With Malice Towards Some: Tales from a Life Dancing With Stars

Rating:
Summary: An exhilarating romp with the Hollywood greats
Review: Bob Sidney's book is refreshingly direct - he tells stories about all the great Hollywood stars he has worked with over the years - Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, Judy Garland, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and many more. They are insider's stories which haven't been told before.

Bob was primarily a choreographer, but also a writer and director - and sometime performer - and his career spanned the 40s to the 70s, working in film and TV, Broadway and night-clubs. His stories are light, personal, sometimes funny and sometimes poignant - always entertaining.

It's a great book to dip into, to pick up and put down, and be sorry when you've finished. Not many people have the opportunity to have lead such an extraordinary life as Mr Sidney, who also had an extraordinary career.... this book shares his experiences, which are fascinating and amusing.

Rating:
Summary: From The Chairman of the Dean Martin Fan Center
Review: This is a must read for anyone who remembers the great era of movie and television stars. Author, Robert (Bob) Sidney, is not a name the average person would know... but his name is known by virtually everyone and anyone in the entertainment field.

Bob Sidney simply but eloquently refers to himself as a dancer and choreographer... nothing more. In reality, Bob is not only a master choreographer, BUT has been a director, producer, writer, teacher, consultant, and even make-shift set designer!

Here is a man that was chosen by Irving Berlin himself to choreograph 1941's epic motion picture "This is the Army", and from that moment on, Bob Sidney was the busiest and most wanted director/choreographer in show business. Some of his credits include "The Loves of Carmen", "Jumping Jacks" with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, "Susan Slept Here", "The Opposite Sex", "Where The Boys Are", "How The West Was Won", "The Pleasure Seekers", "How to Murder Your Wife", "The Singing Nun", "The Silencers" and "Valley of the Dolls". He has produced several Broadway Shows, and His television credits are way too numerous to list (over 200 of the most watched hours on the air), but for starters, Bob was choreographer for the highly sucessful Dean Martin Show.

Along the way, Bob Sidney made a lot of friends... and at a recent booksigning, hundreds of his friends were there to grab a copy of this wonderful book. I found it quite interesting to see huge stars waiting in line behind one another to get their copy.

As Bob says, "These are tales from a life dancing with stars." He reminisces about the elite circle he was (and is) included within... Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Mitzi Gaynor, Cyd Charrise, Liberace, Bob Hope, Debbie Reynolds, Betty Grable, Milton Berle, Irving Berlin, Lena Horne, Alice Faye, Jack Lemmon, Bob Fosse, Ann-Margret, Joey Heatherton, Elke Sommer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Gina Lollobrigida, Rita Hayworth, June Allyson, Ray Bolger, Joseph Pasternak, Dean Martin and many many more!

As chairman of the Dean Martin Fan Center, I was anxious to read the chapter Bob wrote about his friendship with Dean... but found myself enthralled in all the other chapters about the other celebrities that he recalls too. There were many stories that I had not heard before. I couldn't put the book down and stayed up all night to finish reading it!

If you are a fan of true Hollywood and want to hear the real truth about some of the biggest names in show business (from a man who was there, and without the bull, you gotta read this. You will also be astonished at Bob Sidney's own career and talents, which now includes being an author. Robert Sidney is a very talented man and has a fabulous career, and it was such a pleasure to allow us to peek inside. "With Malice Towards Some" is fun reading and I give it 5 Stars!