Book Review: Still Laughing-A Life in Comedy (From the Creator of “Laugh-In”) by George Schlatter as told to Jon Macks

The the iconic television show “Laugh-In” was a bit before my time, I knew the show was a classic and quite ground breaking. If it wasn’t for “Laugh-In” we might not have sketch comedy shows such as “Saturday Night Live,” “In Living Color,” and “Kids in the Hall.” “Laugh In” was created by George Schlatter. And now a youthful 93, Schlatter shares his story about “Laugh-In” and so much more in his memoir Still Laughing: A Life in Comedy from the Creator of “Laugh-In” as told to Jon Macks.

Before “Laugh-In” Schlatter started his show business career in one of the most Hollywood clichéd ways. He started out working in the mailroom at MCA in 1948. Sure, it was pretty low level, but not exactly boring, and Schlatter was able to work his way up. In fact, one of Schlatter’s first brushes with fame was when he met Frank Sinatra over a contract. What did old blue eyes say to the then very young Schlatter? “I have ties older than you.” Despite the age difference, Schlatter and Sinatra forged a strong friendship and worked on other show biz endeavors. In fact, Schlatter was asked to give an eulogy at Sinatra’s funeral.

Schlatter can also be credited with creating the Las Vegas lounge act and recalls working with some pretty unsavory mob characters while managing nightclubs and casinos. Through his work in Las Vegas, Schlatter was able to morph into working for television shows working with the greats like Lucille Ball and Judy Garland. Doing this work, producing shows and massaging the egos of the talent was a great education for Schlatter.

But of course, it is the “Laugh-In” that is one of Schlatter’s greatest achievements. It was 1967 when Schlatter came up with the idea of a comedy sketch show that was inspired by the hippie counter culture of the late sixties. Back then, sit-ins, be-ins, and love-ins were very popular, thus the name “Laugh-In.” “Laugh-In” manifested the social issues, politics, and sexual revolutions of that time, and gave all those things a comic twist.

“Laugh-In” became a huge hit. If the internet had existed back then people would have discussed it on social media and would have created blogs and fan pages about the show. “Laugh-In” launched the careers of mega watt stars like Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn (who provide the foreward and the afterword respectively in the book). The “Laugh-In” cast was a rag tag bunch of talented and funny people who made TV watchers across America laugh themselves silly. “Laugh-In” gave us such quotable lines like “Sock it to me!” Even President Richard Nixon spoke that famous line. Back then, having a politician on an entertaining TV show was quite revolutionary. Now it it seems to be mandatory that a Presidential candidate, whether a Democrat of a Republican, show up on a show like “Saturday Night Live.”

Schlatter gives us all the details on everything creating and producing “Laugh-In.” He describes auditioning the potential cast members to how he got a bare nipple past the censors. And “Laugh-In” was actual called “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.” Why? Well, back then Dan Rowan and Dick Martin were huge comedy stars and having celebrity names attached to the show would grab more viewers. It worked. And Schlatter spills some tea. Rowan and Martin hated each other.

“Laugh-In” wasn’t Schlatter’s only television baby. He also created the show “Real People.” “Real People” was probably one of the first reality TV shows. But instead of featuring bachelors and bachelorettes or real housewives ripping out each other’s hair extensions, “Real People” featured people who actually contributed to society like the Tuskegee Airman. I loved watching “Real People” as a kid, and by reading Still Laughing, I found out host Sarah Purcell wasn’t quite as prim as she appeared. As for another host, Byron Allen, whatever happened to him? I kid, I kid.

One continuous character in Schlatter’s life is is devoted and gorgeous wife, Jolene. Where many men in Hollywood are on their third, fourth, or fifth marriage, George and Jolene remain a true blue couple. I adored reading about their love story.

Still Laughing was a tremendous read. I loved all the name dropping and the inside of scoop of show business, working with celebrities, and creating iconic television shows. I’m so glad we still have a George Schlatter in our midst. His stories, and the stories of other old school TV greats who are still with us (Carol Burnett, Norman Lear, Dick Van Dyke) are so important. Still Laughing is an enlightening and fascinating read for anyone with memories of shows like “Laugh-In” or anyone interested in pop culture history.

I Read It So You Don’t Have To: Groupies by Sarah Priscus

“Josie, who’d be covered in blood on the bathroom tiles in nine months.”

