Darwin Porter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Darwin Porter (born 1937)[1][2] is known as one of the writers and long-time associates of the Frommer's travel guides[3] and a sensationalist Hollywood biographer[4] known for books whose source material derives from transcription of oral dialogues from living witnesses of not-widely publicized events and relationships in the entertainment industry.[citation needed]

Porter was born in western North Carolina and grew up in Miami Beach, Florida. He attended the University of Miami and graduated in 1959. At the age of 20, he became an entertainment columnist for The Miami Herald, later being made bureau chief in Key West.

He has written biographies of the Gabor sisters: Zsa Zsa, Eva and Magda, Merv Griffin, Michael Jackson, Steve McQueen, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, Howard Hughes, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh (with Roy Moseley), Linda Lovelace and J. Edgar Hoover, all, apart from Jackson and Zsa Zsa Gabor, after their deaths. Most of these biographies have illuminated aspects of Hollywood history hitherto unknown to the general public and he has also revamped Hollywood Babylon.

None of the books contain source notes and all contain information about the sexual habits of their subjects gleaned from highly detailed verbatim quotes given to Porter or his late associate, Stanley Haggart (1910-1981).

Some of Porter's works have been serialized by major broadsheet newspapers in the UK, including The Sunday Times[citation needed]. Writing of his novel Butterfly in Heat, James Kirkwood, Jr., the co-author of A Chorus Line, wrote, "Darwin Porter writes with an incredible understanding of the milieu - hot enough to singe the wings off any butterfly!"[5]

All of his biographies were published by Blood Moon Productions (www.BloodMoonProductions.com), an independent, New York City-based press directed by former New York Times reporter Danforth Prince and distributed through the National Book Network. Blood Moon originated as the Georgia Literary Association in 1997.

Porter also recently contributed commentary tracks to numerous DVD releases of classic films. [6]

References

  1. ↑ Copyright registrations database, U.S. Copyright Office. Registrations of Brando Unzipped, Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel, Midnight in Savannah, several others.
  2. ↑ Darwin (Fred) Porter, in: Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, Gale Research, 1997, vol. 56.
  3. ↑ http://www.babyboomers-seniors.com/pdfs/may05/fullpages/May29.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=61-9780470100578-0
  5. ↑ Review for Porter's Butterfly in Heat, cited in Darwin Porter, Butterflies in Heat (1997), p.1.
  6. ↑ http://www.bloodmoonproductions.com/Announcements_of_Coming_Attractions.html
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.