Author Archive | Lawrence Grobel

The first thing Harlan Ellison did when he entered the classroom was ask for a paper cup. He then told the seventeen UCLA students, “Every time one of you pinheads uses the word ‘like’ as if you were a Valley Girl, you will put a quarter in this cup.” He next barked at a student […]

I’ve just seen a screening of Black Panther, the first blockbuster action film written by, directed by and starring African-Americans, and what I thought about as I watched was the first time I heard the expression “Black Power.”  It was, actually, the first time that phrase was publicly used. It was in the summer of […]

There was a time, and not that long ago, when I championed the freelance life. I spoke to high school and college students about it, encouraging them to follow their dreams, and using my own life as an example.  It was possible, I extolled, to live by your wits. To be your own boss. If […]

Some years ago, my editor at Playboy called to say that they had a connection to Charlie Manson, who was in prison at San Quentin, and he wanted me to take a few days to consider whether I would like to interview him for the magazine.  This was the first time he had ever asked […]

Whenever I’ve walked around a mall I’ve always smiled at those who have taken off their shoes and are sitting in a massage chair at a store like Brookstone or Relax the Back. They all looked so relaxed, and so thankful for the free massage. I’ve tried these chairs myself when available and have always […]

I did a cable TV interview with the flamboyant Zsa Zsa Gabor in the early 1980s and was not surprised by her outspokenness, because she was actually an early champion of women’s rights and the right to speak one’s mind. The most unforgettable thing about Zsa Zsa was her name. One might find it difficult […]

Five years ago I got a call from Mike Medavoy, the CEO of Phoenix Pictures, one of the big-time Players in Hollywood. Medavoy was a studio exec at United Artists, co-founder of Orion Pictures, and chairman of Tristar before this, and was involved in producing 16 Academy Award films, among them Philadelphia, One Flew Over […]

             Looking Back to When a 19-Year-Old Kidnapped Heiress Was the Subject of One of the Greatest FBI Manhunts in American History—the Osama   bin Ladin of Her Time.     Between the time the S.L.A. kidnapped her from her Berkeley apartment on Feb. 4, 1974 and her arrest nineteen […]

Though I live in Los Angeles, my wife and I rarely venture into Beverly Hills, but sometimes we go to marvel at the busloads of foreign women who swarm certain chic upscale stores on Rodeo Drive like Gucci, Cartier’s, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Fendi, or Chanel. I have very little to look at in these posh […]

I recently received three emails from three women I didn’t know, notifying me that they had been the victims of three different online dating match-ups for single women. Each of them told the same story: they had found my picture on a dating site, responded to it, and found themselves getting to know “me” over […]