Interview with Sandra Shevey- Hitchcock Biographer, Author and Hollywood Interviewer

As well as reviewing Sandra's book 'The Marilyn Scandal', I was lucky enough to be offered a chance to interview Sandra herself.

Sandra Shevey 76 is based in London but originates from America and has had a successful career as a journalist, megastar interviewer, author, London tour guide and film biographer.

From a young age, Sandra was immersed in the world of film as her father was a vaudeville for MGM Studios. He also wrote sketches for ‘`Kid Millions` (Eddie Cantor), `Room Service` (the Marx Bros) and `Summer Stock` (Judy Garland).

Despite being offered a job by ‘News Week’, Sandra knew that she wanted to write about film and after making her mark in New York with seminal 'Down With Myth America' for the New York Times in May 1970 Sandra went to Hollywood and stayed there for fifteen years. Whilst there she started the ‘Women's Film Educational Project’ which included notable women such as ‘Barbara Streisand, Ida Lupino, Frances Marion and Shirley Clarke’.

As previously mentioned, Sandra is a megastar interviewer and has interviewed over five hundred stars (yes you did read that correctly) including John Lennon, Priscilla Presley (just after her divorce to Elvis Presley), Carrie Fisher, Stockard Channing (Rizzo from Grease) and the incredible Alfred Hitchcock!

Sandra has uploaded a selection of sound bites from these interviews on to YouTube at Sandra Shevey Interviews.

Now, continuing on the theme of Alfred Hitchcock, Sandra is a Hitchcock Biographer and has the honour of knowing that she was the last person to interview Hitchcock one on one before his death in 1980. Hitchcock actually asked Sandra to pen his biography but unfortunately, she was unable to take him up on the offer (Sandra’s favourite Hitchcock film is Psycho due to it being “the perfect allegory for Auschwitz” and watches it every year on her birthday).

Sandra has just compiled an anthology of essays about Hitchcock which can be ordered either by contacting sandra_shevey@yahoo.com or by visiting https://sandrasheveybooks.wordpress.com/ This Ebook contains original quotes from the director himself and from various actors and actresses who had worked with him.

Sandra also runs an award-winning London based Hitchcock tour which explores locations used in films such as the second version of “The Man Who Knew Too Much”, “Frenzy”, and “The Paradine Case”. This is also a rare opportunity to listen to sound bites from their interview as Sandra will play them throughout the tour to really bring the locations to life. Sandra is also currently offering a Virtual Hitchcock tour so you can enjoy the tour from the comfort of your own home! To book a tour please visit https://alfredhitchcockwalk.wordpress.com/

Sandra moved over to London from America in the early eighties and when asked what her favourite thing about living in London was, Sandra responded with “The sense of `family`. One speaks to strangers. They speak to you. We are all one big family. This is changing with the American influence and with Covid”.

As previously mentioned, I reviewed Sandra’s book “The Marilyn Scandal” and was intrigued to find out why Sandra took such an interest in Marilyn. Sandra explained that the idea came while conversing with Marshal Flaum who worked with David Wolper in the 1970s (David Wolper helped produce ‘The Legend of Marilyn Monroe’ in 1964). Sandra wanted to “quash the strumpet image” and produce a “revisionist account of her life” as Sandra viewed Marilyn as being a working-class hero.

Sandra mentioned early on in the book that Marilyn’s mother Gladys Baker used to frequently take Marilyn and her brother Robert to services of ‘natural healing’ which apparently led to the death of Robert. Sandra could not tell me any more about Robert but it seems that Marilyn was also invited to a bible group by Jane Russel’s mother and Marilyn did attend but bolted soon after, I often wonder what really happened at that group to cause Marilyn to bolt.

Marilyn is known for dying in suspicious standards and this is something that Sandra goes into detail about in the book, I asked if she thought we would ever find out the truth about what really happened to Marilyn Monroe but after fifty years if we were to find out the truth, it would be ‘like the Kennedy assassination, too awful to admit in full’ so it seems the chances of finding out the truth are extremely slim if not impossible.

Around the time that Marilyn passed, it was said that “the era of voluptuous women was coming to an end” and so I was curious to see what roles Sandra believed Marilyn would have been offered, considering Marilyn’s talent. Apparently, the actress Shelley Winters liked to “write off Marilyn as a sex symbol who would not have coped as she got older” but as Sandra rightly pointed out, Dame Joan Collins has continued working and equally Dame Judi Dench has also continued to work into her eighties and both have no intention of slowing down.

Essentially, Marilyn would most likely have gone on to create more iconic films and it is a real shame we will never know what else she would have created.

A huge thank to you to Sandra Shevey for allowing me to interview her and I would highly recommend booking a Hitchcock tour at https://alfredhitchcockwalk.wordpress.com/ , listening to sound bites from her interviews at Sandra Shevey Interviews on YouTube and checking out Sandra’s books at https://sandrasheveybooks.wordpress.com/

Formerly published on my old website 'Maretta Vergette' on August 9th 2020.