Producer Reveals Insider Stories About American Icons - Including Ronald Reagan and Howard Hughes - in New Memoir, ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- In his recently published memoir, ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD, producer J. Herbert Klein tells his only-in-America success story - how he started life as an everyman and ended up working with some of the richest, most powerful people in the world. "I was just an ordinary guy," Klein, 89, remarked during a recent interview. "Who could have predicted that I'd find myself associated with Howard Hughes, Ronald Reagan, and other prime movers in this world?"

ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD traces Klein's career - as a movie producer, builder, impresario, and inventor - and includes insider, never-before-revealed stories, complete with photographs. "I've waited a lifetime to write my memoir," Klein explained, "but I'm finally ready to share what I know - as incredible as some of it may appear."

Klein's story begins in 1942, a few months after the U.S. entered WWII. Then a 21-year-old U.S. Air Force private, Klein was assigned to a unit with a unique mission - to defeat the enemy with one of America's greatest inventions: movies. At the Culver City, CA base, Klein reported to commanding officer Captain Ronald W. Reagan, film star and future president of the United States. After learning of Klein's special skills - including a photographic memory - Reagan put the young recruit in charge of a top-secret project. In ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD, Klein is finally at liberty to reveal details of this operation.

After the war, Klein took over his family's business - building luxury homes for the rich and famous - but remained on the lookout for a chance to enter the movie business. In 1955, opportunity knocked when Howard Hughes tapped Klein to produce DEATH OF A SCOUNDREL - a star-studded production featuring Zsa Zsa Gabor and her ex-husband, Oscar-winner George Sanders.

In ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD, Klein describes the premiere of DEATH OF A SCOUNDREL, which Hughes slated for his hometown of Houston, Texas. "I flew there with Zsa Zsa," Klein recalls, "and her performance at the premiere amazed me - and everybody else. I have never seen anyone as quick with a witty remark or a funny line. Her mind works at lightning speed. She's just brilliant."

During the 1960s, Klein established a business partnership with Jon Hall - leading man of the 1930s and 1940s - that generated patents, technological innovations, and controversy. Hall believed his new invention - the square anamorphic camera lens - could capture the invisible, including alien life forms, on film. Klein sought proof for Hall's incredible claims - and ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD includes evidence, including photographs taken during a 1977 Space Shuttle launch.

Still active in the business - as head of International Film Arts - J. Herbert Klein shares these amazing stories and more in ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD, available on Amazon.com. Link: http://www.amazon.com/Road-Hollywood-Only-America-Presidents/dp/1453777369/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282930662&sr=8-4

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SOURCE International Film Arts