Harvey Brownstone Interviews...

Latest Episodes:

Harvey Brownstone Interviews Rock and Roll Legend, Felix Cavaliere, Founding Member, “The Rascals” Mar 11, 2023

Show notes

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Rock and Roll Legend, Felix Cavaliere, Founding Member, “The Rascals”

About Harvey's guest:

Today’s special guest, Felix Cavaliere, is a legendary musician and singer-songwriter whose illustrious 5-decade career began as a backup musician for Joey Dee and the Starliters, but very quickly evolved into the creation of one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time: The Rascals.

His pioneering musicianship on the keys of the Hammond B-3 electric organ, together with his rich, powerful R & B vocals gave the Rascals their signature sound, which was pure magic, in a long string of hits including “Good Lovin”, “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long”, “Groovin”, “How Can I Be Sure”, “A Girl Like You”, “A Beautiful Morning”, and “People Got to be Free”. Our guest, together with his bandmates Dino Danelli, Eddie Brigati and Gene Cornish – better known as The Rascals - are widely considered to be the very first REAL Rock & Roll band, and they were without question the best “blue eyed soul” group to emerge in the 60’s.

Their song “Good Lovin”, originally recorded by “The Olympics”, is listed by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as one of the top 500 songs that shaped Rock & Roll. And Rolling Stone included it on their list of the Greatest Songs of All Time. And the song “Groovin” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Since the Rascals broke up in 1972, our guest has had a hugely successful solo career, with 7 albums including his self-titled album “Felix Cavaliere”, “Destiny”, “Treasure”, “Castles in the Air”, “Dreams in Motion”, “Nudge it up a Notch”, which got a Grammy nomination, and “Midnight Flyer”.

He continues to perform across the country and around the world for sell-out crowds with his band “Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals”. And last year, he released a highly compelling, deeply personal and very moving book entitled, “Memoir of a Rascal”, which is truly one of the most poignant and spiritually uplifting memoirs I’ve ever read. The list of accolades this man has received is staggering.

As a member of the Rascals, he’s been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Hit Parade Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. And as an individual, he’s also been inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Hammond Organ Hall of Fame. And of equal importance, in 2015 he received the Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award from the World Hunger Association, in recognition of his well-known efforts to make the world better, kinder and more generous.

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

https://www.felixcavalieremusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/felixcavalieresrascals/

https://twitter.com/FelixCavaliere

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/felix-cavaliere/id1156746

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvLNn2Gwu8mJaWWvjScjR6w

#FelixCavaliere #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Harvey Brownstone Interviews Screen Legend Ava Gardner’s family, Ava Thompson and Ava Malissa Silver Mar 10, 2023

Show notes

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Screen Legend Ava Gardner’s family, Ava Thompson and Ava Malissa Silver

About Harvey's guest:

If you’re a fan of our show, you’ll know that one of our most popular features is our “Gone But Not Forgotten” series, featuring interviews with family members of some of the greatest and most beloved legendary stars of all time.

Today, we’re focusing on the fabulous Ava Gardner, an iconic actress who captivated the world not only with her breathtaking beauty, but by her earthy, magnetic screen presence in dozens of unforgettable classic movies, including “Showboat”, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, “Mogambo”, which earned her an Academy Award Best Actress nomination and a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, “The Barefoot Contessa”, “On the Beach”, and “Night of the Iguana”, which earned her a Golden Globe Award Best Actress nomination, and a Best Actress Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. She also received 3 BAFTA Award nominations throughout her career.

And television fans certainly remember her recurring role as “Ruth Galveston” on “Knots Landing”. Ava Gardner’s hand and footprints are in the forecourt at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There’s a bronze statue of her overlooking the coast of Spain.

And the American Film Institute placed her at #25 on their list of the 100 Greatest Female Screen Legends of all Time.

