Today we’d like to introduce you to John William Law

Hi John William , we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

I’m a writer and author who writes about film history and pop culture. I started out in the newspaper business reporting, writing, and editing news copy at weekly, daily and monthly news publications and moved to books nearly 25 years ago.

My current book, Wicked Becomes Her – Bette Davis and the Story Behind Wicked Stepmother was named best performing arts book of 2024 in the Book Excellence Awards. My 2016 book, Movie Star and the Mobster was named best performing arts title in the Hollywood, New York, and London Book Festivals. In 2021 my book The Longest Suicide in Hollywood – The Death of Montgomery Clift was a finalist in the International Book Awards.

I also discuss film history in film, tv, and podcasts. In 2023, I appeared in the feature film documentary, Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout, which is in part inspired by my book Who Nuked the Duke? After
authoring two books on Alfred Hitchcock – Alfred Hitchcock: The Icon Years in 2010 and The Lost Hitchcocks in 2018, I was invited to appeared in the 2012 Universal Pictures documentary Hitchcock’s Monster Movie for the Blu-Ray release of The Birds.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

I dont think the roads are ever smooth and no one should expect them to be. In the beginning I could paper my walls in rejection letters from publishers who didn’t believe in the stories I wanted to tell. You learn to accept and deal with rejection and have to persevere if it’s something that drives you and you enjoy. I’ve been lucky in some cases and made my own luck in others. I’m also like a lot of writers and have often had to work day jobs and have other side careers and gigs to earn a living. You have to strive to find a way to do what you are passionate about.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

Writing about film history is really about reporting and digging back into someone’s story. The challenge to it – for me – is when you write about famous people like Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Lana Turner, John Wayne and others, is you need to look for the story that hasn’t been told or find a new and different way to tell the story. Because these people have been covered by others you need to find a new viewpoint or way of tackling a topic.

For my book on John Wayne I spent years researching one of his worst films that had a tragic backstory that few writers wrote about. That story ended up being featured in both television and film and I was interviewed discussing the topic in depth. For my current book on Bette Davis I delved into her final film, a terrible little movie with a fascinating backstory that her biographers never get into because it was her least successful film. For Hitchcock, I looked at films he started to make, but dropped that has fascinating stories behind his reasoning for abandoning them.

I find myself drawn to stories that go behind the scenes of Hollywood to look at angles and aspects other writers choose to avoid because they’re not glamous or fit into the story they choose to tell.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?

I guess it’s that I’ve always been a very shy or introverted person, but over the years I have had to try and force myself into uncomfortable situations. Being interviewed by the media – whether it’s for a film, TV show, or a newspaper or magazine – like this one – is often the least fun part of what I do. Being filmed makes me intensely uncomfortable, but it becomes a necessary part of what you do to get your stories out there and find new readers. I tend to tell myself it’s only time and put the discomfort aside and almost become a character that has far more confidence that I actually have.

Pricing:

• My book Wicked Becomes her is currently in print and ebook and I’ve recorded a companion podcast series to promote it.
• I host a podcast series called Hollywood’nt that is streamed on Apple and Amazon Podcasts as well as Castbox
• The film The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout is inspired by my book Who Nuked The Duke
• My current publisher is Aplomb Publishing

Contact Info:

• Website: www.aplombpublishing
• Instagram: @jacklawsf