Welcome to the STEPHEN MICHAEL SHEARER website.
Closer Magazine - November 25, 2024
Gloria Swanson: A Life of Grit & Glamour
Interview with Author Stephen Michael Shearer
"She lived extravagantly. She traveled with entourages. She spent wildly,"
Stephen Shearer, author of the new book
Gloria Swanson: Hollywood's First Glamour Queen, tells Closer.
November 2024 Issue
Woodbury Magazine HOLIDAY ISSUE
Interview with Local Author
Stephen Michael Shearer
UPDATE - New Book Release - January 6th, 2025
"Gloria Swanson: Hollywood's First Glamour Queen"
https://woodburymag.com/stephen-michael-shearer-speaks-on-the-art-of-storytelling/
Art of the Vineyard Tasting Gallery
Paso Robles, CA
Author Stephen Michael Shearer
"Gloria Swanson: Hollywood's First Glamour Queen"
UPDATE - New Book Release Date
January 6th, 2025
Book Signing Schedule Pending
https://www.globepequot.com/books/9781493077045
"Gloria Swanson: Hollywood's First Glamour Queen"
by Author Stephen Michael Shearer.
UPDATE - New Book Release Date - January 6th, 2025.
Now booking Lecture/Speaking engagements from December 2024 through December 2025.
Pre-Order through multiple online sites.
PRE ORDER NOW
Gloria Swanson: Hollywood's First Glamour Queen
by Stephen Michael Shearer
(Click image to be directed to the publishers site)
(The title is also available through many other sites)
UPDATE - New Book Release Date - January 6th, 2025
ONGOING
Book Tour Venues & Events
To Be Announced When Confirmed
Click on Schedules above for Pending Tour Dates
Gloria Swanson: Hollywood's First Glamour Queen
STEPHEN MICHAEL SHEARER
UPDATE - New Book Release Date - January 6th, 2025
Gloria Swanson is most remembered today for her role as "Norma Desmond" in Billy Wilder's noir sound classic Sunset Boulevard (1950), but Swanson during her heyday was heralded as filmdom's leading fashion queen, as proclaimed by director Cecil B. DeMille in such silent motion pictures as Male and Female (1919), Why Change Your Husband (1921), and The Affairs of Anatol (1922). Throughout that decade and well into the 1930s, Swanson set fashion standards on and off the screen in creations designed by such illustrious couturieres as Mitchell Leisen, Paul Iribe, Norman Norell, Sonia Delaunay, Max Ree, Capt. Edward H. Molyneux, Coco Chanel, Rene Hubert, and later Edith Head. In the 1950s, she designed and managed her own line of ready to wear fashion patterns called Forever Young for women of a discernible age.
Gloria Swanson: Hollywood's First Glamour Queen is a photographic tribute to this extraordinary woman. Focusing on sense of style and fashion, the book contains hundreds of personal and professional photographs, many never before published, and running biographical commentary by biographer Stephen Michael Shearer, author of the definitive book of the star, Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star (St. Martin's Press-Macmillan).
Globe Pequot / Lyons Press • Pages: 496 • Trim: 8½ x 11 • 978-1-4930-7704-5 • Hardback • November 2024 • $75.00
Something New Coming in 2025!
UPDATE - New Book Release Date - January 6th, 2025
In this issue: GLORIA SWANSON (The Many Lives of Gloria Swanson) - The Golden Age actress didn't let her modest upbringing stop her from becoming Hollywood's original glamour queen. After nearly two decades away from the silver screen, Gloria Swanson agreed to play a Hollywood legend who boards a fateful flight in the hit film Airport 1975. For the role, which would be her last, the diva insisted on writing her own dialogue. "I was holding out for a picture I could take my grandchildren to see, something exciting and contemporary, without senseless violence," she said. Gloria prized her grandchildren almost as much as her life as Hollywood's most dazzling diva. "She was very ambitious and very certain of herself," says Stephen Michael Shearer, author of Gloria Swans on: The Ultimate Star. "She commanded a room when she entered it, even at 4-foot-11-inches tall." An only child born into a family of modest means, Gloria's parents fueled her confidence with an assertion she could do anything she set her mind to. A crush on a movie star inspired teenage Gloria to talk her way onto her first film set.
"There are friends in life and there are friends for life."
"The world is full of kind people… If you can't find one, be one"
"You can't always have a good day. But you can always face a bad day with a good attitude."
"I have faced many challenges this year but I had great people by my side. You know who you are. All I can say is thank you!"
"You don't need everything to enjoy life. You have life to enjoy everything."
