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Confessions of a Hollywood Hair Stylist is must-read

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“Confessions of a Hollywood Hair Stylist” by Little Joe Micale depicts lives of celebrities.

(Editor’s Note: Joe Pacheco reviewed the book Confessions of a Hollywood

Hair Stylist” by Little Joe Micale. Pacheco’s column Poetic License runs

weekly in the Sanibel Captiva Islander)

I confess. Once I picked up “Confessions of a Hollywood Hair Stylist” by

Little Joe Micale, I could not put it down.

No, the book does not reveal Supermarket Tabloid sordid secrets and scandals

that only a hairdresser could know for sure. Just the opposite. This

memorable collection of newspaper columns and memoirs by Little Joe Micale,

hairstylist to the Hollywood stars and Beverly Hills community, bypasses the

glamour and glitz of the rich and famous to concentrate on their everyday

humanity: Frank Sinatra buying up Ritchie the Newsboy’s batch of newspapers

for $50 dollars; Red Skelton paying the college tuition of his TV crew’s

children.

Little Joe has the uncanny ability to bring to life the off-screen world of

the less rich and famous — character actors, producers, directors, movie

technicians, writers, agents, musicians — many of them patrons and friends

of Micale. Little Joe’s father, Paul Micale, was a barber and character

actor (Father Carmine in “Rocky II”) who moved the family from Cleveland to

Hollywood in 1959 when Joey was in his teens.  In addition to his genius for

haircutting, Little Joe discovered his talent for writing in the fourth

grade and, prior to his columns, wrote material for Hollywood Squares and

other TV shows. But his greatest talent is for forming lifelong friendships

and relationships and recounting memories of those relationships in lively

and unforgettable cameos.

After reading his published and unpublished columns, the reader cannot help

but wish for more. Having lost his regular column to print media downsizing,

Little Joe includes a Stardust Section, a 90-page list of 300 stars and

celebrities slated for future immortalization as subjects of Micale columns.

The scope and sweep of Little Joe’s panorama of celebrity acquaintances and

knowledge left me breathless and gasping for more.

I confess. I may be guilty of a conflict of interest. Little Joe is my

hairstylist. And yes, it thrills me to know that my mustache is being

trimmed and shaped by the very same hands that created Sergio Mendez’ beard

and cut Cesar Romero’s hair. But even if you are not, as I am, a junkie for

Hollywood movies of the last century, “Confessions of a Hollywood

Hairstylist” will transport you to the real magic of yesterday’s Hollywood.

(Confessions of a Hollywood Hair Stylist  is on sale at all Island

Bookshops. Author Little Joe Micale will be available for book signing on

Saturday, May 29, 11 a.m. at The Sanibel Island Bookshop, 1571 Periwinkle

Way.)