Arriving on the San Francisco set of The Towering Inferno—the downtown Bank of America building was standing in for the film’s fiery skyscraper—there was no one around. In the Bank of America lobby I found extras dressed to look like…
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Cannes, El Sid, and Six Green Beans
Every year about this time I think of Cannes, El Sid, and six green beans. El Sid was my nick-name for Sid Adilman, the legendary Toronto Star entertainment reporter. For years in May, El Sid and I would head for the…
Tagged with: Afred Hitchcock, Cannes, Cary Grant, Chet Baker, Cote d'Azur, France, Gore Vidal, Grace Kelly, Hotel Carlton, Hotel du Cap, Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, Moulin des Mougins, Norman Mailer, Paul Newman, Riviera, Sid Adilman, Terry Jones, To Catch A Thief, Toronto Star, Toronto Telegram
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Remembering Paul Newman
Paul Newman was handing out popcorn late one cold night on the San Francisco set of The Towering Inferno. The disaster film–the world’s tallest skyscraper is on fire–that was to become 1974’s biggest hit was in its final production stages,…
Tagged with: Absence of Malice, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, California Street, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Elizabeth Taylor, Faye Dunaway, Harper, Hombre, Hud, James Dean, Joanne Woodward, John Guillerman, Newman's Own, O.J. Simpson, Paul Newman, Sally Field, San Francisco, Sidney Lumet, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Steve McQueen, Sydney Pollack, The Bank of America building, The Cannes International Film Festival, The Glass Menagerie, The Hustler, The Long Hot Summer, The Sting, The Towering Inferno, The Verdict, William Holden
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Gore Vidal Meets The Dread Ron Base
Gore Vidal in print once called me “the Dread Ron Base, who is appropriately named.” I’m not sure but I think he dissed me because I quoted him as saying he would invade Alberta for its oil, if necessary (“If I were the federal…
Tagged with: Amalfi Coast, Ben-Hur, Cannes Film Festival, Creation, Edgar Box, Gore Vidal, Italy, Joanne Woodward, Johnny Carson, Norman Mailer, Orson Welles, Paul Newman, Ravello, Ryan O'Neal, The Best Man, Tough Guys Don't Dance, Truman Capote
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The Guy Who Fired Robert Redford (and Forever Changed Movies)
When I did that sort of thing for a living, one of my favorite people to interview was the producer Richard Zanuck, who died of a heart attack last week at the age of seventy-seven. Zanuck was stiff and formal, handsome…
Tagged with: A Few Good Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Compulsion, Dark Shadows, Darryl F. Zanuck, David Brown, Doctor Doolittle, Driving Miss Daisy, Hello Dolly, Jaws, Joel Grey, Johnny Depp, Lili Fini Zanuck, M*A*S*H, Paul Newman, Richard Dreyfuss, Richard Zanuck, Robert Redford, Star!, Steven Spielberg, The French Connection, The Sound of Music, The Sting, The Verdict, Twentieth Century Fox
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El Sid, The Cannes Cannes, and Six Green Beans
Every year about this time I think of El Sid and six green beans. El Sid was my nick-name for Sid Adilman, the legendary Toronto Star entertainment reporter. For years in May, El Sid and I would head for the Cannes…
Tagged with: Antibes, Cairo, Cannes, Cannes International Film Festival, Cary Grant, Chet Baker, Cote d'Azur, Croisette, Dusty Cohl, Eden Roc, Egypt, France, French Riviera, Gore Vidal, Grace Kelly, Hotel Carlton, Hotel du Cap, Hotel Majestic, James Mason, Jerry Lewis, Joanne Woodward, Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, McKenzie Porter, Mena House, Moulin des Mougins, Nice, Norman Mailer, Paul Newman, rue D'Antibes, Sid Adilman, The Toronto Star, The Toronto Telegram, TIFF, To Catch A Thief, Toronto International Film Festival
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Me and the Duke
In 1975, I went down to Newport Beach, California to interview John Wayne at the rambling seaside bungalow where he had lived for ten years. Wayne promptly pumped me full of tequila, a drink I had never had before, and…
Tagged with: Brannigan, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, Howard Hawks, John Ford, John Wayne, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Newport Beach, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, The Searchers, The Shootist, The Toronto Sun
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Ron Base Writes 