Steven Gaines
Encyclopedia
Steven Gaines is an American
author
http://search.ew.com/EWSearch/ew/search/search.html?search=Steven+Gaines and a journalist
. His books include Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons http://nytimes.com/library/books/090498gaines-hamptons.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/books/dialogue/9808/steven.gaines/index.htmlhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0316309079; The Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316154555; The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles; and Marjoe, the biography of evangelist Marjoe Gortner.
"Fool's Paradise: Players, Poseurs and the Culture of Excess in South Beach
" http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307346277, was published by Crown in 2009.
Gaines is a contributing editor at New York Magazine http://nymag.com/search/search.cgi?search_type=sw&N=22&textquery=Steven+Gaines&scope=sc-magazine&x=24&y=19 and his journalism has appeared in Vanity Fair
, the New York Observer
, the New York Times, Los Angeles, Worth
, and Connoisseur.
From 2003 to 2010 Gaines has hosted a weekly, live roundtable radio interview show from the Hamptons called "Sunday Brunch Live from the American Hotel in Sag Harbor," that airs from Memorial Weekend to Labor Day on Peconic Public Broadcasting, 88.3 FM, Southampton, New York
, a National Public Radio affiliate.
The film version of Gaines' biography about the fashion designer Halston
, Simply Halstonhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985012/, is in pre-production with Killer Films starring actor Brendan Fraser
.
and New York University
, where he studied with film director Martin Scorsese
.
His father was a school teacher and child guidance counselor, and his mother a bookeeper.
He graduated near the bottom of his class at Erasmus Hall, and flunked out of Temple University
, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was in Philadelphia that he met children's TV star Gene London
who first encouraged him to write.
Gaines was working in a small auction gallery in 1971 when he met former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner
at Max's Kansas City
, a New York restaurant and club. Although Gaines had never published anything before he convinced Gortner to allow him to write his biography, which was published by Harper & Row (now HarperCollins
) in 1973.
The movie of "Marjoe"
won the 1972 Academy Award
for Best Documentary, and although the film was not based on Gaines' biography, the attention brought by the Academy Award helped promote the book "Marjoe" into a religion bestseller and establish Gaines' career as a writer.
The same year Marjoe was published, Gaines became editor of Circus
, a national teeny-bopper rock and roll magazine, and he also began a six-year run as the "Top of the Pop" columnist for the New York Sunday News, on alternate Sundays, dual positions that gave him a catbird seat in the fast lane of the rock and roll business during the golden era of the seventies.
Gaines spent a year on the road living with Alice Cooper, and in 1976 he published "Me, Alice," by Alice Cooper with Steven Gaines, the first autobiography of a rock star. Published only in hardcover, the book has since become a collectors' item and sells for up to $2500 a copy.
In 1980 Gaines met Robert Jon Cohen, a 21 year-old Studio 54 bartender, with whom he collaborated on a book called The Club, a thinly-veiled roman a clef about Studio 54. The book a raised the ire of nightclub owner Steve Rubell
, designer Halston, and singer Liza Minelli, among others. Fodder for the gossip columns, the book caused a sensation and got advances in the six-figures, but won Gaines ignominy. Soon after the publication of The Club, Gaines moved to Laguna Beach, California
, then to London, and finally to East Hampton, New York
, where he wrote the international best-seller The Love You Make: An Insiders Story of the Beatles, with Beatle insider Peter Brown
. Published in 1983, The Love You Make was on the New York Times Hardcover bestseller list for 16 weeks.
http://www.nydailynews.com/. In the early part of his career he wrote several books about the music business, including Alice Cooper
's autobiography, "Me, Alice"; "The Love You Make," a biography of the Beatles; and "Heroes and Villains," a biography of the Beach Boys, before briefly switching his focus to fashion designers with biographies on Halston
and Calvin Klein
.
In 1980 he published a controversial "roman a clef" called The Club about the nightclub Studio 54
that he co-wrote with a 21 year-old Studio 54 bartender, Robert Jon Cohen. As Robert Granit, he published Another Runner in the Night in 1981, a novel about a homosexual film producer married to the daughter of a studio boss. He coined the phrase "velvet mafia" in his "New York Sunday News" column in reference to the Robert Stigwood Organization, a British record company and management group, but the term soon began to be used to describe the influential gay crowd who ran Hollywood and the fashion industry.
Gaines is best known for his 1998 social and cultural history of the East End
of Long Island
called Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons.
In 1993 he co-founded the Hamptons International Film Festival
.
