From her idyllic childhood in the American Midwest to her Oscar–nominated performance in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and the social circles of New York and Los Angeles, actress Nancy Olson Livingston has lived abundantly. In her memoir, A Front Row Seat, Livingston treats readers to an intimate, charming chronicle of her life as an actress, wife, and mother, and her memories of many of the most notable figures and moments of her time.
Livingston shares reminiscences of her marriages to lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner, creator of award-winning musicals Paint Your Wagon, Gigi, and My Fair Lady (which was dedicated to her), and to Alan Wendell Livingston, former president of Capitol Records, who created Bozo the Clown and worked with legendary musical artists, including Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Band, and Don McLean. One of the last living actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Livingston shares memorable encounters with countless celebrities—William Holden, Billy Wilder, Bing Crosby, Marilyn Monroe, and John Wayne, to name a few—and less pleasant experiences with Howard Hughes and John F. Kennedy that act as reminders of women's long struggle for equality.
Entertaining and engrossing, A Front Row Seat deftly interweaves Livingston's life with her observations of the artists, celebrities, and luminaries with whom she came in contact—a paean to the twentieth century and a treasure for readers enamored with a bygone era.
Book I Introduction
Rockland County, September 1950
The Beginning
My Ancestors
Growing Up in Milwaukee
The Lake
World War II
Theatrical Dreams
My First New York Adventure
Paramount Pictures - The Beginning of a Career
Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood
Marilyn Monroe
Courtship
The Dance
Lee and Ira Gershwin
The Dance Continues
Marriage
Frederick Lowe
Rockland County
Plane Crash
Liza and Me
John Wayne
Starting Over
Alan Lerner's Family and Growing Up
Joe Lerner
My Fair Lady
Battle Cry
Journey to Broadway
Gigi
The Music Stops
Divorce
Sidney Chaplin
Emmet Hughes
Nelson Rockefellar
Life as a Single Parent
Disney
The Inauguration of JFK
Mrs. Kemeny
A Special Memory
A Shocking Story
A New Beginning
A Christmas Gift
Mary Mary
A Rainbow Emerging
My Second Wedding
Book II Introduction
Mr. and Mrs. Alan W. Livingston
Moving
A Sad Story
My Second Husband
Laurie and Peter and Alan Jay
Life in a Whirlwind on Camden Drive
Dad
Capitol Records
Nat Cole
Up the Ladder
Frank Sinatra
NBC and Bonanza
An Ex-Girlfriend and an Ex-Wife
Judy Garland, Oscar Levant, and the 2000 Year Old Man
Enlarging the Family and JFK
The Beatles
The Beatles in My Mother's Garden
Christopher
Another Beatle Party
Russia
Share
Jennifer Jones
The Band
A Miracle
The End of an Era
MediaArts and Don McLean
EST
On Board at the Music Center
A New Challenge
Grace Kelly and the Heimlich Maneuver
Natalie Wood
My Mother
A New Path for Alan Livingston
An Escape
New York Life Again
An Unexpected Offer from Blue Ribbon
Changing Traditions
Four Weddings and Two Funerals
LA Politics
Nancy and Ronnie
25th Anniversary Chairman
Another 25th Anniversary with Jack Lemmon, Gregory Peck, and Michael
Feinstein
Billy Wilder Tribute
Andrew Lloyd Weber
An Unforgettable Moment
China
Another Challenge for Alan
Completion
Expanding Our Family Again
Goodbye
La Dolce Vita
Laura
Family Updates
Ending this Book
Stories I Hesitate to Tell
Ending this Book Again
Nancy Olson Livingston was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Sunset Boulevard (1950). She has appeared in several films, including Union Station, Battle Cry, Pollyanna, The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), and Airport 1975 (1974). She has also starred in three plays on Broadway, Tunnel of Love, Send Me No Flowers, and Mary, Mary, and guest-starred in a number of television shows. She lives in Beverly Hills, CA.