Our guests are Ava Thompson, Ms. Gardner’s great niece and namesake, and her daughter Ava Malissa. They manage Ms. Gardner’s intellectual property, and they are co-trustees of the Ava Gardner Trust, continuing Ms. Gardner’s renowned legacy of generosity and compassion. On a personal level, their mission is to help the world see beyond Ava Gardner’s legendary beauty, talent, iconic fashion style, and all the myths surrounding her famous marriages and personal life. Ms. Gardner was much more than that – she was bold, courageous, independent, generous and kind – and very much a trailblazer and a role model who was way ahead of her time. Our guests are coming to us today from the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield, North Carolina.

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

https://www.johnstoncountync.org/ava-gardner/

https://www.facebook.com/AvaGardnerMuseum/

https://twitter.com/AvaMuseum

https://www.instagram.com/avagardnermuseum/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl_TlFZGosfvpeoiHElQeSw

#AvaGardnerMuseum #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Harvey Brownstone Interviews Debby Boone, Renowned Singer, Actress and Author Mar 02, 2023

Show notes

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Debby Boone, Renowned Singer, Actress and Author

About Harvey's guest:

Today’s guest, Debby Boone, is an immensely popular singer, actress and author who became an immediate global superstar in 1977 with her mega-hit song, “You Light Up My Life”.

The song became one of the greatest multi-platinum singles in pop music history, spending an unprecedented 10 weeks at #1 on the Billboard charts, and selling over 4 million albums. She received a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and since then, she’s received another 7 Grammy nominations, and winning 2 more – in 1980, for Best Inspirational Performance, and 1983, for Best Gospel Performance.

She’s also won a slew of other awards, including Top New Female Vocalist at the Academy of Country Music Awards, 2 Dove Awards for Best Album, a Music City News Award for Best New Female Artist, and 7 Record World Awards. She’s recorded 13 albums, including “You Light Up My Life”, “Love Has No Reason”, “With My Song”, “Savin’ it Up”, “Surrender”, “Friends for Life”, “Home for Christmas” and my 2 personal favourites, “Reflections of Rosemary”, which is a beautiful tribute to her late mother-in-law, the legendary Rosemary Clooney – and her latest album, “Swing This”, which has solidified her reputation as one of the best vocal interpreters of the Great American Songbook.

Our guest has appeared in dozens of TV shows and starred in 2 of her own TV specials - AND she co-starred in one of the most popular TV movies of the 80s, “Sins of the Past”, co-starring Kirstie Alley, Kim Cattrall and Anthony Geary.

On the stage, she starred on Broadway in “Grease”, as everybody’s favourite “bad girl”, Rizzo. And in 1990, she starred in the highly acclaimed revival of “The Sound of Music” at Lincoln Center, which earned a Drama Desk Award nomination. She’s starred in hugely successful national touring productions of “7 Brides for 7 Brothers” and “The Sound of Music” - which I had the great pleasure of seeing here in Toronto in 1987.

She’s had starring roles in many regional theatre productions including “Meet Me in St. Louis”, “South Pacific”, “The King and I”, “42nd Street”, “Into the Woods”, and many more great shows.

And if that weren’t enough, she’s also written six bestselling children’s books, illustrated by her dear husband Gabriel Ferrer.

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

http://debbyboone.com/

https://www.facebook.com/debbyboone/

https://twitter.com/debbyboonemedia

https://www.instagram.com/debbyboonemedia/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1UkHCANZmdkKyVNvTLMrcJ

#debbyboone #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Harvey Brownstone Interviews Tom Santopietro, Author, “The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic” Feb 26, 2023

Show notes

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Tom Santopietro, Author, “The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic”

About Harvey's guest:

Today’s guest, Tom Santopietro, is a popular and highly respected author whose books about the entertainment world are as insightful, entertaining and compelling as the iconic superstars and movies he writes about.

He’s written 7 bestselling books, “The Sound of Music Story”, “The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America and Me”, “The Importance of Being Barbra”, and “Barbara Cook: Then and Now”. The 1st time he came on our show, we discussed his book, “Considering Doris Day”, which is a must-read for every fan of this beloved and in some ways, hugely underrated, actress and singer.

