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Seems like yesterday
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348 pages, Loose Leaf
First published August 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 22, 2011
Authorship should read: Ann Buchwald as Interrupted by Art Buchwald. There are some new bits here from Art but some are from his previous book, I'll Always Have Paris. Most of the book is Ann's version.
This book is worth it for the photos alone! Any American who grew up in the fifties will love the shots of people like Danny Kaye, Bogie and Betty Bacall, the young Elizabeth Taylor, and others who were friends of the Buchwalds in Paris during the late forties and fifties. It is quite amazing to me that in 1949, a girl from Warren, PA, was able to walk into Pierre Balmain's office not speaking a word of French and walk out with a job as his public relations director. Ann had the kind of chutzpah to appeal to Art Buchwald, who was even more gifted in that direction. She is also a genuinely nice person with a great sense of humor and I enjoyed her account of their meeting, loving, and deciding what to do about that. Celebrities retained some glamour and some privacy in those days, and Ann's remembrances of them show appreciation of them as real people who could still be real despite their success.
She and Art made a sort of career out of being the Americans who could show visiting celebs the "real" Paris but they did it in a genuinely nice way and this comes through in Ann's writing. In a way, their not speaking good French helped both their careers - Art made humor out of it and Ann was the ONLY English-speaking person in the fashion industry at that time, so was uniquely placed to publicize Balmain and others to American fashionistas. In general, their joie-de-vivre and expressive Franglish carried the day and one can only wish to have accompanied them to such nightspots as Bricktop's on the Right Bank and Jimmy's on the Left.
They are frank about their difficulties with anti-Americanism at the time, especially when trying to get married in France, and they pulled off some bribery to wangle a business license for Ann's public relations agency, but their attitude about this is philosophical so it does not spoil the book. For every "nasty French official" who might turn down one's inadequate paperwork, there was a romantic bureaucrat who might approve things...but eventually they did end up getting married in London, much to Ann's relief since she had always been afraid that the French wedding ceremony "added to 'love, cherish and obey' a few words about doing the marketing twice daily for fresh bread."
Art's story of his issues with getting married at all (anxiety to the point of frequent retching), much less to a Catholic (a Catholic-Jewish marriage required a dispensation in those days & Art was afraid of priests) is much more detailed in this book than in his own, and Ann's insights help us understand Art much better. It's a great, lively, funny story, finishing with the "stiff-upper-lipped butler" at Claridge's on the wedding night who walks in on Ann dressed in only panties and bra and shows her how to fold Art's pants properly.
I'm not quite done so I may add a bit more but this will do for now.
This book is worth it for the photos alone! Any American who grew up in the fifties will love the shots of people like Danny Kaye, Bogie and Betty Bacall, the young Elizabeth Taylor, and others who were friends of the Buchwalds in Paris during the late forties and fifties. It is quite amazing to me that in 1949, a girl from Warren, PA, was able to walk into Pierre Balmain's office not speaking a word of French and walk out with a job as his public relations director. Ann had the kind of chutzpah to appeal to Art Buchwald, who was even more gifted in that direction. She is also a genuinely nice person with a great sense of humor and I enjoyed her account of their meeting, loving, and deciding what to do about that. Celebrities retained some glamour and some privacy in those days, and Ann's remembrances of them show appreciation of them as real people who could still be real despite their success.
She and Art made a sort of career out of being the Americans who could show visiting celebs the "real" Paris but they did it in a genuinely nice way and this comes through in Ann's writing. In a way, their not speaking good French helped both their careers - Art made humor out of it and Ann was the ONLY English-speaking person in the fashion industry at that time, so was uniquely placed to publicize Balmain and others to American fashionistas. In general, their joie-de-vivre and expressive Franglish carried the day and one can only wish to have accompanied them to such nightspots as Bricktop's on the Right Bank and Jimmy's on the Left.
They are frank about their difficulties with anti-Americanism at the time, especially when trying to get married in France, and they pulled off some bribery to wangle a business license for Ann's public relations agency, but their attitude about this is philosophical so it does not spoil the book. For every "nasty French official" who might turn down one's inadequate paperwork, there was a romantic bureaucrat who might approve things...but eventually they did end up getting married in London, much to Ann's relief since she had always been afraid that the French wedding ceremony "added to 'love, cherish and obey' a few words about doing the marketing twice daily for fresh bread."
Art's story of his issues with getting married at all (anxiety to the point of frequent retching), much less to a Catholic (a Catholic-Jewish marriage required a dispensation in those days & Art was afraid of priests) is much more detailed in this book than in his own, and Ann's insights help us understand Art much better. It's a great, lively, funny story, finishing with the "stiff-upper-lipped butler" at Claridge's on the wedding night who walks in on Ann dressed in only panties and bra and shows her how to fold Art's pants properly.
I'm not quite done so I may add a bit more but this will do for now.
February 6, 2018
Was interesting, not great. Favorite part was how the husband interjected with his version of stories. And loved hearing about Paris, could picture a lot of it.
May 3, 2011
I'm glad a finally found a copy of this book. Ann Buchwald wrote it about her time in Park in the late 40's, 50's and early 60's. She met and married Art Buchwald there and this is her story with comments from her husband interspersed throughout. I read his book previously and loved it so I had to read hers to see what her take was on their time there. Not quite as funny as Art's but very entertaining. What a life they led.
January 10, 2010
entertaining
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews