Tony and Me: A Story of Friendship

by Jack Klugman

Overview

The close professional relationship between Jack Klugman and Tony Randall has long been famous, but the details of their personal friendship have never been revealed until now. In Tony and Me by Jack Klugman with Burton Rocks the depth of this friendship is fully explored and touchingly revealed for the very first time. In his tribute, Klugman provides the ultimate insider’s view of a relationship that went well beyond what the public saw in The Odd Couple.

Tony and Me follows both actors from their early days of stage and television to the “Camelot” of The Odd Couple;
from Klugman’s fight with invasive throat cancer to Randall’s struggle to open a National Actors Theatre.
What emerges is a touching portrait of a legendary professional relationship that, in the end, became deeply personal.
Tony and Me also has a foreword by Garry Marshall and includes over fifty photographs, many from Jack and Tony’s private collection, as well as an included DVD of never-before-seen out takes from The Odd Couple.
This final component makes Tony and Me a great experience not only for diehard fans and history buffs, but for anyone in search of a good laugh.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781483501901
Publisher:	BookBaby
Publication date:	06/05/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	144
File size:	8 MB

Editorial Reviews

Klugman's brief memoir of his friendship with Tony Randall stays true to the promise the author made to himself if he ever wrote such a book: "I would never do two things: kiss and tell, and bore people with long histories of things." Boring this work isn't, as one would expect from a kid who grew up as the only Jew in a tough 1920s Italian South Philadelphia neighborhood, entered a college acting program to get away from his bookie and was cast by Garry Marshall in TV's The Odd Couple because Marshall had been impressed by seeing Klugman on Broadway in Gypsy getting spit on by Ethel Merman and not flinching. Although lacking in panache, the book does stay true to its stated intention of paying tribute to Randall, who founded the National Actors Theatre. The most endearing anecdote is that of how Randall cast Klugman in a 1991 benefit Odd Couple production, three years after Klugman had undergone throat cancer surgery and lost almost all his voice. The chapter titled "How Tony Gave My Life Back" recounts how Klugman retrained his throat and regained his career. Though amateurish, Klugman's writing possesses rare conviction and humility. Photos. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly