Cinema Retro magazine on 'Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel’: "Highly recommended!"

Burt Kearns’ recent book, Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel, is featured in the Sping 2025 edition of Cinema Retro magaine.

The review reads, in part: 

“I was hooked from page one...

"Kearns doesn't beatify Brando, nor is he out to create a hit piece about him. 

"What he has done is create a new way of evaluating and appreciating the man's life and career. 

Highly recommended.”

(More on Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel at MarlonBrandoBook.com)

“Fascinating! Fresh perspectives!” Booklist praises Shemp!, Burt Kearns’ biography of the most talented Stooge

Burt Kearns’ latest book, Shemp! The Biography of the Three Stooges, the Face of Film Comedy hits bookstores in October, six months after the publication of his Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel. 

Like the Brando book, the volume about the “fourth” member of the famed Three Stooges comedy team has caused some controversy, as readers and critics alike agree that Kearns’ research has literally rewritten Hollywood history, casting a very different light on the veteran comic actor and his rightful place in Hollywood history.

The latest praise comes in the October 15 issue of Booklist,  the publication of the American Library Association:

"Known best for his work as a sometime member of the Three Stooges, along with his younger brother, Moe Howard, and comedian Larry Fine, Shemp Howard also had a considerable career as a performer in live theater (on Broadway and on the road) and a supporting actor in a long list of two-reelers and feature films. Journalist and screenwriter Kearns writes with a fan’s passion, and his account of Shemp’s rise from working-class Bensonhurst in Brooklyn and the lower reaches of vaudeville to Broadway and Hollywood is fascinating. Those interested in vaudeville will enjoy Kearns’ detailed descriptions of sketches performed and reviews of shows on the circuit. Kearns’ chronicling of the evolution of the Three Stooges, from a side act in comedian Ted Healy’s much larger productions, in which they were billed as Ted Healy and His Stooges, to a popular if low-brow act in the movies and on television, offers fresh perspectives on an iconic comedy group. Shemp’s relationship with Moe, who dominated the Stooges on stage and off, was complicated, prompting Shemp’s solo adventures, which will be new to many readers.”   — Jack Helbig

author Burt Kearns

Shemp!, published by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, is available wherever books are sold and of course online.

No illusion: The Show Won’t Go On is featured in a special show at the world-famous Magic Castle

Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong

The Show Won’t Go On show went on in one of the most historic, exclusive and mysterious venues in show business last night as authors Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns brought their multimedia presentation to the hallowed Inner Circle of the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood.

David Regal regales the crowd  (Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong)

Acclaimed magician and writer David Regal was a witty, knowledgable and entertaining moderator as he led Abraham and Kearns through stories from the fast-selling book -- along with a few others.

                                                                    (Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong)

Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong

The Magic Castle is the exclusive members-only meeting place for the elite magicians of the world, so many of their stories told Tuesday night focused on the untimely deaths of magicians, incuding Chung Ling Soo (whose biggest secret is revealed in the book), "Amazing" Joe Burrus (who in his own way managed to earn a place alongside the great Houdini), and the many who attempted the bullet catch -- unnscuccesfully.

Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong

There were also stories of  performers who “died doing what they loved” in the fields of classical music, comedy -- and even lion-taming.

Getting down to business after the show (Photo by AMA Archivist Taylor Wong)

The Magic Castle appearance had special meaning for Jeff Abraham, who in his youth was a "Junior Magician” at the Castle, as the audience saw in a projected photo -- Jeff and other young prestidigitators surrounding the legendary magician Dai Vernon (aka “The Professor”) on the occasion of his eighty-eighth birthday in 1982.

Dai Vernon & the Junior Magicians (photo by Victoria Jackson)

Yes, The Magic Castle has a dress code. 

Special thanks to Paul Green, Ben Roman, Rick Manfredi, the technical team and the chef, among others, at the world-famous Magic Castle...

Only in Hollywood: Dearly departed performers from 'The Show Won’t Go On' take center stage at the iconic Dearly Departed Museum

The Dearly Departed Artifact Museum was the liveliest place in Hollywood yesterday afternoon as The Show Won't Go On roadshow made its latest stop on a stage that included remnants of the late Tiny Tim and the cremains of Ken Weatherwax, who portrayed Pugsley on television's The Addams Family.

Hollywood legend Scott Michaels of the Dearly Departed Tours and Museum
introduces the authors of The Show Won’t Go On 

Yes, it was that kind of afternoon in the coolest, most fascinating and most deeply Hollywood museum in the world, let alone that mythological section of Los Angeles.  While movie fans queued across Santa Monica Boulevard for a screening at the Hollywood Forever cemetery, Dearly Departed founder Scott Michaels, an acclaimed pop culture expert and author in his own right, introduced authors Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns, kicking off a dramatic yet often hilarious discussion of performers who walked onto a stage... and had to be carried off.

Is Jeff breaking into song? No... well, maybe.

Burt makes a point, with Karl Wallenda looking on over his right shoulder.

The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage was published in September by Chicago Review Press.  The book has been praised by the publications as diverse as Vanity Fair, the UK Telegraph, the Daily Mail and Vanish magic magazine  (*****), while Abraham and Kearns have lit up many radio shows and podcasts (including one dedicated to their shared obsession with Jerry Lewis -- more on that later).  

The deadly duo have also led discussions and book signings at various venues in Southern California, including the landmark Book Soup on the Sunset Strip and the horror haven Dark Delicacies in Burbank.

A portion of Ken Weatherwax’s cremains are on respectful display at the Dearly Departed Artifact Museum

But no site was more fitting than the Artifact Museum, ground zero for the very popular Tragical History Tours of Hollywood and beyond, and the Charles Manson-themed Helter Skelter tour (given a great boost by  the popularity of Quentin Tarantino's Oscar-touted Once Upon A Time in... Hollywood, the film on which Michaels was a consultant).  

The museum includes displays that include rare, valuable, and significant memorabilia from Manson victim Sharon Tate, the cremains of Michu, the late "world's smallest man" (which is how he fit into the Alf costume on television) and the car in which fifties sex symbol Jayne Mansfield lost her wig (but not, as legend has it, her head) and her life in 1967.

The book event took place in the museum's front room, with a seating arrangement similar to that of wake, with Abraham and Kearns placed in the spot where a casket might be placed, flanked by a display of Tiny Tim (who died after an onstage tumble in 1996) and a framed photo and autograph of circus legend Karl Wallenda  (who famously said "To be on the wire is life," and found that to fall from the wire into a parking lot is death).

 

Wayne Federman, who will be starring in the final season of Silicon Velley on HBO.

Celebrities in the crowd included popular comedian, actor and podcaster Wayne Federman and the entrepreneur, writer and most significantly, bondswoman known and treasured by Hollywood's finest as "Raquel, Queen of Bail.” 

To the left of the photo of Scott Michaels with Burt & Jeff's pal Bruce Vilanch is a shot of Scott with Jack Russell, 
whose tragic gig with his Great White band at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island is featured in The Show Won't Go On.

The Show Won't  Go On  book tour rolls on this week with a special appearance at the Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park.  This discussion promises morbid fun, as it will be hosted and moderated by comedy hotshots Sasha Feiler and Steve Cohen, cohosts of the popular Shut Up I Love It podcast (the  one that featured the instantly-historic episode on which Jeff and Burt defended Jerry Lewis and his maligned yet unseen film, The Day The Clown Cried).

Next stop... Tuesday

Ray Richmond’s TRANSITION, the first theatrical work of the Trump era, premieres March 11 in Hollywood

 Lots of our pals sank into hopelessness when Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016.

Ray Richmond, our pal the journalist, critic, and “conscience of the entertainment industry” was no different.  Until he became very different and turned his outrage into a theatrical production.

TRANSITION is the name of the play. It’s about that first Oval Office meeting between President Barack Obama and president-elect Donald Trump on November 10, 2016, and has its world premiere on March 11 at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood.The 90-minute production is described as “an imagined, dramatic recreation of the historic sitdown that took place on November 10, 2016 (two days after Trump's shocking victory in the Presidential election)... a compelling drama with comedic elements woven throughout. 

"The meeting evolves into a chess match between a man who's spent years building a legacy, and an outsider moving in to tear it all down. The play touches on issues including immigration, gun control, health care, sexism and nuclear war.”

TRANSITION stars Joshua Wolf Coleman as President Barack Obama and Harry S. Murphy as Donald Trump, and is directed by Lee Costello.

Coleman is a veteran of Guthrie Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse who's played the title role in Macbeth and Puddn'head Wilson and appeared in television series including Grey's Anatomy, House, and The West Wing.  

Joshua Wolf Coleman in Hidalgo

Murphy is a writer-performer alumnus of Second City in Chicago whose credits include Charlie Wilson’s War, Evan Almighty, Reefer Madness – The Movie Musical, Scandal, and  Curb Your Enthusiasm. 

Harry S. Murphy with Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Season 3 Episode 6

Director Lee Costello is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. She's directed countless plays in New York and Los Angeles regional theatre including last year’s Waiting for Grace at The Odyssey Theatre, which was chosen by The Huffington Post as one of the Top Ten theatre productions in Los Angeles in 2016.  

TRANSITION is the first theatrical effort directly inspired by the Trump Era.   It’s also the first play by Ray, who’s well-known as an entertainment critic, columnist, reporter and blogger for publications including The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and the Los Angeles Times, and who's written four books.

"After the election, I was as devastated as everyone else by the fact our country was about to go to hell," Richmond says. “But when President Obama invited Trump to the Oval Office for a meeting, it struck me as a perfect construct for a two-man stage play. Writing it lifted me from my funk, driven by equal parts fear and inspiration.”

TRANSITION will run for five weekends and 16 performances, through April 9 at the Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood. Tickets are available at Plays411.com/Transition.

Ray has reserved two pairs each for Presidents Trump and Obama.