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“Robert Wagner has written a book
about Hollywood that is not a conventional autobiography. You Must Remember This is an octogenarian’s affectionate look back
at Tinseltown in its Golden Age. Instead of scandal, this veteran actor
delivers fascinating stories about friends including Mary Pickford, Barbara
Stanwyck, Jimmy Stewart, and Harold Lloyd, but he also evokes the glamour,
excitement, and style of posh restaurants, hotels, and nightspots of that time
and place. Well-turned stories about days of glory now gone.”
— Barnes&Noble.com, editorial review
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“A handsome young journeyman actor
in the 1950s, Wagner observed what were to be the last years of the golden era
of Hollywood. The studio system and the old-time moguls were beginning to fade
but were still powerful. Stars still displayed their glamorous lifestyle in
fashionable clubs and restaurants; gossip columnists like Louella Parsons,
Jimmy Fidler, and Hedda Hopper feverishly sought their exclusives. Although
Wagner sporadically inserts some of his own experiences in this account, it is
not a memoir; rather it is more a social history of that era, divided according
to broad topics such as the fabulous Hollywood homes, the nightlife, the
memorable personalities, the columnists, and how the stars spent their leisure
time…Wagner has had a decades-long career and has certainly been in the ‘thick’
of the lifestyle he describes…[An] insider’s view that Wagner provides may well
appeal to nostalgia buffs, and he does offer the occasional illuminating
insight on that long-vanished time.”
— Library Journal
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“The story of a place and a time:
Hollywood from the 1930s through the ’60s. Divided into topical chapters,
including “Houses and Hotels,” “Style,” and “Nightlife,” the book follows
Hollywood from its early days (until Cecil B. DeMille arrived in 1913,
Hollywood was just another place outside Los Angeles), through its heady
decades as the trendsetter in style and popular culture, and ending with the
collapse of the studio system, when profits were in steep decline and many of
the Golden Age stars were dying or aging out of the spotlight. You can tell
that Wagner, whose acting career started when the Golden Age was its most
golden, truly misses that time and place; his fondness for it and his distaste
for the modern way of moviemaking come through on almost every page. For
Wagner, the emblems of Hollywood at its grandest—the mansions, the stars, the
parties, the watering holes—evoke a better world, and his account of how it was
then just may leave nostalgic readers similarly affected.”
— Booklist
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“The star of such films and TV
shows as A Kiss before Dying and It Takes a Thief revisits the
architecture, fashion, restaurants, and pastimes of Hollywood’s golden age
through anecdotes and personal memories…Wagner presents a brisk account of
early Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, their surrounding neighborhoods, and the
silver screen notables who frequented them…Ultimately, the book is a charmed
and mostly charming tribute to off-screen lives during a period many may regard
as Hollywood’s finest. A diverting ancillary note to heavier biographies.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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“An entirely enjoyable listening
experience! Actor Robert Wagner provides both a rich history of Hollywood’s
bygone era—its style, architecture, haberdashery, and ethics—and a personal memoir.
While each of Wagner’s eighty-four years may be heard in his weathered voice,
his enthusiasm and class are palpable. Hollywood’s Golden Era is accurately
compared and contrasted with the bizarre, security-focused nature of today’s
celebrity. Though a few mispronunciations should have been caught in
production, Wagner’s consistent delivery whisks listeners from the Bel-Air
Country Club to the Polo Lounge and the personal homes of the Zanucks and the
Warners. The whole package is as effervescent as a glass of Veuve Cliquot, and
listeners may want to toast an era never to come again.”
— AudioFile