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Luck and Circumstance
A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond
1 of 1 copy available
Lindsay-Hogg’s father, an English baronet from a family whose money came from the China trade, lived in Ireland and was rarely seen by his son. The author’s stepfather was the scion of the Isidor Straus fortune, co-owner of R. H. Macy’s; Straus went down with the Titanic, and the author’s stepfather was, alas, fortune-less.
The author's mother, Geraldine Fitzgerald, the redheaded Irish seductress who won instant acclaim as Bette Davis’s best friend in Dark Victory and in William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights, spent time with Hollywood’s elite—Laurence Olivier, Charles Chaplin, and Orson Welles, with whom she worked in New York at the Mercury Theater and in other productions.
Lindsay-Hogg writes of how he wented his way into this exotic, mysterious, and seductive world, encountering as a small boy the likes of Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst, playing hide-and-seek with Olivia de Havilland, serving drinks to Humphrey Bogart, discussing life with Henry Miller.
At the book’s center, an offhand comment made to Lindsay-Hogg by his mother, when he was sixteen, about talk circulating (false, she claimed) that she had had a romantic relationship with Orson Welles (Fitzgerald and Welles had lived together at his home in Beverly Hills) and that Welles, rumor had it, was Michael’s father (“It’s not true,” she said. “You know how people put two and two together and get three . . .”).
That was the end of the conversation. (“It’s time for bed . . . You have school in the morning . . .” she said.) For Lindsay-Hogg, it opened up a whole new realm of his life. He was forever changed by the knowing—of not knowing.
Interwoven throughout his narrative is the element of questioning who his father was. Was he the patron saint of American pictures, the legendary genius of the twentieth century, Orson Welles, a consistently inconsistent person in Michael’s life . . . or was he the man who considered himself Michael’s real father? What did his “father” know? What did Welles know? And what did his mother know to be true (she had brought the author up to believe that she always told the truth)? And when would she tell her son what the truth was . . .
As Lindsay-Hogg struggled to make sense of it all, questions of missed chances, conversations never had, questions of what is withheld and what is true took root, dogging him, shaping his life . . . questions still, that haunt and inform this moving, deft, and illuminating memoir.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 27, 2011 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780307701497
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780307701497
- File size: 5275 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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August 15, 2011
Lindsay-Hogg , whose mother was actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, delivers an entertaining view of his film and theatrical experiences, as he tells his childhood as a search for truth and answers, “with twists and feints and clues” against familial “lies and deception.” His mother, who appeared in both film (Wuthering Heights, Dark Victory) and on stage (notably at Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre) was, as Lindsay-Hogg describes, a seductress who had affairs with Robert Capa and Henry Miller, and married Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg and Stuart “Boy” Scheftel. Driven by ambition, Lindsay-Hogg at age 24 directed 1960’s England’s music program Ready, Steady, Go, and later recorded videos for rock and roll bands like the Beatles (“Let it Be”) and the Rolling Stones. He offers clever accounts of directing TV’s Brideshead Revisited (casting, locations, script work, and working with such actors as Jeremy Irons) and on Broadway (Whose Life Is It Anyway? and Agnes of God with Tom Conti and Geraldine Page). Questions of rumored paternity haunt him—the possibility that Orson Welles was more than a mentor is lastly revealed by socialite Gloria Vanderbilt, once his mother’s confidante. The book is both a story of a boy’s pursuit for honesty and a talent finding his own way to fame -
July 15, 2011
A famous director recalls his boyhood and working life as the son of the beautiful Warner Brother's movie star Geraldine Fitzgerald.
At age 15, Lindsay-Hogg knew exactly what he wanted out of life. Following his first stint in the theater in 1956, when he spoke one line in The Taming of the Shrew, he set his sights on a career in theater, film and television. After querying his mother on possible stage names, she casually mentioned how some people thought Orson Welles was his real father. His mother denied it, but just enough to create a mysterious script for the author's life. True to his dream, the author forged a career in the entertainment world where recurring hints of his connection to Welles resurfaced at odd times during his life. In the '60s, he directed a British rock 'n' roll show and developed an unusual technique for filming the bands. He went on to work with many of the greats, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Supremes. Lindsay-Hogg began working for BBC television during the '70s, "working with the stars of the time on dramas written by equally stellar playwrights." The author's story is a riveting insider look at popular culture, from his boyhood in Santa Monica, while his mother was under contract to Warner Brothers, through his direction of The Normal Heart in 1985. Lindsay-Hogg's descriptive vignettes reveal tasty tidbits about the famous musicians, actors and cultural icons of the time.
An unusual story of a life lived among a galaxy of stars, told with enough insight and intelligence that even those who dismiss celebrity memoirs should enjoy this jaunt through the glitz.
(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
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April 1, 2011
Son of actress Geraldine Fitzgerald (e.g., Dark Victory), surrounded by Hollywood's elite from an early age, and then introduced to theater when his mother worked on Broadway, famed director Lindsay-Hogg (Brideshead Revisited) should have a fascinating memoir to offer. At its heart is the sneaking suspicion, set off by an offhand comment about his mother's affair with Orson Welles, that he is actually Welles's son. For all your movie-mad (especially old-movie-mad) readers.
Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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