80 Author:Gerald Gardner, Jim Bellows Famous 80-year-olds share their insights on life, love, family, etc. Eighty celebrated personalities were interviewed for this book........ — Dont be surprised, Pussycat, said Helen Gurley Brown, still flirtatious at eighty-four, Were all survivors and proud of it. We want to talk about it. — And they do. Eighty... more » of Americas most famous eighty year-olds reflect on their journeys to the big 8-0 and describe the passions that keep them young. They all have opinions about todays world what is good about being eighty and what keeps them vital. The members of this generation have spent eighty-plus years honing the art of living and they have secrets to share. Their personal stories are truly inspirational.
My answer to growing old at any age, whether youre growing to be twenty , or forty, or sixty or eighty, is to fall in love and stay in love. --Ray Bradbury, 86, author
Its interesting to me--my career has taken off now that Im ninety-five. Its totally taken off. I had to wait til I was ninety-five to be this popular. --Kitty Carlisle Hart, 95, singer
I say quite sincerely that this is the best time of my life. --Hugh Hefner, 80, founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy
Contributors to the book include:
Mike Wallace, Helen Thomas, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Lena Horne, Kitty Carlyle Hart, Ray Bradbury, Art Buchwald, Norman Lear, Robert Byrd, George McGovern, and Jack Valenti.
Advanced Praise for 80:
Everyone from 9-90 needs this book, because save for the two or three mad people in the world, everyone wants to live & never die. The selected people in 80 have with, charm and ensusiance revealed how they have survived, with passion, compassion, humor and style. I hope Gardner and Bellows will do another one on 90 - I am in for the long run.--Maya Angelou
80 is the new young! These inspiring stories of vibrant, active octogenarians are the best kind of tonic for warding off worries about old age.--Tom Brokaw
Once, almost nobody was eighty. Now many of us are and more of us are going to be soon. So Gerald Gardner and Jim Bellows give us a wonderful book about being eighty and more.--Jimmy Breslin
A joy to read and a guaranteed attitude adjustment. These people are hope! And Gerald Gardner and Jim Bellows know how to edit down their famous lives to the fearless truths.--Gail Sheehy, author of Passages and Sex and the Seasoned Woman
Jim Bellows and Gerald Gardners 80 made me laugh, 80 made me think, and 80 actually made me look forward to reaching and to enjoying that Grand Age--Mark Shields, syndicated columnist and PBS commentator
80 is the most heartening book on old age I've read since De Senectute (Cicero, you callow sub-octogenarians, Cicero). The 80 old folks in 80 make 80 sound so fascinating, I feel short-changed by being forced to wait until 2010 to be among their number.--Tom Wolfe
"I love this book. What a pleasure: great interviews, lovely wise people."--?nnie Lamott, author of Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
From the Inside Flap
Eighty of Americas most famous 80 year olds reflect on their journeys to the big 8-0 and describe the passions that keep them young. These luminous and famous octogenarians seize the moment to reveal the secrets of longevity and
share what is great about being 80, what is wrong with the young, what is wrong with the administration, what their days are like today, and what their lives were like in their prime. All were eager, from Mike Wallace and Lena Horne to George McGovern and Helen Thomas, to share their insights.
Studs Terkel, 94, has broken his neck, had heart surgery at 93 and claims, I should be dead, but Im not for some reason or another. What reason might that be? First of all, I like being a troublemaker.
Lena Horne, 89, remains as politically engaged as ever: Well, Im old and Im still angry. And if there is a lioness inside its because not everybody had a grandmother like mine.
Maria Tallchief, 81, former prima ballerina maintains the same routine:I wake up in the morning and I do my pilates exercises. I still do my splits at my bedside before I say my prayers.
No one spent much time talking about his or her health. One exception was comedy writer Bob Schiller who reported that his short-term memory was poor but his long-term memory was good.But I may have that backward, he added.I dont know if I told you that.
Gerald Gardner is the author of numerous books on politics and film, including the bestselling series Whos In Charge Here?
Jim Bellows is the former editor of the New York Herald Tribune, the Washington Star and Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, managing editor of Entertainment Tonight and creator of New York magazine.« less