Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Thumbnails Jun 19

by Tony Medley

Echo in the Canyon (10/10): Runtime 82 minutes. NR. The best music of my lifetime, by far, was folk rock, which was produced in the ‘60s. This is a compelling documentary about that era, the music, and the people who produced. Because many of them migrated to live in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles in the mid-60s, that’s why the title. These are the stories of The Mamas and the Papas, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, and Buffalo Springfield. There are performances and interviews with and by Brian Wilson, Ringo Starr, Michelle Phillips (who talks frankly of her many infidelities), Eric Clapton, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Roger McGuinn and Jackson Browne. Of course, also interviewed is the paterfamilias of Folk Rock, record producer Lou Adler.

The Spy Behind Home Plate: The Real Story Of Moe Berg, Major League Baseball Player Turned WWII Spy (9/10) Runtime 98 minutes. NR. This documentary on “good field-no hit” catcher Moe Berg reveals what a brilliant, unique man he was with interviews and archival films (including film he shot surreptitiously for the American government while on a baseball tour in Japan in 1934), showing his relationships with people like Bill Donovan (founder of the OSS), James Bond-creator Ian Fleming, Antonio Fermi and others. While director Aviva Kempner diminishes the film by failing to identify interviewees each time they appear on the screen and concluding with an irrelevant politic screed of her own, the film is, up until then, a fine monument to a brilliant and heroic man who literally risked his life with the OSS, and whose true worth can finally be known.

Late Night (9/10) Runtime 102 minutes. R. Writer Mindy Kaling co-stars with Emma Thompson in her biting, feel-good satire of diversity and late night TV. While it’s filmed like a TV show (where first time movie director Nisha Ganatra lives), it is funny, appealing and topical, despite its Hollywood Ending’s lack of connection with the real world. Opens June 7.

Ask Dr. Ruth (9/10): Runtime 109 minutes. R. Sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer tells her own fascinating story in her own words, no narration. From her parents sending her to an orphanage in Switzerland at age 10 to save her from the Holocaust, to her three marriages and her amazing rise from abject poverty alone in the world to success, this vibrant woman who stands 4 feet seven inches and is always smiling can’t help but bring a smile to your face, too.

Aladdin (9/10): Runtime 128 minutes. PG. Bollywood comes to Hollywood. A boffo performance by Will Smith is bolstered by vivid Technicolor, wonderful music and dancing.

Trial by Fire (7/10): Runtime 127 minutes. NR. A film with a Point Of View, in 1991 the home owned by Cameron Todd Willingham (Jack O’Connell) burned to the ground, killing his three little daughters. Willingham was tried, convicted, and executed in 2004. Elizabeth Gilbert (Laura Dern) gets involved in the last hour of the film and disproves everything the prosecution presented, emphasizing Willingham’s attorney’s incompetence, prosecutorial misconduct, judicial malfeasance and political cowardice. This movie is very well done with fine acting by everyone, especially O’Connell and Emily Meade as his feckless wife, Stacy. It’s just up to the viewer how much to believe.

The Fall of the American Empire (7/10): Runtime 127 minutes (including credits). R. Sometimes you are too smart for your own good. Pierre-Paul Daoust (Alexandre Landry) has a PhD in philosophy and recognizes that he is an intellectual. As such, he’s not qualified to do anything to earn a living from his degree, so he is working as a deliveryman. Suddenly he finds himself in the middle of a robbery. When the dust clears two men are dead and Pierre-Paul absconds with a bag containing millions of dollars. Now what, as integrity combats with avarice bringing Daoust into a new world? This is a reverse heist film with fine acting throughout told tongue in cheek, even if it is a little too long. In French.

A Dog’s Journey (7/10): Runtime 109 minutes. PG. This is a sweet fable about a dog’s constant reincarnation. Sheer fantasy, the dog tells the story itself. All of the dogs are lovable except the last one, which I found enormously annoying.

All is True (1/10): Runtime 101 minutes. PG-13. Kenneth Branagh, who specializes in films that highlight Kenneth Branagh, has outdone himself with this horribly misguided tale of William Shakespeare’s return to Stratford after he gave up acting (and some say writing) in London. There is an amazingly almost total lack of written evidence about Shakespeare so the only thing that’s true about this film is that it’s all poppycock. If you believe as I do (and as Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Orson Welles, and many others did/do) that Edward DeVere, the 17^th Earl of Oxford, was the true writer and William Shakespeare a sham, this movie is difficult to stomach. Even if you believe that William Shakespeare really did write all the plays attributed to him, its greatest fault as an entertainment is that it is unremittingly boring and uninvolving.

Recommended reading: Cemetery Road by Greg Iles.