When I think about Old Hollywood film stars I think about their movies but also think about their lives.  Where they happy? Did they love the work they did? Were they funny in real life? Today with social media there is so much you can learn about a person but back then we had interviews that often were not shared with the entire public. Interviews that have become hard to find even with the amazing tool that is Youtube.

Imagine a source where you can read interviews of your favorite Old Hollywood stars and really get insight into their personalities. The authors of Conversation with Classic Film Stars: Interviews from Hollywood's Golden Era, James Bawden and Ron Miller put together their treasure trove of years worth of interviews after they retired from their jobs as television columnists. Even better still, they took these interviews and transcribed them for us to read. I mean imagine reading about Glenn Ford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. about heir careers as dashing leading men in film from their very own mouths.

What Bawden and Miller did to make the experience of reading these special and unique interviews even more special was to share brief but in-depth backgrounds about each film star. They also set up before each interview the wheres and whens the interviews took place. So if you are a visual person like I am you will be able to envision where these interviews took place and picture the film star speaking the words that they speak because of all the meticulous details the authors have shared.

I love all the books I share on my blog and frankly I wouldn't share them with you if I didn't love them. But this book is something extra special. I think if you love Old Hollywood films and their stars as much as I do then you would find this book to be an extra special read. I really felt as if I were there in the interviewers seat looking and speaking with these unique and talented individuals that many are no longer with us today.

** In collaboration with the University Press of Kentucky**

Spur of the Moment focuses on a character named Anne Marie Mitchell who we meet first in 1939 and then again 1964. Anne comes across as a rich, privileged girl who has every whim catered to by her parents. She has broken up with a sweetheart that her father didn't approve of and is engaged to a man that he does approve of. You can tell that Anne is torn between the two men and making her parents happy.

One day while Anne is out riding her horse she notices a woman in black riding a horse behind her screaming at her. It terrifies Anne because she doesn't know who that old and angry woman in is. Suddenly the screen makes these funny waves and we travel from 1939 to 1964. We meet Anne 25 years later and she is now in her 40's and is a raging alcoholic. But how did that innocent girl become the angry, bitter woman that she is now?

You find out through flashbacks that Anne ran away to marry the sweetheart that her family didn't approve of. She thought she was following her heart and marrying the love of her life but the truth is he gambled away all her fortune and they grew to despise each other. Anne blames her parents for her bad decision making skills and for her "spur of the moment" marriage to David which led her down a path of misery and regret. Later that day the older Anne goes for a ride and finds her younger self riding. She screams out her name hoping to warn her from making the mistake that she felt destroyed their lives.

When I first saw this episode I remember feeling shocked that the romantic getaway Anne makes with her "true love" ended up bringing her such deep unhappiness. I am now the age the older Anne is and when I see this episode now I can see how much naivety and innocence there was when she decides to run off with David. But I also see now how easy it is for us to blame everyone else for our mistakes and how we can fall into the trap of playing the blame game.

I think that if you watch this episode you might be reminded that we shouldn't live stuck in our past or live out our lives with regret. We should try and take full responsibility for our own choices and if we are unhappy we should make the changes we need to in the present in order for us to find happiness again.

Unfortunately for Anne she doesn't own up to her "spur of the moment" mistake or take responsibility for the life that she had made but instead lives out the rest of her days in deep regret chasing herself hoping that she could change her past.