The Kid Stays in the Picture (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Major movie producer Evans, self-described "bad boy of Hollywood," sums up his lifelong personal style succinctly in his memoir's last line: "Resolve: Fuck 'em, fuck 'em all..." Chronicling his high-drama life, Evans paints a riveting, self-promoting picture of his 30-year career in the film industry, from his 1956 debut in Man of a Thousand Faces to his lengthy stint, beginning in 1967, as the head of Paramount Pictures, where he oversaw the production of such cinematic hits as Barefoot in the Park; The Odd Couple; Goodbye, Columbus; Harold and Maude; Rosemary's Baby; The Godfather; Love Story; and Chinatown. In a predictably confident, often feisty tone, Evans describes his rise, fall and what he calls his recent return to the upper echelons of Tinseltown power, as he recalls personal encounters with, and memories of, such show-biz brand names as Errol Flynn, James Cagney, Jack Nicolson, Mia Farrow, Mike Todd, Francis Ford Coppola and two of his wives, Ali MacGraw and Phyllis George. Offering a real insider's view of Hollywood, Evans's memoir is easily worth the price of admission.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE RELEASE SUMMER, 2002

The fascinating rise, fall and rise again of legendary producer Robert Evans. This is one life story you'll never forget: a kid actor in New york on radio plays...popularizing "women in pants" at Evan-Picone...being discovered poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel by Norma Shearer...becoming the first actor to ever run a motion picture studio...reviving the moribund Paramount Pictures...overseeing production of Love Story, The Godfather, Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, The Odd Couple...marriage to golden girl Ali McGraw and birth of son Joshua...long friendships with Nicholson, Beatty, and Hoffman....disgrace and drugs...the Cotton Club scandal...self-commitment and escape from a mental institution...and an eventual triumphant return to the catbird seat. An extraordinary raconteur, Evans spares no one least of all himself, on this legendary no-holds-barred Hollywood journey.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: New Millennium Press (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893224686
• ISBN-13: 978-1893224681
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #767,740 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much more entertaining than it has a right to be!, May 29, 2001

By	Robert Wellen (CHICAGO, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Kid Stays in the Picture (Paperback)

Bob Evans. What a guy. I must admit I loved this book. It is pure gossip and not exactly Dickens. But, Evans is completely honest and his own harshest critic. He tells fantastic stories (was there a woman in Hollywood he did not date between 1950 and 1980?). He takes responsiblity for the many, many mistakes in his life and spins fantastic yarns. Toward the end, it can be a bit annoying reading about how once again, he made the right choice and get railroaded by justice, but at the same time, you care about him. Those amazingly honest stories (particularly about his destruction of his marriages--the story on Phyllis George is a hoot) make the book even more interesting. A must read for film fans and anyone interested in one of our more fascinating Americans. Who else would tell stories about Jack, Warren, and Henry Kissinger? It ends in 1994, before his stroke and bizarre 10 day marriage to Catherine Oxenberg (and his highly medicore movies of the last 7 years or so); but that is nomatter. You'll want to hang at Woodland with Evans by the end. You might even be using "the kid stays in the picture" as your own mantra. Then again, maybe not. Just find a copy and read it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Roller-Coaster Life of a Legendary Hollywood Producer., June 22, 2004

By	mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

In "The Kid Stays in the Picture", legendary movie producer Robert Evans tells the story of his tumultuous but undeniably exciting life. The son of a Harlem dentist, a teenaged playboy, Evans was the man who put women in pants -Evan Piccone pants- before he ever set foot in Hollywood. A chance meeting by the pool at the Beverly Hill Hotel in 1956 made him a hot young actor. 10 years later, the failed actor without even a high school diploma was head of production at Paramount Pictures. Under Evans' reign, Paramount went from dead last number nine to the top studio in Hollywood, producing some of the 1970s most memorable films: "Rosemary's Baby", "Chinatown", and "The Godfather", and "The Odd Couple". Then things got bad. Then things got worse. But Robert Evans remains in the picture in Hollywood.

Robert Evans' account of his personal and professional up and downs strikes me as an honest one. He certainly doesn't spare himself criticism or hide his faults. He was a good producer and a terrible businessman. He was blessed with extraordinary luck, a lot of talent, and a gambler's lack of discipline. Like most autobiographers, Evans takes this opportunity to blast his enemies and praise his friends. Francis Ford Coppola is on the receiving end of Evans' wrath. Considering that Evans knew everybody who was anybody in Hollywood at one time, and considering the length of this book, I'm surprised he doesn't blast more people. -Well, he does, but not as thoroughly. The only criticism I have of Evans' writing style is that he doesn't include many dates. Evans doesn't tell his life story in chronological order. It reads well and is easy to understand. But trying to place the events in order in one's mind can be difficult. If he mentioned the year every time he changed subjects, it would have been helpful. As he states in the book's preface, "There are three sides to every story: yours...mine...and the truth." "The Kid Stays in the Picture" is Robert Evans' life as he experienced it. It's entertaining, enlightening, and a must-read for anyone interested in Hollywood of the 1970s.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's just so awful, it's terrific!, March 28, 2004

By	L Goodman-Malamuth "Leslie Goodman-Malamuth" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Kid Stays in the Picture (Hardcover)

Robert Evans is the baddest boy in Hollywood, and if there's a shred of reticence or shame in his personality, he's keeping it well-hidden. If you like celebrity dish and are not offended by the flagrant vulgarity of Evans' self-told tales, there isn't a Tinseltown story better than this one.

If Evans was assigned a copy editor to work over the manuscript, he or she must have simply thrown up their hands and let him rip. This stream-of-semi-consciousness story runs away like an eighteen-wheeler with no brakes.

Unlike Julia Phillips, whose memoir, "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again," spits acid in the faces in practically everyone but herself, Evans isn't particularly nasty about other people. His most unspeakable stories are told about himself, as though he can't bear to share the spotlight--not surprising, considering how tiny and unremarkable his career as an actor turned out to be. (Life most closely imitates art when Evans plays the caddish Dexter Key in the film version of Rona Jaffe's "The Best of Everything." In the book--though not in the movie, heavens, not in the '50s!--Dexter takes his bewildered small-town sweetheart to a New Jersey abortionist in a limousine. He's just that Evansy kind of guy.)

Evans is unabashedly proud of his many, many lapses from grace, both professional and personal. The only tedium in "The Kid Stays in the Picture" comes from his (yawn) innumerable sexual conquests, which all sound the same after awhile. Leaf past those and focus on Evans' rise to preeminence as a producer in the film industry in the '70s, making some of its very best movies, including "Chinatown" and "The Godfather."

In Dominick Dunne's novel, "An Inconvenient Woman," the coke-snorting, career-in-a-tailspin producer Casper Stieglitz is reportedly based on Evans. However, Evans didn't really have a toupee for each day of the month, with lengths ranging from just-barbered to needs-a-haircut. "I made that part up," Dunne said. But after reading "The Kid Stays in the Picture," Evans' excesses appear so legendary that one is forced to admit that Dunne's little fib might just as well have been true.

Part of my weakness for this lusciously tacky book comes from the fact that the copy I own used to belong to Peter Bogdanovich. His name is rubber-stamped all over it, and the flyleaf bears Evans' lavish inscription, "Peter-- Let's make magic together!" The dealer who sold it to me said that Bogdanovich unloaded his library during one of the many times that he ran short of ready cash.

Just another Hollywood story. But even in paperback, this book is a substance-free indulgence, unless you're in a twelve-step program declaring that you are powerless against the temptation to read trash. "The Kid Stays in the Picture" is a no-cal, fat-free, smokeless treat.