In his 2nd appearance, we discussed his monumentally important book, “Why To Kill a Mockingbird Still Matters”. If you haven’t yet read that book, I highly recommend it, for its brilliant analysis of racism in America, in the context of one of the greatest novels – and movies – of all time.

When our guest last appeared on our show, we discussed his wonderful book “Sinatra In Hollywood”, shining a well-deserved light on Frank Sinatra’s screen legacy, which has often been overshadowed by his extraordinary achievements as a singer and recording artist.

And now, our guest is back to discuss his latest book, “The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic”. The book commemorates the 50th anniversary of the iconic 1973 movie starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford, as the quintessential mismatched lovers who were political and emotional opposites, but whom we were all desperately rooting for. The movie broke box office records worldwide and earned a slew of nominations and awards including 6 Academy Award nominations and 2 Golden Globe nominations. Barbra Streisand got Oscar and Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Actress, and she won 2 prestigious international Best Actress Awards.

The movie ranks at number 6 on the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 love stories in the history of American cinema. And the music from the movie has been as highly acclaimed as the film itself, winning 2 Oscars for Marvin Hamlisch - one for Best Original Dramatic Score, and one, along with Marilyn and Alan Bergman, for Best Original Song – for which they also won a Golden Globe Award.

The original soundtrack recording won a Grammy Award, and that amazing, timeless, classic song, “The Way We Were”, sung so beautifully by Barbra Streisand, not only won the 1974 Grammy Award for song of the year – the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and it ranks as number 8 on the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 songs in American movies. And if that weren’t enough, the song is included on the list of “Songs of the Century” compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Our guest’s wonderful, exquisitely written book provides the definitive inside story behind the making of a movie which is widely considered to be the most beloved romantic drama of the last 50 years.

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

http://www.tomsantopietro.com/

https://www.facebook.com/tomsantopietro

https://www.twitter.com/tomsantopietro

#TomSantopietro #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Harvey Brownstone Interviews Woody Wise, “Brotherhood of the Popcorn” Feb 25, 2023

Show notes

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Woody Wise, “Brotherhood of the Popcorn”

About Harvey's guest:

If you’re a fan of our show, you’ll know that I’m obsessed with the golden age of Hollywood. And I love getting together with fellow movie buffs and watching the great classic films.

Today’s guest, Woody Wise, has taken that favourite pastime to a whole new level. He and his friends are the subject of a wonderful, inspiring, nostalgic and heartwarming documentary entitled, “BROTHERHOOD OF THE POPCORN”, now available on Amazon Prime and Flixhouse. The movie is about a group of very dear friends who call themselves, 'The Cliffhangers.' For over 35 years, they’ve been meeting at the home of our guest several times a month, to have a meal, talk about everything under the sun – especially old movies - and then watch a classic Hollywood movie and an old-time serial, better known as a “cliffhanger” – hence the name of the group.

Told through the lens of the unique personalities of each of these men, it becomes apparent that their individual life stories and struggles are just as interesting as the movies they watch! This documentary demonstrates how each of their lives was shaped by the 'Saturday Matinees' of yester-year, the era they grew up in, and the history of Hollywood and its movies.

Our guest started out at the age of 14 as a projectionist at his local movie theatre. At 15, he was an usher, and over the next 20 years, he worked his way up to general manager of the entire chain of movie theatres. In the late 60’s, he met silent screen star Harold Lloyd, and when Mr. Lloyd passed away, our guest became General Manager of the Harold Lloyd Estate Museum in Beverly Hills. He then opened the Hollywood Poster and Book Shop in Los Angeles, and in the early 80’s, he opened the first video store in Burbank, California, specializing in old movies, which he continued to do as a mail order service until he retired in 2004.

For almost 20 years he’s been involved in the Lone Pine Film Festival and the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine, California, where over 400 films were made in Lone Pine’s world-famous Alabama Hills.

