HOT PANTS IN HOLLYWOOD:  SEX, SECRETS & SITCOMS BY  SUSAN SILVER

When I was on my book tour, discussing my show biz Memoir, Hot Pants in Hollywood: Sex, Secrets & Sitcoms, I always opened by saying….”The title was describing my wardrobe…not my behavior.”

To those younger readers, who stlll are not sure what “hotpants” are…they were shorts often worn with boots and turtleneck sweaters by those of us who were trying to be Julie Christie, a lovely actress of the times.

And those times were the Seventies…when Feminism was gaining hold and some of us, who thought we could easily work and be married, had to prove it to men..and sometimes other women.

I was one of the first female Sit Com writers…Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, Square Pegs, Partridge Family among others.  And in 2017 I was at a party with some big deal magazine people, talking about how I’d met a lot of music icons of “My Generation” and one of them asked if I wanted to do an article about it.

Sure, why not. We could call it “Name Dropping” as it included Elvis, Jim Morrison, Tom Jones, just to name a few.

I wrote the article and showed it to a friend, who said…”This is a book!” Really? Ok then. Why not.

When you write a memoir, it helps to have a good memory or a diary, neither of which did I have.  But the process was fun research and using the “names dropped” I could reconstruct my life through their careers and my bumping into them! A gift I have along with ESP. Yeah I do.

I was an Extra in the Movies in college at UCLA and had my run-ins with Elvis and Bill Cosby..that one was dangerous.  I was good friends with Jim Morrison, a shy kid, no the sex symbol yet. And soon I was realizing that the Scardy Kid was who was not allowed to cross the main street until I was 12, had an incredible life…winding up walking the streets of China, Brazil, Australia and many other countries.  I realized that aside from the Show Biz gossip, the sexy parts, the laughs, and tips on how to write Sit Com, the moving parts which have brought grown men to cry…I now know that the three R’s are not ‘reading, ‘righting, and ‘rythmatic!”

They are found in my book as: Resilience, Re-Invention and Relationships. I learned so much about myself in writing that I realized I had an incredible life and yes..one

grouchy reader (some angry guy) reviewed it by saying “it can’t be true! No one could have met all those people and done all those things.” And he accused me of being a sexed up old lady living in a nursing home somewhere!

Note to Self: DO NOT READ BAD REVIEWS AND DO NOT ANSWER THEM. I live in my own condo, thanks.

Anyway, readers..and would-be writers….you will find yourself learning about those three R’s if you have lived many years …although I insist on saying I’m “between 50 and death!”  I am still interested in dating and finding another husband.

So…after I wrote the book, I got an editor to work with…and it was helpful.  I did a huge rewrite.  When I wrote for TV, I always just wrote down anything to keep going…didn’t agonize over every word or I’d never finish a script. With a book, it was the same.  I just kept going. And being chronological was a help of course.  Looking up books or movies of a specific year brought back memories.

I got a good agent and then the pain started.  Rejections! I’m not good at those.  (I started my TV career on top, The

Mary Tyler Moore Show and had I faced rejection, who knows if I would have continued.  The “Resilience” I found was after a health crisis, caring for dying parents, unhappy romance. And I didn’t realize it until I finished the book!)

The Publishers liked the material but wanted me to “name names”…one actually said, “be more salacious!” THAT WAS NOT THE BOOK I WANTED TO WRITE.

Then I hit the jackpot and got the well-known editor of Mitch Albom, Leslie Wells, who encouraged me to do what I wanted…and friends who had self-published sold me on that. They had horror tales of many editors coming and going and dying on you. You couldn’t pick the cover illustrator you wanted. It could take years and then they wouldn’t promote you.

So I self-published through Book Baby and it was a great experience.  I got a fabulous illustrator, Joey Heiberg, who did a terrific caricature of me..ok the boobs could have been bigger.  I hired a publicist who got me tons of press, and my credits and “names dropped” got me more.

I changed the Title as Frank Langella came out with a book referencing name dropping in his.

TV Guide had profiled me as “The Writer Wore Hotpants” so…all in all it turned out very well!

And the scaredy kid who became resilient, went on to Re-Invent herself several times, as we live longer now and must do…and yes, Relationships are still the most important thing…whether I name the most famous ones or not.

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Susan Silver was one of the original writers of comedy classics such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, Bob Newhart, Partridge Family and Square Pegs among others. Two of her Movies of the Week were rated Top Ten by Nielsen. She currently has a radio commentary on NPR affiliate WHDD RobinHoodRadio. It’s called “Susan Says” and is on weekly. She had a second career in politics and Holocaust related organizations. She is a frequent guest on both TV and radio dealing with culture, media and Baby Boomer’s lives with humor. She lives in New York.

Susan Silver has an NPR radio commentary called

“Susan Says” on WHD robinhoodradio.com

Her website is: www.hotpantsinhollywood.com

The book is available in audio, with her reading, Kindle and Paperback through Amazon and all other resources

 

Hot Pants In Hollywood is a Show Biz memoir, and much more.  It’s a Baby Boomer’s life on steroids.  Susan Silver was one of the first female TV comedy writers with credits like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, Bob Newhart, among others. As the lyrics from the iconic Mary Tyler Moore Show said, “She made it after all!” From another Midwest town, Milwaukee, with all its Sixties’ values and normalcy, Susan went on to fame and fortune in Hollywood, had a successful career as one of the first women in TV sitcoms, and reinvented herself in different prominent arenas in New York.

Along the way, she “Searched for Mr. Adequate,” her well received dating column, had many romantic adventures, loves and loss, and she’s ‘still here!’Though her story is unique, due to the career she chose, her life is relatable to all women; Baby Boomers dealing with divorce, dating, aging parents, or young women of today, looking for advice in work or love. If you love ‘Show Biz’ and want to know what it’s like behind the scenes, Hot Pants in Hollywood is very funny…sexy too!

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