Me, Alice, the biography of rock star Alice Cooper;
Discotheque, a novel;
The Club, a novel (with Robert Jon Cohen);
Another Runner in the Night, a novel;
The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles (with Peter Brown);
Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0301359/;
Simply Halston
: The Untold Story;
Obsession: The Lives and Times of Calvin Klein
(with Sharon Churcher)
Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons.
The Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan.
Fool's Paradise: Players, Poseurs and the Culture of Excess in South Beach
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
http://search.ew.com/EWSearch/ew/search/search.html?search=Steven+Gaines and a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
. His books include Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons http://nytimes.com/library/books/090498gaines-hamptons.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/books/dialogue/9808/steven.gaines/index.htmlhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0316309079; The Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316154555; The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles; and Marjoe, the biography of evangelist Marjoe Gortner.
"Fool's Paradise: Players, Poseurs and the Culture of Excess in South Beach
South Beach
South Beach, also nicknamed SoBe, is a neighborhood in the city of Miami Beach, Florida, United States. It is the area south of Indian Creek and encompasses roughly the southernmost 23 blocks of the main barrier island that separates the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay.This area was the first...
" http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307346277, was published by Crown in 2009.
Gaines is a contributing editor at New York Magazine http://nymag.com/search/search.cgi?search_type=sw&N=22&textquery=Steven+Gaines&scope=sc-magazine&x=24&y=19 and his journalism has appeared in Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, the New York Observer
New York Observer
The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...
, the New York Times, Los Angeles, Worth
Worth (magazine)
Worth is an American wealth management magazine for high net worth individuals. It is published on a bi-monthly basis and circulated to over 110,000 recipients.-History:Worth was founded in 1992 as a wealth management magazine for high net worth individuals...
, and Connoisseur.
From 2003 to 2010 Gaines has hosted a weekly, live roundtable radio interview show from the Hamptons called "Sunday Brunch Live from the American Hotel in Sag Harbor," that airs from Memorial Weekend to Labor Day on Peconic Public Broadcasting, 88.3 FM, Southampton, New York
Southampton (town), New York
The Town of Southampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, U.S., partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town had a total population of 54,712...
, a National Public Radio affiliate.
The film version of Gaines' biography about the fashion designer Halston
Halston
Roy Halston Frowick, also known as Halston was a clothing designer of the 1970s. His long dresses or copies of his style were popular fashion wear in mid-1970s discotheques.-Early life and career:...
, Simply Halstonhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985012/, is in pre-production with Killer Films starring actor Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser
Brendan James Fraser is a Canadian-American film and stage actor. Fraser portrayed Rick O'Connell in the three-part Mummy film series , and is known for his comedic and fantasy film leading roles in major Hollywood films, including Encino Man , George of the Jungle , Dudley Do-Right , Monkeybone ,...
.
Life
Gaines was born and brought up in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, New York and attended Erasmus Hall High SchoolErasmus Hall High School
Erasmus Hall Campus High School is a four-year public high school in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, United States operated by the New York City Department of Education....
and New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, where he studied with film director Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
.
His father was a school teacher and child guidance counselor, and his mother a bookeeper.
He graduated near the bottom of his class at Erasmus Hall, and flunked out of Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was in Philadelphia that he met children's TV star Gene London
Gene London
Gene London was the host of a long-running, Philadelphia local children's show, Cartoon Corners . He was tall, slender, had dark hair and a soft-spoken manner...
who first encouraged him to write.
Gaines was working in a small auction gallery in 1971 when he met former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner
Marjoe Gortner
Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner, generally known as Marjoe Gortner , is a former revivalist who first gained a certain fame in the late 1940s when he became the youngest ordained preacher at the age of four...
at Max's Kansas City
Max's Kansas City
Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South, in New York City, which was a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s.-Origin of name:...
, a New York restaurant and club. Although Gaines had never published anything before he convinced Gortner to allow him to write his biography, which was published by Harper & Row (now HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
) in 1973.
The movie of "Marjoe"
Marjoe
Marjoe is a 1972 American documentary film produced and directed by Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan about the life of evangelist Marjoe Gortner. It won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.- Story:...
won the 1972 Academy Award
45th Academy Awards
The 45th Academy Awards were presented March 27, 1973 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, and Rock Hudson....
for Best Documentary, and although the film was not based on Gaines' biography, the attention brought by the Academy Award helped promote the book "Marjoe" into a religion bestseller and establish Gaines' career as a writer.
The same year Marjoe was published, Gaines became editor of Circus
Circus (magazine)
Circus was a monthly American magazine devoted to rock music. It was published from 1966 to 2006. In its heyday the magazine had a full-time editorial staff that included some of the biggest names in rock journalism, including Paul Nelson, David Fricke, and Kurt Loder, and rivaled Rolling Stone in...
