THE BOOK HOLLYWOOD DIDN'T WANT PUBLISHED
"THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST"
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Must be 18 years old. Rated "R" for expletives
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ISBN 978-0-615-37758-2 (use this number at any bookstore to purchase the book)
Published by Studio "D" Publishing Company
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(FULL PHOTOS ARE IN THE BOOK) and on Zimbio.com
In the last week of his life the suicide signals became shooting flares. And it's really amazing how nobody really picked up on them or took them seriously. It started out, of course, with a terrific ingestion of quaaludes on a daily basis and a lot of cocaine. At one point, two days before it happened, he'd been threatening suicide all week to a number of friends. He would phone them at late hours and say, "I'm going to do it now, I need peace. I need to be home, I need to go home."
One of the people that he really threatened with suicide and did a good job of acting, although it was a traumatic experience, was his secretary Carol Novak. He had come home on a Wednesday (he killed himself late Thursday night), and he said, "he was going to do it." And she said, "Come on Freddie, cut it out, this isn't mature," etc., etc. He was in a one bedroom apartment this time. He'd moved out of the house he had with his wife Kathy. He was living on Wilshire Boulevard and there was a living room, dining room, and a bedroom. He walked into the bedroom and the next thing she heard was a shot and a body slumping to the floor. She was convinced that he had done it and when she ran into the bedroom, Freddie said, "Ha, ha, I fooled you." At that point she knew it had gone beyond the joking stage. She phoned his psychiatrist, Dr. Kroger, and Freddie went over to see him. Freddie spent the night there and Kroger took away his gun and quaaludes. Freddie was into a type of fetish with guns similar to those used in the James Bond films and bought one similar to that used by the Bond character.
The next morning, which was Thursday morning, the first thing Freddie said to Carol was, "I've got some more quaaludes." He was boasting that he had already taken some. Prior to this time he had never taken any quaaludes while working. But, today, he was totally out of it and several people at the studio wanted to take him home. He left the studio after phoning Kroger and stating, "I want my gun back and my quaaludes." The doctor told him he wouldn't be home that evening and Freddie said, "Okay, leave them with your cleaning lady or maid and I'll pick them up." Around 6:00 that night, Freddie went to the doctor's house and retrieved the gun and quaaludes.
Later that evening, the doctor arrived at Freddie's apartment because it had gotten more serious and there was Freddie with the gun and waving it. The doctor feigned not having any knowledge of guns and the gun had been disassembled at that point and the doctor was looking at the bullet clip. It was an automatic and Freddie was quaaluded out...and the doctor attempted to put the clip in his pocket. Freddie saw him and said, Give me back that clip or I'll break your fucking neck." The doctor said, "You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses would you?" And Freddie said, "Yes I would." The doctor gave him back the clip.
Now the doctor was there with Freddie's secretary, Carol Novak. Carol, thinking that the doctor would stay with Freddie, left and went home because she hadn't been home for a week after spending every night with Freddie and she had a sixteen year old daughter that she had to spend some time with. She went home thinking everything would be all right. She phoned Freddie when she got home to see if he was all right. Freddie answered the phone and she asked if Dr. Kroger was there? Freddie said, "No, he left." That's when everyone started to panic and before anything could be done, a series of events started that ended up with him taking his life.
Freddie had married a woman who was four months pregnant, in Las Vegas. She had been married twice and had been arrested for prostitution in Reno in 1974, although the charges were dismissed. About a month after they were married, things started to go sour. He began telling his friends he made two mistakes in life. The first was the hiring of his first manager and the second was his marriage to Kathy. Toward the end of their marriage, Kathy was getting a little crazy because after taking quaaludes, he would often pass out on the sofa with a lit cigarette in his hand.
People who say Hollywood did Freddie in are really doing Hollywood an injustice. What Hollywood does, and Freddie said it himself, is that it creates an environment in which you can really mess yourself up. It's a really tolerant atmosphere.
(link:the-gossip-columnist-52.blogspot.com) Remembering James Dean