Now Booking Speaking Engagements For
Stephen Michael Shearer
November 2024 through December 2025
Click on: SMS 2025 Book Signings & Events Link below.
Closer Magazine September 12,2022 Issue
"She wasn't afraid of anything," Stephen Michael Shearer, author of Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star, tells Closer. "She was very tough, and she knew her worth. She fought the industry and was up there with the men, producing her own movies."
Gloria's only weaknesses were her profligate spending and poor taste in men. "She never had sense about her finances," says Shearer. "She spent on fashion and jewelry — a lot of the jewelry in Sunset Boulevard were jewels she bought in the 1920s."
While married to her third husband, Gloria began an affair with Joseph Kennedy, the father of the future president. He became her business partner as well as her lover, and although her first talkie, The Trespasser, earned Gloria an Oscar nomination, their other films flopped, bankrupting the star.
By the early 1940s, Gloria was forced to work as a travel agent in New York, but the tenacious actress proved to be a master at reinvention. "She started doing television and had her own show called The Gloria Swanson Hour," says Shearer.
Charles Deering McCormick Library
Special Collections Research
Stephen Michael Shearer
Publisher
"Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life"
University Press of Kentucky
jackie.wilson@uky.edu
Adapted as a major motion picture starring:
Hugh Bonneville, Keeley Hawes, and Sam Heughan
CONTACTS
Authors "NEW" Literary Agent Representation to be announced soon
Authors Literary Agent Representation:
Marsal Lyon Literary Agency LLC
Agent - Deborah Ritchken - RETIRED September, 2024
PMB 121
665 San Rodolfo Dr. 124
Solana Beach, CA 92075
(858) 492-8009
Deborah@MarsalLyonLiteraryAgency.com
Publicist
Michael at Mad Max Associates
(201) 962-5854
mpwmadmax@gmail.com
Authors Website
www.smsmybooks.com
February 23, 2022
Veritcal Entertainment has nabbed the North American rights to director John Hay's "To Olivia", a U.K. drama based on the true lives of renowned novelist Roald Dahl and his film star wife Patricia Neal.
Veritcal plans a day-and-date release on April 15, 2022, for the drama written by David Logan and Hay based on "Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life", written by Stephen Michael Shearer. "To Olivia" portrays the idyllic lives of Dahl and Neal tragically turned upside down after their young daughter, Olivia, contracted the measles virus and died in the 1960s.
Her passing devastated the couple, yet their shared heartbreak and grief ultimately led Dahl to write the classic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" kids novel. "To Olivia" stars Hugh Bonneville as Dahl, Keely Hawes as Neal, and Sam Heughan as Paul Newman.
New Book Release Date – March 1, 2022
Due to printing & shipping delays!
Lyons Press. An imprint of Globe Pequot,
the trade division of Rowman & Littlefield
CLICK on here and then LISTEN!
Author Stephen Michael Shearer will be at D.G. Wills Books in La Jolla to discuss his new book "Glamour and Style: The Beauty of Hedy Lamarr" on Thursday, March 31, 2022 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. This is a coffee table companion book to his biography, "Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr," about the classic Hollywood star and inventor.
CLICK here to see and listen to video.
Author Stephen Michael Shearer will be at D.G. Wills Books in La Jolla to discuss his new book "Glamour and Style: The Beauty of Hedy Lamarr" on Thursday, March 31, 2022 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. This is a coffee table companion book to his biography, "Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr," about the classic Hollywood star and inventor.
Just Fabulous Books - Author Book Signing Event - Palm Springs, CA
Stephen Michael Shearer
Friday, April 1, 2022 from 2:00PM to 4:00PM Pacific Time
CONFIRMED
CONGRATULATIONS
JEFFERY SCHWARZ
Greetings, all you wonderful people out there in the dark!
Dickson Hughes and Richard Stapley, two young songwriters and romantic partners, find themselves caught in movie star Gloria Swanson's web when she hires them to write a musical version of "Sunset Boulevard." Life imitates art when Gloria falls for Richard, and the men find themselves living a real-life version of the classic film.
Everyone knows about the 1994 Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard, but few know that the idea for a musical adaptation of Billy Wilder's 1950 movie was actually first formulated by the movie's star, Gloria Swanson. From 1952 to 1956, Swanson worked with gay couple Dickson Hughes and Richard Stapley on writing the book and score. They were almost finished when a love triangle between the three derailed the project. Fans of Old Hollywood cannot fail to appreciate this project that seems tailor-made in so many ways for Outfest!
