slih book

Hollywood legend Tony Curtis passed away on September 29, 2010. In the latter part of his life, when Tony met his fans, they inevitably asked about his 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot. Luckily for them—and for us—he had stories to share. In his 2009 book, The Making of “Some Like It Hot,” he shared all of them.

Some Like It Hot is a beloved part of our culture, voted the “Funniest Film of All Time” by the American Film Institute, but Tony was the first to tell the complete, uncensored story of its making, a behind-the-scenes saga of intrigue, humor, and romance. A noted artist and raconteur, Tony painted word-portraits of the geniuses who made the film: director Billy Wilder and his co-writer I. A. L. Diamond; actor Jack Lemmon; and cultural icon Marilyn Monroe.

In engaging style, Tony tells of Wilder-and-Diamond’s unique writing routine; Wilder’s surprising first choice for Tony’s co-star; and Wilder’s daring decision to add violence to farce. In his lively text, Tony describes the challenges he faced as “the best-looking kid in Hollywood” suddenly forced to dress as a woman: meeting the limitations of a constricting costume; learning the “moves” from a female impersonator; adapting his walk and the pitch of his voice; facing people’s reactions (or worse, the lack of them); working in tandem with the hilarious Lemmon; and following Wilder’s precise but often impersonal direction.

Here, too, are Tony’s previously unpublished recollections of his bittersweet relationship with Marilyn. He tells in vivid, compelling detail how America’s most celebrated sex symbol came to work on this unlikely project; how he had met the young unknown years earlier on a studio street; their puppy love; her meteoric rise to fame and the resentment he saw in her colleagues; how her perfectionism nearly drove him crazy; and how her strange behavior nearly shut down the film.

Packed with scores of rarely seen black-and-white photos and eight pages of color photos that reveal how the movie would have looked in Technicolor, The Making of “Some Like It Hot” is the ideal way to remember this landmark film.

TONY CURTIS was a Hollywood legend the and author of three memoirs. His web sites are tonycurtis.com and shilohhorserescue.com.