Sheldon, Sidney. The other side of me, Warner Books, New York, 2005. Hardcover, pages 363.

Rating: 9/10 

Sometimes, from a distance, we know a person well for many years. We get an opportunity to get closer, learn more and are stunned to know how much we didn’t know about him. The memoir by Sidney Sheldon with an apt name reveals to the readers his incredible life and superhuman achievements. I want you to read this book so much that you should stop at this point and not read anything further in this review. (Warning: spoilers). 

This is a life story that even Sheldon could not have conceived in fiction. The book begins with a 17-year old Sidney attempting suicide. What Sheldon calls an elevator of his life begins its journey. In the beginning few years, it’s mostly down, with Sheldon attempting telemarketing, running a hotel switchboard, checking coats, fabricating car gears, ushering and during the war times flying planes in the army air corps. As we learn later, the ushering job is a godsend, as Sheldon is destined in later years to mix with the stars he watched on the screen in the dark. He first tries to be a songwriter. The Hollywood studio doors are closed for the likes of him. He finally manages to open a door by doing an impossible job of reading a novel of 400 pages and creating a 30 page typed synopsis of it, all within six hours. This episode shows the ambition, intelligence and resourcefulness of this young man. 

What follows is a fairytale, culminating in Sheldon getting an Oscar for the best original screenplay. He is established in Hollywood, directs Cary Grant, dines with Marilyn Monroe, befriends Groucho Marx, marries the lovely Jorja Curtright, a stage and film actress. The escalator is briefly on top before a flop “Dream Wife” makes him unemployed. At one point things become so bad, his maid lends him money. 

When he realizes Hollywood doesn’t want him, he turns over to TV, and his happy days begin once again. He creates The Patty Duke show and I dream of Jeannie, two top American TV shows, and writes a record number of episodes consecutively only because “he didn’t know that it couldn’t be done.”

Sheldon has passed fifty, achieved several prizes in film and TV industry, has an idea for a novel but drops it because he knew he is incapable of writing a novel! What can be more ironic? The book is full of drama and irony. As a young boy, the doorkeeper of the Columbia studios drives him off, not allowing him to meet anyone. Less than twenty years later, Sheldon is asked to head the Columbia Studios. 

As if being at the top of three careers was not enough for a single human life, Sheldon suffers from bipolar disorder, not widely known in his time, which causes depression when he learns about getting an Oscar and elation when he loses his job. He also has an unpredictable herniated disc. Despite, this 88-year old man sits down to write his memoir to tell us his fascinating life story.  

The memoir ends before he has written a single novel. Sheldon mentions his novels (which sold 300 million copies, he is seventh in the history in the list headed by William Shakespeare) in the afterward. Before reading this book, I knew him only as a novelist, and a young one at that. (He wrote the other side of midnight at 56, hence the confusion about his age).  

The book is full of lovely anecdotes and quotes. A review is not a place to note them all, but I will mention a few anyway.

(1)   Universal studio was noted for its thriftiness. They surprised everyone by hiring one ‘1000 dollars a day’ star for a movie about a masked bandit. The first day, the director shot endless close-ups of the star in various locations, and at the end of the day, they told him he was finished. Then they substituted a minor cheap actor who wore a mask throughout the film. (Page 88)  

(2)  Johnny Carson, on The Tonight Show started making fun of the South American accent of Fernando Lamas, a talented actor. Fernando stopped him. “When someone has an accent, “he informed Carson, “It means he knows one more language than you do.” The studio audience applauded. (pg216)

(3)  Elvis Presley was on drugs, and ruined his voice, and grew fat and unattractive. When he died, a cynic said: ‘good career move.” (pg 238)

(4)  Groucho Marx, close friend of Sheldon went to the doctor.  A beautiful young nurse came up to him and said, “The doctor will see you now. Walk this way.” Groucho looked at her swaying hips and said, “If I could walk that way, I wouldn’t have to see a doctor.”  

(5)  Sammy Cahn, a famous lyricist, was once asked, “Which comes first, the music or the lyrics?” His response was,” Neither. First comes the telephone call.” (pg 312)

Verdict: One of the must-read books. Utterly inspiring, a page turner, a life story of a superman in his own words.