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.”
Just to be clear, the “S” in Speck is not a typo; however, that other Gregory (Peck) is one of the guests attending this fantasy dinner party, as well as Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., to whom this copy is signed. For this imaginative book, Speck used his interviews with the great Hollywood stars of its Golden Age, splicing their contributions as if they were all in one room engaged in conversation. Two of the contributors—feuding sisters Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine—would never have agreed so near each other, but in this fantasy dinner party, why not? The discussion runs the gamut, from the alleged tyranny of the original Hollywood movie moguls to the stars' horror at Christina Crawford’s tell-all book on her mother Joan.
“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, event 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.