"Starflacker: Inside the Golden Age of Hollywood" recounts over 60 years of working with the biggest names in film.
By Jimy Tallal / Thursday, October 22, 2015 2:00 pm
What do Cary Grant, Paul Newman, Audrey Hepburn, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis and at least 200 other big names in Hollywood have in common? They've all had Dick Guttman as their publicist - the longtime Malibu resident who has now spent over 60 years in "fame management," as he called it, and still maintains a full roster of A-list clients and a Beverly Hills office.
As a publicist, Guttman got to know many of his famous clients on a personal level that most fans could only dream about, spending time together on location, in hotels, and driving to interviews, photo shoots, and other publicity events. For years, his friends kept asking him when he was going to write a book about all of his great stories. He was finally motivated to do it when his former mentor, Warren Cowan, passed away in 2008.
"I wrote the book to let people know what it felt like when Hollywood was Hollywood," Guttman said. "Stardom in the Golden Age of Hollywood exists no more. PR was focused on building stars rather than exploiting them. The stardoms we polished were national treasures, and Hollywood has lost its ability to generate such legends. Promotion is often 140 characters on Twitter now.
"The industry's purpose is no longer to create great stardoms," Guttman observed. "Stars had mystery, stature and staying power, and Hollywood publicists were an important part of that. Stars had such big, real-life personalities that they justified the public's interest in them."
The book, which he describes as a "confessional memoir" and "bedside reader for people who love movies," recounts story after story of Guttman's interactions and friendships with all the big name stars. His entertaining anecdotes are interspersed with tales of how he got into publicity, and his own insights and observations about the profession.