Party Animals

January 25, 2010
Hofler, senior editor at Variety
magazine, embarks on a sex- and camp-fueled romp through the outrageous life of Hollywood producer and impresario Allan Carr (1937–1999). Eschewing the conventional biography model, Hofler instead chronicles Carr’s lavish parties and equally audacious film work. Openly gay, Carr threw some of the entertainment industry’s most memorable shindigs in the 1970s—including the Rudolf Nureyev mattress party and the Truman Capote jail house party, held at the decommissioned Lincoln Heights Jail in L.A. A longtime theater fan, Carr, in his role as producer, brought the Who’s rock opera Tommy
to the screen, as well as Grease
, which became the top-grossing movie musical of all time. But for all his achievements, Carr had an equal number of disastrous flops: the Village People–inspired Can’t Stop the Music
, Grease 2
, and the much-reviled 1989 Oscar ceremony that saw Rob Lowe serenading Snow White in front of a replica of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub. Though Carr’s enthusiasm is infectious, Hofler never fully captures the man behind the glitz and glamour, leaving readers not wholly satisfied. B&w photos.

December 15, 2009
Variety senior editor Hofler (The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson, 2005, etc.) presents the gaudy career of flamboyant Hollywood and Broadway producer Allan Carr (1937–1999), a strong contender for the most tasteless tyro in show business.

Caftan-clad, morbidly obese and publicly gay in an era when, even in the entertainment industry, flaunting one's homosexuality was still very much taboo, Carr cut a curious figure among the beautiful people of Hollywood. He cultivated an outrageous public persona and marshaled his gifts for promotion to create a series of extravagantly themed parties that brought together old-school Hollywood royalty, rock musicians and the gay demimonde in sybaritic soirees with names like"The Mick Jagger Cycle Sluts Party." The parties were hits, but as a producer, Carr's record was rather mixed. His sensibilities synched up perfectly with the stage musical Grease, and he shepherded the massively successful film adaptation in 1978. Lightning struck again with his Broadway musical adaptation of the French farce La Cage aux Folles (1983), a long-running hit that also broke boundaries in bringing its gay subject matter to a mainstream theater audience. But Carr's debit column is a doozy, containing the legendarily tacky and inept Village People vehicle Can't Stop the Music (1980) and gauche cinematic non-events Grease 2 (1982) and Where the Boys are'84. Most damning, though, was the 1989 Academy Awards broadcast, a fiasco of epic proportions that reached its nadir with a tone-deaf Rob Lowe warbling"Proud Mary" to Snow White. The Oscars telecast effectively ended Carr's career, and the ailing producer retreated to his pleasure palace of a house and succumbed to his chronic health problems, ultimately dying of liver cancer. Does this tawdry legacy warrant a book? That's debatable, but Hofler delivers a hell of a tour of Hollywood egotism, crassness and gross excess. Carr would have approved.

Fast-paced, funny and occasionally horrifying portrait of a compulsive personality and the culture of excess that both created and destroyed him.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2010
Hofler ("The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Wilson"), a senior editor at "Variety", revisits 1970s80s Hollywood via Allan Carr, whose name was then synonymous with excess. He produced "Grease" and the musical "La Cage aux Folles", in addition to promoting "Tommy". Carr's parties were legendarye.g., the circus-themed party to introduce the leather-clad heavy metal band the Cycle Sluts and one held in a jail, which Truman Capote attendedand they brought together movie stars and rock stars, gay and straight. But in the 1990s, Carr's star descended, and he became persona non grata in Hollywood. He produced what was considered the worst Oscar ceremony ever (remember Rob Lowe singing to Snow White?), and his Village People musical, "Can't Stop the Music", was his downfall. VERDICT Despite Carr's flamboyant life, Hofler's delivery is too dry to broaden the appeal of this book beyond nostalgic baby boomers.Rosellen Brewer, Sno-Isle Libs., Marysville, WA

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