2007, Inside 'Inside'. By James Lipton. (ISBN: 0525950354 / 0-525-95035-4 )

Book Description: Dutton / Penguin Publishing Co., 2007. Stated First Edition October 2007, number line on copyright page reads 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. Light Grey Hard Cover Boards and Gray Cloth Spine with Gold Text. This is a First Edition remainder book which is new and never used. 492 pages, color and B&W photos, 6.5" x 9.5" tall, 1.5" thick. New copy. Never read. Not price clipped. Beautiful copy of book and dust jacket. COLLECTOR'S COPY. Includes an original packing decal form a case of these books dated 11/30/2007 (see scan).

Book Condition: Brand New.

Dust Jacket Condition: Brand New. NON price-clipped DJ [$27.95 US].

About This Book: "When the Actors Studio faced possible extinction in 1994, Lipton (An Exaltation of Larks) engineered a partnership between the Studio and the New School for Social Research to create a degree-granting program. Thus was born the Actors Studio Drama School, with Lipton as both founder and dean. The school's craft seminars, in which Lipton interviewed leading actors and directors, became the basis for Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio, and since 1994, he has been that series' executive producer, writer and host. Looking back over the show's parade of personalities, he intercuts autobiographical flashbacks with quotes from the TV interview transcripts. These brief selections, excerpted from his sessions with Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins, Jack Lemmon, Mike Nichols, Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep and many more, may leave some readers wishing Lipton had published the transcripts in full. Raising the curtain on his own memories, he traces the path of his multifaceted career as radio actor (The Lone Ranger), TV actor (The Guiding Light), Broadway lyricist (Sherry!) and novelist (Mirrors). Along the way, theatrical truths emerge and amusing anecdotes abound since Lipton is a witty and engaging writer. The free-associative transitions from interviews to autobiography occasionally read like two different books shuffled together, but that only makes this exaltation of Lipton doubly enjoyable. The 48 illustrations include Al Hirschfeld's caricature of Lipton." -- Publishers Weekly

Synopsis: A REVEALING BEHIND-THE-SCENES PORTRAIT OF THE AWARD-WINNING TV SHOW INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO– AND ITS CREATOR AND HOST JAMES LIPTON.

Each week Inside the Actors Studio takes the unique insights and intimate revelations of its celebrated guests into

Early life: James Lipton was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Betty (née Weinberg), a teacher, and journalist Lawrence Lipton. His parents were Jewish. Noted as the author of the popular Beat Generation chronicle, The Holy Barbarians, Lawrence Lipton was a graphic designer, a columnist for the Jewish Daily Forward and a publicity director for a movie theater.

Career: A 1944 graduate of Central High School, Lipton portrayed Dan Reid on WXYZ-Radio's The Lone Ranger. Moving to New York, he initially studied to be a lawyer, and turned to acting only to finance his education. He wrote for several soap operas, Another World, The Edge of Night, Guiding Light, Return to Peyton Place and Capitol, as well as acting for over ten years on Guiding Light. In 1951, he appeared in the Broadway play The Autumn Garden by Lillian Hellman. He portrayed a shipping clerk turned gang member in Joseph Strick's 1953 film, The Big Break, a crime drama.

Lipton was the book writer and lyricist for the short-lived 1967 Broadway musical Sherry!, based on the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman play The Man Who Came to Dinner, with music by his childhood friend Laurence Rosenthal. The score and orchestrations were lost for over 30 years, and the original cast was never recorded. In 2003, a studio cast recording (with Nathan Lane, Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, Tommy Tune, Michael Myers and others) renewed interest in the show.

In 1968, his book, An Exaltation of Larks, was first published, and has been in print and revised several times since then, including a 1993 Penguin books edition. The book is a collection of "terms of venery," both real and created by Lipton himself. The dust jacket biography for the first edition of Exaltation claimed his activities included fencing, swimming, and equestrian pursuits and that he had written two Broadway productions. He speaks French fluently.

In 1983, Lipton published his novel, Mirrors, about dancers' lives. He later wrote and produced it as a TV movie. In television, Lipton has produced some two dozen specials including: twelve Bob Hope Birthday Specials; The Road to China, an NBC entertainment special produced in China; and the first televised presidential inaugural gala (for Jimmy Carter).

Inside the Actors Studio: In the early 1990s, Lipton was inspired by Bernard Pivot, and sought to create a three year educational program for actors that would be a distillation of what he had learned in the twelve years of his own intensive studies. In 1994, he arranged for the Actors Studio - the home base of "method acting" in the USA for over sixty years - to join with New York City's New School University and form the Actors Studio Drama School, a formal degree-granting program at the graduate level.

Lipton created a project within the Actors Studio drama school: a non-credit class called Inside the Actors Studio (1994), where successful and accomplished actors, directors and writers would be interviewed and would answer questions from acting students. These sessions are also taped and broadcast on television for the general public to see. The episodes are viewed in 89 million homes throughout 125 countries. Lipton himself hosts the show and conducts the main interview.

During an interview with the writer, Daniel Simone, when asked if he had anticipated the sudden success, Mr. Lipton's eyes widened, and his deep trained voice boomed, "Not in my wildest imagination." Then he supplemented, "It was a joint arduous effort involving many people. At a point and time, I had three lives. I was the dean of the Actors Studio, the writer of the series, its host and executive producer. I maintained a preposterous 16-hour schedule."

Personal life: Between 1954 and 1959, Lipton was married to actress Nina Foch. He has been married to Kedakai Turner, a model and real estate broker, since 1970.

Source: Read more at Wikipedia.