英语书籍：Promises I Made My Mother (节选二）

英语书籍：Promises I Made My Mother (节选二）ZT

====Promises I Made My Mother 简介==================

PROMISES I MADE MY MOTHER
by Sam Haskell
with David Rensin

FROM THE BOOK JACKET:

What would my mother say?

How would she want me to handle this situation?

How can I make this tough decision and stay true to
myself?

Sam Haskell still asks himself these questions every day.

When Haskell was young, his devoted mother, Mary,
instilled in her son the values of character, faith, and
honor by setting an example and asking him to promise to
live his life according to her lessons. He did, and those
promises have served Haskell consistently from his
Mississippi boyhood to his long career at the venerable
William Morris Agency in Beverly Hills.

In this inspiring memoir full of touching stories and
amusing anecdotes, Haskell reveals how he kept his pledge
to his mother to live a decent life--even in the shark-
infested waters of Hollywood, where he handled the hottest
stars and packaged the highest-rated shows--by refusing to
become the cliche of an amoral agent. Here is Haskell as a
child in Amory, Mississippi (pop. 7,000), discovering the
power of hope as he waits for an unlikely visit from the
"Cheer Man" (a representative of the detergent company who
gave ten dollars to anyone using the brand), learning
humility after pursuing an eighth-grade "Good Citizenship"
award he cockily assumed he'd win, and confronting the
complications of human character when a near-fatal car
crash exposed his judgmental father's true nature.

Years later, in Hollywood, Haskell would rely on his
mother's teachings--honesty, self-reliance, and faith
--as he rose from the William Morris mailroom to
eventually become the company's Worldwide Head of
Television. His capacity for friendship and his insistence
on living his version of the Golden Rule (being "thought-
fully political") allowed him to handle various client
crises and the tense negotiations that nearly scuttled the
last years of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and the entire
existence of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air."

Haskell has achieved success through self-respect, and
from his story we learn how we, too, can maintain our
dignity when faced with life's challenges. This stirring
memoir is a testament to mothers everywhere who instill in
their sons the lasting values they need to become good men
and devoted fathers.



======================================

PROMISES I MADE MY MOTHER
by Sam Haskell
with David Rensin (nonfiction)

Published by Ballantine Books,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780345506559
Copyright (c) 2009 by Sam Haskell
PROMISES (Part 2 of 5)
======================================

However, it wasn't until I was in Amory, Mississippi, that I gave in
to my instinct that this "agent" Sam was not one of those "Twilight
Zone" Martians. Every two years Sam Haskell puts together a charity
show called "Stars Over Mississippi." It takes place in his hometown
of Amory, and it provides college scholarships for kids who can't
afford to go but who excel academically. Sam had asked Doris Roberts
and me to perform along with Whoopi Goldberg, Brooks and Dunn,
Kathie Lee Gifford, and a whole slew of stars that he brought to
Mississippi.

The first day there, Doris and I were part of the traditional "Stars
Over Mississippi" parade that drove down Main Street in Amory. When
I saw that Main Street was three blocks long and it had a store
where you could buy slingshots, I realized this town was not a
metropolis. But there I was, sitting in a convertible with Sam at my
side, waving to all the Amory people who had come out to support
what he was doing. They all knew about Sam Haskell, hometown kid,
who had gone to Hollywood and made it big. You could see it in their
faces, thinking, "He's back. Sam's back doing what he does. He
brings Hollywood to us and he puts our kids through college. He
didn't forget us."

The show was the next night on a big outdoor stage with about ten
thousand people in attendance. It was fun to do and the crowd was
amazing. At the end, when we all came out on stage and took our
bows, there was a feeling of accomplishment from all the performers
and the people working behind the scenes.

It was a great thing to be a part of.

But there was something more that I noticed on that trip, which
confirmed how I felt about Sam Haskell. To explain it, I need to
tell you a quick story not about Sam, but about my identical twins,
Matt and Greg.

When they were seven years old, I took them to see "The Lion King"
in New York. They had seen the movie and were dying to see the play,
not having any clue as to how it would look as a Broadway
production. We got our tickets the last minute and our seats
happened to be right on the aisle, but mine was one row behind
theirs.

