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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Alan Shayne's And It Only Took 100 Years... is his memoir from a Brookline boyhood into a public life built through acting, casting, producing, and studio leadership. Shayne enters the theater as a young man looking for a future beyond family expectations, then learns how Broadway work can teach timing while Hollywood teaches power. His career carries him from stage roles into casting offices where he helps shape performers' lives, then into Warner Brothers and CBS rooms where television decisions change his own standing. Norman Sunshine becomes his lifelong partner beside that rise. Across a century, the memoir traces one man's movement toward authorship of his work, his love, and his real story.
Alan Shayne’s And It Only Took 100 Years... depicts the author as an artist whose public career is inseparable from his private life, which has stretched over a century. The memoir is extremely thoughtful, with heartening stories beside less comfortable moments. In the Pacific, he nearly leaves a USO acting tour after soldiers resent the troupe, then finds steadier company with Gordon, a B-29 officer. That same honesty makes Shayne highly likeable. When casting director Michael Shurtleff tells him acting may not bring stardom, Shayne turns the blow into a new vocation. The memoir also benefits readers through Shayne’s account of love under public limits. Norman’s Emmy win exposes what concealment costs them, while their later walk to the green mailbox gives the book a tender final measure. Adult readers who enjoy theater memoirs, the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, and classic television history will love this book.
