Confessions of a Kept Man

About the Book

An 80-year-old woman who was once a famous movie star entices a 20-year-old newspaper reporter to help in the writing of her memoir, gradually enfolding him within a web of control and manipulation. If it sounds like Sunset Boulevard, there are indeed similarities in this fascinating true story. Patsy Ruth Miller was a silent movie star, best known as Esmeralda in the 1923 silent classic, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, opposite Lon Chaney. Jeffrey L. Carrier was a 20-year-old college student and part-time news reporter who fell under her spell. Beginning in 1984, It took four years to complete the book, and Carrier writes about that fascinating experience in clear and engaging prose as he describes happy days and heated conversations, a feeling of giddy delight and almost unbearable stress, sometimes enjoying being pampered and sometimes being rigidly controlled. It was often an uncomfortable experience, making him feel like a “kept man,” and he made his escape when the book was finished. Dramatic moments (the sudden death of her husband, a serious angina attack) are juxtaposed with moments of pathos (Miss Miller’s touching admission that she felt forgotten by Hollywood), making it a book that offers something to savor on every page. Patsy Ruth Miller’s memoir was published in 1988 and has been delighting fans of silent films ever since. This book pulls back the curtain to reveal how that book was created and describe how two people – one an old and faded star and one a young and naïve reporter -- formed a very unusual friendship.

About the Author

Jeffrey L. Carrier was born in 1963 and grew up in Mountain City, Tennessee. A 1981 graduate of Johnson County High School, he attended Carson-Newman College for two years and graduated with a degree in English from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, in 1985. After briefly pursuing a graduate degree in film history at NYU, in New York City, he continued to live in that city for ten years, working for the advertising agency of Ogilvy & Mather. He was also an account executive at a stock photography agency for several years and has been an on-line retailer since 2002, specializing in film memorabilia. He is the author of four previous books: Upon a Lonely Hill: The Cemeteries of Johnson County, Tennessee, 1985; Jennifer Jones: A Bio-Bibliography, 1990; Tallulah Bankhead: A Bio-Bibliography, 1991; and At the Corner of Guilt and Delight, Growing Up Gay in a Small, Southern Town, 2022. He also assisted silent film actress Patsy Ruth Miller in the writing of her memoir, published in 1988. He currently lives in Columbus, Ohio.