By Melissa Griegel . . .
Founder of Castle Hill Productions, Julian Schlossberg has had a varied and successful career producing over 60 productions for stage and screen. Working with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry for the past six decades, Schlossberg has amassed enough stories to fill two memoirs about his life in show business. His first book, Try Not to Hold it Against Me: A Producer’s Life was released last year and was unveiled at Sardi’s with Tony Roberts, Marlo Thomas, Laila Robins, and F. Murray Abraham reading excerpts from the book. While doing promotions for that book, Schlossberg found that readers and journalists asked him numerous questions about his career and personal life. “I suddenly realized just how many stories I never shared in my first book,” he said. “What was born was a new memoir.”
His latest offering, entitled My First Book – Part 2: A Producer’s Life Continues is now available on www.Amazon.com and at www.JulianSchlossbergProducer.com, and can also be downloaded as an audio book read by the author. Academy- and Tony-Award-Winner Elaine May once again provided the forward to his book and moderated the conversation with Schlossberg and the guests at Sardi’s at the premiere of his book on August 13th. Emmy-Winner Reneé Taylor was at Sardi’s to support the book. Along with Marlo Thomas and Walter Anderson, Taylor contributed “fan letters” that are included in the memoir. Schlossberg’s illustrious career spanned Broadway, Off-Broadway, film, and television as a producer, and radio and television as host and interviewer. My First Book – Part 2 includes stories about his interactions with icons such as Mel Brooks, Charlton Heston, Warren Beatty, George C. Scott, Paddy Chayefsky, Elia Kazan, Arthur Penn, Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Zero Mostel, Woody Allen, Peter Falk, Jackie Mason, Danny Aiello, Eli Wallach, and F. Murray Abraham.
When he asked what he enjoyed working on more, theater or film, Schlossberg replied: “I like theater the best. The reason I like theater the best is, number one, I am the camera. The camera is not telling me what to look at. I can look where I want to look; I can see what I want to see. As a producer, it’s all confined. I’m in one area. When you are making a movie or a television show, every day is a new location, every two days you are jumping around. In the theater, you’ve got, basically, the set, the costumes, the lighting, the sound, and that’s it. “On a movie, there are 82 different things.” Early in his career, Schlossberg spent two years as Vice President of Production at Paramount. “Those were the worst two years of my life,” he recalled. “If you are a religious person, you say, ‘When God closes a door, he opens a window.’ At Paramount, I was able to meet Elaine May, Herb Gardiner, Marlo Thomas, Charles Grodin, and all of these people became lifelong friends and that was almost 50 years ago.”
Schlossberg is also celebrating 50 years of interviewing people, having started in 1974 at WMCA radio. “I loved interviewing when I was younger,” he explained. “I really loved it because there was George Burns, Bob Hope, Jack Nicholson, Betty Davis, John Huston. I couldn’t believe it. To this day, I still can’t believe that I sat down and it was just the two of us talking. So, I loved that!” To hear stories of his experiences working with Hollywood and theater greats, pick up a copy of My First Book – Part 2 or listen to it on Kindle. You do not need to have read his first memoir to enjoy this one. “Stories came up that I had totally forgotten about,” Schlossberg said, “and I thought I may have another book in me, and it turned out I did!” He also added that both books are easy reads because they have short chapters.
Fans of the nationally syndicated radio program, Julian Schlossberg’s MovieTalk can now enjoy the podcast reboot. While working as an entertainment executive, Schlossberg hosted MovieTalk, a nationally syndicated radio program on WMCA and, subsequently, on WOR. For nearly a decade, he interviewed hundreds of stars (many of whom rarely did interviews). Earlier this year, Julian Schlossberg’s MovieTalk relaunched as a podcast. The unique series features interviews with stars, writers, directors, and producers, including F. Murray Abraham, Richard Benjamin, Alan Alda, Sandy Duncan, Steve Guttenberg, Eddie Izzard, Carol Kane, Robert Klein, David Mamet, Ben Mankiewicz, David Hyde Pierce, Isabella Rossellini, Martin Sheen, and Marlo Thomas. You can also subscribe to Tales from Hollywoodland, a fast-paced weekly show business podcast focuses on all genres of movies; classic to current, co-hosted by Hollywood veterans Arthur Friedman, Steven Jay Rubin and Schlossberg. Upcoming episodes will feature conversations with John Badham, Matthew Broderick, Dick Cavett, Joanna Gleason, John Kander, Hal Linden, Eddie Muller, Don Scardino, and more. Listeners can subscribe or access new audio episodes at JulianSchlossbergproducer.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast websites. The video podcast is available from the “Julian Schlossberg’s MovieTalk” YouTube channel.
Sardi’s photos by Melissa Griegel Photography
www.griegelphoto.zenfolio.com