This is the opening line to the novel Groupies by Sarah Priscus. And with an opening line like that, a total attention grabber, you would think Groupies would be an amazing read. Sadly, the opening line is the only part of this novel that I liked. From that moment, Groupies went severely downhill.

It’s the late 1970s, and main character, Faun Novak, has dropped out of Mount Holyoke and her mother has just died. Feeling a bit directionless, Faun moves out west to California to live with her high school best friend, Josie. Josie has a fledgling modeling career, and is dating Cal Holiday, the lead singer of the rock band Holiday Sun.

Faun quickly gets caught up in the sex, drugs, and rock and roll of being in Holiday Sun’s orbit. She also fancies herself as some type of photographer even though her “art” consists of taking mostly quick snaps with her Polaroid camera. To make some money to fund her rock and roll habit, Faun gets a job at a mall photo studio, but proves to be too lazy to develop any type of work ethic.

Wanting to be a photographer, you would think Faun would try to hone her skills, buy an actual professional SLR camera, study her craft, and learn how to navigate a dark room (remember this was the 1970s; digital photography was a long way off). But no, Faun would rather wing it with her Polaroid camera and somehow believes her amateurish snaps should be taken seriously by the rock and roll press. I seriously doubt magazines like Rolling Stone, Creem, and Circus would talk Faun seriously. But somehow she is considered a serious artiste by Holiday Sun and the local music scene.

There is a lot of drug taking and mindless casual sex in Groupies, but Josie and Cal seem to be a true blue couple. They even get married. But sadly, Cal is abusive towards Josie. And after Faun releases some photos of Josie in a less than favorable light, it leads towards a violent altercation between Josie and Cal, which is why Josie ends up covered in blood. But is it Josie or Cal who dies?

Who cares? By the time Groupies reaches its climax, I just didn’t care. Groupies is completely shallow and sleazy. It’s as if Priscus only watched Almost Famous a few times, and figured she knew everything about the rock and roll scene in 1970s Los Angeles. Yes, she’s a young author; she just graduated from college. But she should have put more research into writing Groupies. She makes no mention of the rising punk scene, and disco was a brief mention when she name drops Studio 54. Plus, I can assure you there were no Vietnam war protests or women wearing mini-skirts in the late 1970s. Believe me, I was there.

Plus, Faun is a charisma-free character who you can never root for, and she shows no growth throughout the novel. And it’s disgusting how she betrays Josie. Sure, I can understand the rock and roll excess of the 1970s, but it was never conveyed why Holiday Sun was the type of band people wanted to hang out with. They weren’t exactly the Rolling Stones.

In an age where vinyl is making a comeback, Groupies has all the relevance of a dusty 8-track found in the glove compartment of a Ford Pinto.

Book Review: Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau

It is the summer of 1975 and Mary Jane is 14 years old. She lives with her lawyer father and homemaker mother in an upscale Baltimore neighborhood. Shy, naïve, and lacking a huge group of friends, Mary Jane’s life consists of going to her parents upper crust country Waspy country club, attending church services and singing in the choir, listening to Broadway show tunes (rock and roll is verboten), and helping her mother make the nightly dinner. But Mary Jane’s life is about to go through a huge transformation in some major ways in Jessica Anya Blau’s superb novel Mary Jane.

Mary Jane procures a job acting as a nanny for the Dr. and Mrs. Cone’s daughter, Izzy. Because Dr. Cone is a psychiatrist and he and his family live in the neighborhood, Mary Jane’s mother assumes they are the “right people” so she initially has no problems with Mary Jane’s new job.

But the Cones couldn’t be any different the Mary Jane’s family. Whereas Mary Jane has grown up in a household with with rigid ideas and rules, the Cone family is free-spirited, raucous, and quite sloppy. Dr. Cone works from home, and though Mrs. Cone is a homemaker she doesn’t do a whole lot of homemaking. She doesn’t cook, the house is cluttered, and the refrigerator is filled with food that has seen better days. However, Mrs. Cone is kind, friendly, open-minded, and like her husband, clearly loves her daughter, Izzy. The Cone family makes Mary Jane feel completely welcome from the moment she enters their house.

