Double Life

A Love Story from Broadway to Hollywood

By: Alan Shayne, Norman Sunshine

Narrated by: Ethan Sawyer

Gay marriage is at the forefront of America's political battles. The human story at the center of this debate is told in Double Life: A Love Story, a dual memoir by a gay male couple in a 50-plus-year relationship. With high profiles in the entertainment, advertising and art communities, the authors offer a virtual timeline of how gay relationships have gained acceptance in the last half-century. At the same time, they share inside stories from film, television and media featuring the likes of Marlon Brando, Katharine Hepburn, Rock Hudson, Barbra Streisand, Laurence Olivier, Truman Capote, Bette Davis, Robert Redford, Lee Radziwill, and Frances Lear.

©2011 Alan Shayne and Norman Sunshine (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

True Love

What a beautiful story about life, love and friendship. The history of the lives around them was awesome.

Wonderful Story

I really enjoyed listening to this story. It was very enlightening. I would recommend it.

The best!!

Best story ever! Not pretentious or boastful, just honest. A beautiful look into the lives of two men who loves each other through everything their lives dealt out.

Portrait of a Marriage--Before Gay Liberation

The story of a legendary same-sex marriage between two of New York’s most admired art-world AND Broadway stars.

Shayne was a Broadway actor who went on to produce many hit TV shows and retired as President of Warner Brothers Television in 1986.

Sunshine has been a successful and celebrated artist and sculptor. The two trade off writing every chapter—a dual memoir!

Double Life covers both of their coming-of-age stories: childhood snippets, how they met, and lots of honesty around their relationship’s ups and downs.

The second half is kind of like "Ill-Equipped for a Life of Sex"—truthful, but not uncomfortable.

Within their careers and relationships, there is a solid history of the entertainment worlds with plenty of gossip; from Marlon Brando on Broadway to the New York art scene in the 1950s and 60s to TV and "The Dukes of Hazzard."

Double Life has hit a nerve among longtime gay couples, particularly men, who ask, “Where are we? How come there are no stories about us?” It’s completely delightful and real—I can see why this has been a sleeper hit.

Needed Two Narrators

I'm really enjoying this. It's an interesting insiders' look at Broadway, Hollywood, and gay life in the 50s on. The obvious thing here is that since is a dual biography, switching back and forth between two people, there should have been two readers, making it easier to track who's speaking.

love!

I feel so more assured in my relationship of 10 years after listening this dually told love story.

meaningful and special

How delightful it is and so good to read warm, caring, and romantic stories about gay men.

Blessed

Most people don't ever experience genuine unconditional love like these to have. How Blessed you both are. As for me I always cry and wonder if I'll ever have that blessing of finding true unconditional love.

Delicious

The book contains a dizzying array of anecdotes by two men whose lives have intersected with those of some of the most notable celebrities of the art, advertising and show business. The gossip is there, but never mean-spirited - and this is an invaluable recounting of life in New York and Los Angeles’s inner circles during the 50s, 60s and 70s. This is a treasure trove of celebrity stories you’ll want to repeat at dinner parties for months to come.

It is also the story of two men who kept their relationship alive through the good and bad times when homosexuality was still taboo — until they finally had the right to really be themselves and marry. The prose can be a little purple at times, but hats off to Alan and Norman for telling their story in a very entertaining and moving book.

the personal and the professional

Alan and Norman’s successful professional lives get most of the bandwidth here but the book will no doubt be interesting to anyone into the worlds of art and design in NYC and TV and film casting and production in Hollywood across the last few decades of the 20th century. I also enjoyed their particular gay perspectives on those worlds. There is also, of course, the ‘plot line’ of their struggle to maintain a generally wonderful and touching 50 year relationship. The narrator sounded a bit too haughty but was otherwise good. Regarding the audiobook’s production, it would have been far easier to track who’s who if two narrators were utilized: that’s a big error in my view but not a deal breaker. He did mispronounce a few celebrities’ names, most egregiously and often (dozens of times), TV producer and personality David Susskind. The last syllable of his name is like unkind not kindergarten. Evidence of this readily exists on YouTube so there’s no excuse. I’m sure, in time, I’ll forgive the man. lol