The music began, the curtain went up, and there was a character
dancing onstage. While my twins' eyes were transfixed on the stage,
I could see that from the back of the theater the whole cast of
animal characters were slowly dancing to the music as they walked
down the aisle. I'm talking huge giraffes, rhinos, and lions--all
the animals in the play--and leading the way were the elephants. I
think there were four actors, one for each leg, inside one of the
ten-foot-tall puppet elephants that was lumbering down the aisle, as
the song "Circle of Life" filled the theater. As they were reaching
our seats, my twins were still facing the stage, not realizing what
was behind them.

I watched to see their reaction as they turned their heads and got
the first glimpse of this larger-than-life elephant dancing slowly
down the aisle, and (I'm gonna get a little corny here) I saw what
joy looks like. I'm not gonna try to describe it, or get too
schmaltzy with it. Let me just say that I've seen my kids happy,
having fun, laughing, and smiling endless times, and it still isn't
the same as that one moment.

I will never forget that look.

Now, although it wasn't exactly the same and it came in different
forms, I swear to you, during those two days in Mississippi, Sam
Haskell looked like he had just seen "The Lion King" elephant.
That's when I knew he was for real. You can't fake that look.

Don't get me wrong, Sam Haskell loved being a big-shot agent and
we've been together for a lot of successful moments. However, up
until then I had never seen the look in his eyes that he had during
those two days.

When I came back from Amory, I told my wife what I had found out.

Sam Haskell wasn't gonna eat me.

Since then we've become closer and I've seen more of what Sam is all
about. He took me back to Mississippi a few years later to help
raise money for the Katrina victims and there was that look again:
he saw the elephant.

People find it hard to believe that a guy with his outlook and
approach to life can ever make it in this business, and that's what
amazes me. He did and he still does, and I don't see him ever
compromising who he is.

When he asked me to write the Foreword to his book I was honored.
After reading it and learning more about his life--what inspires
him, the things he's accomplished, the way he did it, and the core
of who he really is--I felt I needed to call my brothers and tell
them something.

My list of heroes has changed.


====作者 Sam Haskell 简介==================

Sam Haskell moved from Mississippi to Los Angeles in 1978 to work at
the William Morris Agency. He became an agent in 1980, senior vice
president by 1990, executive vice president by 1995, and Worldwide
Head of Television by 1999. After a twenty-six-year career, he
retired in 2004 to pursue philanthropic endeavors. In 2007 he was
named one of the 25 Most Innovative and Influential People in
Television over the last quarter century by "TV Week." He lives in
Los Angeles with his wife, Mary Donnelly Haskell (his college
sweetheart and a former Miss Mississippi), and their two children,
Sam IV and Mary Lane.

David Rensin has written or co-written thirteen books, five of them
"New York Times" bestsellers. His most recent titles are "All for a
Few Perfect Waves: The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel Surfer
Miki Dora" and "The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up."


***********************

Ray Romano
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raymond Albert "Ray" Romano (born December 21, 1957) is an American actor, writer, and stand-up comedian, best known for his roles on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond and in the Ice Age film series. He currently stars on the TNT Comedy-Drama Men Of A Certain Age.

Romano married his wife Anna in 1987. They met while working at a bank together. Together, they have four children: one daughter Alexandra (born 1990), and three sons: twins Matthew and Gregory (born 1993) and Joseph Raymond (born February 16, 1998).

Romano's on-screen daughter for Everybody Loves Raymond was named after his real-life daughter. Also, in the series pilot, Ray and Debra's twin boys were named after Gregory and Matthew, Romano's real twin sons, but Romano felt it was too weird to have all his TV kids have the same names as his real kids, so they changed the twins' names to Geoffrey and Michael on screen.

Romano's family has made various appearances in the show. Romano's real-life daughter Alexandra "Ally" Romano made several appearances on Everybody Loves Raymond as Molly, the best friend of his on-screen daughter Ally, and the daughter of Ray Barone's arch-nemesis, Peggy the Cookie Lady. Romano's father, Albert Romano has made various appearances as "Albert", one of Frank Barone's lodge buddies in various episodes such as "Debra at the Lodge", and "Boys' Therapy". Romano's brother Richard Romano has appeared in the episode "Bachelor Party".




英语书籍：Promises I Made My Mother (节选一）

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