The Cones are about to have some special guests at their house, Jimmy and Sheba. Jimmy is a mega rock star and Sheba is an actress who once had a top-rated TV show. Jimmy is a drug addict, and he and Sheba are hoping Dr. Cone can help Jimmy with his addiction and get back on the right path even though the 1970s was a time of debauchery. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll were truly a thing.

Though Mary Jane is sheltered, she is aware of Jimmy and Sheba and how famous they are. And she’s about to get a glimpse behind the curtain of glitter and glamour that is celebrity. She learns about what it’s like to deal with addiction, the intricacies of marriage (both Jimmy and Sheba’s and the Cones), and how to take care of a rambunctious, precocious, and clingy five-year-old like Izzy.

Mary Jane is also gets more acquainted with rock and roll, and she is even asked to sing along with Jimmy and Sheba, and they are impressed with her vocal talents. Despite being a bit nerdy, everyone is taken by Mary Jane. She brings some semblance of normalcy to the the lives of the Cones and Jimmy and Sheba. Mary Jane is devoted to Izzy. She also is a whiz in the kitchen, using her mom’s recipes to feed everyone.

Mary Jane continues to get an education while working for the Cones. Her world is changing from a strict black and white to a kaleidoscope of color. She begins to realize how rigid her home life is and is appalled over her parents thinly veiled anti-Semitism (Dr. Cone is Jewish) and racism (Mary Jane’s mom flips when her daughter is photographed with the gang at a record store in predominantly black neighborhood and it ends up in the local newspaper).

But Mary Jane also sees that just because Jimmy, Sheba, and the Cones aren’t totally square like her mom and dad doesn’t mean they are perfect as Jimmy falls off the wagon, adulterous acts are committed, and marriages aren’t always “until death do us part.” And maybe Mary Jane’s mother will prove to be not such a stick in the mud after all.

I absolutely loved this book. I found the characters richly drawn and as someone who is of Izzy’s generation, Generation X, I completely recognized the time and place of the mid 1970s, which Blau captures with utter perfection. Mary Jane was a character I rooted for, smart and sensible, but so willing to learn about different worlds. I also appreciated how Blau didn’t turn Mary Jane’s story into a cliché, getting hooked on drugs or getting seduced by either Jimmy or Dr. Cone. Mary Jane is a wonderfully original and entertaining coming-of-age story.

Book Review: The Words to Every Song by Liz Moore

Books about the music industry and show business can be tricky. Either an author has to do a lot of heavy research or he or she just tries to wing it, hoping one’s imagination will help fill out the pages of a book. But Liz Moore is a former musician turned writer. So she has a lot of inside knowledge and experience within the rarified world of the music industry and the people who make it tick, which may be why her novel, The Words of Every Song is such an insightful and compelling read.

The Words of Every Song is a collection of short stories that work out as a full novel. All of them intermingle (though many can stand on their own). This book tells the various tales of different people within the confines of the music industry in New York City. There is Jax Powers Kline, a high level executive at Titan Records, and her secretary, Cynthia, a failed musician nursing a broken heart. There is up and coming singer, Lenore Lamont, Cynthia’s former girlfriend who is touted the next big thing. (There’s a giant billboard of Lenore in Time’s Square promoting her soon-to-be released debut album). Tommy Mays is a seasoned rocker finding more solace with his devoted wife and their two daughters. On the other hand, one of his bandmates, Jeffrey, is nearly going insane, living in debauchery, banging underage groupies, and feeling soulless and empty.

Theo is the A & R guy, always on the hunt for the next great thing in music, and he’s hoping the latest band he signed, The Burn, will be the next great thing in music. At the helm of The Burn, is Siobhan, still mourning the death of Kurt Cobain and her late mother, gone too soon. There is Tony, the sound engineer, dealing with bands and musicians who are often too strung out to properly record their music. There is a budding girl group, Hype Girlz, dealing with a member who thinks she’s too fat to be a star and her demanding stage father. And then there is the music fan, Gregory, coming to grips with his homosexuality, believing his life would only be complete if he could meet his favorite rock star, Tommy Mays.

All the stories and the characters interweave seamlessly and come across as very true. Yes, there are clichés of rock and roll excess and corporate dirty tricks, but the characters show layers that make them compelling. Jax, usually in control, finds herself regressing when she visits her parents for her mother’s birthday. And Tommy, despite his jadedness, remains a devoted family man. He’s not sneaking off with giggling groupies. And I really liked the how Moore used the lyrics of various artists-Bruce Springsteen, PJ Harvey, Natalie Merchant, Billie Holiday, and The Cure at the beginning of each chapter.

