Of Kings, Queens and Movie Stars

Of Kings, Queens and Movie Stars

“This is showbiz from the very intimate inside. How inside? Leonard was literally the third person on Cary Grant's honeymoon with Dyan Cannon...and writes all about it! Forty years in the film publicity trenches. You'll read all about life in the movies in the more glorious and glamorous 70s, 80s, and 90s... Steve McQueen, Peter Sellers, Warren Beatty, Barbra Streisand and on and on and on. A thousand times more interesting and sophisticated than today's gossip mongers. Morpurgo was right in there organizing, advising, encouraging and taking the heat for the cream of the movie crop as well as the heads of state from around the world. You love movies?... Don't miss Of Kings and Queens and Movie Stars.”


Sid Ganis, Producer and President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.




“This is a fun and fantastic reading experience. Leonard Morpurgo has worked with the famous, and his frank and entertaining stories about them are eye-openers. It’s an insider’s look at Hollywood egos, past and present.”


Henri Bollinger, founder, president of the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society and past president of the Publicists Guild of America.




“A truly gifted bard, Leonard Morpurgo proves once again that truth is indeed stranger than fiction --- even in Hollywood. Wonderfully entertaining and great reading.”


David A. Weitzner, Director, Summer Program, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California



"An amusing and informative collection of stories about the author's adventures in the PR trade, told with an engagingly wry and self-deprecating good humor."


Michael York




"If you want to know what it is like to be a publicity pro from the days of Cary Grant to George Clooney this is a great read. It is interesting, funny and enlightening."


Robert J. Dowling, former editor-in-chief and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter.



“A longtime international film publicist, Morpurgo dishes celebs ranging from Cary Grant to the Duke of Windsor, at the same time skewering the decision-makers at the studios who—more often than most PR types will admit—are wayward or wacky in their calls.


“Never heavy-handed or tacky, Morpurgo provides a reminder of just how fractured the personalities he had to cater to were (and are). His word for them is ‘guarded,’ but often he managed to get behind the veil of one or another.


“The book has texture, and it made me realize how far we’ve come, or receded, since the heady, spendthrift days of the 1970s and ‘80s.”


Elizabeth Guider, current editor of The Hollywood Reporter.

Book Soup hosts Robert Relyea on Sept. 10

Movie executive was assistant director on Jailhouse Rock

Producer Robert E. Relyea, a fifty-year veteran of the movie industry and assistant director on Elvis Presley's most iconic film, Jailhouse Rock, will appear at a world famous book store on the Sunset Strip this month to promote his new action-packed autobiography.

The two-hour signing will take place 7 p.m. Wednesday, September 10 at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Relyea will be signing copies of Not So Quiet On The Set: My Life In Movies During Hollywood’s Macho Era, which promises to become a must read for anyone who yearns to know the “real” stories about the movies.

Co-authored by son Craig Relyea, Not So Quiet On The Set provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes, first person look into Hollywood’s movie-making landscape during the turbulent pre-and post-Kennedy years in America. The book also chronicles Relyea’s relationship with Elvis Presley on the set of Jailhouse Rock and Kid Gallahad.

Tidbits include:

• When Relyea rushed Presley from the MGM soundstage to Cedars-Sinai Hospital because the singer had swallowed a tooth cap.

• A behind-the-scenes look at the famous dance sequence that became Presley's most enduring image on celluloid.

• How Presley won over the film's veteran cast and crew with his polite manners and sincerity.

• Relyea's take on Presley's romance with co-star Judy Tyler, who died in a tragic automobile accident shortly after Jailhouse Rock was finished.

• Having fun with Presley and the Memphis Mafia on the set of Kid Gallahad.

The 348-page work includes candid photos of Relyea on the sets of epic films and presents rare insights into the mechanics and politics of film making, defining a dynamic period in motion picture history. A unique collaboration between father and son, Not So Quiet On The Set not only illustrates how the movie industry really works, but also provides a revealing portrait of Hollywood’s loss of innocence.

For more information, go to www.booksoup.com or www.NotSoQuietOnTheSet.com.