Center Square: The Paul Lynde Story
by Steve Wilson, Joe Florenski
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joe Florenski, Steve WilsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-08
ISBN: 155583793X
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Advocate Books
Book Reviews of Center Square: The Paul Lynde Story
Book Review: "simultaneously seeking & spurning what he desired"
Summary: 4 Stars
I was reminded of comedic actor Paul Lynde through a special on TV Land called "Tickled Pink" that aired a few months back. I was not quite 8 when Lynde died in January 1982, but I still remembered him from his many television guests spots and Hollywood Squares. I recall him being one of the funniest people I've ever seen (on TV, or anywhere else for that matter) as well as a man who did not act all that masculine (not knowing at the time what that was all about). After the TV Land special jogged my memory, I located a copy of the A&E biography which detailed his upbringing (I was shocked the thin actor was once so over weight), career, and tawdry lifestyle. It seemed the documentary was just scratching the surface, so, thinking, `I've got to read a book about this guy,' I searched for a book expecting to find at least a couple of biographies. Alas, nothing. I was very surprised as Lynde's life is meant to be written if not for the intrigue and seediness alone. I was very happy to find out that, finally, a book on Lynde called Center Square was coming out [so to speak] in August 2005.
Center Square was written by Steve Wilson and Joe Florenski, who I remembered seeing on the A&E Biography. This book reads like an extension of the program. It does not dive as deeply into Lynde's life as I expected. I've only read a few contemporary articles on Lynde while waiting for the book to be released (People magazine, TV Guide, etc.) and found that I already knew a lot that is in this book just from that small amount of Lynde exposure. The authors, at the beginning, note that they encountered "scant press coverage" on Lynde that was "mostly fluff pieces in forgotten TV magazines and unflattering bits in the gossip rags of the era" (viii), so maybe there is not a lot of sources available. The Acknowledgment section does not indicate if the authors conducted any original interviews with those who knew Lynde. As Lynde's fellow actors and friends are getting older, the time is now to try to get any more info they might be willing and/or ready to reveal. It seems there is some info in here that may have been garnered by interviews, but it is not noted.
Still, it is a credit to these authors for pouring through the resources and putting together a thorough account of Paul Lynde. They rush through the early years (probably due to lack of material) but paint a revealing portrait of Lynde's troubling childhood spent eating and fantasizing about a life of fame and fortune, and his wild years spent as a college student at Northwestern. His relationship with high school sweetheart Marilyn Organ (nee Surlas) is described as being much more serious here than in other accounts. Surprisingly, Organ does not think Lynde was originally gay but became that way due to theatre life (14). More in depth coverage begins with Lynde's start in New York and New Faces of 1952. Of course, his big successes are detailed: Bye, Bye Birdie, the variety show circuit including the Perry Como Show and Dean Martin Show, his stint as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched, and, of course, Hollywood Squares. As well, his less-than-stellar television projects are covered like the favorite of Lynde's that did not see the light of day (Sedgewick Hawke-Styles: Prince of Danger) and the ones that, unfortunately, did (The Paul Lynde Show). The string of films in which Lynde appeared (most of which were panned by the critics) are covered as well as his stage tours as a Kenley Player. The authors are no sycophants and sometimes use some excellent wit to deflate some of the weaker projects of their subject: "the laugh track was highly amused" (172). They also demonstrate a thorough understanding of the entertainment industry at the time and drop a lot of names of people who worked with Lynde (many of whom I've never heard, but this, for me, did not detract from the book). One interesting tidbit, for example, threw new light no Lucille Ball's recommendation that Lynde star in the family-related sitcom rather than his favorite Victorian-era Sedgewick [something I had read in a 1973 issue of TV Guide]: "Paul should have been more dubious; at the time Ball also thought she was perfectly suited to play Auntie Mame in her disastrous film version of the Broadway musical" (139). I do not know a thing about that film or play, but it shows that Wilson and Florenski know their stuff.
Of course, the main selling point to the Paul Lynde story is his life outside the camera and stage, and Center Square covers it in all its inglorious details: the young actor who fell out of Lynde's 18th floor hotel window (the authors do a fairly convincing job explaining how this happened, pp. 98-9), the alcohol-soaked venom he spewed at friends and fellow actors, his drunk driving incidents where he'd drive "erratically down a L.A. street...and sidewalk" (90), his arrests for public intoxication, his hiring of temporary companions from escort services, the ugly Burger King incident during a return to Northwestern involving a 6'9 African American professor and racist epithets, etc. Of course, no book on Lynde can be written without examples of what the authors call "poof proof" (the book is published by the gay magazine The Advocate). After reading all these stories, one gets the feeling they are just the tip of the ice berg. Even with his efforts at the end to stop drinking, it is difficult to have sympathy for Lynde once his death is described. On that subject, Center Square provides a convincing and revealing account of how the actor's body was discovered perhaps finally putting to bed the seedy rumors in cyberspace involving a hustler who left Lynde to die. Details of Lynde's corpse told by the one witness who seems the most credible is quite horrifying (p. 228). The book includes four pages of b&w photos which seems very skimpy to me but, considering the extremely reasonable price of this book, it is understandable. There are tons of Lynde photos available on the Internet, anyway.
After reading this book, it seems to me that the definitive account of Lynde's life and career is still yet to be written. The apparent lack of original interviews would prevent this book from being the last say. If there were original interviews, referencing them as such would enhance the book's credibility. Getting more depth out of the interviews would also help. I hope the authors are wrong in their prediction that a time when Lynde is forgotten "approaches far too quickly" (p. 236). If they are correct, that definitive book may never be written, and that would be unfortunate. Still, we have Center Square, which all Lynde fans cannot be without.
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