Whether you’re fan of music and want to learn more about the industry, or just in search of good book, you can’t go wrong with The Words of Every Song.

Book Review: Anna-The Biography by Amy Odell

American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is probably one of the most powerful women in fashion and media. But despite her fame and influence, Wintour remains an enigma. Who is the woman behind the bobbed hair and dark sunglasses?

Fashion journalist, Amy Odell, whose book Tales from the Back Row: An Outsider’s View from Inside the Fashion Industry I reviewed last fall, also wanted to know more about the imposing and elusive Anna Wintour. And through incredibly thorough research and countless interviews, Odell delivers with Anna: The Biography.

Long before she became the editor-in-chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour was a young girl growing up in London. Her father was the editor of the newspaper, The Evening Standard so media was in Wintour’s blood. She also had a mad passion for fashion. Wintour just knew she had to combine fashion and media and make both her vocation.

Wintour moved to New York City when she was in her early twenties. She first worked at Harper’s Bazaar. She then procured jobs at magazines that are now defunct, including Viva, a Playgirl-like magazine that was found by Bob Guccione, Yes, the guy who gave us the nudie magazine Penthouse. Yes, Wintour worked on fashion layouts in a magazine that featured dicks. And after a briefly editing the British version of Vogue, Wintour was tapped to take over the American version of Vogue (and pushing out the sitting editor-in-chief of Vogue, Grace Mirabella).

Wintour’s first issue of Vogue was quite revolutionary when it comes to its cover in November of 1988. It featured model Michaela Bercu wearing a Christian Lacroix jacket with a pair of stonewashed denim jeans. Now a days, many fashionista combine high and low fashion, and designer streetwear featuring $1,000 hoodies is quite common. But nearly 35 years ago, this look was quite shocking. Readers knew Wintour would transform America’s fashion bible in many ways.

With Vogue, Wintour brought on two fashion icons, Grace Coddington and the late Andre Leon Talley. Vogue featured the top super models of the day, Naomi, Cindy, Linda, Christy (no last names needed). And later Vogue started using celebrities as cover models, something that is still a mainstay at Vogue. Vogue was simply the magazine to read for those in the fashion industry and its wannabes.

But things weren’t always rosy at Vogue with Wintour at the helm. Under Wintour’s helm, Vogue was often seen as too out of touch, and there was often accusations of racism within its ranks. A lot of people weren’t too happy with Wintour’s love of fur and featuring fur within the pages of Vogue. And to work at Vogue, one usually had to be tall, thin, rich, white, and come for the right family. Heck, Wintour even wanted Oprah to lose 20 pounds before she could be on the cover of Vogue-yes, Oprah!

During Wintour’s reign at Vogue, she’s gotten the reputation of being a bitchy ice queen, which seemed to be even more apparent with the release of the novel The Devil Wears Prada written by her former assistant, Lauren Weisberger. And of course, we can’t forge the delicious movie based on the novel which featured Meryl Streep as the Anna Wintour inspired Miranda Priestly. If Wintour was hurt by this book and the movie, she really doesn’t show it. She has much better things to do.

Another feather in Wintour’s couture cap is the Met Gala, which she transformed from a charity event to a major fashion event and showcase of celebrity, glamour, and opulence. For the uninitiated, The Meta Gala raised funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City.

Anna: The Biography also covers a personal side of Anna Wintour, including her marriages relationships and subsequent divorces and breakups, and her devotion to her two children, Charles and Katherine (nicknamed Bee). Wintour is now a doting grandmother and even changes diapers. Hopefully, she’s not getting poop on the Prada.

I loved Anna: The Biography. Those looking for a lot of gossip and bitchery will probably be disappointed. Odell humanizes Anna Wintour, showing the good and the bad. Anna: The Biography is a fascinating read and one I think fashionistas and anyone interested in mysterious, yet powerful public figures will probably love.

