Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel

Acknowledgments

I first became interested in Hal Ashby when I read Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls some ten years ago. In 2002, after writing a biographical sketch of Ashby for a biography class, I joked to my tutor, Carole Angier, that I would turn it into a book. Well, the joke was on me. Carole, a brilliant biographer, proved to be the ideal mentor— pragmatic, resourceful, and generous. She shepherded me through the first year of my research, always ready with encouragement and illuminating advice. She was officially my mentor thanks to the Arts Council Writers Pool through the Royal Literary Fund and remains my mentor and great friend. The book really began to take shape during my three months in Los Angeles. I spent the vast majority of the time consulting Hal Ashby’s papers at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Barbara Hall and her staff did an incredible job, and I am eternally grateful for the warmth of everyone there who made me feel at home for the duration of my stay. Also of great help to me during my time in Los Angeles were Snowden Becker and Brian Meacham at the AMPAS Film Archive, Caroline Sisneros and the staff of the American Film Institute library, Ned Comstock at the University of Southern California Film Library, and Todd Weiner and Mark Quigley at the University of California, Los Angeles, Film and Television Archive. And while I am acknowledging libraries, I want to thank Charles Silver at the Museum of Modern Art Film Library and the staff of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as well as the staffs of the British Film Institute Library, the British Library, the British Library Newspaper Library, the University of Warwick Library, and the National Library of Scotland. My efforts to bring Ashby to life would have been futile without Acknowledgments ix  Acknowledgments the contributions of Ashby’s family, friends, and collaborators. The first people I interviewed were Jack and Beth Ashby, and they were most generous with their advice and guidance through the duration of the project. My heartfelt thanks go out to them and everyone else who shared their memories of Ashby with me. It was relatively late on that I made contact with Leigh MacManus, Ashby’s daughter, but getting to know her added a new significance to the act of writing this book, and I now happily count her as one of my closest friends and, yes, my “American mom.” In addition, special thanks go to Bill Box, Chuck Mulvehill, and Jon Voight, who opened doors to me that would otherwise have remained hidden or closed. For providing me with rare and hard-to-find materials or expertise on the more obscure aspects of Ashby’s life and work, I tip my hat to Holly Allen at Ogden High School, Thom Ernst at TV Ontario, Catherine Exton at the Bainbridge Island Historical Society, and Alison Palmer Bourke at the Independent Film Channel as well as Chris Cutri, Joyce Gallie, Jeremy Goldscheider and Richard Goldgewicht, Josh Hadley, Per B. Hansen, Heath Keane, Jerry Lembcke, Charles Lindenberg, Mary Myers, and Jim Yoakum. I am grateful to Judith “J. B.” Anderson, Jack, Beth, and Guy Ashby, Joe Baltake, Bill Box, Jeremy Goldscheider and Richard Goldgewicht, Bret Haller, Leigh McManus, Chuck Mulvehill, Larry Reynolds, Pierre Sauvage, and Jeff Wexler, for offering me the use of photographs from their personal collections, and to Ron Mandelbaum at PhotoFest in New York City and Sue Guldin at the Herrick Library, who were invaluable in helping find the remainder of the photographs reproduced in the book. I am also grateful to the following people for granting me interviews: Judith “J. B.” Anderson, Carrie Ashby, Robert Ballantyne, Joe Baltake, Maloy Baretto, Chuck Barris, Warren Beatty, Deanna Benatovich, Peter Benson, Robert Benton, Alan Bergman, Ian Bernard, A. Lee Blackman , Tom Blackwell, Bill and Gloria Box, Gianni Bozzacchi, Andrew Braunsberg, Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges, Garrett Brown, Steve Burum, Bob Busico, Michael Butler, David Carradine, Robert Carradine, Julie Christie, Charles Clapsaddle, Gus Cooper, Guy D’Alema, Michael Dare, Andrew Davis, Lisa Day, Caleb Deschanel, Robert Downey Sr. (a prince), Charles Eastman, Pablo Ferro, James Foley, Joyce Gallie, Andy Garcia, Eva Gardos, Robert Ginty, Lee Grant, Lynn “Grif” Griffis, Jan- Acknowledgments xi ice Grow, Max Grow, James William Guercio, Betty Gumm, Eric Haller, Jerry Hellman, Simon Hinkly...