This week, Ira Sternberg spoke with Dick Guttman.
Film publicist Dick Guttman is author of “Starflacker: Inside the Golden Age of Hollywood.” The book is look at a unique place and time, full of stories of Hollywood legends and how publicity worked in the days before social media, before the change in Hollywood from mystique to accessibility.
Guttman is, according to Scott Feinberg, entertainment journalist for the Hollywood Reporter, “one of the most experienced and accomplished film publicists who ever lived, his knowledge and experience stretching from the Golden Age through the present day.“
Guttman has helped in the building and maintaining of the careers of literally hundreds of film stars for more than 60 years. He has also helped shape the campaigns of dozens of classic motion pictures. In the process, he stored up a rich anecdotal history of stardom in its various transitions.
While he has written scripts for theatrical and television motion pictures, Guttman’s favorite writing has focused on capturing the originality, wit, humanity and antics of the stars around whose lives his own career wove.