherwise during the late 70s and onwards in Hollywood and on Broadway. He started off using his parent's money, represented a few D list actors and got a break with the Tommy movie party in NY in the 70s.

The book commences with the sale of the deceased estate, which is a neat introduction to our subject and the story builds layer upon layer to give us a pretty good idea of who Mr Carr was and what made him tick.

Clearly talented, but a big fat gay bully, Mr Carr produced the evergreen 'Grease' (with Robert Stigwood's $)and the notorious 'Cant Stop the Music' (working title - 'Discoland')the bio-pic of the Village People.

As a 14 year old I was one of the many thousands of Australians who lined up to see 'CSTM' which flopped in the US and Europe butdid exceptionally good box office in Australia and Japan.

This book's behind the scenes revelations of the making of the movie explain a lot - even when I was 14 I could tell it was a (very amusing and camp) mess, now I am 45 reading about the dysfunctional drug addled characters involved it makes a lot more sense.

One can't help feeling a teensy bit sorry for Mr Carr about the misfire of the 1989 Oscars,whose opening number is a glimpse into his overactive imagination which meant that instead of control and refinement he went for the big picture, long winded, throw everything at 'em vaudeville approach every time.

It didn't work. Hollywood in 1989 was not ready for Mr Carr's weird pastiche of waxwork ancient B movie stars humming along with a singing dancing Rob Lowe (!) and an unknown Snow White for nearly 20 excrutiating minutes.

Well written and entertaining. I suggest the reader take a leaf from Mr Carr's book, laze by the pool, get some disco music pumping on the iPod, call the pool boy over to fetch a few cocktails and some high fat food and settle in for a fun ride.

This book was so hot that I practically needed an oven mitt to hold it. It details the truly over-the-top life of agent turned impressario Alan Carr who seemingly spent his entire life making sure that everyone was going to know who he was. Spunky, gay, audacious Alan Carr was born Allen Soloman in Chicago IL. The son of wealthy divorced parents, he was raise in Highland Park IL, a suburb populated by wealthy jewish familes on the north shore of Chicago. Even in a place where extreme wealth was the norm, Carr managed to be in everyone's face even as a child. His indulgent parents financed themed parties at the home that had Lake Michigan as its backyard, Alan typically did things like hop a plane to go see a play in Detroit and phone home like a human ET to let his father know he'd be home by 7pm for dinner. An admittedly disinterested student, he managed to spend four quasi eventful years(without getting a degree) at Lake Forest College where he distinguished himself as a party animal and frequent guest at a fraternity that banned jews but accepted Alan because he was ALAN. Feeling he was destined for greatness along the lines of Flo Ziegfeld and Mike Todd, he effectively divorced his parents without their knowledge and became legally Alan Carr. Bankrolled by his parents and an inordinate amount of chutzpah, he brought interesting theater and performing arts to Chicago before deciding the town just wasn't big enough for Alan Carr.

Eventually he landed in Los Angeles as an agent/producer. He bought the former home of film star Ingrid Bergman called Hillhaven and set about to create his own little fifedom which might be described as Disco meets Alice In Wonderland. He produced hits(GREASE) and misses(the bizarre paean to disco CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC), held parties with audacious themes while presiding over the activities in his collection of caftans and providing his guests with bedrooms to cavort in, bars where they could indulge in an unending supply of liquor, and drugs galore. He even thoughtfully provided a rotating table with cut lines of coccaine so his guests wouldn't have to go far to have what they wanted. An invitation from Carr was viewed as a royal command. It was so crazy that if one of his clients didn't show for party time, often the next day they might get a phone call firing them from his roster of clients. Alan's party was the place to be seen. His frequent parties got detailed coverage in the press and were undoubtedly worth the exhorbitant cost when things were good because publicity was one of the undeniable elements of Carr's success.

Carr's ultimate downfall finally came when he produced the infamous Oscar show which featured a tone deaf Rob Lowe singing Proud Mary to a Snow White wanna-be.

Carr trudged on for another 10 years and managed but became a pariah of sorts after that because he had stepped on the toes of the Hollywood establishment. Carr was plagued by poor health and things seemingly lost steam.

This book was enjoyable on two levels for me. It gave me a huge amount of information to process re: Carr and why he seemingly vaporized professionally. It also provided an interesting picture of the '70's Hollywood style. It was so gossipy and tawdry that while I found it fascinating I also felt like I needed a shower after I finished reading it.

This book was well-written, well-constructed, and very heavily researched. I may hate Disco, but I really liked this book.