My Life in the Movies A Balcony Memoir in 15 Scenes edition by Tom W Ferguson Humor Entertainment eBooks
Download As PDF : My Life in the Movies A Balcony Memoir in 15 Scenes edition by Tom W Ferguson Humor Entertainment eBooks 
By turns entertaining or thoughtful (and often both), this little memoir puts the "scene" in the passing scene -- from discovering movie magic inside a Lake Superior village's tiny theater; to standing in Detroit's Grand Circus Park within sight of nine theaters, just in time to see the age of movie palaces flicker out; to pondering a brave new world that appears, including its movies, in the palm of your hand.
Since seeing his first film in 1948, the author -- without leaving Flyover Country -- has crossed paths with screenwriters, appeared for five seconds in an Italian film that might or might not exist, watched Detroit's population implosion through the prism of a movie marquee across the street, taken music lessons from a silent movies pianist, and hauled a load of country music practitioners and fans to the opening night of Robert Altman's "Nashville" thinking it was a movie about music.
Anyone who misses watching movies in a real theater, or who loves his home entertainment center but wishes it had an even larger screen and faux palatial decor, will enjoy this junket across time (the entire second half of the 20th Century, and a nick of the 21st) and place (from Medicine Bow, Wyoming to Cleveland, Ohio).
The spirit of this lively read is captured in the Author's Note
" . . . the author invites you to laugh while discovering that he got into the movies only by purchasing a ticket. The author is smiling, too. My career path wandered only accidentally near several who became serious players in Hollywood. Hang around a wharf and you will run into a few anglers who land big fish. Besides, all of us wind up in the movies. In the good movies, at least. Mirrors do play tricks. But without our own presence somewhere in the pictures we watch, there is no story that will be understood, and no characters we will love, hate, fear, or yearn to be."
Tom W. Ferguson has spent more than four decades as an editor at major newspapers and minor newspapers, as a book editor, as a free-lance editorial consultant, as a musical weekend warrior at every opportunity, and doing his best to keep the movie industry afloat by consuming more than his fair share of product.
My Life in the Movies A Balcony Memoir in 15 Scenes edition by Tom W Ferguson Humor Entertainment eBooks
"My Life in the Movies," does precisely what a great memoir should do: it evokes.Yes, there is a cornucopia of stuff in Tom Ferguson's bold and brilliant book that will be new to any reader. And a lot, too, that will be familiar. If that were all there were to this gracefully yet powerfully written book, it would be worth many times its price. But there is more. Much more. More on that later.
First, totally apart from the subject matter, this little book is masterfully written. It's a rare author who has confidence enough in his reader to know that he doesn't have to compromise. In fact, that he damn well better not. Ferguson is that unusual creature. He deploys each word or phrase or reference that is the very best one to convey a thought, a feeling. Not only is this refreshing and a compliment to the reader, it invests each story with the power of verisimilitude. Any reader of a "certain age" will be transported to the eras, the theaters, the smoke-filled lounges that vividly imprinted Ferguson's mind as he lived those times. And did he ever live them.
There is not a shred, not a drop of the dilettante in Ferguson. When he lived those days of which he writes so poignantly, he was fully in the moment; for all he knew then, voraciously consuming every movie that came within miles of him, or playing piano wherever, whenever and careening around the country in quest of the next gig, in search of a new musical mentor, was the sum total of what he would do with his life. Fortunately for the reader, Ferguson was not only a glutton for films and adept with music, he was a formidable writer and editor, smart enough to know that a good storyteller gets out of the way of the story, and tough enough to kill any "darling" that sneaked into a text, whether his own as author, or in the manuscripts he invariably enhanced as editor.
Speaking of which, in the post-literate couple of decades sandwiching the dawn of the 21st Century, Ferguson was legendary around Detroit and in Michigan as the patron saint of lost causes in newspaper and book-publishing circles. His mantra as editor included a number of pithy principles and when he took off his editor's eyeshade and put on his author's cap, he continued to be just as hard on himself as on others, probably more so. A couple examples only: Principle No. 1: every word has to pay its way into print. It might be pretty, it might be interesting--but if it is not absolutely necessary to advance the story, out it goes. Principle No. 2--more is less and its just-as-true corollary, less is more. Ferguson's taut memoir is a fine example of telling the story without expending ink indulging in style for style's sake. As when playing a gig, leave it all out there on the floor but leave `em hungry for more. Ferguson didn't mint the phrase, but he must salute it: Style is what's left over after you've told the story.
So that's what Ferguson has done in this evocative memoir about movies seen and gigs played and, by the way, intriguing things that were going on in his somewhat chaotic and undisciplined life and in the world during those times. There are fresh gems there for even those readers who grew up in the same day, who lived in or nearby the same kind of off-the-beaten-track town, and were as captive as Ferguson to the next offering at the local Bijou, who were every bit as addicted as he to the stories behind the stories of those films, those characters, those musicians who so dominated life in the couple decades after WWII.