Outfest alum Jeffrey Schwarz's amazing true story of Gloria Swanson's attempt to get a musical version of Sunset Boulevard made, and the bizarre love triangle that derailed the whole venture.
See Stephen Michael Shearer in this new documentary.
"There are friends in life and there are friends for life."
"The world is full of kind people… If you can't find one, be one"
"You can't always have a good day. But you can always face a bad day with a good attitude."
"I have faced many challenges this year but I had great people by my side. You know who you are. All I can say is thank you!"
"You don't need everything to enjoy life. You have life to enjoy everything."
Unknown - NCAN
AUDIO COMING SOON - September 29, 2020
"Beautiful The Life of Hedy Lamarr" by Stephen Michael Shearer
Hedy Lamarr's exotic beauty was heralded across Europe in the early 1930s. Yet she became infamous for her nude scenes in the scandalous movie Ecstasy. Trapped in a marriage to one of Austria's munitions barons, a friend of Mussolini's who hid his Jewish heritage to become an "honorary Aryan" at the onset of World War II, Lamarr fled Europe for Hollywood, where she was transformed into one of film's most glamorous celebrities, appearing opposite such actors as Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and James Stewart. As her career faded, she went from one husband to the next, her personal troubles and legal woes casting a shadow over her phenomenal intelligence and former image.
Stephen Michael Shearer's in-depth and meticulously researched biography, written with the cooperation of Hedy's children, intimate friends, and colleagues, separates the truths from the rumors, the facts from the fables, about Hedy Lamarr, to reveal the life and character of one of classic Hollywood's most beautiful and remarkable women.
"Beautiful The Life of Hedy Lamarr"
Author Stephen Michael Shearer
Narrated by Christa Lewis
Publication date Sep 29, 2020
Running time 17 hrs 26 min
13th February 2020
An incredible cast of period drama stars has been assembled for a film about Roald Dahl.
The upcoming biopic has been in development since 2017, when it was first announced that Hugh Bonneville would star as the famous British children's author. Originally titled An Unquiet Life, and based on Stephen Michael Shearer's book of the same name, the movie finally began filming in Surrey, England last autumn. Roald Dahl is the writer of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, The BFG and many more classic stories.
Bonneville will play Dahl in the early 1960s as the author struggles to write some of his most famous works. The English actor is best known for his role as the Earl of Grantham in all six seasons of Downton Abbey and last year's hit movie.
Producer Donall McCusker (The Hurt Locker) has promised "a warm, funny and powerful script that we know is going to resonate with audiences throughout the world." Set in New York, England and Los Angeles, the movie will focus on Roald Dahl's marriage to American actress Patricia Neal, who won an Oscar for 1963's Hud.
Dahl married the Breakfast At Tiffany actress in 1953, but the couple later divorced in 1983. It was announced last November that Neal is being played by Keeley Hawes (The Durrells). The Bodyguard star said: "The story of Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl is extraordinary, and I'm so excited to be part of it and so looking forward to working with the brilliant Hugh Bonneville and the hugely talented John Hay, who has provided us with such a beautiful script."
Bonneville and Hawes are joined by another face that'll be familiar to British period drama fans. Sam Heughan (Outlander) will be playing American actor Paul Newman, star of Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Newman co-starred with Patricia Neal in Hud.
Producer Donall McCusker commented: "We are delighted that Sam has joined us, he is the perfect actor to play Paul Newman and a terrific addition to our already wonderful cast."
Teasing the story, director John Hay added: "Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal seemingly had it all until an unimaginable event threatened to tear their family apart."
The film will be released in cinemas later this year.
Stephen Michael Shearer's book Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life is available on Amazon.
Ave Maria by Franz Biebl (Chanticleer)
SKY Cinema Release Date February 2021
Keeley Hawes will star opposite Hugh Bonneville in a film about the Oscar-winner Patricia Neal and her husband, author Roald Dahl. Formerly known as "An Unquiet Life," and based on Stephen Michael Shearer's book of the same name, the family drama starts filming this week in Surrey, southern England.
Movie Project 2019/2020 (VARIETY - May 11, 2017)
The currently untitled biopic, described as being in the vein of “Saving Mr. Banks” and “Finding Neverland,” is based on Stephen Michael Shearer’s biography of Neal, “An Unquiet Life.” It re-teams director and writer John Hay with co-writer David Logan; the pair worked together on 2011 television drama “Lost Christmas,” which won an International Emmy for best kids TV movie/miniseries.
Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club
2425 West Maya Palm Drive
Boca Raton, Florida 33432
Women's Club Speaking Engagement
February 13, 2019
Enjoyed addressing the RPYCC Women's Club Presidents Luncheon in Boca Raton, Florida. Thank you members for your interesting questions.
Thank you to Lucille and Amy for organizing such a wonderful event. Thank you Marla for your technical assistance.
Stephen Michael Shearer - Lecture Series
If you are interested in booking Mr. Shearer for a speaking engagement, please use the CONTACT tab at top of this website.
WATCH IT NOW on NETFLIX
"Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story"
Stephen Michael Shearer helps to narrate this documentary project.
WATCH IT NOW on NETFLIX
Music: Henrik Chaim Goldschmidt playing Ennio Morricone's "Gabriel's Oboe")
Produced by Reframed Pictures in association with American Masters, the new documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story explores how Lamarr’s true legacy is that of a technological trailblazer. The film premieres nationwide May 18, 2018, at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) and will be available to stream the following day via pbs.org/americanmasters and PBS apps.
Lamarr never publicly talked about her life as an inventor and so her family thought her story died when she did. However, in 2016, director Alexandra Dean and producer Adam Haggiag unearthed four never-before-heard audio tapes of Lamarr speaking on the record about her incredible life, finally giving her the chance to tell her own story. Family, friends and colleagues, including Mel Brooks and the late Robert Osborne, also share their personal memories of Lamarr, explaining the atmosphere that created the disconnect between her brilliance and her beauty. Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story world premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, earned multiple awards at film festivals and was named Best Documentary by the New York Film Critics Online.
See Stephen Michael Shearer as he helps to narrate this documentary project. See the IMDB link below for full cast details:
Woodbury Magazine September 2017 - True Hollywood Story
Meet movie star biographer Stephen Michael Shearer.
"ONE LOCAL AUTHOR IS CAPTURING THE GLAMOUR, GLITZ AND GOSSIP of the true stories of old Hollywood one book at a time, and proving you're never too old to begin anew."
"I'm a history buff and I've always thought it was important that we know where we came from, and this is why I write today."
STEPHEN MICHAEL SHEARER
BOMBSHELL: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Cast & Credits
Director: Alexandra Dean
Screenwriter: Alexandra Dean
Cinematographer: Buddy Squires
Editor: Lindy Jankura
Composer: Keegan Dewitt, Jeremy Bullock
Executive Producer: Susan Sarandon, Michael Kantor
Producer: Adam Haggiag, Alexandra Dean, Katherine Drew
Co-Producer: David Koh, Dan Braun
Cast: Mel Brooks, Diane Kruger, Peter Bogdanovich, Denise Loder DeLuca, Anthony Loder, Richard Rhodes, Robert Osborne, Stephen Michael Shearer, Jeanine Basinger, Michael Tilson Thomas, Fleming Meeks
Film Information - Year: 2017 - Length: 90 minutes - Language: English - Country: USA - Premiere: World
Longtime fans of Close are still waiting for her to reprise her Tony-winning role as Norma Desmond in a big-screen musical version of “Sunset Boulevard.” It was revealed the project was going forward at Paramount Pictures a year ago, but there’s been little word on it since. Close bluntly explains what’s transpired. “Somebody pulled out and so we were back to the drawing board in certain aspects, but yes, it’s definitely an on-going thing,” Close notes. And as to whether the new regime at the studio is still supportive of it she adds, “I’m told that they [are]. You know, there was a certain amount of skepticism, I have to believe it because I think that it’d be incredible, incredibly powerful film. I hope it happens.”
Checkout this book:
"GLORIA SWANSON - The Ultimate Star", An in-depth biography spanning nine decades. The first in-depth biography of film legend Gloria Swanson, whose unforgettable role in Sunset Boulevard overshadowed her true life. In this comprehensive biography, Stephen Michael Shearer tells the life story of the woman who defined what a movie icon is.
BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO
"The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy." "Acting is not about being someone different. It's finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there." "Integrate what you believe in every single area of your life. Take your heart to work and ask the most and best of everybody else, too."
BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO
WE BRING TODAY'S GREAT VOICES TO YOUR EVENTS - Macmillan Speakers Bureau - We provide extraordinary professional speakers for all types of events and topics anywhere in the world. Our team of specialists can help you select the best speaker for your event - contact us today to book Stephen Michael Shearer for your next event!
