WE WILL ALWAYS LIVE IN BEVERLY HILLS: Growing Up Crazy in Hollywood

by Ned Wynn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 26, 1990

Stylish memoir about growing up crazy in Hollywood, by the son of Keenan Wynn and grandson of beloved vaudevillian/radio comic/actor Ed Wynn. Now 49, Ned Wynn spends much of his book recalling his childhood and youth in Hollywood, then details his tailspin into drugs, alcohol, and years of meditation with the Maharishi. Wynn adopts a serious tone throughout and, though waspish about his sins, is seldom lighthearted about his youth. He was born during his father's heyday as a star at MGM--a time when Keenan usually played second leads as the hero's best friend. Keenan and wife Evie's best friend was happy-go-lucky Van Johnson, an MGM top drawer who always got the girl and with whom Keenan made four films. Then Evie divorced Keenan, married Van, and young Ned went off to live with the Johnsons. Van was a generally thoughtful stepfather but was always ready to fall into a grandly staged huff and leave Evie to deal with discipline and family problems. Keenan meanwhile sank into the bottle, left MGM for TV, cried poor endlessly, and went downhill until sobering up seven years before his death in 1986. Evie, after 15 years, lost Van to young boys, and one of Ned's finest passages describes Van as an aged homosexual, fat, pasty, and crawling through life like a bug in a homburg. Ned never finds himself, goes from one girl to another, surfs one wave after another, winds up as a failed extra, then incompetent actor in Beach Blanket B-pix, a hanger-on with famous California rock groups, and deliriously irresponsible. LSD lifts him into the Sixties with a transcendental bang, has him chasing the Maharishi around Europe and acting as the guru's bodyguard for six years. At last he breaks off, goes to Hollywood as a scriptwriter, begins making a living as a writer/actor, hits bottom as a drunk. As Keenan is dying of cancer, Ned shares his first year sober with his father. Absorbingly well told--and chockablock with stars drifting on vodka.

Pub Date: Nov. 26, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION