Book Review: Hollywood and Me by Bernie Rothman

Hollywood and Me: My Wild Ride Through the Golden Age of Television by Bernie Rothman never quite lives up to its title. The subtitle is flat-out deceptive. I'll leave aside my objections to his tamely written "wild ride" and focus instead on the "Golden Age of Television," which usually refers to roughly the 1950s. This book apparently self-defines it as the period when Rothman was working in television, in a career that spanned the 1960s to '90s.

The front-page blurb goes on to explain that the book reveals "tales of my time with Jack Benny, Danny Kaye, Rudolph Nureyev, George Burns, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, and many more." Some of those names barely appear in short anecdotes that don't rate a mention on the cover, except to inject some star power, of course.

In the introduction, Rothman writes:

This is not a memoir. ... Only famous people write memoirs, because people want to read them. Publishers aren't stupid, you know. So if a memoir is what you're expecting, read no further. This isn't one.

Of course it's a memoir. The fact that Rothman isn't a household name is exactly the reason for the hyperbole of the front cover, the redefining of TV's golden age, the name dropping of people who barely appear on the pages inside. Publishers aren't stupid, you know.

Rothman's career began as a writer low on the food chain, and moved up to executive producer on various television specials. Highlights given space in Hollywood and Me include The Danny Kaye Show, The Judy Garland Show, specials featuring Liberace, Diana Ross, and skater Elizabeth Manley, and a Humanitas-award-winning TV movie about autism, Son-Rise. He also won Emmy awards for producing the specials Danny Kaye's Look-in at the Metropolitan Opera and the Julie Andrews-Rudolph Nureyev starring Festival of the Lively Arts.

Hollywood and Me is more the story of the "me" than the "Hollywood." For one thing, to be literal-minded, Rothman talks about his career in Canadian television, with pit stops in Australia and England, as much as in American TV.

We learn of Rothman's privileged Montreal upbringing, where he went to summer camp with lifelong friend Leonard Cohen, who also appears in the book as an anecdote or two. After following his father into the tailoring business, Rothman realizes his real love is the theatre, where he becomes a producer before entering the more stable - but not actually stable - world of television.

Article Author: Diane Kristine Wild

Diane writes about boring things by day, pop culture things by night. She also runs the TV, Eh? website, a compilation of news about Canadian television. Follow her on Twitter @deekayw for more random thoughts.

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