He’s the executive producer and star of the film, “Brotherhood of the Popcorn”, and the President of the Cliffhangers Club.

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

http://www.brotherhoodofthepopcorn.com/

http://www.facebook.com/popcornbrotherhood

https://twitter.com/WiseWoody

https://youtu.be/p73Lr89TUI4

https://www.instagram.com/predator_productions/

#WiseWoody #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Harvey Brownstone Interviews Tony Orlando, Superstar Recording Artist and Entertainer Feb 25, 2023

Show notes

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Tony Orlando, Superstar Recording Artist and Entertainer

About Harvey's guest:

Today’s special guest, Tony Orlando, is one of America’s most beloved singers, who’s been entertaining us for the past 6 decades – starting as a 15 year old member of the doo-wop group “The Five Gents”, then as a teenage heartthrob solo artist with his hits “Halfway to Paradise” and “Bless You”.

And then, after spending several years as a successful producer, record company and music publishing executive, he quite accidentally returned to singing, and unexpectedly went to #1 on the charts, which led him to create the phenomenally successful group, “Tony Orlando and Dawn”.

They released 20 Top 40 singles including “Candida”, “Knock 3 Times”, “Vaya Con Dios”, “Say Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose”, “He Don’t Love You Like I Love You”, “Cupid”, “Midnight Love Affair”, and everybody’s favourite, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Ole Oak Tree”. That song spent over a month in the #1 spot on the pop music charts and is one of the most recorded songs in history, with over 1,000 cover versions. The song won a Grammy Award in 1974 and was named song of the year at the American Music Awards. In fact, in 2018, Billboard Magazine ranked “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” at #46 on its list of top 100 songs of all time.

Our guest, along with his wonderfully talented singing partners Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson, hosted their own TV prime time variety show, “The Tony Orlando and Dawn” show, which ran for 4 seasons.

SInce 1977, our guest resumed his solo career, starring in TV movies including “300 Miles for Stephanie” and “The Rosemary Clooney Story”, in which he portrayed Rosemary Clooney’s husband, José Ferrer. He also did a highly successful “Tony Orlando and Dawn” reunion tour. He starred on Broadway twice, in “Barnum”, and “Smokey Joe’s Café”. And he continues to headline in Las Vegas, Branson Missouri, and touring all over the country.

In 2002 he wrote a highly compelling, brutally honest and deeply poignant, intimate memoir entitled, “Halfway to Paradise”, which is truly one of the most memorable celebrity memoirs I’ve ever read. He has won the Casino Entertainer of the Year Award, the Best Las Vegas All Around Entertainer Award 4 times, and, prior to that, 3 times in Atlantic City. He’s won the Jukebox Artist of the Year Award, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and he received The Bob Hope Award for Excellence in Entertainment from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, acknowledging his efforts on behalf of United States veterans. And, in 1990, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

https://tonyorlando.com/

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialTonyOrlando/

https://twitter.com/TonyOrlando

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6PNZ6ZfwWLiUA2BrranFl3

#TonyOrlando #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Harvey Brownstone Interviews Angela Hagenbach, Acclaimed Jazz Vocalist Feb 18, 2023

Show notes

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Angela Hagenbach, Acclaimed Jazz Vocalist

About Harvey's guest:

Today’s guest, Angela Hagenbach, is one of America’s most popular jazz singers, whose extraordinary 3-octave vocal range, unique phrasing and ebullient singing style make every song she sings truly her own – and very memorable.

With her sultry contralto voice, she sings everything from swinging, straightforward jazz and blues to sensual, rhythmic Latin Jazz with effortless agility. She’s recorded 6 albums entitled, “Come Fly With Me”, “Feel the Magic”, “Weaver of Dreams”, “Poetry of Love”, “Musa Nova”, and her latest album, “The Way They Make Me Feel”, beautifully produced by the brilliant George Klabin of Resonance Records, who selected some classic songs by Michel Legrand, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mandel. It's been said by more than one music critic – and I agree – that when this woman sings, she has the uncanny ability to turn jazz into a spiritual experience.

