CLive Barker got an idea for one of his books based on one of Roddy's partys.
Ironically, it was a series of delightful parties that got his imagination going. "I was lucky enough, seven years ago, to be drawn into Roddy McDowall's circle," Barker says. "Roddy had Friday night dinner parties regularly throughout the year"--in the company of such luminaries as Elizabeth Taylor, Gore Vidal, and Maureen O'Sullivan.
"What do you say when you have that degree of history and intelligence and storytelling?" Barker asks rhetorically. "You shut the **** up, and you listen. The only time I raised my voice at one of those dinner parties was when Gore Vidal opined that there was no such thing as homosexual literature, which I think is nonsense."
As the stream of dinner party anecdotes took root in his imagination, Barker realized that there was a story growing. "Talk about six degrees of separation," he says wryly. "In Hollywood it's three degrees. Everyone has known--or slept with--everyone else."
At the time, he had a friend who worked at a face-lift clinic catering to a privileged Hollywood clientele for whom discretion was essential. The author wanted details. "I said, `Fill me in!' and he said, `I can't! I can't!'" But eventually the friend caved in. "He smuggled out these big books which had these horrendous photographs of what happens when really simple things go wrong," Barker says delightedly. He realized that he had the beginning of his story.
(more here)
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Roddy on the Carol Burnett Show
'There are three sides to every story. My side, your side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each one differently'
-Robert Evans-
