Still Starstruck after all these years: Leonard Maltin charts his unlikely path to fame and fortune

If one had to explain  Leonard Maltin’s undying enthusiasm for movies over his 50-plus year career of talking about them for a living, it would be the fact that he’s always considered himself a fan first and a reviewer second. Now, he’s sharing his story of how he went from being an ordinary film buff to rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in show business in his new memoir, Starstruck: My Unlikely Road to Hollywood.

John Ackermann: You have written many books in the past, but why go with a memoir now? Did turning 70 have anything to do with it?

Leonard Maltin: It may have had something to do with it. Also, a little something called the pandemic came along and I had a little time to reflect and time to write.

Ackermann: I think it’s fair to say you were a precocious kid. Where did you get the idea to write to celebrities, and more importantly, how did you track these people down in the pre-Google, pre-internet era?

Maltin: I don’t know how old a man you are, but I do remember a time pre-internet, pre-Google because of most of my young career, when I had my earliest success, was during that time! I learned to use my local public library and there was a great library, a branch of the New York Public Library, adjacent to Lincoln Center in Manhattan. It was one of the great libraries of our country, maybe the world, which had access to all sorts of show business memorabilia and magazines and papers and that was my home away from home.

Today on the #CityNewsBookshelf, famed movie reviewer @leonardmaltin talks to @CityNewsVAN about "Starstruck: My Unlikely Road to Hollywood," his new memoir available from @GoodKnightBooks. https://t.co/997NoRyTrx

— John Ackermann ???? (@jackermann) October 31, 2021

Ackermann: You submitted many articles to fanzines and there is an interesting local connection for us here. One of those titles was Film Fan Monthly, published by Daryl Davy, himself a 19-year-old budding sportswriter at the time, out of Vancouver. And this ended up being life-changing for you.

Maltin: It was and I’m very sad to tell you that I never did get to meet Daryl. He met an early demise. But he was very unkind and encouraging to me when I was 13 years old and made a cold submission to him. And when I admitted how old I was he said, “Well, that doesn’t matter to me I’m 19.”

Ackermann: And you ended up getting to Vancouver later in your career, one of the highlights being getting to interview Katharine Hepburn up here.

Maltin: Yes, I made two trips there when she was shooting her last two movies for television, neither one terribly distinguished. They were just kind of vehicles for her, they were kind of tailor-made, purposely written to showcase her.

Ackermann: But it was more about the experience of getting to talk to her, I suppose.

Maltin: Oh yes, of course.

Ackermann: You’re perhaps best known for your decades-long association with Entertainment Tonight and your Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide books. What are you most proud of?

Maltin: Well, I guess I’m most proud of that book because I was 17 years old when I was given the opportunity to do it for the first time by a wonderful editor who changed my life by giving me that opportunity. And it was intended at the time, this is the late 60s now, for the kind of person who stayed home and watch TV all the time. Imagine such a thing! And this is before the days of cable or streaming, goodness knows, or even home video. But local television stations, in those days, showed movies endlessly. But all you got to know about them from your local newspaper, even some of the better, big city papers, was just a one-line description. And so, my mandate was to provide more information along with an opinion, to help people decide whether they want to see the movie and tell them a little bit more about it than they can get from the paper.

Ackermann: One of the interesting things I found about that part of the book was how you talk about putting in the runtime because a lot of people wouldn’t know that if their local station was cutting from the movie or not.

Maltin: Well, there was a prominent NBC station in New York City. I grew up in the suburbs in New Jersey, but we got all the New York stations. They used to have a 4:30 afternoon movie and so that was a 90-minute time slot. And they had ample commercial breaks. And so, you automatically knew they were cutting the movie. Unless the movie ran 75 minutes, something’s got to be missing.

Ackermann: Now you say, the internet, basically put the books out of business [in 2014], but in a way, it also let you pivot into podcasting. How did you make that transformation and how great is it to be working with your daughter on a podcast now?

Related Articles:

• What’s up, doc? A new book explores the rise and fall of Looney Tunes

• Former Bitcoin miner navigates the Wild West world of cryptocurrency in new memoir

• Glorious but not forgotten: new book looks at Canada’s role in Spanish Civil War

Maltin: Well, the podcast came first, and our partnership followed. Jessie has been helping me, my daughter Jessie, who’s now 35, has been helping me in many ways for many years. She was a contributor to that annual movie guide. But I got sick, about six, seven years ago and she filled-in for me on the podcast which I used to do with a talented guy, a comedian and actor named Baron Vaughn. He plays Lily Tomlin’s son on Grace and Frankie on Netflix. And when I simply couldn’t appear, couldn’t even phone-in my part of the podcast, she did it. And she’s a natural. And so, we’ve had a great time the past five and a half, six years doing the podcast, getting to interview all sorts of interesting people.

Ackermann: It must be satisfying in a way to see her carry on in the family business, as you put in the book.

Maltin: Well, yes, absolutely. People ask her, “You know, are you going to follow in your father’s footsteps as a film critic?” and she says “I’m not a film critic. I don’t know that much.” And she knows more than she lets on. But a lot of it has been gained by osmosis, not by a plan of action. What she has more than anything else is great people skills. She relates to people really well. And that’s a prime asset for an interviewer.

Ackermann: You also teach a film course at USC called 466. That’s not the actual name, but 466 is what people call it, as you say in the book. Have you ever thought of bringing that to the small screen?

Maltin: Well, it’d be a great idea. Someone else would have to work out the logistics, however. I have pitched this idea several times. What we do is we show a film, a new film, and have people who made it, sometimes more than one, we might have the director or the writer, they might be the same person, or the producer or the cinematographer, or the composer or the costume designer or production designer, and they’re all interesting. Some of the ones who you might think are not as glamorous, are in fact more compelling than the bigger draw like the director of the producer. But I have not been able to convince anybody in the world of television and its offshoots that that is so.

Ackermann: I think the best example of that, as you point out is the sound mixer from Jackie Brown who ended up being absolutely fascinating.

Maltin: Yes, yes, a really interesting guy. He’s got three Oscars on his shelf by now and he’s still going strong. In fact, his son is the fourth-generation sound man in that family.

Ackermann: To sum up, there’s a great line in the book where you say, “I’m a lucky film buff who stumbled into careers in publishing, television, and academia — all of them unplanned.” Which of these would you like to be remembered for the most?

Maltin: Oh, I don’t care, just so I’m remembered. That would be honour enough, to know that something I did lasted. That’s a very high compliment.

Ackermann: And, finally, Leonard, after 50 years, do you still get starstruck?

Maltin: Oh sure. I’d have to be dead from the neck up to react in any other way!

Starstruck: My Unlikely Road to Hollywood is available from GoodKnight Books.