Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond

Being Henry: The Fonz …and Beyond by Henry Winkler   265 pages

Henry Winkler, a Yale School of Drama, was a struggling actor in New York when he decided to try Hollywood. It was there, in 1973, that he landed the role of a lifetime and became a television icon when he was cast as Arthur Fonzarelli on the TV series, Happy Days.  And he made it look easy.

Henry had a hard time at Yale and in New York, not because he didn’t land the roles he wanted, but because he suffered from severe dyslexia. It was that dyslexia that made his father, a wealthy man in the lumber business, think he was stupid and lazy. He always felt not good enough, and it wasn’t until his later years that he found help.

In fact, Henry had to work twice as hard and twice as long to learn his lines as other actors, but he persevered. The scenes where he tells the readers how “the Fonz” was born, was like peeking behind the curtain. In fact, this entire memoir is like that. I feel like I’ve this guy like a close cousin.

Now 78, Henry tells his stories of struggle and achievement in a memoir that sounds like he is sitting in your living room telling you his life story. I had no idea that after Happy Days, he struggled due to typecasting. When an audience looked at him, they saw “the Fonz.”  But when I thought about it, I wasn’t surprised. “The Fonz” is a legend.

I didn’t know that he went on to become a director to some hit movies, a producer and a co-author of more than thirty books for kids including Alien Superstar Trilogy and a twenty-eight-book series starring Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever.”

I really like the structure of Being Henry.  It is tales of his days as “The Fonz” and Happy Days interspersed with tales of his forty-five, and counting, year marriage to Stacey, his kids, the other roles he has played, his famous friends. And yet through it all, he seems like a down-to-earth nice guy who doesn’t live in a billion-room mansion, but a nice house in Los Angeles.

I always like “the Fonz,” but now I have a deeper appreciation for Henry.

Being Henry: The Fonz …and Beyond get 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Sinatra and Me: In the Wee Small Hours

“Sinatra and Me: In the Wee Small Hours” by Tony Oppedisano 320 pages 

I’ve always been a Sinatra fan. When kids my age were listening to The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, I played Frank on my record player. I think my parents were secretly relieved they didn’t have to listen to “that racket.” 

The author and former Sinatra road manager has written a fascinating look at the private life the “The Voice” in his later years. Not always sure that I believed all of it, but I did feel like I was getting to know the man. 

When the book opens, Frank is just coming out of his self-inflicted retirement. It wasn’t hard for him to get back on top.  It bothered me that the first pages were mostly about the author himself. I saw very little of Ol’ Blue Eyes there. 

Then the tone shifted and he began to relate antidotes that happened that and me feel close to Frank. His legendary temper. His friends. His work routine. His love lives. His generosity. Recording sessions. The feud between his wife and his children. 

I found the stories about his wife, Barbara, interesting. In her memoir, “Lady Blue Eyes,” She came off as a gold-digger. And she comes off as one here also. I’m sure there was no love lost between Frank’s children and Barbara, but the way she treated him in his later years made me sad.  And the way she refused to let anyone call his kids while he lay dying until she could reach her son was horrifying to me.  Keep in mind her son was in New York and his kids were 10 minutes away. 

I consider myself very lucky to have seen Frank live in concert twice in my lifetime. They were remarkable experiences. When I finished, I felt myself mourning the loss of the legend all over again, but maybe a little deeper after I read this memoir/biography. I felt that I had actually known him. 

“Sinatra and Me: In the Wee Small Hours” 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.