, a national teeny-bopper rock and roll magazine, and he also began a six-year run as the "Top of the Pop" columnist for the New York Sunday News, on alternate Sundays, dual positions that gave him a catbird seat in the fast lane of the rock and roll business during the golden era of the seventies.
Gaines spent a year on the road living with Alice Cooper, and in 1976 he published "Me, Alice," by Alice Cooper with Steven Gaines, the first autobiography of a rock star. Published only in hardcover, the book has since become a collectors' item and sells for up to $2500 a copy.
In 1980 Gaines met Robert Jon Cohen, a 21 year-old Studio 54 bartender, with whom he collaborated on a book called The Club, a thinly-veiled roman a clef about Studio 54. The book a raised the ire of nightclub owner Steve Rubell
Steve Rubell
Steve Rubell was an American entrepreneur and co-owner of the New York disco Studio 54.-Early life:Rubell and his brother Don spent their childhoods with their parents in Brooklyn, New York. His father worked for the U.S. Postal Service and later became a tennis pro...
, designer Halston, and singer Liza Minelli, among others. Fodder for the gossip columns, the book caused a sensation and got advances in the six-figures, but won Gaines ignominy. Soon after the publication of The Club, Gaines moved to Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach is a seaside resort city and artist community located in southern Orange County, California, United States, approximately southwest of the county seat of Santa Ana...
, then to London, and finally to East Hampton, New York
East Hampton (town), New York
The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York...
, where he wrote the international best-seller The Love You Make: An Insiders Story of the Beatles, with Beatle insider Peter Brown
Peter Brown (music industry)
Peter Brown is an American-based English businessman. He currently resides in New York City.-The Beatles:Brown was a personal assistant to Brian Epstein and The Beatles during the 1960s. He was a confidant to the Epstein family, and bore some resemblance to Brian in his looks and manner...
. Published in 1983, The Love You Make was on the New York Times Hardcover bestseller list for 16 weeks.
Career
Gaines began his journalism career as the "Top of the Pop" columnist for the New York Daily NewsNew York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
http://www.nydailynews.com/. In the early part of his career he wrote several books about the music business, including Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
's autobiography, "Me, Alice"; "The Love You Make," a biography of the Beatles; and "Heroes and Villains," a biography of the Beach Boys, before briefly switching his focus to fashion designers with biographies on Halston
Halston
Roy Halston Frowick, also known as Halston was a clothing designer of the 1970s. His long dresses or copies of his style were popular fashion wear in mid-1970s discotheques.-Early life and career:...
and Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
.
In 1980 he published a controversial "roman a clef" called The Club about the nightclub Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
that he co-wrote with a 21 year-old Studio 54 bartender, Robert Jon Cohen. As Robert Granit, he published Another Runner in the Night in 1981, a novel about a homosexual film producer married to the daughter of a studio boss. He coined the phrase "velvet mafia" in his "New York Sunday News" column in reference to the Robert Stigwood Organization, a British record company and management group, but the term soon began to be used to describe the influential gay crowd who ran Hollywood and the fashion industry.
Gaines is best known for his 1998 social and cultural history of the East End
East End (Long Island)
The East End of Long Island is constituted by the five townships at the eastern end of New York's Suffolk County, namely Riverhead, Southampton, Southold, Shelter Island, and East Hampton. Long Island's North Fork and South Fork are part of the East End...
of Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
called Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons.
In 1993 he co-founded the Hamptons International Film Festival
Hamptons International Film Festival
Hamptons International Film Festival was founded to provide a forum for independent filmmakers from around the world to express their vision. The Festival is traditionally held for five days in mid-October in theatre venues from Montauk to Southampton and attracts roughly 15,000 visitors annually...
.
Books
Marjoe , the biography of evangelist Marjoe Gortner;Me, Alice, the biography of rock star Alice Cooper;
Discotheque, a novel;
The Club, a novel (with Robert Jon Cohen);
Another Runner in the Night, a novel;
The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles (with Peter Brown);
Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0301359/;
Simply Halston
Halston
Roy Halston Frowick, also known as Halston was a clothing designer of the 1970s. His long dresses or copies of his style were popular fashion wear in mid-1970s discotheques.-Early life and career:...
: The Untold Story;
Obsession: The Lives and Times of Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
(with Sharon Churcher)
Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons.
The Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan.
Fool's Paradise: Players, Poseurs and the Culture of Excess in South Beach
South Beach
South Beach, also nicknamed SoBe, is a neighborhood in the city of Miami Beach, Florida, United States. It is the area south of Indian Creek and encompasses roughly the southernmost 23 blocks of the main barrier island that separates the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay.This area was the first...
.