Product Description

Now in paperback with updated photos and additional interviews, The Harder They Fall reveals the intimate thoughts, feelings, regrets, and beliefs of celebrities in recovery. Among those profiled are comedian Richard Pryor; musicians Grace Slick, Dr. John, and Chuck Negron; actors Malcolm McDowell and Mariette Hartley; and athletes Dock Ellis and Gerry Cooney. Addiction devoured their pride and accomplishments until each found the courage to ask for help, the honesty to face their disease, and the strength--ultimately--to rebuild a life of extraordinary success. Here, legendary Los Angeles publicist, Gary Stromberg, gives readers an up-close look at fame and addiction, as told by the stars themselves. These are stories of greatness rebuilt--one day at a time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #521212 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-12
• Released on: 2007-08-15
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.00" h x 6.19" w x 8.91" l, 1.24 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The celebrities interviewed here--from Ann Lamott to Alice Cooper--are all in recovery from addictions to alcohol or drugs that originated in the 1960s and '70s. Among them are athletes, musicians, actors and even a member of Congress, Jim Ramstad. With the assistance of veteran writer Merrill, Stromberg, who ran a P.R. firm for musicians and produced films (Car Wash), provides a brief introduction to each subject before eliciting his or her first-person story. Stromberg, a former abuser of heroin, cocaine and alcohol, also shares his spectacular success in the 1970s and his equally dramatic drug-addled fall in 1980, when he lost his home, lover and career. Like many of those he interviewed, he became sober through traditional rehab and recovery programs. But Pete Hamill found his path to sobriety alone by deciding "to live my life without anesthesia, and that meant accepting the pain along with the laughs." Top jockey Pat Day describes how he was saved from drug and alcohol dependence through a commitment to born-again Christianity. The strength of these always honest and affecting anecdotes is, in fact, their variety of paths to recovery; the diversity should help this excellent volume appeal to a wide audience. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Film folk (Mariette Hartley, Malcolm McDowell), musicians (Dr. John, Alice Cooper), athletes (Gerry Cooney, Dock Ellis), and comedians (Richard Lewis, Richard Pryor) as well as one politician (congressman Jim Ramstad) proffer heartfelt as-told-to tales of personal ruin and redemption in this occasionally overamped, dreadfully sincere collection. Three Dog Night singer Chuck Negron kicks things off with a harrowing addict's-progress yarn ("I started with Romilar but heroin became my love"). Slipped a peyote-LSD combo early in his career, Negron missed out, strictly by chance, on the carnage, celebrated in the movie Wonderland, that porn star John Holmes figured in. Dock Ellis tells of pitching a no-hitter while on LSD, and Grace Slick contributes her rich and varied substance-abuse history. As a publication of the famed drug-treatment center Hazelden, there is a religious component at work here, and Stromberg and Merrill leave little doubt as to their absolutist positions on recreational substance abuse. Still, this is a creditable addition to the debauched-celeb literature. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
In 1967, Gary Stromberg co-founded one of the most successful public relations firms in the entertainment business and represented music industry superstars including The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, The Doors, and Earth, Wind and Fire. He co-produced the motion pictures Car Wash and The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.

Jane Merrill has written articles about art, style, and popular history for dozens of magazines, including Cosmopolitan, The New Republic, Redbook, and The Christian Science Monitor. She is the author of books on child rearing, relationships, and beauty.