Stephen Michael Shearer (Film Historian, Biographer, Actor) - Topics: Academic Interest, Biography, Culture & Society, Entertainment, Film History - Travels From: Minnesota
Macmillan Speakers Bureau
120 Broadway, 25th floor
New York, NY 10271
646.307.5058
speakers@macmillan.com
See Stephen Michael Shearer (filming completed)
American Heroes Channel Documentary - - NOW SHOWING - Check YouTube
"America: Facts vs Fiction" - "Wartime Rosie's" - Season 2, Ep. 7
See Stephen Michael Shearer - Now in select theaters and on DVD!
A feature-length documentary about Star Trek's iconic Green Girl, Susan Oliver: Prolific actress of the '50s - '80s, original member of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women, record-setting female aviator; Tragically taken by cancer in 1990.
- Written by George Pappy
A feature-length documentary about Star Trek's iconic original Green Girl, Susan Oliver: Prolific actress of the '50s - '80s, original member of the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women, record-setting female aviator; Tragically taken by cancer in 1990. With over 120 major acting credits in film and television, Susan Oliver was literally a household name in the 1960's. She set a number of world records as a pilot and was one of the only women directing major TV shows in the 1980's. And yet many people don't even remember her name today. It's time to remember Susan Oliver...
- Written by Anonymous
Click on YouTube button below to see "The Green Girl" teaser trailer.
Author Stephen Michael Shearer: The Interview
(Posted by Michael G. Ankerich on January 11, 2014)
I’ll never forget the encouragement that author Stephen Michael Shearer gave me when I was writing my Mae Murray biography several years ago. His Hedy Lamarr biography had just been released in hardcover. Although he was busy doing publicity for the release, he made time to give me a call and talk through some important points to remember when writing a life story.
When his latest book, Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star, came out last fall, I was anxious to learn what he uncovered about the legend. I took the book on my travels to Italy in October and learned more about Gloria during those two weeks than I had read 30 years ago in her own memoirs, Swanson on Swanson.
After reading her book, I thought I knew all there was to know about the “ultimate star.” I was wrong!
Click on photo to see the entire interview on the Michael Ankerich BLOG.
Stand-up comedian Marty Allen is still at it. A spry 91 years old, the legendary comic has been entertaining audiences for decades. He’s appeared on classic TV shows such as "The Ed Sullivan Show" alongside the Beatles, and was part of the hilarious duo "Allen & Rossi" with Steve Rossi for many years. Allen is a World War II veteran and was stationed in Italy with the U.S. Army Air Corps (today the U.S. Air Force). While there, he earned a Soldier’s Medal for his bravery during a fire while an airplane was being fueled.
Singer and composer Karon Kate Blackwell also co-starred with Allen during his weekend appearances at the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas.
Pictured Here: Marty Allen & Karon Kate Blackwell Show at the Las Vegas Plaza Hotel - 10/24/2013 and B&N Book Signing with Stephen Michael Shearer (Nelson Sardelli & Marty Allen attended) 10/27/2013.
Stephen Michael Shearer will discuss his new book "Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star" - Friday, October 25, 7PM.
Gloria Swanson defined what it meant to be a movie star, but her unforgettable role in Sunset Boulevard overshadowed the true story of her life. Now Stephen Michael Shearer sets the record straight in the first in-depth biography of the film legend. Swanson was Hollywood’s first successful glamour queen. Her stardom as an actress in the mid-1920s earned her millions of fans and millions of dollars. Realizing her box office value early in her career, she took control of her life.
Soon she was not only producing her own films, she was choosing her scripts, selecting her leading men, casting her projects, creating her own fashions, guiding her publicity, and living an extravagant and sometimes extraordinary celebrity lifestyle. She also collected a long line of lovers (including Joseph P. Kennedy) and married men of her choosing (including a French marquis, thus becoming America’s first member of “nobility”). As a devoted and loving mother, she managed a quiet success of raising three children. Perhaps most important, as a keen businesswoman she also was able to extend her career more than sixty years.
"Tricia Welsch and Stephen Michael Shearer have trawled through the same archives but written two very different books. Mr. Shearer's 'Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star' is more conventionally journalistic—far livelier, more detailed, and not above juicy gossip."
WE BRING TODAY'S GREAT VOICES TO YOUR EVENTS - Macmillan Speakers Bureau - We provide extraordinary professional speakers for all types of events and topics anywhere in the world. Our team of specialists can help you select the best speaker for your event - contact us today to book Stephen Michael Shearer for your next event!
Stephen Michael Shearer (Film Historian, Biographer, Actor) - Topics: Academic Interest, Biography, Culture & Society, Entertainment, Film History - Travels From: Minnesota
Macmillan Speakers Bureau
120 Broadway, 25th floor
New York, NY 10271
646.307.5058
speakers@macmillan.com