People are Crazy Here

by Rex Reed

Stated first printing bound in purple cloth and orange boards. A VG+ copy in a near fine dust jacket. The book has some small dust spots on the edges of the page blocks. Faint crease to its upper spine. Fading to the head and heel of its spine. Mild dust soiling to the jacket's panels.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Rex Taylor Reed is an American film critic and former co-host of the syndicated television show At the Movies. He currently writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for The New York Observer.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rex Reed's very entertaining fourth book (following DO YOU SLEEP IN TEH NUDE?, CONVERSATIONS INTHE RAW, BIG SCREEN LITTLE SCREEN), this 1974 collection of essays previously collected in Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate.

Profiles/interviews include: Tennessee Williams, The Cockettes, Marcello Mastroianni, Sally Kellerman, Grace SLick, Merle Oberon (when she has produced, edited and starred in her comeback film INTERVAL, which Reed calls "pretty awful"), Kay Thompson, Bette Midler, Carrie Snogress, Sylvia Miles, Joan Hackett, Cliff Robertson & Joel Grey (on the set of THE MAN IN THE SWING), Troy Donahue, Laurence Olivier & Micahel Caine (on teh set of SLEUTH); George C. Scott, Elia Kazan, Richard Chamberlain, Alice Faye, Dorothy Malone, Doris Day, Carroll Baker, Tuesday Weld, Gloria Graham, Joanne Woodward, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson, Liv Ullman & Edward Albert (on the set of FORTY CARATS), Jacqueline Susann, Ken Russell, Alfred Hitchcock, Alice Cooper, Roger Moore, Peter Bogdanovich & Cybill SShepherd (on the set of DAISY MILLER), Ann-Margaret, Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson and Adolph Zukor (at his 100th birthday party).

Another sensation collection of acerbic, brilliantly observant Hollywood profiles.

[Laura Ostermeyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely a must read for anyone into the 1970s entertainment industry. Dishy and brilliantly hilarious in many places! A fun filled look back on, what now feels like, a long ago time.

[Noah McClintock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less bitter than Do You Sleep in the Nude? Was interesting reading some of these.

[Phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of interview/articles by Rex Reed, on the famous people. They were written around 1973 or 4, and so were snapshots of these people at that time, rather than what you get if you look them up on the internet, as history has decided to portray them, condensing their stories and viewed through the lens of our time rather than theirs, and with the knowledge/hindsight of however they "ended up" -- died or stopped being famous/fashionable. That makes this much much much more fascinating and fun. The only caveat is that I really cannot vouch for Rex Reed's accuracy/journalistic integrity. His first subject is Tennessee Williams, and Reed has him saying stuff that I recognize from an essay he wrote for a magazine on the nature of fame. I know this essay well, and long chunks are lifted verbatim. I very much doubt Tennessee Williams was quoting his own article word-for-word for this interview as though the words were just springing from his head in the moment. But the part about what he was wearing, the jumpsuits, that part I believe. That part I ate up. Good times!

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rex grows on you; at first he might come off a bit bitchy, but underneath that he has heart and a sense that his feet are planted firmly on the ground (no matter how high his subjects might be flying at the moment). And if the people in it do tend to sound a bit interchangeable at times, that's mostly the fault of show business--not him.

A guy who nicely managed to be in Hollywood (but not of it).

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is taking longer to read these than normal because I find myself Googling every interviewed subject to see what happened to them after the interview.