Book Review: Surrender-40 Songs, One Story by Bono

Single named rock and pop stars-Sting, Cher, Madonna- are rarely willing to stay in the background. They are often larger than life. And U2 frontman, Bono, is no different, despite being only 5;6″. There are many books about U2 front man Bono. Bono in Conversation by Michka Assayas is one of my favorites. But never has there been a book about Bono written by the man himself until now-Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. In Surrender, Bono tells his life story by using 40 different U2 songs for each chapter, songs that will be familiar to any U2 fan.

Bono was born Paul David Hewson on May 10, 1960 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, Bob, was Catholic, and his mother, Iris, was Church of Ireland Protestant. This may not sound like a big deal today, but in Ireland 60 years ago, a mixed marriage was monumental. But it may have also inspired Bono (who was raised in his mother’s faith) to build bridges among different religions, opinions, and ideas.

Sadly, tragedy visited the Hewson family when Bono was a mere 14 years old. His mother died of a stroke she suffered at the funeral of her own father. Bono mentions she was rarely spoken of again, and the Hewson household was of three very angry men who could not quite articulate and comfort themselves in Iris’s heartbreaking absence.

Bono was on a bad path when two major things occurred. He started dating his lovely wife Ali (they’ve been married for over 40 years!). And he joined a little rock group that became U2.

Bono tells of U2’s early days, long before sold out stadium concerts, platinum records, and trophy cases filled with Grammys. U2 really had to struggle to get a record deal and gigs. Bono even shows a rejection letter from one record label. Hmm, I bet that label is kicking themselves these days.

Of course, U2 have gone beyond being a hugely popular band. Whereas many rock stars are happy to top the charts, play sold out gigs, and bang a few groupies, U2, and especially Bono, wanted something more. They wanted to change the world. As many people know, Bono has been involved in activism back in the 1980s when he was involved with the Band Aid single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and the Live Aid mega concert on behalf of the Ethiopian people. For Bono, activism is a megaphone. He knows being a celebrity can bring attention to important causes. And Bono has been very involved with issues facing the African continent for a very long time, issues like the AIDS crisis, debt relief, and fair trade. Yes, Bono has some naysayers, but I believe he’s truly a very committed person. Bono doesn’t need to “Shut up, and sing.”

And yes, like with any celebrity, Bono is quite the name dropper in Surrender. He’s met a lot of famous folks over the years-Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, Nelson Mandela. He talks about the band befriending supermodels like Helena Christensen, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell (the latter being engaged to bassist Adam Clayton for a short time). But it was heartbreaking to learn about the tragic loss of one of his best mates, Michael Hutchence.

Let’s not forget; there is the personal side of Bono. Bono writes so highly of his lovely wife, Ali. And he’s a devoted father to his three children, Jordan, Eve, Elijah, and John. All of Bono and Ali’s children have turned out top notch, but Bono admits he always wasn’t a very present father between his work with U2 and his activism. But no matter what the Hewson family remains a team.

Throughout Surrender, Bono talks so lovingly of his U2 brothers, relaying stories that are both inspiring and some are that quite sad. U2 have faced their challenges, but remain strong. The way Bono writes about Larry, Adam, and the Edge is quiet heartfelt showing them as the humans they are.

Surrender is not a slim volume. It’s nearly 600 pages long. But this is Bono we’re talking about; he’s quite wordy and loquacious. And he has so much material to cover in his 60 plus years. However, I never felt bogged down while reading Surrender. I kept flipping from page to page wondering what Bono was going to say next.

I have to admit, being a U2 fan for decades, Bono’s life story is very familiar to me. But reading Bono’s life story in his own words is something else.

Reading to Reels: To Die For

Based on a novel by Joyce Maynard, with a script by Buck Henry, and directed by Gus Van Zant, To Die For combines dark comedy, traditional drama and “mockumentary” interviews to very entertaining results.

Nicole Kidman plays Suzanne Stone, a local cable weather girl with huge dreams of finding fame and fortune as the next Barbara Walters. What Suzanne lacks in talent and intelligence, she makes up for in manipulation and ruthlessness, and nothing, including her marriage, will get in her way.

The movie commences with Suzanne marrying Larry Moretto (Matt Dillon), the biggest catch in Little Hope, New Hampshire. It’s not certain why Suzanne falls for Larry other than she thinks his close Italian-American family has mob connections, which can help her achieve her goals. Larry is lovable, albeit a bit dim, and completely clueless to Suzanne’s calculating ways. All Larry wants to do is settle down in Little Hope, run the family restaurant and makes lots of babies with Suzanne.