In 2015 she finished as 1st runner-up at the Sarah Vaughan Jazz Vocal Competition. That same year, she wrote the acclaimed “Jazz Alice: An Adventure in Wonderland”, a musical theatre production based on Lewis Carroll’s classic book, set to the music of John Coltrane. She performs regularly at jazz clubs and concert venues in her home town of Kansas City, as well as around the country, and internationally.

The renowned jazz historian Scott Yanow listed our guest as one of the greatest jazz singers of all time in his book, “The Great Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide”. And if that weren’t enough, our guest was TWICE chosen by the US State Department to represent the United States as a Cultural Jazz Ambassador in TWO world tours, starting at the Kennedy Center and performing in 17 countries.

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

https://angelahagenbach.co/

https://www.facebook.com/angela.hagenbach.1

https://www.instagram.com/angelahagenbach/

https://angelahagenbach.bandcamp.com/album/the-way-they-make-me-feel

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/angela-hagenbach/4582211

https://resonancerecords.org/artists/angela-hagenbach/

#AngelaHagenbach #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Harvey Brownstone Interviews Terri Jay, Acclaimed Intuitive, Medium, Animal Communicator Feb 16, 2023

Show notes

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Terri Jay, Acclaimed Intuitive, Medium, Animal Communicator

About Harvey's guest:

Today’s guest, Terri Jay, is an internationally acclaimed intuitive, medium, life coach, animal communicator, educator and author.

For over 30 years, she’s been giving readings and intuitive sessions, basing her work on physics, by tuning into the universe’s energy, frequencies and vibrations, to develop, inform and utilize her spiritual senses. Her abilities are truly remarkable. She helps us connect with deceased loved ones, as well as with LIVING people who are unable to communicate due to an illness such as Alzheimer’s or being in a coma. She helps people communicate with their beloved pets, both living and deceased.

And she’s a renowned horse whisperer. As a medical intuitive, she can scan a person’s physical body, including the chakras or energy centers, and find the sources of stuck energy, which – as she says - can cause “issues in our tissues”, and is the source of illness, injury, and disease.

She’s written 3 bestselling books, entitled, “The Cowgirl Shaman Way: Seven Easy Steps to Develop Your Intuitive Ability”, “Intuitive Communication: Communicating With Those Who Cannot”, and “The Physics of Mediumship”. And now, she can be seen in the brand new documentary miniseries entitled, “Paul T. Goldman”, airing on the Peacock network. The series is based on Mr. Goldman’s book, entitled “Duplicity: A True Story of Crime and Deceit”. It follows Mr. Goldman’s efforts to uncover the truth about the woman he married, leading him into a labyrinth of fraud, deception, and criminality.

Our guest’s readings and interactions with Mr. Goldman were instrumental in his eventual realization that his new bride was not who or what she pretended to be, and that his marriage was nothing more than a sham. The information that our guest shared with Mr. Goldman motivated him to transform himself from a wimp to a warrior.

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

https://terrijay.com/

https://www.facebook.com/cowgirlshaman/

https://twitter.com/terrijay

https://www.linkedin.com/in/terri-jay-0a1a0618/

#terrijay #cowgirlshaman #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Harvey Brownstone Interviews Darryl Stickel, Author, “Building Trust: Exceptional Leadership in an Uncertain World” Feb 15, 2023

Show notes

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Darryl Stickel, Author, “Building Trust: Exceptional Leadership in an Uncertain World”

About Harvey's guest:

Today’s show is all about a topic that’s rarely discussed: trust.

Although trust is a basic, intuitive human reaction, and it should play a major part in a well-functioning society, it is at an all-time low in our personal relationships, business institutions, governments, health care, and law enforcement. Fewer people attend a place of worship than at any time in the last century. Citizens fear their votes are not being counted, and that politicians are simply con artists who are lying to them. Some people believe that our system of democracy itself has no legitimacy. Millions of people refuse to take life-saving vaccines because they don’t trust what medical professionals and the media are telling them. In law enforcement and the justice system, a lack of trust motivates noncooperation, fear, and a breakdown in law and order.

