If you would have told me A memoir

John Stamos, 1963-

Book - 2023

"If you would have told a young John Stamos flipping burgers at his dad's fast-food joint that one day he'd be a household name and that, at the height of his success, he'd be living alone, divorced, with no kids, high on a cocktail of forgetting, he might've asked, "You want fries with that?" John burst onto the scene in General Hospital, propelling him into the teen idol stratosphere, a place that's often a point of no return. But Stamos beat the odds and over the past four decades has proved himself to be one of his generation's most successful and beloved actors. Whether showing off his comedic chops on Full House or his dramatic skills on ER, pushing the boundaries on Broadway or living out ...his youthful dreams as an honorary Beach Boy, John has surprised everyone, most of all himself. A universal story about friendship, love, loss, and the courage to embrace love once more, John Stamos's memoir is filled with some of the most memorable names in Hollywood, both old and new"--Dust jacket flap.

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Subjects
Genres
Autobiographies (literary genre)
Autobiographies
Published
New York : Henry Holt and Company 2023.
Language
English
Main Author
John Stamos, 1963- (author)
Other Authors
Daphne Young (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xiii, 333 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm
ISBN
9781250890979
  • Foreword / by Jamie Lee Curtis
  • Prologue: The messenger
  • Mercy
  • Club fame: members only
  • Big nose Stamos
  • The key and the keyhole
  • Flash in the pants
  • The yellow basket bandanna
  • Tinkering with the tip
  • NEET girls
  • Slappin' skins with the candy man
  • Golden handcuffs
  • The chase
  • Down the rabbit hole
  • Satans and saints
  • The odd couple of mentors
  • Your baby's a pig
  • Beach Boy bingo, I win!
  • Smoke one for me, Johnny
  • Keep my name alive
  • These are the good old days: A donkey called peppermill
  • God only knows
  • I can!
  • Life is a cabernet
  • Antonio: a rich, creamy Spanish soup
  • Negotiate my balls
  • The big D
  • Shitting the bed
  • Burn
  • Blunder down under
  • Bye bye Bob's knee
  • Curtain call
  • The real best man
  • I love you more
  • Bang
  • The odyssey
  • Disney girl
  • The high clown settles down
  • Cake
  • Epilogue: If you would have told me.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this charming debut, Full House star Stamos reflects on fame and family. Cast in General Hospital at age 18 after failing to register for his first semester of business school, Stamos describes being in the public eye for his entire adulthood and the ways his parents tried to keep him grounded as his star rose--while Stamos shot his first seasons of the soap opera, his father insisted he continue covering the Sunday shift at the family diner in Orange County, Calif. After General Hospital, Stamos was recommended for the role of Uncle Jesse on Full House by director Garry Marshall. Here, Stamos complicates his suave, pretty-boy image with sincere and tender accounts of his painful divorce from actor Rebecca Romijn, struggles with sobriety, and grief over the deaths of his parents and Full House costar Bob Saget. There's plenty of fun, too, as when Stamos recounts unwittingly wearing fetish gear to an early audition in a naive attempt to impress a casting director, or staying home to scrapbook a wedding gift for his fiancée while she was away at her bachelorette party. These anecdotes, plus passages about being starstruck while touring as the Beach Boys' drummer, effectively humanize an actor often reduced to sex symbol status and reinforce his assertion that "fame and fortune is as fun as it is eventually empty; the simple stuff is the best stuff." Readers will be enchanted. (Oct.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

An earnest debut memoir from the General Hospital, Full House, and ER star. Opening with an account of his drunken drive down Rodeo Drive in 2015, Stamos (b. 1963) puts his mistakes front and center. Whether it's missing the mark in love, slipping up with substances, or blowing auditions, the author tells it like it is, and he demonstrates empathy for everyone involved and hindsight showing that the former teen heartthrob has learned a thing or two from his journey through life and fame. Stamos is a self-described "band geek" and Disney fanatic, and he describes a Southern California youth filled with love, hard work, and opportunity. He chronicles his first big break on General Hospital and how he became a teen idol, balancing weekday fame with weekend modesty and working at his father's restaurant. Even though he's made it as an actor, Stamos' first love, music, has never faded away. His dream of playing drums for the Beach Boys came true, and his awe and respect for the band never flags. "The Beach Boys, represent all the best of who we can be: generous, talented, brilliant, benevolent, and divine," he writes. "God only knows where I'd be without them." Although Stamos is a legitimate celebrity himself, his memoir is a lesson in humility and gratitude for the people he's shared scenes and stages with throughout his life. He credits relationships with his parents, mentors, and close friends like Bob Saget for keeping him grounded and safe from more tragic Hollywood pitfalls. The author intersperses the narrative with handwritten notes his mother left for him, and the effect is a portrait of a charming and charmed actor who has received plenty of love--and who has plenty of love to give. Jamie Lee Curtis provides the foreword. A heartfelt, sincere memoir filled with useful wisdom. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.