BART, Peter 1932-

PERSONAL: Born July 24, 1932, in New York, NY; son of M. S. and Clara G. Bart; children: Colby, Dilys. Education: Swarthmore College, B.A., 1954; attended London School of Economics and Political Science, 1955-56.

ADDRESSES: Home—2270 Betty Lane, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Agent—Arlene Donovan, International Creative Management, 40 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Wall Street Journal, New York, NY, reporter, 1955-57; New York Times, New York, NY, reporter, 1957-67; Paramount Pictures, Hollywood, CA, vice-president in production, 1968-75; Lorimar Films Co., president, beginning 1978; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc./United Artists Co., senior vice-president, 1983-85.

WRITINGS:

Fade Out: The Calamitous Final Days of MGM, Morrow (New York, NY), 1990.

The Gross: The Hits, the Flops—The Summer That Ate Hollywood, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Who Killed Hollywood?: … And Put the Tarnish on Tinseltown, Renaissance, 1999.

(With Peter Gruber) Shoot Out: Surviving Fame and Misfortune in Hollywood, Putnam (New York, NY), 2002.

Dangerous Company: Dar Tales from Tinseltown, Miramax (New York, NY), 2004.

novels

(With Denne Bart Petitclerc) Destinies, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1979.

Thy Kingdom Come, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1981.

Contributor to Cannes: Fifty Years of Sun, Sex & Celluloid: Behind the Scenes at the World's Most Famous Film Festival, foreword by Clint Eastwood, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1997. Contributor to magazines, including Harper's, Atlantic, Esquire, and Saturday Review.

SIDELIGHTS: Peter Bart told CA that his first novel, Destinies, concerns "a family of mixed Cuban and American heritage who is torn apart in the turmoil immediately following the Cuban Revolution and the Bay of Pigs." In a Library Journal essay, Bart described the aspirations that he and his coauthor Denne Bart Petitclerc have for the book: "We hope Destinies works, not only as dramatic fiction in telling the story of a great family and of the extraordinary woman who holds it together, but also as a chronicle of America's inept handling of its relations with Cuba."

According to several reviewers, however, Destinies is ultimately more successful as history than fiction. Best Sellers contributor John J. Murray, for example, commented that "learning all about the CIA folly that was the Bay of Pigs was both entertaining and enlightening," but described the fiction as "totally unreal." And a Publishers Weekly contributor concluded, "The overwhelming impression this book leaves is of the utter arrogance, naivete and incompetence of the CIA policy toward Cuba."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Best Sellers, November, 1979.

Economist, April 10, 1999, review of The Gross: The Hits, the Flops—The Summer That Ate Hollywood, p. 11.

Entertainment Weekly, May 24, 2002, Ty Burr, review of Shoot Out: Surviving Fame and Misfortune in Hollywood, p. 88.

Library Journal, June 15, 1979, April 1, 1999, Kim Holston, review of The Gross, p. 100; April 15, 2002, review of Shoot Out, p. 86.

New York Times, June 20, 1990, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of Fade Out: The Calamitous Final Days of MGM, p. C17.

New York Times Book Review, June 24, 1990, Aaron Latham, review of Fade Out, p. 11; February 21, 1999, Michael Sragow, "Execs, Checks, Sex, FX," p. 28; April 2, 2000, Ted Loos, review of Who Killed Hollywood?: … And Put the Tarnish on Tinseltown, p. 23.

Publishers Weekly, July 2, 1979; February 22, 1999, review of The Gross, p. 58; April 1, 2002, review of Shoot Out, p. 62.

Reason, October, 1999, Steve Kurtz, "Gross Out," p. 70.*