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OH DAD!
A search for robert mitchum



lloyd robson has spent the last four years in search of robert mitchum.
the result is a book which falls between several stools. it is biography,
travelogue, reflection on manhood and lloyd’s own drunken, gonzo journalistic
search for the screen icon.

why mitchum?

mitchum was a real man’s man; fighter, drinker, womaniser and drug-taker
with an antagonistic attitude towards authority.

mitchum was the first hollywood actor of the talking movie age to be
imprisoned for drugs offences. he once threw a marine off a hotel balcony
and laid out one of the world’s top-ranked boxers. tales of his scrapes and
adventures are legion. but what of the real man? what of the boy he once was?

underneath the macho exterior, mitchum was a sensitive man and lifelong poet.
how did he manage to mantain both sides of himself?

a question robson needed to answer for himself.
so he went looking, travelling through 13 american states on the trail of
mitchum’s childhood; hunting for the truth behind the myths of mitchum — running
away from home, expulsion from school, battles with authority and alcohol,
time on a chain-gang and his pre-hollywood fame as a child poet.

already the basis for a successful radio programme
— the sunday telegraph radio choice of the day —
oh dad!
broadcast by bbc radio 4, june 2007
produced by jon gower for boomerang

oh dad!
a search for robert mitchum
due from parthian, june 2008





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