STANDING TALL IN THE SHADOWS: MEMOIRS OF A HOLLYWOOD MANAGER by Dick Baxter

As mentioned in True West magazine!

Stage footlights never beam on the back side of the big curtain.

Famed Hollywood personal manager Dick Baxter intimately knew the side of show business that outsiders seldom viewed. His clients included Western star Roy Rogers’ wife Dale Evans, singing sensation Kathryn Grayson, Country Gospel singer and songwriter Stuart Hamblen and his wife Suzy Hamblen, singer Anacani from The Lawrence Welk Show, Hi Busse, actress Catherine McLeod, and many others. Their personalities were legendary, their talents immense, yet their secrets were often shielded from even those they performed beside.

Dick’s candid and revealing autobiography takes you on a rare visit behind the footlights into the forbidden private world of these show business stars, their backstage maneuverings, their thrilling successes, and their tragic disappointments.  

184 pages. Illustrated. 16 chapters plus Appendices.

Excerpt from “The Loop” newspaper, Vol. 32 #05, March 18-April 1, 2017:

One evening the Baxters were invited to the [Roy] Rogers household for what they thought was just a dinner. At dinner, Dale told him that she had decided that she wanted her own manager and she wanted him. Dick told her that “they were family” and family doesn’t always get along. Her response was “let me worry about that.”  Roy’s manager Art Rush gave his blessing and Dick managed Dale for the next 26 years. With tears in his eyes, Dick recalled Dale’s last words to him, “Remember, you’re my baby brother.”

Kathryn Grayson, through a mutual friend with Dale Evans, also joined Baxter’s firm. The actress and soprano had been under contract at Metro Goldwyn Mayer during the 1940’s when she appeared mostly in musicals. Baxter arranged guest starring appearances for her on television shows like “Murder She Wrote.”

An independent record producer once called Dick and said he had a young Spanish girl who needed a reliable manager. He met with Anacani at the famous Tail O’the Cock Restaurant in Sherman Oaks and managed her career for eight years until she got married. She is remembered best for her appearances on “The Lawrence Welk Show.”

The entire article can be found at theloopnewspaper.com.

Articles about Dick Baxter in The Western Way Magazine