More than anything else, it's fun to get his take on a film we cashed in pop bottles to get a dime to see when it premiered in Alpena or Clawson or wherever. Or, in these pages, to kick back in a bar or chill out in a lounge kinda like the ones we knew. But there is perhaps a greater power in this slender book: it fires up one's memory and sends it coursing down pathways unvisited for lord knows how long. Time and again, you find yourself setting down the eBook reader and staring off into space, reliving a moment, reviewing a scene from a movie last seen, last thought about decades ago.
And that is no mean feat. It is no parlor trick when an author puts together words so facilely he creates a dead-on, true to life experience in the mind of a reader. Lately not many have done it as well as Ferguson in "My Life in the Movies." Off hand I can't think of any who have done it better.
Bill Haney
July 8, 2011
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My Life in the Movies A Balcony Memoir in 15 Scenes edition by Tom W Ferguson Humor Entertainment eBooks Reviews
Sans balcony, his description of, and demise of, the large theater screen with stage (and curtains to open and close a show) mirrored my little town's showhouse, which back in the late '90s was redesigned into a 2-plex with small screens and a mundane almost featureless (pun) interior design to look at while waiting for the show to start.
The author's observations hit upon a variety of topics, that kept me turning the pages and at the same time his mentioning some title of an old song or movie had me stopping, to visit YouTube, because it I just had to hear the song or watch a bit of movie clip - most that I knew, but a few were new to me.
I enjoyed the book, the writer did an excellent job in telling some personal stories, some serious, some humorous, and all interesting.
A pleasant and personal account of snippets from the life of an interesting gentleman. This memoir was not intended to be all-inclusive, but was an eclectic collection of experiences that were important to the author, and therefore provide insights to us, the readers, on the life of another human being. Very enjoyable.
"My Life in the Movies," does precisely what a great memoir should do it evokes.
Yes, there is a cornucopia of stuff in Tom Ferguson's bold and brilliant book that will be new to any reader. And a lot, too, that will be familiar. If that were all there were to this gracefully yet powerfully written book, it would be worth many times its price. But there is more. Much more. More on that later.
First, totally apart from the subject matter, this little book is masterfully written. It's a rare author who has confidence enough in his reader to know that he doesn't have to compromise. In fact, that he damn well better not. Ferguson is that unusual creature. He deploys each word or phrase or reference that is the very best one to convey a thought, a feeling. Not only is this refreshing and a compliment to the reader, it invests each story with the power of verisimilitude. Any reader of a "certain age" will be transported to the eras, the theaters, the smoke-filled lounges that vividly imprinted Ferguson's mind as he lived those times. And did he ever live them.
There is not a shred, not a drop of the dilettante in Ferguson. When he lived those days of which he writes so poignantly, he was fully in the moment; for all he knew then, voraciously consuming every movie that came within miles of him, or playing piano wherever, whenever and careening around the country in quest of the next gig, in search of a new musical mentor, was the sum total of what he would do with his life. Fortunately for the reader, Ferguson was not only a glutton for films and adept with music, he was a formidable writer and editor, smart enough to know that a good storyteller gets out of the way of the story, and tough enough to kill any "darling" that sneaked into a text, whether his own as author, or in the manuscripts he invariably enhanced as editor.
Speaking of which, in the post-literate couple of decades sandwiching the dawn of the 21st Century, Ferguson was legendary around Detroit and in Michigan as the patron saint of lost causes in newspaper and book-publishing circles. His mantra as editor included a number of pithy principles and when he took off his editor's eyeshade and put on his author's cap, he continued to be just as hard on himself as on others, probably more so. A couple examples only Principle No. 1 every word has to pay its way into print. It might be pretty, it might be interesting--but if it is not absolutely necessary to advance the story, out it goes. Principle No. 2--more is less and its just-as-true corollary, less is more. Ferguson's taut memoir is a fine example of telling the story without expending ink indulging in style for style's sake. As when playing a gig, leave it all out there on the floor but leave `em hungry for more. Ferguson didn't mint the phrase, but he must salute it Style is what's left over after you've told the story.
So that's what Ferguson has done in this evocative memoir about movies seen and gigs played and, by the way, intriguing things that were going on in his somewhat chaotic and undisciplined life and in the world during those times. There are fresh gems there for even those readers who grew up in the same day, who lived in or nearby the same kind of off-the-beaten-track town, and were as captive as Ferguson to the next offering at the local Bijou, who were every bit as addicted as he to the stories behind the stories of those films, those characters, those musicians who so dominated life in the couple decades after WWII.
More than anything else, it's fun to get his take on a film we cashed in pop bottles to get a dime to see when it premiered in Alpena or Clawson or wherever. Or, in these pages, to kick back in a bar or chill out in a lounge kinda like the ones we knew. But there is perhaps a greater power in this slender book it fires up one's memory and sends it coursing down pathways unvisited for lord knows how long. Time and again, you find yourself setting down the eBook reader and staring off into space, reliving a moment, reviewing a scene from a movie last seen, last thought about decades ago.
And that is no mean feat. It is no parlor trick when an author puts together words so facilely he creates a dead-on, true to life experience in the mind of a reader. Lately not many have done it as well as Ferguson in "My Life in the Movies." Off hand I can't think of any who have done it better.
Bill Haney
July 8, 2011
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