Of course, Suzanne has different plans. Despite her lack of journalistic and television experience she’s able to charm a local cable TV manager in giving her a gofer job. She parlays this lowly position into a regular stint as a weather girl. It’s not long before she recruits some local teens in producing a subpar TV special called “Teens Speak Out.” Jimmy (Joaquin Phoenix), Russell (Casey Affleck) and Lydia (Alison Folland) are the hardly the type-A achievers you’d expect on a teen-oriented TV show. They’re inarticulate and not good students, but apparently being in awe of Suzanne is the only job requirement necessary.

Larry gets a bit fed up with Suzanne’s ambitions and tells her it’s time to get busy with making babies. But Suzanne will have none of this. She tells her mother-in-law that being pregnant on TV is a career killer. Oh, if only Suzanne had waited a decade or so. Today, baby bumps and stupidly named off-spring are the “must have” for any celebrity. You can even become famous for simply having kids.

Suzanne realizes Larry, and his meddling family, is getting in her way of achieving TV success. There is only one thing she can do, recruit Jimmy, Russell and Lydia in bumping off her husband. Now having an affair with the devious, yet seductive Suzanne, Jimmy does the deadly deed. This local murder becomes national news making Suzanne the “star” she always desired and she revels in her tabloid notoriety. Not surprisingly, the hapless Jimmy is not so lucky.

However, Larry’s family is very wise to Suzanne’s scheming ways and they make sure Suzanne gets her comeuppance. The mousy Lydia, who Suzanne disdained as “white trash,” tells her story in a television interview and becomes famous in her own right.

Every performance in To Die For is near perfection. Matt Dillon is very good as a man who’s happy to have the prettiest girl in town but really wants the homebound hausfrau. Illeana Douglas as Larry’s sister Janice is dryly sarcastic and figures out Suzanne’s BS early on in the game. Both Phoenix and Affleck show a great deal of promise early in their careers in their respective roles.

But To Die For is truly Nicole Kidman’s film. With Kidman’s acting chops, Suzanne Stone is hugely self-absorbed but not very self-aware. Her calculation and cunning is as transparent as a plate of glass, but her telegenic beauty and media-savvy charm succeeds in drawing you closer. Despite ourselves, we want Suzanne Stone to be in front of the camera. Kidman won a very deserved Golden Globe for her portrayal of Suzanne Stone. She is simply a bewitching mix of evil and charisma, and Suzanne Stone is a person we recognize in everything from reality TV to national politics (ahem, or both).

Both the film and the novel were inspired by Pamela Smart, a teacher and wannabe TV personality who convinced a young man to kill her husband. But instead of telling this story straight, the film takes a very satirical look at our obsession with celebrity, fame and notoriety. Merely entertaining when it was released over ten years ago, in our celebrity-entrenched culture, To Die For is a pointed take on a very interesting phenomenon, the desperate need for fame at any cost.

Retro Review: Fabulous Nobodies by Lee Tulloch

Imagine a time before reality television and social media influencers. Imagine a time when the likes of Carrie Bradshaw and her coterie of sex and fashion obsessed pals were merely a gleam in Candace Bushnell’s eyes. It’s the late 1980s. New York City is teaming with the hippest and hottest clubs-Danceteria, Palladium, Limelight, and Club 57. The clubs are teeming with the young, hip, and fashionable, many of them yearning to be famous.

One of these people is Reality Nirvana Tuttle (yes, her mother is a hippie). In Lee Tulloch’s 1989 novel, Fabulous Nobodies, Reality is currently working as a “door whore” at lower Manhattan’s latest, hippest club, Less is More. Reality’s job is to only allow people in the club who meet her exacting standards. They must have the best style and a unique flair.

Reality is only 20 years old. She escaped her upper New York small town and her mother’s hippie lifestyle to live among the coolest people she can find in New York City. Her friend, Phoebe Johnson emulates Audrey Hepburn and is the junior shoe editor at “Perfect Woman” magazine. Freddie Barnstable is a transvestite (transgender by today’s vernacular). Freddie is always on the hunt for the perfect fashion find and has a dog named Balenciaga. And then there is Hugo Falk, a gossip columnist with the magazine “Frenzee.”

