LET'S BE FRANK

Biondi Munna shares her deceased father Biondi’s stories about the rise of premium television in this debut memoir.

After graduating from Harvard Business School, Biondi spent a few years in investment banking before shifting to the television industry, including a stint at the Children’s Television Workshop. In 1978, after a few years in the business, he took a job at an up-and-coming pay-cable channel called HBO. Readers may not recognize Biondi’s name, but over the course of his long career, he served as the CEO of not only HBO, but also Viacom and Universal. Biondi Munna notes that “he seemed to be a part of every major media development in the early ’80s into the ’90s—from the consolidation of media conglomerates, to the supremacy of content and the rise and fall of Blockbuster.” Biondi’s own stories—from securing permission for the 2009 movie The Hangover to film at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas to playing doubles tennis against Donald Trump in 1999—are presented with the assistance of his daughter, Biondi Munna, who provides commentary and occasional narration; Biondi recorded interviews for the book during his final illness in 2018 and 2019. “I hit one of the best two-handed backhands I’d ever hit in my life,” he remembers at one point with practiced elegance. “The ball rocketed over the net, waist-high….Trump lost his balance and fell on the red-brown clay, dirtying his pristine tennis whites.” The celebrity cameos are fun, but the most intriguing anecdotes deal with behind-the-scenes industry players, such as Merv Griffin and Viacom owner Sumner Redstone. Overall, this book serves not only as a daughter’s celebration of her father, but also as a solid history of the entertainment industry of a certain era.

An often amusing and well-presented look at showbiz through the eyes of a TV executive.