The way I was

One of the most gifted popular composers of our time, Marvin Hamlisch's book is funny, witty, brutally frank, and moving. He writes about the career that brought him three Academy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and international fame by the age of thirty-one. It also left him alone, with nowhere to go but down. The son of Viennese immigrants, he was sent to New York City's Juilliard School of Music when he was only six, but the place made him a nervous wreck, and he unfailingly threw up before every final exam. He helped a young Liza Minnelli make her first record as a Christmas present for her mother, Judy Garland. He next went to Broadway where he was a rehearsal pianist for Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl. Moving to Hollywood, he composed the score and title song for The Way We Were, adapted the music for The Sting, and accepted three Oscars in one evening. He came back east after that to work with Michael Bennett on A Chorus Line. He also had failures such as Jean and Smile. Tough years followed with no writing offers of much consequence. Being idle and alone was agony. Hamlisch started experiencing excruciating headaches and developed depression. He realized that his life " ... would have to stop being about showing them. It would have to start to be about showing me."