Reality lives for fashion, and has a collection of designer frocks that she has named after famous people and characters-Petula Clark, Gina Lollabrigida, and so on. Not only does she have a collection of designer frocks, Reality also talks to these frocks as if they are cherished friends. However, there is something missing from her clothes closet, and that’s a Chanel suit. How Reality can afford her designer duds is never fully explained. She can’t make much money as a door whore at Less is More. But there is talk of her shopping at some vintage stores that dot her Manhattan neighborhood.

Reality has another desire. She wants to be famous? But how do you got about this before a time of reality show stars like the Kardashians or taking up precious internet space as a fashion influencer? Reality figures she can cozy up to Hugo Falk and he’ll write about her for his column in “Frenzee.”

But of course, things don’t go quite smoothly. Reality loses her job at Less is More when she doesn’t recognize Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and denies her entry into the club. Completely forlorn and at a loss, Reality is convinced by Freddie that they should turn their apartments into a club. Despite this probably being illegal, they turn their apartments into a club, which attracts the fabulous and fabulous adjacent.

Other things happen, too. Reality’s friendship with Phoebe is tested. Reality finds the elusive Chanel suit of her dreams, but is a Chanel suit really her? Reality acquires an admirer/stalker named Brooke. A bit of a mishap occurs while people are partying at her and Freddie’s club, which really puts a damper on things.

And then Hugo interviews and writes a piece about Reality for “Frenzee” magazine. Unfortunately, this feature on Reality isn’t exactly flattering, and a very weird encounter with Hugo jostles Reality a wee bit.

In the end, Fabulous Nobodies is a satirical look at a very specific time. Reality never shows much growth as a character, but then again she’s only 20. I was left wondering where Reality would be in the 2020s. She’d now be in her fifties. Would she have gotten married, left Manhattan for the suburbs, had a bunch of kids, and was just an average middle aged woman with a crazy past? Would she have become a fashion influencer, showing off her frocks and interviewing them on her Instagram page? Would she have ended up on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City?” Who knows? But Fabulous Nobodies certainly showcases the huge desire people have for being famous no matter what…and the perfect Chanel suit, of course.

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

In Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl (not at all related to the musical and movie of the same name), Barbara Parker has just been crowned Miss Blackpool. But the tiara won’t stay on her head for long. Instead of being a beauty queen, Barbara wants to be a famous comedic actress like her idol Lucille Ball. But this isn’t going to happen in a town in north England in 1964.

Rejecting the crown and the title, Barbara leaves Blackpool and moves to London where everything is happening and she hopes she’ll become a successful and famous actress, the British Lucille Ball. Barbara soon gets a job at a department store cosmetics counter (where the store always puts the pretty girls) and lives with one of her co-workers, Marjorie, in a dumpy bedsit.

Being the gorgeous lass she is, Barbara gets a lot of attention. And during a night on the town, Barbara meets talent agent Brian Debenham. Don’t worry. Brian isn’t some sleazebag with nefarious designs on Barbara. He’s truly legit.

Proving to be more than a pretty face, Barbara convinces Brian she has the talent and drive to be a comedic actress. Barbara auditions for a sitcom that ultimately gets named Barbara (and Jim). She is cast as Barbara and her name is changed to Sophie Straw. And we learn making a sitcom is no easy task. The writers, Tony and Bill, agonize over the scripts like its brain surgery.

Barbara (and Jim) becomes a huge hit and Sophie becomes a big star. The media wants to interview her, women want to be her, and men want to get into her knickers. Sophie even gets engaged to her co-star, Clive, though it’s not meant to be. But don’t fret. Sophie does find love, and has a long marriage. She also tries to prove herself as an actress and a women at a time just before second wave feminism. And as Funny Girl ends, Sophie is older and considered an icon of British television.

Funny Girl also conveys England changing from the staid, uptight post-war 1950s to the more fun, adventurous swinging 1960s. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones are name dropped. The sexual revolution is gaining steam, but homosexuality is still considered a crime. Some gay men do marry women and have children and others are on the downlow having secretive trysts.

Nick Hornby is usually a writer that delivers. His books High Fidelity and About a Boy are classics. But Funny Girl just falls flat. Hornby does the writerly sin of telling not showing. We are told Barbara/Sophie is a laugh riot, but I barely got a chuckle out of this book, let alone a full belly laugh. Funny Girl promised so much yet doesn’t deliver. You’re better off watching the 1968 film Funny Girl featuring another Barbra, Barbra Streisand.

