Film critic combines two passions in ‘Hollywood Rides a Bike’
There’s a picture of Sean Connery in white shirt and tie riding a vintage Schwinn bicycle around the Universal back lot during the filming of “Marnie.” There’s Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth pedaling a French-made tandem bicycle on a break from shooting “The Lady in Question.” There’s a photo of Ray Walston and Anthony Perkins playing bicycle polo during a break in filming “Tall Story.” And there’s sour-faced Alfred Hitchcock awkwardly straddling a bike at the Cannes Film Festival while promoting “Frenzy.”
These are just a few of the vintage photos contained in film critic Steven Rea’s whimsical, fascinating coffee-table book “Hollywood Rides a Bike: Cycling With the Stars” (Angel City Press, $20), an affectionate homage to two of the author’s great passions – movies and bicycles.
The image-filled, 160-page book features candid photos and studio publicity shots of stars tooling around studio back lots and through various Hollywood neighborhoods aboard an array of bicycles – ranging from rust-bucket clunkers to sleek racing bikes and from decked-out street cruisers to odd-ball experimental rides and antique high-wheels.
The roster of stars caught in candid cycling moments is delightful and dazzling. There’s Humphrey Bogart in suit and tie, a flirtatious Sophia Loren, a teenaged Elizabeth Taylor, a young Lauren Bacall, a sprightly Shirley Temple, a cool Kevin Bacon, a nubile Brigitte Bardot and much more. It’s like the Hollywood Walk of Fame on two (and sometimes three) wheels.
