New Release: Nostalgia - Stars of Yesteryear - by Jack Hawn

Find it on Amazon HERE

 How can I not publicly compliment the designers of that front cover, folks? That should attract some attention, especially with Frank Sinatra, and Muhammad Ali flexing his muscles, the Andrews Sisters, Big-Band leader Les Brown, and the framed photo of Dinah Shore and me above my computer. This unique book is a reprint of interviews and articles about famous stars of yesteryear I wrote about for the Los Angeles Times, from which I retired more than thirty-five years ago. All or nearly all are deceased now, which might explain why a 94-year-old would undertake such a project. 

Now in the twilight of my writing career, I decided that a third book following Blind Journey: A Journalist's Memoirs and its sequel, Insomnia: Two Wives, Childhood Memories and Crazy Dreams, would simply be too much work. 

Among the fifty-plus articles in my book, Nostalgia: Stars of Yesteryear, is a feature on the McGuire Sisters, one of my best-loved trios. 

Titled “An Unforgotten Affair—Las Vegas, 1985” the story details my meeting with the ageless trio in their Hilton Hotel room.

I met the McGuire sisters—the "Sugartime” sweethearts—when they returned to the spotlight, appearing at the Las Vegas Hilton after a 17-year hiatus. For Christine, Phyllis, and Dorothy, it was as if time had stood still. Sleek, sexy, and glittering as always, they still harmonized like angels, chattered like giggly teenagers, and drew packed houses wherever they performed. 

When I stepped off the elevator on the 29th floor of the Hilton en-route to interview them, I was escorted to their suite by a gun-packing bodyguard. The sisters were extremely security-conscious then, courtesy of an erstwhile link with the underworld—Phyllis' legendary love affair with Mafia boss Sam Giancana. 

 Phyllis wasn't opposed to providing details of how she had met him and been almost immediately hooked by his charm. It had been an exciting relationship, but she didn't dwell on it. She had loved him. Period. 

 For her sisters Christine and Dorothy to remain silent while the leader of the trio dominated the interview was impossible. After seventeen years of virtual silence following Giancana’s murder in 1975, all three had a lot to update— sometimes all speaking at once. 

 Besides being one of my favorite trios, those beautiful, bubbly, non-stop talking young women were one of my favorite interviews recorded in this book.