Book Review: The Overnight Socialite by Bridie Clark

Meet Lucy Jo Ellis. When she moved from a small town in Minnesota to New York City, she had big dreams. She wanted to be a successful fashion designer with her clothing showcased on the runway and in fashion magazines like Vogue. Sadly, she’s working for harridan designer, cutting patterns, and struggling to survive.

Now meet Wyatt Hayes the IV. Wyatt is a wealthy man about town from an old-money family. He’s just broken up with Cornelia Rockwood, a high society rich girl who fancies the idea of becoming a big celebrity. Wyatt also fancies himself as an anthropologist (he does have a Ph.D in anthropology) who tells his best friend, Trip, he can transform any woman of lowly birth to a glamorous and respectful doyenne of the rich and richer.

As Lucy and Wyatt meet, Lucy has had a horrible night. She just lost her job with the designer due to a very unfortunate incident, and she’s just had her cab ride stolen. She’s caught up in a downpour and contemplating moving back to Minnesota when Wyatt offers to make her into the toast of the town. At first, Lucy is insulted. But the more she thinks about it, she wonders if getting this makeover will help her connect with the right people and get her fashion career back on track. As for Wyatt, well, he has some rather nefarious plans. He wants to use this little experiment to write about and perhaps set the high society he grew up in on its ear.

Lucy has to go through several transformations to reach A-List status. The first is her name. Despite knowing people named Topsy, Libet, and Binkie, Wyatt considered Lucy Jo to be low class. So she is named Lucia Haverford Ellis, Lucy for short. Wyatt helps her create a background story that belies her upbringing by a single mom in Minnesota. Lucy is also put through a strict regiment of diet and exercise so she can fit into size two designer frocks. Lucy also has to learn certain sensibilities of the upper crust and is put through several arduous tasks. Wyatt hopes all of this will pay off when Lucy is presented at the highly regarded Fashion Forum Ball.

No dummy or slouch, Lucy catches on quickly and becomes the delight of New York society, getting her name mentioned in print media and blogs that cover the rich and famous. Along for the ride is Trip’s girlfriend, Eloise, who is a top notch fashion stylist. Eloise gives Lucy the ins and outs of acceptable haute couture. Despite their dissimilar backgrounds, they develop a true friendship. Eloise encourages Lucy’s fashion design aspirations and Lucy gets busy designing many stunning frocks while also keeping a full calendar of engagements.

Of course, not everybody loves Lucy. Cornelia (that bitch on Jimmy Choo heels) is spitting mad that Lucy has usurped her in the social pecking order and she starts sleuthing Lucy’s past. She couldn’t possibly be the “real thing,” could she? And Wyatt’s mother isn’t too thrilled with her son using Lucy as some type of experiment. What if Lucy finds out she’s essentially a pawn in Wyatt’s life? And what if Lucy and Wyatt have feelings for each other?

Just as things get heated and Lucy is to attend the Fashion Forum Ball, her mother Rita comes into town. Lucy is horrified. Rita hasn’t always been a good mother to Lucy, and Lucy fears her mother may out her as Lucy Jo Ellis not Lucia Haverford Ellis. And there’s also talk in the media that the Lucy the upper crust knows and loves isn’t quite what she seems.

The Overnight Socialite is a delightful frothy read. It reminds me a lot of the musical My Fair Lady. And like Eliza Doolittle, Lucy Jo Ellis is a character you just want to root for. And I loved how supportive most of the Manhattan blue bloods were towards her. Sure, Lucy was born with a plastic spork in her mouth, not a silver spoon. But she’s kind, smart, and talented, and those qualities should be lauded. Though Wyatt sees Lucy as an anthropology experiment, he grows incredibly fond of Lucy. The Overnight Socialite is also filled with name dropping and gossip of celebrities, fashion designers, and highest of Manhattan society. And though it does end a bit abruptly, The Overnight Socialite leaves you with wanting more. I think a sequel is definitely needed. Do Lucy and Wyatt end up together? Does Lucy end up a successful fashion designer? Does Cornelia fall into a volcano? Bridie Clark, please write that sequel!