Raymond Strait - James Garner: A Biography

By Raymond Strait

A Crossroad Press Biography

Digital Edition published by Crossroad Press

Smashwords edition published at Smashwords by Crossroad Press

Digital Edition Copyright 2016 Raymond Strait

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R aymond Strait has built an international reputation via his numerous celebrity biographies and syndicated columns relating to Hollywood and the world of celebrity.

Considered an expert in his field he is a very popular speaker whose books and anecdotes provide a wealth of material from which he effortlessly draws upon to inform his audiences about the excessive lives of the stars.

He was, for ten years, press secretary to the late film sex-symbol, Jayne Mansfield prior to embarking upon a career in writing.

In addition to his numerous books he has written hundreds of feature articles and columns for major magazines and newspapers covering motion pictures, television, music, sports and politics.

November 1997 to December 1999 co-host on KHPY Talk Radios Spirit of the Law.

Currently co-host with Fred Primleys In The Mix on KCAA (am/fm) radio, San Bernardino NBC Affiliate.

A literate and articulate speaker, he has guested on dozens of radio and television shows, including Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Hilly Rose, Geraldo Rivera, E-Entertainments Secrets and Scandals, Hollywood and the Kennedys & the Joan Rivers Show. He also appeared in a CBS Sports Olympics Special on Sonja Henie with 60 Minutes reporter Morley Safer during the 1994 Winter Olympics. Featured guest on A&Es Biography of Jayne Mansfield; Tribute to Rosemary Clooney(aired 4-21-99 on the Family Channels Famous Families, and a BBC profile of Jayne Mansfield, filmed in Palm Springs, California on June 19, 1999. released in the fall of 1999. He is also a veteran of the book tour circuit.

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For Charles Farley friend and compatriot

A very special thanks to those who were kind enough to grant the author interviews. Some, of great length, were given with great patience and candor: Roy Huggins (who not only was cooperative, but made suggestions that bore enormously valuable results), Jimmy Lydon, Les Martinson, Jack Kelly (Jim Garners co-star on Maverick), Arthur Hiller, John Sturges, Burt Kennedy, Jack Scagnetti, Michel M. Grilikhes and Harold R. Belknap (editor and publisher, The Norman Transcript, Norman, Okla.).

Other important contributors: Kenneth Norris, Doug McClelland, Sandi Freeman (and Gable News Networks Freeman Reports), Diana Markes, University of California Department of Special Collections (Dr. Robert Knutson and Ray Holland), Warner Brothers Studios (especially Kimberly Brent), Ronald Neame, Edward Anhalt, Dennis Weaver, Jim Mahoney, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Legal Department (Herbert Nussbaum, Esq., and Donna Shurk), Maggi White, Ralph Nelson, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Margaret Herrick Library, The American Film Institutes Louis B. Mayer Library, University of California at Riverside Library, University of California at Los Angeles Humanities Library, Paramount Pictures, Inc., ABC Television Center, Standard & Poors Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives, International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild of America, Custom Tailors Guild of America, Fleetwood Publications Ltd. of London, Filmgoers Companion, New York Herald Tribune, Weekly and Daily Variety, Hollywood Reporter, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Popular Science, This Week, Parade, Triangle Communications, Book of TV Lists, Motion Picture Almanac, Film Facts, Time, Look, Life, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Los Angeles Daily News, Photoplay, The American Weekly, Seventeen, Motion Picture, House Beautiful, Toledo Blade, Limelight, Motion Picture Herald, Esquire, Movieland and TV Time, Labor Week, Newsweek, Associated Press, Los Angeles Mirror, Cosmopolitan, Screenland, Movie Life Yearbook, Screen Album, Feature Films, Movie Stars Annual, Billboard, Cash Box, Motion Picture Association of America, Entertainment Weekly, Coronet, Motor Trend, TV Guide, Modern Screen, Hollywood Life Stories, Hollywood Citizen-News, Film Comment, The Saturday Evening Post, San Fernando Valley Magazine, Drama-Logue, Hot Rod, Panorama, Detroit Free Press, Santa Monica Evening Outlook, Good Housekeeping, Playboy, The New Yorker, Hollywood Studio Magazine, Architectural Digest, Marie Torre, David Scott, Jan P. Norbye, Gabe Essoe, Jack Bagby, Nancy Curbin, Hank Grant, Amy Archard, Jim Hoffman, Fred D. Brown, Mavor Moore, Bob Thomas, Leslie Taubman, Erskine Johnson, Vernon Scott, Howard Thompson, Murray Olderman, Abe Greenberg, Sheilah Graham, Pete Martin, Jerry Asher, Cameron Shipp, Bill Tusher, Dick Kleiner, Guy Newton, Earl Wilson, Carolyn See, Dick Wells, Patrick McNulty, Cecil Smith, Dorothy Manners, Joan Schmitt, Paul Gardner, Morton Moss, Sidney Skolsky, Walter Winchell, Al Stump, Doris Wedge, Kit Snedaker, Muriel Davidson, Arnold Hans, Dick Lochte, Arnold Roth, Charles Champlin, Lee Winfrey, Rona Barrett, Jean Vallely, Daniel Menaker, Morrie Gelman, Marilyn Beck, Dave Kaufman, Ellen Torgerson, Jerry Buck, Howard Rosenberg, Charles Parker, Samir Hachem, Mary Beth Murrill, Beverly Linet, Richard West, Amie Friedman, Cameron Curtis McKinley, Janice Fuhrman, Greg Baxton, Dave Wallace, Gary Deeb, Rick Du Brow, Cam Bentley, Ron Base, Robin Leach, Roderick Mann, Jenny Andrews Harwell, Gail Williams, Jo Weeden, Adam Dawson, Peter J. Boyer, Carl Connor, Robert Ward, Kevin Thomas, John J. OConnor, George Christy, Patte Barham Boyne, Leo Guild, and Kirk Crivello.