80: From Ben Bradlee to Lena Horne to Carl Reiner, Our Most Famous Eighty Year Olds Reveal Why They Never Felt So Young

by Gerald Gardner, Jim Bellows

Overview

"Don't be surprised, Pussycat," said Helen Gurley Brown, still flirtatious at eighty-four, "We're all survivors and proud of it. We want to talk about it."

And they do. Eighty of America's most famous eighty year-olds reflect on their journeys to the big 8-0 and describe the passions that keep them young. They all have opinions about today's world what is good about being eighty and what keeps them vital. The members of this generation have spent eighty-plus years honing the art of living and they have secrets to share. Their personal stories are truly inspirational.

"My answer to growing old at any age, whether you're growing to be twenty , or forty, or sixty or eighty, is to fall in love and stay in love." --Ray Bradbury, 86, author

"It's interesting to me--my career has taken off now that I'm ninety-five. It's totally taken off. I had to wait 'til I was ninety-five to be this popular." --Kitty Carlisle Hart, 95, singer

"I say quite sincerely that this is the best time of my life." --Hugh Hefner, 80, founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy

Contributors to the book include:

Mike Wallace, Helen Thomas, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Lena Horne, Kitty Carlyle Hart, Ray Bradbury, Art Buchwald, Norman Lear, Robert Byrd, George McGovern, and Jack Valenti.

Advanced Praise for 80:

"Everyone from 9-90 needs this book, because save for the two or three mad people in the world, everyone wants to live & never die. The selected people in "80" have with, charm and ensusiance revealed how they have survived, with passion, compassion, humor and style. I hope Gardner and Bellows will do another one on 90 - I am in for the long run."--Maya Angelou

"80 is the new young! These inspiring stories of vibrant, active octogenarians are the best kind of tonic for warding off worries about old age."--Tom Brokaw

"Once, almost nobody was eighty. Now many of us are and more of us are going to be soon. So Gerald Gardner and Jim Bellows give us a wonderful book about being eighty and more."--Jimmy Breslin

"A joy to read and a guaranteed attitude adjustment. These people are hope! And Gerald Gardner and Jim Bellows know how to edit down their famous lives to the fearless truths."--Gail Sheehy, author of Passages and Sex and the Seasoned Woman

"Jim Bellows' and Gerald Gardner's 80 made me laugh, 80 made me think, and 80 actually made me look forward to reaching and to enjoying that Grand Age"--Mark Shields, syndicated columnist and PBS commentator

"80 is the most heartening book on old age I've read since De Senectute (Cicero, you callow sub-octogenarians, Cicero). The 80 old folks in 80 make 80 sound so fascinating, I feel short-changed by being forced to wait until 2010 to be among their number."--Tom Wolfe

"I love this book. What a pleasure: great interviews, lovely wise people."--Ånnie Lamott, author of Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402248245
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	09/01/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Gerald Gardner is the author of numerous books on politics and film, including the bestselling series Who's In Charge Here?

Jim Bellows is the former editor of the New York Herald Tribune, the Washington Star and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, managing editor of Entertainment Tonight and creator of New York magazine. Both authors live in Los Angeles.

Gerald Gardner is the author of numerous books on politics and film, including the bestselling series Who’s In Charge Here?

Jim Bellows is the former editor of the New York Herald Tribune, the Washington Star and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, managing editor of Entertainment Tonight and creator of New York magazine. Both authors live in Los Angeles.

Read an Excerpt

If you turned eighty last year, you were born in 1926, the year Valentino died, Gertrude Ederle swam the English Channel, Billy Mitchell was court martialed, Tunney beat Dempsey, and Hirohito became emperor of Japan.

You were ten in 1936, when the country was no longer keeping cool with Coolidge and was deep in the Great Depression. Liz Carpenter recalls that those who lived through that time didn't call in the Great Depression, as "There was nothing great about it." Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide, the Midwest was engulfed in dust storms, the Spanish Civil War broke out, and Lindbergh was impressed as he toured Germany.

You turned twenty in 1946, if you managed to survive World War II. The previous year, Norman Corwin wrote "On a Note of Triumph" at Franklin Roosevelt's request. In addition, the United Nations met for the first time in 1946. The world seemed a promising place. Betty Garrett was in Call Me Mister, the Broadway review about the soldiers coming home. Harry Truman seized the coal mines, twelve Nazis were sentenced to death at Nuremberg, and Jane Russell outraged the censors with The Outlaw.

When you turned thirty in 1956, you had been through Herbert Hoover, Pearl Harbor, the Battle of the Bulge, and Roy Cohn. In 1956 you liked Ike. McCall's magazine touted "togetherness" and Business Week promoted the organization man. Adlai Stevenson lost the presidency to Eisenhower again, Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier, the Andres Doria sank; Jonas Salk had announced to the world the invention of his polio vaccine, and I Love Lucy led the Nielsen ratings with Bob Schiller doing the writing.

