Crane

Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder (Screen Classics)

By: Robert Crane, Christopher Fryer

Narrated by: Bobby Brill

Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

On June 29, 1978, Bob Crane, known to Hogan's Heroes fans as Colonel Hogan, was discovered brutally murdered in his Scottsdale, Arizona, apartment. His eldest son, Robert Crane, was called to the crime scene. In this poignant memoir, Robert Crane discusses that terrible day and how he has lived with the unsolved murder of his father. But this storyline is just one thread in his tale of growing up in Los Angeles, his struggles to reconcile the good and sordid sides of his celebrity father, and his own fascinating life.

Crane began his career writing for Oui magazine and spent many years interviewing celebrities for Playboy - stars such as Chevy Chase, Bruce Dern, Joan Rivers, and even Koko the signing gorilla. As a result of a raucous encounter with the cast of Canada's SCTV, he found himself shelving his notepad and tape recorder to enter the employ of John Candy - first as an on-again, off-again publicist; then as a full-time assistant, confidant, screenwriter, and producer; and finally as one of Candy's pallbearers.

By turns shocking and uplifting, Crane is an unforgettable and deeply human story.

The book is published by The University Press of Kentucky.

©2015 Robert David Crane and Christopher Fryer (P)2015 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

" Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder is a fascinating tale." (Andrew Erish, author of Col. William N. Selig, the Man Who Invented Hollywood)

"Crane artfully weaves biography and autobiography together in a well-written memoir revolving around the murder of actor, Bob Crane.... It's an intimate, bittersweet look at what children of celebrities truly inherit: moments of privilege in exchange for losing the real parent to their Hollywood persona." (Kelan O' Connell, author of Delta Legend)

"Deserves to sit on book store shelves next to the latest biography of a fatuously famous star." (Kirk Honeycutt, former chief film critic for The Hollywood Report)

A great book!

If you loved Bob Crane, then you'll love this book. The first several chapters are about Bob's early life and then his move to CA. His early career and family life are discussed and was enjoyable to learn about. The author, Bob Crane Jr., then goes into his own life which takes up most of the book. He references snippets of his dad in these chapters. Now then, of you are a John Candy fan, you'll further love this book as John Candys life and career are heavily covered in this book as Crane Jr worked for Candy. So it's like getting two books in one. And then at the end of the book, the last chapter or two finish up more with Bob Crane Sr and the trial outcome. The whole book ties together rather nicely and at first I was kind of thinking, I don't want to know this much about Bob Cranes son but it was actually very interesting and I found myself totally involved.

I highly recommend this book. Just go into it knowing what I said about the majority of it.

Michael Jansen

Great story enjoyed this immensely.
This was a little more of a personal story for me. My mother and Bob Crane were cousins.