Chicago theater veteran Kevin Theis, co-author of the cult classic Confessions of a Transylvanian: a Story of Sex, Drugs and Rocky Horror presents: Invading Nirvana: a Chicagoan in the City of Angels the story of one actor's quixotic odyssey into the heart of the entertainment industry: Hollywood, California. From the early preparations for his trip to La La Land to his search for representation, his encounters with the famous (and soon-to-be famous) as well as his deep-dive exploration of this unique and fascinating city.

Barry Avrich - a self-made, Montreal-born film producer-director, flamboyant advertising executive, and legendary biographer and connector of moguls and stars. For over three decades, he has relentlessly produced films on some of the most notorious show-business titans and also found the time to market and promote feature films, concerts, and the biggest shows on Broadway.

In 1963, 30-year-old Friedman - who had recently quit his job as a Boston advertising executive and returned to his hometown of New York to become a theatrical producer - opened a coffee house for Broadway performers called the Improvisation. His goal? Simply to make a living, and if all went according to plan, to also make enough professional contacts to be able to mount his first Broadway show within a year's time. Later shortened to the Improv, its first West 44th Street location was in a seedy section of Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen.

It began in Hollywood's golden age, when Ava was emerging as a movie star. But she fell in (and out of) love too easily. Mickey Rooney married her because he wanted another conquest. Artie Shaw treated her like a dumb brunette, giving her a reading list on their honeymoon. Neither marriage lasted a year. Then, after being courted by Howard Hughes and numerous others, along came Frank Sinatra. His passion for Ava destroyed his marriage and brought him close to ruin.

Where Did I Go Right? is Bernie Brillstein's street-smart, funny, and thoroughly human account of his life in show business. With a trademark wit and candor, Bernie speaks out about a number of celebrities and agents. Among his accounts are those of his feud with Mike Ovitz, his feelings to no longer be the king after passing on the leadership of his company to his partner, Brad Grey, his close relationship with Jim Belushi and Jim Henson, and stories of Gilda Radner and Lorne Michaels.

The legendary creator of iconic television programs All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Norman Lear remade our television culture - while leading a life of unparalleled political, civic, and social involvement. Sharing the wealth of Lear's 90 years, Even This I Get to Experience is a memoir as touching and remarkable as the life he has led.

Born to immigrant parents and raised in the slums of Toronto during the Depression, Ted Kotcheff learned storytelling on the streets before taking a stagehand job at CBC Television. Discovering his skills with actors and production, Kotcheff went on to direct some of the greatest films of the freewheeling 1970s, including The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Wake in Fright, and North Dallas Forty.

Betty Grable: The Reluctant Movie Queen is a fascinating and intimate account of the famous star who was for many years the highest-paid woman in America and a favorite pin-up all over the world.

Get a look into the mind of Cheech Marin - one half of the renowned Cheech and Chong comedic duo - and follow through the highs and lows of his personal and professional lives. An unborn baby with a fatal heart defect...a skier submerged for an hour in a frozen Norwegian lake...a comatose brain surgery patient whom doctors have declared a "vegetable". The long-awaited memoir from a counterculture legend. Cheech Marin came of age at an interesting time in America and became a self-made counterculture legend with his other half, Tommy Chong.

The action was a series of fights in the ring and I played the boxing second. I had 34 entrances and exits, very few lines and a sponge. Throughout a career in theatre, television and film spanning over 75 years, actor Peter Vaughan has kept in mind a piece of advice given to him by his father: always see the ludicrous side of things. This may come as a surprise to those who associate him mainly with menacing, even brutal characters, in everything from Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs to Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

A legendary comedic second banana to a litany of major stars, Curtis is forever cemented in the public imagination as Booger from Revenge of the Nerds. A classically trained actor, Curtis began his incredible 40-year career onstage but progressed rapidly to film and television. He was typecast early, and it proved to be the best thing that could have happened. But there's more to Curtis' story than that.

Once called a legend in his own time slot, Garry Marshall has been among the most successful writers, directors, and producers in America for more than five decades. In My Happy Days in Hollywood, Marshall takes us on a journey from his stickball-playing days in the Bronx to his time at the helm of some of the most popular television series and movies of all time, sharing the joys and challenges of working with the Fonz and the young Julia Roberts, the “street performer” Robin Williams, and the young Anne Hathaway, among many others.

After almost four decades in the music business, David Foster - producer, arranger, songwriter, performer - is ready to speak. In his compelling and outspoken memoir, Foster shares incredible stories from his years of working with music superstars, including Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Josh Groban, Michael Buble, and many others.

Burt Bacharach is one of the most celebrated and legendary songwriters of the 20th century. Throughout his 60-year career he has worked with artists from Dionne Warwick to Dr Dre, Marlene Dietrich to Elvis Costello. Anyone Who Had a Heart is the story of one of the greatest songwriters of all time. It traces, for the first time in his own words, the life and times of the man who created the music that has become the soundtrack for the lives of his millions of devoted fans all over the world.

Revealingly candid, this Hollywood memoir is the story of Jay Bernstein, an entertainment industry fixture who helped launch and sustain the careers of many celebrities including Farrah Fawcett and Suzanne Somers. From his childhood in Oklahoma City and his first job in a Hollywood mail room to the ownership of his own public relations firm and his work as a television producer, Bernstein’s life is chronicled in his own words.