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

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Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr Pub. Date: 3/2/2010 Publisher: Da Capo Press

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Party Animals Pub. Date: 10/8/2010 Publisher: ReadHowYouWant, LLC

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Overview

Allan Carr Was Hollywood's Premier Party-Thrower during the town's most hedonistic era-the cocaine-addled, sexually indulgent 1970s. Hosting outrageous soirees with names like the Mick Jagger/Cycle Sluts Party and masterminding such lavishly themed opening nights as the Tommy/New York City subway premiere, it was Carr, an obese, caftan-wearing producer-the ultimate outsider-who first brought movie stars and rock stars, gays and straights, Old and New Hollywood together.

From the stunning success of Grease and La Cage aux folles to the spectacular failure of the Village People's Can't Stop the Music, Carr's was a rollercoaster of a career punctuated by major hits and phenomenal flops-none more disastrous than the Academy Awards show he produced featuring a tone-deaf Rob Lowe serenading Snow White, a fiasco that made Carr an outcast, and is still widely considered to be the worst Oscars ever.

Tracing Carr's excess-laden rise and tragic fall-and sparing no one along the way-Party Animals provides a sizzling, candid, behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood's most infamous period.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Hofler, senior editor at Variety magazine, embarks on a sex- and camp-fueled romp through the outrageous life of Hollywood producer and impresario Allan Carr (1937–1999). Eschewing the conventional biography model, Hofler instead chronicles Carr’s lavish parties and equally audacious film work. Openly gay, Carr threw some of the entertainment industry’s most memorable shindigs in the 1970s—including the Rudolf Nureyev mattress party and the Truman Capote jail house party, held at the decommissioned Lincoln Heights Jail in L.A. A longtime theater fan, Carr, in his role as producer, brought the Who’s rock opera Tommy to the screen, as well as Grease, which became the top-grossing movie musical of all time. But for all his achievements, Carr had an equal number of disastrous flops: the Village People–inspired Can’t Stop the Music, Grease 2, and the much-reviled 1989 Oscar ceremony that saw Rob Lowe serenading Snow White in front of a replica of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub. Though Carr’s enthusiasm is infectious, Hofler never fully captures the man behind the glitz and glamour, leaving readers not wholly satisfied. B&w photos. (Mar.)

Library Journal

Hofler (The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Wilson), a senior editor at Variety, revisits 1970s–80s Hollywood via Allan Carr, whose name was then synonymous with excess. He produced Grease and the musical La Cage aux Folles, in addition to promoting Tommy. Carr's parties were legendary—e.g., the circus-themed party to introduce the leather-clad heavy metal band the Cycle Sluts and one held in a jail, which Truman Capote attended—and they brought together movie stars and rock stars, gay and straight. But in the 1990s, Carr's star descended, and he became persona non grata in Hollywood. He produced what was considered the worst Oscar ceremony ever (remember Rob Lowe singing to Snow White?), and his Village People musical, Can't Stop the Music, was his downfall. VERDICT Despite Carr's flamboyant life, Hofler's delivery is too dry to broaden the appeal of this book beyond nostalgic baby boomers.—Rosellen Brewer, Sno-Isle Libs., Marysville, WA

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Kirkus Reviews

Variety senior editor Hofler (The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson, 2005, etc.) presents the gaudy career of flamboyant Hollywood and Broadway producer Allan Carr (1937-1999), a strong contender for the most tasteless tyro in show business. Caftan-clad, morbidly obese and publicly gay in an era when, even in the entertainment industry, flaunting one's homosexuality was still very much taboo, Carr cut a curious figure among the beautiful people of Hollywood. He cultivated an outrageous public persona and marshaled his gifts for promotion to create a series of extravagantly themed parties that brought together old-school Hollywood royalty, rock musicians and the gay demimonde in sybaritic soirees with names like "The Mick Jagger Cycle Sluts Party." The parties were hits, but as a producer, Carr's record was rather mixed. His sensibilities synched up perfectly with the stage musical Grease, and he shepherded the massively successful film adaptation in 1978. Lightning struck again with his Broadway musical adaptation of the French farce La Cage aux Folles (1983), a long-running hit that also broke boundaries in bringing its gay subject matter to a mainstream theater audience. But Carr's debit column is a doozy, containing the legendarily tacky and inept Village People vehicle Can't Stop the Music (1980) and gauche cinematic non-events Grease 2 (1982) and Where the Boys are '84. Most damning, though, was the 1989 Academy Awards broadcast, a fiasco of epic proportions that reached its nadir with a tone-deaf Rob Lowe warbling "Proud Mary" to Snow White. The Oscars telecast effectively ended Carr's career, and the ailing producer retreated to hispleasure palace of a house and succumbed to his chronic health problems, ultimately dying of liver cancer. Does this tawdry legacy warrant a book? That's debatable, but Hofler delivers a hell of a tour of Hollywood egotism, crassness and gross excess. Carr would have approved. Fast-paced, funny and occasionally horrifying portrait of a compulsive personality and the culture of excess that both created and destroyed him. Agent: Eric Myers/Joseph Spieler Agency

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780306816550
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Publication date: 3/2/2010
Pages: 344
Sales rank: 547,283
Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

Robert Hofler is a senior editor at Variety and author of The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson and Variety’s “The Movie that Changed My Life.” He was previously an editor at Buzz, Life, and Us magazines. He lives in Los Angeles.

Introduction: And the Phone Rang vii

1 Ingrid, Kim, Allan 1

2 Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Ambition 16

3 Three-Piece-Suit Negotiations 25

4 Sluts'Night Out 28

5 Capote's Retreat 32

6 Survival Techniques 38

7 B'way's Bastard Child 47

8 High School Confidential 53

9 It's Pepsi-Cola Time 63

10 Only Half the Phone Book 73

11 Grease on Track 78

12 Oscar's First Consultant 87

13 His Second Biggest Mistake 92

14 Can't Stand the Music 105

15 Mike Todd Jr., 118

16 The Queen and I 129

17 Why Grease Again? 136

18 Big B'way Babies 140

19 Diller's Curse 144

20 Make It a Croissant 148

21 Spring Breakdown 154

22 Mickey & Judy Time 161

23 Here Come the Cagelles! 166

24 Choreographed Chaos 177

25 Goya, Goya, Gone 190

26 What He Prayed For 198

27 Proud Mary 206

28 Snow Blight 224

29 Death by Oscar 236

Epilogue: No Second Acts 249

Acknowledgments 257

Bibliography 259

Notes 265

Index 293

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Anonymous

Posted April 22, 2012

Nawty room

Dont get too carried away.... J3T
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Anonymous

Posted April 21, 2012

PARTY LIKE A RCOK STAR!!!!

AT AWESOME PARTY LEAST EXPENSIVE RESULT!!! PLZ COME IT WILL BE AWESOME!!!!!!!
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Anonymous

Posted March 3, 2012

To lmfaostar

Did u post that in every book?
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Anonymous

Posted February 27, 2012

To post beneath me.

Your name is retarded.
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Anonymous

Posted February 18, 2012

REDBLOSSOMCLAN TERRITORY

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