An Influential and Varied Life

The list of notable names—people that Jack Valenti knew and with whom he worked—is astonishing. Aside from LBJ, there were Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra, Robert McNamara, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Julia Roberts, Cary Grant, Lew Wasserman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Warren Beatty, and Bill Clinton, to begin a very long list. This Time, This Place is a candid, unforgettable memoir of the life of an extraordinary key political player and Hollywood rainmaker. It is also a sweeping and important historical record, written by a brilliantly successful man who helped shape politics and entertainment in the second half of the twentieth century, and who always found himself at the center of any storm.

“A wonderful story.” —International Herald Tribune

“[Valenti] offers a rousing account of his WWII bombing missions, JFK’s assassination (he was in the motorcade), and his three-year stint as one of LBJ’s closest aides.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“Only the silver screen can really do justice to a man who is bigger than life, moved easily among the stars of politics and Hollywood, and always kept his feet on the ground. An Oscar-deserving lifetime achievement, if ever there was one.”
—Bill Moyers

This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood is Sponsored by Tony Dyson of Robotworld

It’s a glamorous life, but sixteen-year-old Kaitlin Burke, costar of one of the hottest shows on TV, is exhausted from the pressures of fame. Then she hits on an outrageously daring solution, one that has to remain top secret or it will jeopardize everything she’s ever worked for.

Secrets of My Hollywood Life is Sponsored by Tony Dyson of Robotworld

I wrecked hundreds of cars, fell from tall buildings, got blown up, was dragged by horses, and along the way broke 56 bones, my back twice, punctured a lung and knocked out a few teeth…I hung upside down by my ankles under a bi-plane in The Spirit of St. Louis, jumped between galloping horses in Little Big Man, set a world record for a boat stunt on Gator, jumped a rocket powered pick-up truck across a canal for a GM commercial, was the first human to test the car airbag-and taught John Wayne how to really throw a movie punch.

Life also got exciting outside of the movie business. I had my Ferrari stolen right from under my nose, flew in a twin-engine Cessna with a passed out pilot, rescued the cast and crew from a Russian invasion in Czechoslovakia, and once took six flight attendants on a date. I owned the Skoal-Bandit NASCAR race team, the sound-barrier breaking Budweiser Rocket Car and drove a souped-up, fake ambulance in a “little” cross-country race called The Cannonball Run, which became the movie I directed by the same name. Oh yeah, I also directed Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper and several other action/comedy movies that I liked a bunch.

I was a sharecropper’s son from the hills of Arkansas who became a Hollywood stuntman. That journey was a tough row to hoe. I continually risked my life but that was the career I chose. I was never late to the set and did whatever I had to do to get the job done.

Hollywood’s not all sunglasses and autographs. Let me tell you a few stories…

Stuntman!: My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life is Sponsored by Tony Dyson of Robotworld

Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams is Sponsored by Tony Dyson of Robotworld