By the time you reached forty in 1966, you still had half a lifetime ahead of you. What a decade that was. Kennedy beat Nixon, Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, Johnson wanted "no wider war," and students were killed on the Kent State campus by U.S. soldiers. Over 400,000 American soldiers were in Vietnam, with 6,000 already dead. Harold Robbins led the bestsellers lists; Hollywood Squares debuted with host Peter Marshall, and Bob Hope toured our bases with his chief comedy writer Mort Lachman supplying his ad libs.

You hit fifty in 1976. Richard Nixon had beaten George McGovern for president in 1972. Three things beat McGovern: tapped phones, dirty tricks, and the forty-nine states that voted for Nixon. Herb Klein did a great job as Nixon's communications chief. But a year later Ben Bradlee would ride Nixon out of town. In 1976 Jimmy Carter ran against Gerald Ford and won the presidency. But soon enough, when Carter was greeted warmly by a cheering crowd, he would say, "It's nice to see people wavin' with all five fingers." You were sixty in 1986, the year new Coke failed and Classic Coke prospered, the Challenger shuttle exploded, Chernobyl endangered Europe, and the DOW hit 1800.

You were seventy in 1996, the year Bill Clinton won a second term by defeating Bob Dole, Tiger Woods turned professional, and TV viewers embraced ER.

And in 2006 you turned eighty.

What a life!

Contributors include:

Studs Terkel, 94, has broken his neck, had heart surgery at 93 and claims, "I should be dead, but I'm not for some reason or another." What reason might that be? "First of all, I like being a "troublemaker."

At 96, singer Kittie Carlisle Heart is still performing: "It's interesting to me-my career has taken off now that I'm ninety-five. It's totally taken off. I had to wait 'til I was ninety-five to be this popular."

86-year-old Ray Bradbury's answer to growing old, "whether you're growing to be twenty, or forty, or sixty, or eighty, is to fall in love and stay in love. Love covers everything and impels you into the future and you arrive at the age of eighty-five a damned happy person."

Lena Horne, 89, remains as politically engaged as ever: "Am I looking for something new? Yes, I'm always looking to see new things in people-especially politicians. Nancy Wilson said, "Everyone sees Lena Horne as a beautiful, sophisticated lady, but there is a fierce lioness in this woman." Well, I'm old and I'm still angry."

Dominick Dunne is 80 and has never worked harder: "I have a monthly diary in Vanity Fair magazine that is widely read. I am shortly to finish my next novel, called The Solo Act, and I have a weekly television series called Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege and Justice. I'm doing them all. There are two documentaries being made about my life for French Television and Australian Television.

Maria Tallchief, 81, former prima ballerina maintains the same routine: "I wake up in the morning and I do my pilates exercises. I still do my splits at my bedside before I say my prayers."

Actress Gloria Stuart, 86, has recently picked up a hobby in artist's bookmaking: "That means that I design the book, I illustrate it, I write it, I set the type, I print it. The only thing I don't do is bind or make the paper, and that's because I started so late in life. I don't have the time, and it's too late for me to learn them. They are such elaborate and demanding arts. The Library of Congress has all the books I've designed-and the Metropolitan Museum, the Getty, the Huntington Library, the Morgan, the Clark Library. I'm very busy now printing a book on the Butterfly Kite."

Marv Levy, 81, former manager of the Buffalo Bills, has had to slow down a bit: "My habits have changed through the years. I don't run five miles a day anymore. Three miles is enough."

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Norman Lear

Helen Gurley Brown

Ben Bradlee

Carl Reiner

Helen Thomas

Norman Corwin

P.D. James

Don Hewitt

Marge Champion

Ray Bradbury

Dick Van Dyke

Studs Terkel

Mike Wallace

Budd Schulberg

Kitty Carlisle Hart

Hugh Hefner

Art Buchwald

Elain Stritch

Betty Garrett

Jack Valenti

Al Neuharth

Rhonda Fleming

Jack Germond

Liz Smith

Cy Feuer

Lena Horne

Dick Francis

Dominick Dunne

Alan Bergman

Nanette Fabray

Paul Conrad

Frank Mankiewicz

Sid Caesar

Lindy Boggs

June Wayne

Jane Russell

Mel Durslag

Jackie Cooper

Maria Tallchief

Frankie Laine

Herbert Gold

Joe Hyams

Gloria Stuart

Monty Hall

Dick Martin

Herb Klein

Ahmet Ertegun

Judith Crist

Frank Pierson

Art Modell

Stanley Sheinbaum

Ray Evans

Rise Stevens

Grant Tinker

Liz Carpenter

Ralph Young

Nina Foch

Bud Yorkin

June Havoc

Peter Marshall

Marsha Hunt

Marv Levy

Doris Lessing

A.C. Lyles

Deborah Szekley

Rabbi Leonard Beerman

Betty Warner Sheinbaum

Leonard Stern

Marjorie Fasman

Mort Lachman

Estelle Reiner

Ed Guthman

Annette Kaufman

Lennie Green

Marian McPartland

George McGovern

Lila Garrett

Bob Schiller

Hal David

Robert Byrd

Epilogue