In fact, in 2020, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, stated that “trust is at a breaking point and could have profound implications for international cooperation, because without it, humanity cannot survive.”

Today’s guest, Darryl Stickel, believes we’re facing an unprecedented trust deficit crisis. He wrote his PhD thesis on "Building Trust in Hostile Environments", and he’s dedicated his career as an executive coach, to teaching leaders how to effectively build trust in their relationships. He’s a professor at the Luxembourg School of Business, teaching in their MBA and executive education programs.

His new book, entitled “Building Trust: Exceptional Leadership in an Uncertain World”, outlines his groundbreaking, practical and insightful methodology for building trust, which he calls the “Trust Unlimited” model. He’s been described as a “Trust Savant”, because he’s one of the world’s leading experts on diagnosing critically important trust problems for individuals, teams and organizations at the highest level, and helping them to create a path to move forward in a positive and constructive way.

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

https://www.trustunlimited.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TrustUnlimited

https://www.linkedin.com/company/trust-unlimited/

#darrylstickel # trustunlimited #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Harvey Brownstone Interviews Ron DeFore, Son of TV and Screen Star, Don DeFore Feb 12, 2023

Show notes

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Ron DeFore, Son of TV and Screen Star, Don DeFore

About Harvey's guest:

Today’s special guest, Ron DeFore, is the son of one of Hollywood’s most beloved and respected actors, Don DeFore, who appeared in dozens of great movies, including “A Guy Named Joe”, “30 Seconds Over Tokyo”, “The Male Animal”, “Ramrod”, “Romance on the High Seas”, “The Facts of Life”, and one of the great Christmas classics, “It Happened on 5th Avenue”.

He worked with everyone from Spencer Tracy and Lionel Barrymore to John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Olivia de Havilland, Claudette Colbert, Lucille Ball, Judy Holiday – and that’s just scratching the surface. On television, he became a household name, first as “Mr. Thornberry”, or “Thorny”, the next-door neighbour on “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”, earning him a 1954 Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor. And then, he became “Mr. Baxter”, affectionately referred to as “Mr. B.”, for 4 seasons, on the classic sitcom, “Hazel”, co-starring the wonderful Shirley Booth.

Don DeFore’s acting was seamless, because he was projecting his genuine, regular-guy personality, that made him endearing, enduring and beloved by his millions of fans. But there was much more to this man than his acting career.

He was a loving husband to big band singer Marion Holmes, and a devoted father to his 5 children. He owned a popular BBQ restaurant at Disneyland.

He served on the Board of the Screen Actors Guild, and was President of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and he orchestrated the first nationally televised Emmy Awards show in 1955. In 1965 he co-authored a book with his sister Penny DeFore entitled, “With All My Love”, about her experiences working in a Korean orphanage. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He was part of the US delegation to the 1969 International Film Festival in Moscow. And after getting to know Ronald Reagan on the set of a movie they made together, he became heavily involved in President Reagan’s political career, and was on the Presidential Advisory Committee to the Peace Corps.

And if that weren’t enough, Don DeFore was a very gifted furniture maker. Our guest has had a remarkable life himself. He started out in the television industry and then moved on to an impressive career in Washington, first in the Peace Corps, then as part of President Reagan’s administration, and then as co-founder of one of the largest and most respected public affairs firms in Washington.

He’s here to talk about his wonderful book, “Growing Up in Disneyland: Memoirs of Stage, TV and Movie Star Don DeFore, and His Son’s Exciting Life in a Celebrity Family and Beyond”.

For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/

https://www.defore.net/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DonDeFore

https://www.facebook.com/ron.defore

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1180199459597906

https://www.youtube.com/@rhd4444

#ron.defore #harveybrownstoneinterviews

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy