Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr
Those who open Hofler’s biography of larger-than-life movie producer and party-giver Allan Carr, hoping for a closer look into decidedly decadent 1970s Hollywood, won’t be disappointed. Carr famously threw some of the wildest, most decadent parties of the decade, many in his home, some meant to drum up interest in one or another of his film projects (the premiere party for the movie Tommy was in a New York subway station). But Hofler is after more than mere trash. His book also affords a fascinating look at the movie business and a moving portrait of a talented, complicated, self-destructive man. For a while Carr could do no wrong in La La Land. He was the man, after all, behind the hit movie Grease. And then, just as suddenly, he could do no right. He was also the guy behind the Village People bomb, Can’t Stop the Music, and the moving force behind the disastrous 1989 Academy Awards ceremony, the one in which Rob Lowe danced with Snow White. Hofler captures Carr, warts and all. --Jack Helbig