Hollywood Royalty, Signed to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
[Signed to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.] Speck, Gregory. Hollywood Royalty, Hepburn, Davis, Stewart & Friends at the Dinner Party of the Century. First Edition.1992. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is inscribed, “To my great friend Douglas Fairbanks Jr., ‘The King of the Hollywood Royalty,’ with deep appreciation and sincere admiration, Best wishes, Gregory Speck, October 21, ’92.”
The “S” in Speck is not a typo, but the other Gregory (Peck) is among the guests at this unusual literary experiment, as is Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., to whom this copy is inscribed. Drawing on interviews he conducted with many of Hollywood’s greatest stars, the author wove their remarks into a fantasy dinner party, fashioning a conversation that never actually took place. The conversation ranges from the tyranny of the old movie moguls to the private lives of Hollywood royalty, producing something that is part oral history, part illusion, wholly entertaining, and surprisingly insightful.
“I was only about nineteen when I married Joan Crawford back in 1928, and I remember only nice things about her. She was very hardworking, and terribly conscientious, even to the point of people making fun of her …. I have never seen anyone who worked so hard to do her best.”
--Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.